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Here's a tale about a band snatching victory from the jaws of defeat - a refreshing change, since it's usually the other way around.
Canadian rock stalwart 54-40 was booked to headline the Convention Centre in October, but the show was cancelled due to poor ticket sales (not helped by opening act Screaming Trees pulling out under mysterious circumstances). It was a terrible black mark against what should be one of Canada's top rock bands - one that was erased barely a week later when 54-40 was announced as an opening act for the western Canadian leg of the Hootie and the Blowfish tour. It hits the Coliseum Wednesday.
It turns out that the two bands go way back.
"We were big fans dating back to the mid-'80s," says Hootie drummer Jim Sonefeld. "We hooked up with them the last time we went up to Vancouver. (54-40 singer Neil Osborne) was up there at our club show and he came up and sang with us. So we stayed in touch and we'd always been trying to hook up and do a tour. We thought we'd have them open some of the shows (in Canada), try and help us out a little bit with ticket sales and also put together two bands we think would go great together."
As for 54-40's mysterious lack of popularity in Canada - mysterious to anyone who got into the band's excellent 1994 album, Smilin' Buddha Cabaret, that is - Osborne is at a loss.
"What's your theory?" he asks during an interview done in September.
Familiarity breeds contempt, perhaps? 54-40 has been around forever. If you miss them this time ... ah, they'll be back.
Or maybe it's that the lack of success in the United States translates to indifference in Canada. The Tragically Hip's freakish domestic success aside, that's often the reason Canadian bands fail to make it big. Ask the Crash Test Dummies how they were doing before Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm became such a monster hit with the Yanks.
Osborne just about bit my head off in 1993 when I asked him about that pesky American thing. But even the Vancouver band's name begs the question - "54-40 or fight" was the campaign slogan of U.S. president James Polk in 1845, referring to his desire to annex what is now the southern half of British Columbia (54 degrees 40 minutes is the line of latitude separating Canada and Alaska). In every interview since the band started 15 years ago, Osborne gets asked if the band's managed to annex some American fans. This time, he brings it up.
"Every Canadian suffers from this," he says. "The only way to get credibility as a Canadian is to get success in the United States. There are two reasons why it's important for us to make it into the States. One is to have something else to do and two is to take their money away.
"Other than that, I don't really care."
There was talk that 54-40's latest album, Trusted by Millions, might live up to its name, but so far, no such luck beyond a modest gold record (50,000 copies sold) in Canada. Co-produced by the Odds' Steven Drake, the album hasn't yet spawned a hit like Ocean Pearl (off Smilin' Buddha Cabaret), but with four Hootie dates still to come, there's hope yet.
Besides, 54-40 can always fall back on the college scene, which remains one of the band's strongest markets.
"There's a still a demand for us to play," says Osborne. "Usually a new crop of kids wants a new band, but this doesn't seem to be the case with us."
There are still tickets available for Wednesday's concert at Ticketmaster.