Back in 2002 I was an intern working with the youth group at my church in Edmonton. My good friend Dave Von Bieker and I worked together for two years helping entertain, engage, and sometimes (Lord help us) have a positive impact on the spiritual formation of young people.

During my time in that internship, we formed a band that was comprised of Dave, myself, and three other kids in the youth group. We called ourselves Blue Moment. We were mostly a cover band playing U2 songs, some other top 40, and a lot of the greatest hits from the late 90s era of Christian Rock (DC Talk, Audio Adrenaline, Switchfoot). Our mainstay was playing once a month at the Friday Night youth events that Dave and I organized, but we got good enough that we actually booked some other gigs including a youth drop-in centre out in the town of Tofield (Making it big in small town Alberta).

Our last big show together was at a citywide youth rally with hundreds of kids, which was awesome…for the first 10 minutes of our set. We knew that the preacher had gone long, but we didn’t know that all the youth group busses had arrived, meaning that almost everyone left before we made it through our third song. Nevertheless, we persevered and gave it our all for the rest of our set even though there were only a dozen or so kids left in the auditorium.

Such was our zeal that we even finished the last chord of our last song with a big rock and roll finish. I held my guitar high before swinging it down as I played one final power chord. The bass player who was standing next to me did the same thing, swinging the headstock of his bass high up before bringing it crashing down… into my head. The lighting guy was tracking with us 100%, so when that last chord hit he brought down the lights, which is probably why even I took a while to work out what had happened and that I was bleeding all over the place.

Suffice it to say, once I had stopped the bleeding, confirmed I did not have a concussion, and accepted the Bass player’s apology, we all agreed it was a pretty awesome way to end our final show together.

That was 20 years ago. But the dream of playing in a rock band is a hard one to kill. Playing electric guitar with a live band is a joy that I have had in fits and starts over the years, even as my artistic vocation lead me much more into the world of theatre.

Imagine my joy then when presented with the crazy idea of being in a Musical about a rock and roll band in which the cast not only sings, and acts, but actually plays all of the songs as the band. It is in many ways a crazy idea. Yet that is the project I am about to embark on as I begin rehearsing for THE CURST out at Dancing Sky Theatre in April - www.dancingskytheatre.com

The show was originally supposed to debut in spring of 2020, but… well.. you know. I guess when you’re about to do a show about “the unluckiest band in Canada” you shouldn’t be surprised when a global pandemic delays the whole thing for three years.

As crazy as I know the show is going to be, I hope that somewhere between the sharp writing of Kelley Jo Burke and the wonderful songs from Library Voices we find a way to bring this band to life in a way that is entertaining.

All I know is that I get to be in a rock band again, and I can’t wait to do it.

Come see THE CURST out in Meacham, SK between April 28 - May 14, 2023.