PREVIEW
What: The Real McKenzies with Isotopes and ATD
When: Tonight, 9:30 p.m.
Where: Upstairs Cabaret, 15 Bastion Sq.
Tickets: $16
The Real McKenzies have been a group for the better part of 25 years, which is a lifetime in punk music.
Victoria guitarist Jono McGee has been playing for roughly the same stretch of time in various groups around the city. But it wasn’t until 2015 that the two parties finally decided to work together.
McGee is enjoying life as an official McKenzie, having joined the Vancouver band a year and a half ago. He was baptized immediately after signing on. The popular group, which fuses Scottish culture and bagpipes with North American punk, embarked on a massive run through Europe last year, playing 48 shows in 50 days at one point — the biggest tour in McGee’s career.
“We played three shows in 24 hours in three different countries in Europe, which was crazy,” McGee said.
Though it initially felt like a whirlwind, McGee has loved every second with the kilt-wearing, keg-friendly group. “The fact that I’m even allowed to do this is ridiculous. I’m the luckiest man on the planet.”
McGee and the McKenzies kick off a month-long tour tonight at Upstairs Cabaret, where McGee used to perform as a 20-something when it operated as Harpo’s Cabaret. He will be supported in force by friends and family from the local punk community, with whom McGee has been playing in various capacities since the late 1980s.
“It had a lot to do with being segregated on the Island,” McGee said. “A lot of bands wouldn’t come over here — they’d only do Seattle and Vancouver. So we had to generate our own scene, which got a lot of different kinds of music going out here, and resulted in a cohesion between metal and punk and ska and skate rock.”
McGee, whose father is from Glasgow and mother is from Dundee, was the perfect candidate for The Real McKenzies, and not simply on account of his heritage. He has known some members of the group, including frontman and founder Paul McKenzie, for more than 20 years. McGee even toured with the band in Europe years ago when he was a member of Victoria group the Excessives.
McGee has been on the road plenty over the years, with both Class of 1984 and Start With the Cobra. When he was a member of Victoria punk act Breach, he played extensively on the West Coast circuit during the 1990s and made some valuable contacts.
It was a memorable time, McGee recalled. “This was before Facebook or any social media, so when we saw friends up and down the coast, that was the only time you’d see them. That’s what the McKenzies are doing now, meeting great people in every country and city. It puts a smile on my face.”
While nothing on his agenda can match the 48-show European tour, the Real McKenzies’ schedule in the coming months looms large. McGee said it will take the group through September, with shows in Russia, Poland, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, among dozens of others. He will sit out a few treks to spend time with his wife and two children, who are both under six.
“The support of my wife has been incredible. And if my kids never hear another bagpipe, it will probably be too soon.”
At this point in his career, being with a band that has an international profile puts McGee in an enviable position — especially when tours of Europe yield such high rewards.
“One day we were opening for Ministry in front of 10,000 people. The next day we’d be playing in front of Bad Religion before 15,000 people, and then, two days later, we’d be in Spain playing with Iron Maiden for 40,000 people. It was nuts.”
And fun? “Fun — that doesn’t even describe it.”
