D.O.A. still very much alive — and coming to Kamloops
With more than 3,000 shows on his resume, it’s not easy for Joe Keithley to pick a highlight or moment he wishes didn’t happen.
However, the veteran punk rocker now partway through the final tour with D.O.A. — including a show in Kamloops on Friday, Feb. 15 — said he would likely choose the same concert for both moments.
It was back in 1989 and D.O.A. was sharing the bill with another Vancouver act — Bryan Adams. It was a two-night event in support of a group working to increase public awareness of the damage effluence from pulp and paper mills can cause to the environment, Keithley said, put together with the help of another singer-songwriter, Terry Jacks.
Keithley loved it not only for the music and sharing the stage with Adams but because it was supporting a cause he believed in.
And, while he’s not taking any credit for the show having a major impact, he notes the Social Credit government passed legislation addressing the issue a few months later.
The low point of the event?
“That would have to be trading verses with Bryan Adams on Stand By Me. There’s no video of it and I really regret that.”
One of the reasons Keithley is moving on from D.O.A. tours now is his bid to be nominated by the NDP to run in the May provincial election in the Coquitlam-Burke riding.
The nomination meeting is on Sunday, March 3, and Keithley is feeling confident of success. He’s been out knocking on doors and talking to people for almost three months now and has encountered a positive response. He noted when he last ran for the Greens, he had the second-highest percentage of votes of all candidates running for the party.
It’s not his first attempt at political office; he ran for the Green party in 1996 and 2001 and for the Burke municipal council in 1997.
The 17-stop final tour includes a gig at Bailey’s Pub, 1050 Eighth St., and Keithley promises “a wild and rambunctious time.”
Keithley said it will have some songs from recent albums, a few from the 1990s “but we’ll lean heavily on the first three albums — Something Better Change, Hardcore ‘81 and War on 45.”
Tickets for the show are $15 at the door.
Local band Sound City is slated to open.
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