Comeback Kid is Coming to Town
Andrew Neufeld answers from the ferry that goes from Victoria to Vancouver. I can hear the sound of glasses or plates clinking in the background. I’ve been on that ferry years ago, on a high school band trip. In some ways, I guess that counts as touring.
“Is it cool if I call you back in like an hour? I’m not sure how good the service is going to be,” says Andrew, the lead
singer/guitarist of hardcore legends Comeback Kid. I agree and hang up. Interviewing people always makes me nervous, but that was a good introduction that didn’t allow me to stumble too much, and to also confirm that Andrew was interested in talking. One time I called a certain band, and the girl was watching The Simpson’s the entire interview and not interested in talking.
Andrew, 29, calls back, he is still on the ferry but the reception is more stable. Last night the band kicked off their North American tour with Madball and A Wilhelm Scream, along with some other friends. “These are bands we looked up to when we first started getting into hardcore,” says Andrew. It was a good kickoff show, the energy was right where it needed to be.
Neufeld now lives in Toronto and his band mates are scattered across North America. This doesn’t seem to be a problem though as Andrew admits they are constantly touring. Their last Canadian tour was two years ago, and the North American tour is reserved to be a special and important one, as the band returns to home soil after touring abroad for months on end. The band is currently working on lining up roughly seven tours in a row, all across the globe in South America, Europe, Japan, and North America. Andrew adds that he’d like to tour South Africa as they’ve got a friend in Uganda they’d like to visit.
The band has been mostly on tour for the past decade. Andrew seems more at home there. He came home to Toronto for one month and admits he was going stir crazy.
On the road, Comeback Kid says, “we’re just regular dudes.”
“The best part of touring is catching up with people you’ve known throughout the years,” Andrew says, before explaining that prior to the tour he took two weeks off to fly from Berlin to London, where he explored the city. I can see how giving up the touring life is difficult to have spent ten years playing shows with your friends to energetic crowds and then taking the time to explore new cities at your leisure is a tough lifestyle to shirk.
More to come on the band’s new album Symptoms and Cures, which is currently streaming here from Distort. Comeback Kid will be playing The Opera House on September 23rd.
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