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Meligrove’s bus fail

Toronto’s Meligrove Band have never had an easy ride, but this past December the indie veterans may have hit their biggest setback yet.

Just four dates into a US tour, the band’s bus broke down, stranding them in Orlando and forcing them to cancel the rest of their dates.

Now heavily in debt, the group is throwing a “Bus Fail Relief Party” tonight at the Horseshoe with Sandman Viper Command and the Order of Good Cheer.

We spoke to drummer Darcy Rego about the Orlando incident, the benefit show and the band’s overall string of bad luck.

You had to cancel your whole US tour?

Pretty much. We played about four shows on the way down and actually just barely even made it into Orlando. It was like a silly comedy. The bus was clunking and making weird sounds. There was no speedometer. It was like we were waiting to die in this thing. Eventually we found out the transmission had to be completely rebuilt and we were stuck there for about five days.

How did you get back to Toronto?

Our tour manager Eric Warner had to wire us the money. We were just completely stranded. And I had a weird perception of what Orlando would be like. I thought I’d be high-fiving Mickey Mouse and making out with Minnie, but let me tell you, it was not Disneyland. It was more like Cracktown, USA. There were some crazy characters, but they weren’t in costumes. It was just hookers coming out of doorways and crackheads breaking into rooms and cockroaches everywhere.

Are you planning on going back and making up those dates?

Maybe at some point, but we’re definitely taking a hiatus from touring right now. To throw some more misfortune into the mix, my wrist is really messed messed up. We’re not sure if it’s really bad Carpel Tunnel or tendinitis, but I’m going back for some more tests. There may be a surgery involved, I don’t know. I’ve been avoiding the doctor until after this Toronto show so I don’t get any bad news.

This all seems to be part of a larger pattern of bad luck for the Meligrove Band.

We did our last tour with the Born Ruffians, and it was an amazing tour, but even they were saying “you guys have the shittiest luck.” And it’s true. Once we got back from that tour, we had our big shindig in Toronto at the Great Hall. We were stoked, ticket sales were doing well, and then (lead singer) Jay (Nunes) lost his voice the show before. As we were driving home, we were just calling anyone we knew who was in a band and asking if they knew how to sing our songs. A lot of people pulled through for us and it ended up being a pretty fun night.

In 2006 you signed to the Universal subsidiary V2 Records and it seemed like things were starting to blow up for you. What happened there?

We had already signed a deal with the UK and Netherlands and we were about to sign a deal with the States. We were also three days away from getting our next advance cheque. And for us it was more money than any of us had ever seen in our lives. We were like “Oh my God, we’ve made it. This is it guys.” And then boom, the label folded. We’re sort of at the precipice of where we were going with our career right now, and the trajectory isn’t really where we were hoping it was going to be at this point. But that being said, we’ve been on a lot of really cool tours and played with a lot of really cool bands, so we’re still keeping our heads high and going at it full-heartedly.

So there are no plans to throw in the towel?

Our home is the studio. We love writing and recording. All this touring has kind of taken us away from a lot of that. As many adventures as we’ve been on and as much fun as we’ve had, I’m looking forward to hunkering down and working on just producing music. I don’t even care in what capacity. I don’t care if they’re albums, I don’t care if they’re seven inches, I don’t care if they’re MP3s. I just want to put it out there. Our goal would be to release a new song every few months.

What are your plans for tonight’s benefit show at the Horseshoe?

We’re pretty fortunate and blessed to have a lot of cool friends and fans here, so we don’t feel weird about doing something like this. It’s a chance to kind of turn something horrible into something that could potentially be pretty fun. We’re putting together some pretty hilarious cover songs and keeping the mood light. It’s just going to be good vibes, no doom and gloom.

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