It’s been a great fall in Ottawa for fans of the ’90s Canadian alt-rock scene, including shows by The Tea Party and I Mother Earth last month and another one last night with platinum-selling industrial rock darlings Econoline Crush at The Brass Monkey.
There’s been a lot of water under the bridge since Econoline Crush’s heyday of the ’90s and early 2000s, including singer Trevor Hurst stepping away from music to pursue a career as a psychiatric nurse, the changing landscape of music, and the tragic loss of EC’s guitarist Ziggy Sigmund in 2022. But, they’ve found new life and new passion, as heard in their latest release—the first in over a decade—When The Devil Drives, a title whose origins likely lie with Shakespeare and the idea that if the devil drives, you have no choice but to go.
As a longtime fan of the band, and not having seen them since the ’90s, I was incredibly excited to see this vibrant new incarnation of Econoline Crush, consisting of drummer Dayvid Swart, bassist Zak Troy, guitarist Graham Tuson, with Hurst leading the charge, and I was not disappointed. After an opening set by local band Laughing in Slow Motion, the lights went dark, and Econoline Crush made their way to the stage, kicking things off with one of my favourites, “Surefire,” from their 1997 album, The Devil You Know. I was happy to hear all of the hits, such as “You Don’t Know What It’s Like” and “Sparkle and Shine,” the latter of which Trevor said was inspired by the death of celebrities like Blind Melon’s Shannon Hoon before he took a moment to tell the audience that he wanted every single person there to do all that they could to stay alive and not check out before their time. I also loved hearing heavier tracks like “Blunt” and “Wicked,” which are personally still in heavy rotation.
The new material from When The Devil Drives is strong and forward-looking. They’re paying homage to where they started, but also forging a new path forward, with more modern-sounding songs and lyrics that reflect where we are today, like “No Quitter,”, an instantly fist-pumping sing-along, whose lyrics hit home for a lot of people these days: “Spending all my time thinking how I’m going to pay the bank, the bills, the rent, the pills. Alimony, sad story, the walls are closing in on me.” Econoline Crush definitely are not quitters, and the optimism was also felt in a stellar performance of “Invincible,” another single from the new album.
Econoline Crush kept the fans (including Ottawa concert mainstay Super Kyle!) singing along all night, including a two-song encore of “Nowhere Now” and a raucous “Get Out of the Way” that rocked the house on a chilly Sunday night in Ottawa. The new album is available wherever you buy/stream music, and the tour continues with four more dates moving west across Canada.
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