Moving to Golden was never the plan for Dave L’Hirondelle.
After helping his friend move here back in 2013, he immediately returned home to Vancouver and packed his bags. He just knew he had to come back.
Since then, L’Hirondelle has solidified himself as an important part of Golden’s music community. Originally just as a solo act, he’s since formed a band and is set to take the rolling stage for Golden’s Summer Kicks series with his band for their first performance together.
“As a solo act, I usually just pick the musicians that I want to play around me and that I love playing with,” explain L’Hirondelle about the formation of the band.
“These few ended up sticking around and I’m really excited to play with all of them.”
The band features talent from Golden and Invermere, with Lori Bru on the drums, Fraser Smith on bass, Matt Fellows on keys and Eli Beingnessner on lead guitar, with L’Hirondelle himself on rhythm guitar.
L’Hirondelle describes the band as being high-energy and generally vocals focused, with all five members pitching in on vocals.
While it’s his name on the bill, L’Hirondelle says that it’s truly a team effort and that they’re a complete band, who just haven’t settled on a name yet.
Naming the group wasn’t a priority, as COVID-19 had stopped many performances, with L’Hirondelle saying that they didn’t think they would have the opportunity to play together this summer at all.
“I’m proud to share the stage with these guys, they’re all spectacular,” said L’Hirondelle.
“We’re very fortunate for this opportunity, I see what’s happening in other communities and I’m feeling very fortunate that Golden has something going on this summer.”
He says that Golden has a great resource with Kicking Horse Culture and Bill Usher and the work they do to bring events like Summer Kicks to the people of Golden.
The setlist will be comprised of covers of songs from the 60s to the 80s with L’Hirondelle saying that it’ll be music to get up and boogey to.
“We’re all about getting people dance, getting people moving,” said L’Hirondelle.
“Unfortunately with COVID there won’t be a mosh pit but it’ll still be high energy.”
L’Hirondelle says the energy of the band is palpable, as the group is just excited to be performing once again. He says that they spent eight hours in one day rehearsing for Summer Kicks and that everyone is just happy to be playing music again.
The band is set to perform in the Selkirk Hill neighbourhood, with a more detailed route being made available on kicking Horse Cultures Facebook page closer to the date of the performance.
