In The Know...Chattin' It Up With Zeus About The Bonfire Ball

So whaddya got going on next Saturday, the 3rd of April? Anything stimulating, never-before-experienced, and/or just plain cool?

Well, if you’re looking for a very chic, very exciting, one-of-a-kind live experience, I suggest dropping by the West End Cultural Centre for the Bonfire Ball. The BB is a unique concept for a show that sees acclaimed indie luminaries Jason Collett, Zeus, and Bahamas combine musical forces on stage and, as one bona fide supergroup, work together to perform each other’s songs over two sets. No opening act required.

And courtesy of the kind and generous folks at treasured label Arts & Crafts, I’ve got a pair of tickets to offer up exclusively to Painting Over Silence readers (guestlist + 1). To enter, just shoot me an email by noon on Thursday the 1st with “Bonfire Ball  Ticket Giveaway” in the subject line and your full name in the body. I’ll draw the winner five minutes after noon and set you up with the details.

I spoke with Mike O’Brien of indie-rockers Zeus about the Bonfire Ball’s conception, rehearsals, and how it’s been received so far.

Painting Over Silence: How did this rather novel idea for a tour initially come about? 

Mike O’Brien: The idea for the Bonfire Ball is something that Jay (Collett) had always wanted to do. The revue style of show, where we all play together in one big set seemed like an obvious thing for us to do. Given that we all go back and have an intertwined musical past it just made sense to reflect that on stage. It's really just trying to showcase the community that we've built up.

PoS: So if I’m doing my arithmetic right, there will be six musicians on stage?

MO: 6 men strong, that's correct. 4 Zeus men, 1 Bahamanian and 1 Collett.

PoS: Is there a straight 1 to 1 to 1 Collett to Zeus to Bahamas song ratio, or will we hear a few tunes from Zeus’s catalogue, a few from Bahamas’s and so on?

MO: The set changes from night to night, but in general we will play a good mixture of tunes from each artist’s repertoire.

PoS: A collaboration like this would surely require some time to get familiar with the wealth of material everyone has to offer, even with artists that have a storied relationship like the three of you. How much did the Z/B/C collective rehearse together before hitting the road? What were the sessions like?

MO: We did some rehearsing with everyone together but with everyone's busy schedule's it was hard to get us all together at one time. I think we were only able to do that a couple of times. But since we know most the material if not to play then at least from listening it was'nt too much of a task to get it all together.

PoS: You’re currently in the midst of a big tour which includes a stop at the mammoth SXSW festival, how has the Bonfire Ball Revue been received so far?

MO: We've only had the chance to play 3 actual Bonfire Ball shows. They were all received with open arms and hearty cheers. The SXSW festival was a whole other beast where we were running around playing Zeus sets and Collett sets all over town. Lots of fun but we were all excitied to get back to doing the Revue.

PoS: And finally, for the beer drinkers out there (which includes me) who hate to miss a second of the action, will the show be organized in sets, or run all the way through?

The show as it stands right now is organized into 2 sets. We decided to build in an intermission so that people could get drinks, use the bathroom, have a smoke …and so the band could do the same.