Versus the Nothing rocked the Western Financial City Centre Park Thursday as a prelude to their opening for Kinder Aug. 22.
The band has been blasting out its hard rock vibes for years, but are now starting to make strides in making it to the next level of the music business, said guitarist Ande Otte.
Otte said Versus the Nothing has been playing for more than seven years, but added as is the case with most bands "there has been member changes."
It's a case where a band needs to evolve over time until it finds members who all mesh together well, offered Otte. "It's sort of finding people that all have a role," he said, adding a band is "like being in a marriage. There has to be that give and take."
And when a band is still earning its dues, Otte said roles extend beyond what instrument they play. Each has a role away from the stage. In the case of Versus the Nothing the drummer cooks, and the bassist is a mechanic to keep the van on the road.
Otte said it's also a case where band members have to be willing to step away from things.
"You've got to learn it it's not that important to you, just let it go," he said. "We didn't understand that to start."
It is also important to make sure the music is a creation of the band.
"There's no singling one guy out," said Otte. "I might bring a song in, but then we put it through what we call the Versus the Nothing filter."
Once the band, which includes Otte, Ross Archibald, Chris Shaw, Jason Scannell and Jacob Wyman, gets a hold of a song it evolves into a finished number.
"The skeleton of a song might be written by one person, but when the band gets a hold of it is when it really takes shape."
Balancing music and road life is something Versus the Nothing has to do since they spend a lot of days on the road. In fact they had just returned from a tour in the United States before their park show in Yorkton last week.
"It was a couple of days to chill a bit," said Otte, adding the Yorkton show just sort of popped up and was a chance to promote the band's new EP, Black Gloves, and the show with Hinder.
Otte said the new EP has charted well in the week since its release, and that is encouraging.
"We're super stoked about that," he said.
Such a positive charting response to the latest disk is another step in the band's progress, said Otte.
"It's not like one thing breaks a band big. It's a gradual thing," he said, adding "when we look back a year or two we've come a long way. It feels like we're close."
The band is just back from a U.S. swing which included playing The Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles.
"All the legends played there," said Otte, adding it's the venue where Jim Morrison jumped up on a car and proclaimed 'I am the lizard king."
"And we played New York City, and just the whole vibe there was great."
Otte said it's a rush to perform in front of new people. "They don't really know who you are, but they dig you."
It's bigger venues, chart interest, and new fans which keeps the band going down the road.
"We're just going to keep doing it," said Otte, adding while they might take a major label deal, it has to fit right.
It's often a case of a band making it without a major label, "then they want you."
