Ottawa’s first brothers of punk, HELLBROS, are bringing their particular brand of subterranean rock ‘n roll to Wasted Space June 12. A decade into playing their gritty, dirty, muddy, foul sound the HELLBROS still love to dig in deep and party like they’re 18! The four-piece have quite the reputation for their live show, mixing Alice Cooper with mid-90s’ thrash, Steven on a skateboard.
“We’re playing a dirty high-energy rock ‘n roll,” says HELLBrother Pete. “We’re more influenced by early heavy metal Sabbath, AC/DC, some Motorhead but also by ‘90s’ skate punk, the energy, the production quality resonated. I started out in skate punk and it grew into rock ‘n roll. As you get older you start going back a little bit so the influence of that, also ‘80s’ hardcore and ‘80s’ thrash metal.”
It’s a murky stew says Pete, even if they wrote a pop song it would still have the HELLBROS all over it and it would become a grimy oily mess. A fun, grimy, oily mess however.
“We have a sense of humour about what we are doing. We keep it fun. The word partyrock gets thrown around a lot, because when we play a show it’s a party” say Pete adding he is working on writing a road movie about the band as rock zombies, potentially titled Tour of the Dead. “There’s an element, its not ironic, but its kinda carefree fun zany over the top rock ‘n roll. The theatrical side of rock always appealed to me, like Alice Cooper and that sort of stuff. Its definitely infiltrated it a little bit."
Party bands can quickly become parody bands and even Cooper has had to deal with being tagged a cartoon. But if the songs are strong, if they deliver, if they live outside the showmanship then there is nothing cartoonish about the act. HELLBros subscribe to the same philosophy.
“We don’t think about it too much, we just do what we think is right and trust our instincts," says Pete. "I guess there is a fine line and we’ve talked about it. You still always want an air of professionalism. As fun and carefree and party it can be as long as you are showing up on time, practising a lot, you’ve got your shit together and you put on a hell of a show than all the other stuff doesn’t really matter. The music and the live show speaks for itself . . . you can have a spectacle on stage but you have to have the songs. That’s what Alice Cooper said in an interview, I have the songs. He’s right. He writes the best songs and we do our best to write the best songs we can.”
Those songs appear on the band’s debut full-length Good Time Machine and are available for steaming on their Bandcamp. HELLBros perform at the Wasted Space in Oshawa along with Perfect Gentlemen and the Mustard Tigers.