A Squamish-based punk band will be featured in an upcoming episode of CBC’s The Nature of Things.
The band, Anonymericans, is helmed by vocalist and guitarist Colin Bates, lead guitarist Aaron Loveless, drummer Ian McCurdy and bassist and backup vocalist Paul Hudson.
Hudson said Bates led the way in securing the unique gig.
“Our singer by day is a scientist himself,” said Hudson. “He was asked if one of his bands that he's in would be interested in contributing some music to an upcoming documentary being filmed for CBC.”
“So we happily jumped on the opportunity, with a song that we thought was pretty appropriate.”
The song the band chose is called Invasive Species. Hudson said it is fitting, as the documentary episode covers the topic of rats in urban environments.
Hudson said the band filmed at a venue in Vancouver and that their appearance should make it into the episode near the outro. The episode, titled Rat City, airs on Jan. 13.
“To get the opportunity to play in a documentary, let alone a very well-known CBC documentary, is a pretty huge honour for us,” said Hudson. “So, we're thrilled about it.”
The honour to play in the CBC documentary is just the start in 2023 for the “local DIY band,” said Hudson, as the band is also performing at The Cleveland Tavern on Jan. 14 as part of Squamish Punk Night.
Hudson said this will be the band's first live show in about three years.
“The last gig that we played live would have been January 2020,” he said.
The band has recently started practising more consistently once again and Hudson said they were pleasantly surprised with how well everyone has clicked together rather seamlessly.
“So, we've decided to add a couple of newer songs to our set list that we're feeling pretty confident about as well, just to deliver something fresh to the crowd here in Squamish,” he said of the upcoming show.
Anonymericans will be one of the openers for the show and there will be performances by Brother Twang, Safe Decisions, Digression and Los Furios, hailing from Whistler, Victoria and Vancouver.
“This is really a kickoff event for Squamish Punk Night,” said Hudson, who added there will be more shows in the spring and early summer.
Anonymericans also has plans to get back into the studio in 2023 and record music that had been shelved.
“We discovered a whole lot of material that we'd forgotten that we had … that's very close to completion,” said Hudson.
“It's amazing when you take a break like we're all forced to do during COVID, you reflect on things and you start looking at a lot of work that you didn't realize you had done, that you actually have done,” he said. “We're reaping the fruits of our labour, I guess you could say.”
For more information about the upcoming Squamish Punk Night on Jan. 14 visit their Eventbrite page. For more information about The Nature of Things, visit CBC.ca/NatureOfThings.
