Crash Vegas

Crash Vegas started in Toronto in 1988 as a love affair with a band attached: Michelle McAdorey and Blue Rodeo's Greg Keelor, a couple who had known each other since the late 1970s (McAdorey had already turned up in Blue Rodeo's video for "Try"). They couldn't settle on a name, flirted with Giant Tambourine, and finally landed on Crash Vegas by tossing words at each other until something stuck; McAdorey liked how harsh and vivid it sounded.

Jocelyne Lanois came in on bass and Ambrose Pottie on drums, and the band became one of the first to rise out of the Queen Street West scene that had been bubbling in downtown Toronto. Their first show was at the Cameron House, and over the next year they opened again and again for Blue Rodeo, at the Horseshoe Tavern and the Rivoli among other rooms, while holing up to write and rehearse. Lanois brought in Colin Cripps, a guitarist from Hamilton, and his playing came to shape the band more and more.

Red Earth, on Risque Disque in 1989, is folk rock with the dust of a long highway on it: jangling, windblown, more interested in atmosphere than swagger. "Smoke" and "Inside Out" drift in like weather and hang around long after they've passed.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.