April 11, 2003 Danko Jones: Always Up For A Challenge "I’m gonna try to see if anybody from Treble Charger wants to get into a drinking competition with me," says feisty Danko Jones bassist John Calabrese while riding the train to the Junos. "I already asked Trevor [MacGregor], but he said he wants to get into a puking competition, which defeats the drinking competition." JC, whose band lost the Best Rock Band award to Our Lady Peace, looks devilish as he goes into detail about his history of alcohol consumption. "I have not lost a drinking competition, so I’m ready for it. I’m ready. I was close with the bass player from Backyard Babies, but after three cases of beer, and shot-gunning them together, we just hugged each other and said that we loved each other. So that’s the dire ends of the means of this bonding action that is the drinking competition. I think Trevor shot it down though. If he wants to go for a puking competition, that means he can’t handle it. Where is he? Where’s the beer?" Considering his band mates are the teetotaler Danko and the seemingly less boozy Damon Richardson, that leaves JC to pick up the slack. "I do most of the drinking in the band, all extra-curricular activities. It’s a hard life, really. It’s a hard life having to drink and do all the rest of the stuff and stay like this," he says in reference to his immaculate olive green button down and sharp black slacks. "I can’t believe I’m not breaking a sweat now, it’s so hard (laughter). It’s a hard thing here. I’m keeping composed." Still, it’s not always easy to keep composed when you’re in a band that finds itself in strange situations at home and abroad. "We did Bullard, yeah. It was cool. Like, the week before we did Bullard we played this club in Finland. The night before we played there they had a death metal show, so it was covered in pig’s blood. So a week after that show, we were on the Bullard show so there’s really a lot of, like, continuity in my life and a lot of regular things that really pop up, other than there was no pig’s blood at the Mike Bullard Show. But I hear he’s into the death metal. And into Pepto Bismol, too. You gotta be if you’re a TV host. You gotta be drinking that stuff in between commercial breaks. How can you hold on?" |
