Where: Commodore Ballroom, 868 Granville St.The first lyric in the tune Voices pretty well sums up what’s been going on in Big Wreck’s world of late.
Formed in the ’90s in Boston by Canadian Thornley, bassist Dave Henning, drummer Forest Williams and Doherty, the band’s debut In Loving Memory Of … produced the top-10 U.S. single The Oaf . While that success didn’t repeat, the band achieved significant commercial success in Canada before finally calling it quits in 2002. Thornley went on to form Thornley, and the other members pursued various projects.
Finding the right foil for Thornley’s songs is pretty crucial. Big Wreck emerged at the height of a hard rock revival with big guitars a key part of the sound. One listen to the slamming single Locomotive proves that nothing has changed. Mixing clear Led Zeppelin influences with grunge-era drive, the song is five minutes of banging bliss for fans. This isn’t a band that will ever depend on backing tracks or loops.
“The Thornley thing was more focused on trying to score a hit, looking at taking what I did and fitting it in with what was happening right now so it would score big and I would be rich within a year,” he said. “And I signed on, going, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ When it didn’t happen, I found myself with a bunch of compromised songs that had started out as pieces of music I wanted to grow rather than something to sell.