3. Lightning BoltWonderful Rainbow
I picked Wonderful Rainbow because I listened to it so much. When I saw them for the first time it – like it does for a lot of people, I think – really shifted my interest in music. I would download mp3s that I could find from live shows on the internet, and they would post stuff on their website that I was listening to every day. The first time I saw them was on that OOPS! tour where it was them and Arab On Radar and The Locust and Orthrelm and a bunch of other bands. A buddy of mine took me to the show, and I’d never heard any of these bands, and the whole show completely blew my mind, Lightning Bolt especially. A lot of the songs they were playing ended up on Wonderful Rainbow, so my first initial exposure to them was a lot of that music from that record.
Honestly I don’t really have a favourite Lightning Bolt record, but… this is the one that I still listen to a lot. I had the DVD and would show it to friends, and they became Lightning Bolt fans, and then whenever they came to town we’d all go and see them. It was an important bonding experience for me and a lot of my friends. A lot of those friends are not really into ‘out’ music or extreme stuff, but a lot of that bonding was still at live shows, and Lightning Bolt were a huge part of that.
There’s also this subtle breakbeat thing happening in Lightning Bolt, which was really big for me as I was really into drum & bass and jungle music at the time. So the way that was being incorporated live was really cool… I could speak so much about them. I’ve since gotten to tour with Lightning Bolt and gotten close to both the Brians [Chippendale and Gibson]. I’m just really thankful for them and for that band.
