Kelowna was no place for a great Canadian band in the ‘80s.
“There really wasn’t much of a music scene there,” said Kevin Kane, one of the founding members of The Grapes of Wrath.
“I guess there were no distractions — that would be the positive side of it. The negative would be we were really in a vacuum. We didn’t really have any peers. We were pretty much it, as far as we knew.”
Kane met bandmates Chris and Tom Hooper in Grade school. In a sea of Kiss and Meatloaf fans, the three bonded over their love for The Beatles and The Who.
The Grapes of Wrath achieved mainstream success in the early ‘90s with the release of their second album Now and Again which incorporated keyboardist Vincent Jones.
“It’s all the typical rock stuff that bands get to do,” said Kane about their success in the ‘90s. “We got to tour around in a bus and fly around playing big shows. I guess the experience in a way was good, and I think a lot of musicians get to that point and lose perspective of what initially inspired them.”
Kane left the band and eventually The Grapes of Wrath were deactivated.
In the late ‘90s Kane and Tom reunited and released Field Trip under The Grapes of Wrath name in 2000.
The original three eventually came back together and are set to record a new album.
“The three of us hadn’t played together since 1992,” said Kane. “We went to our first rehearsal and by the second song in we were all laughing because it still sounded the same.”
The Grapes of Wrath play with The Odds at Spiritbar on Thursday.