You’ve probably never heard of Max Webster. I hadn’t either until I went to a Rush concert in June 1980 at the Austin Municipal Auditorium in Austin Texas. I was a newly minted Rush fan and was excited to see them. I did not expect to see a quirky kick ass opening band named Max Webster.
Max Webster, like Rush, was a Canadian band and were buddies. So it made sense for them to be on tour together. I remember Max Webster being this high energy band with a guitarist and vocalist that was all over the stage. His name was Kim Mitchell. You may not have heard of Kim either but you may have heard one of his songs from his solo platinum selling album Akimbo Alogo. That song was Go for a Soda. “Might as well go for a soda, Nobody hurts and nobody cries”. Perhaps I’ll have that as a vinyl of the month soon.
Back to Max Webster, Pye Dubois, who is not really in the band, was the main lyricist and he and Kim Mitchell came up with a song that stood out during the concert and also triggered my desire to march out the next day after the concert and track down the album. That song was Hangover. The album Max Webster was originally released in 1976 in Canada and was the band’s first album. The album was certified Gold in 1979. I bought the 1977 U.S.A. reissued version that has the green album cover. It turned out that the rest of the songs on the album were pretty good too.
I don’t remember a whole lot about the Rush concert except for Max Webster being the opening band and the song Hangover. For bringing back memories of a better time I picked Max Webster by Max Webster to be this month’s Vinyl of the Month.