Sound Addiction is quitting cold turkey. Their final show is tonight, free of charge, at Cafe Voltaire inside Books & Company.
The local rock band has become one of the most popular and ubiquitous music acts in the city. They are frequently on stage for local fundraisers, parties and dances. They are primarily a cover group (some originals, including an EP recording) with a roster of some of the best players in the region: Michael Vigano on guitar, Dan McLelland on bass, Kirby Gerrie on drums and the frontwoman is vocalist Jol Kress. She is the den mother of Sound Addiction, with a gravelly rock voice that sparks comparisons to Melissa Ethridge or Janis Joplin.
After opening for the band Count's 77 at CN Centre last fall, their band leader/TV personality Danny "The Count" Koker said "Girl you were blessed with an incredible set of pipes."
In addition to her performance skills, Kress is also a voice teacher, event host, radio personality, philanthropist and she intends to keep all these things up at a lighter pace, but so light there was no place for Sound Addiction.
The B.C. Northern Exhibition was the group's last big performance for an indefinite length of time.
"Yes I shut the band down," she confirmed. "I'm recovering from a concussion and mini stroke and have had to cancel a few gigs over the past few months. I'm trying to get back to work in September and just need to hide out for a bit."
She and Vigano will continue to perform some acoustic music now and again "because I need that for my soul" but a couple of the band members had recently talked to her about changes in their lives - a focus on a Master's degree for McLelland and other family/business irons in the fire for Gerrie - so overall, the time was right to bring the curtain down on the six-year-old band.
The BCNE represented a community-based performance for which they could feel especially good about calling things to a halt.
"We're like one great big family. When we were taking our bows, I had to look away because we were really feeling the love from the crowd and it was really hitting all of us, and I thought I was going to lose it," Kress said. "It's definitely a bittersweet ending. We are pretty iconic in P.G."
Iconic is not too strong a word. As Summerfest was ending this year, with centennial fireworks blasting overhead, it was Sound Addiction that organizers tapped to be on stage performing. For five consecutive years they were the dance band for the Evening of Pink fundraiser for cancer, and they have also done the Relay For Life. They did one of the last UNBC Backyard Barbecue events, many local charity and corporate parties, they opened for Count's 77 and also the world-famous tribute band God Save The Queen, which inadvertently made Sound Addiction the only local band to perform on the CN Centre stage twice. The band was also called upon for shows in Quesnel, Mackenzie and Vanderhoof.
If there's one show that stands out for Kress it is the fundraiser they created themselves for the victims of the Babine Sawmill blast in Burns Lake.
"We raised almost $12,000 in one night for the victims of the mill explosion and that was a pretty proud moment for us, I have to say."
This year, though, when they finished their Summerfest headliner concert, Kress was in worse health than even she imagined. Feeling strong at the start of the concert, she admitted afterwards she could barely make the trip home without help. She ironed on a smile and fought through pain and stress during the hasty exit once the final notes faded.
It was then she knew, her rock 'n' roll life needed to be reshaped.
"People don't understand brain injuries too well. People look at me and think I'm fine. I hope this helps a little bit for people to realize that just because someone looks fine doesn't at all mean they aren't going through hell right there in front of you. It's easy to fake being sick, but it's really painful to fake being normal, especially when people have expectations of you. When you walk out on stage as a performer, you are inviting that expectation, so that's not going to work for me. My health is just too much of an issue, and I don't know when that will ever end."
She has many musicians standing in her corner, so if she ever wants to exercise that rock muscle, there will be friends alongside, but those friends are also setting themselves on the task of helping her get well without pounding drums and screaming guitars.
Now is when begins the withdrawals from Sound Addiction.
