Big Sugar is celebrating the 30th anniversary of their classic record Hemi-Vision on this tour, which sees lead singer and founding member Gordie Johnson revisit some roots in Medicine Hat.--Photo courtesy Big Sugar
zmason@medicinehatnews.com
For the classic Canadian 90s band Big Sugar, calling Saturday night’s Medicine Hat performance a hometown show might be a stretch.
Born in Manitoba and raised in Ontario, lead singer and founding member Gordie Johnson spent a stint in his teens in the Hat, graduating from Crescent Heights High School before moving away again.
But still, he says there will be a batch of his mother’s cookies to greet the band after the show.
“I know my mom will have her purse full of baking when they come to the venue,” laughed Johnson.
With his parents still in the city, and his father’s pasta joint, Pasta-bilities, still operating after more than 30 years, Johnson says he still considers himself something of a Hatter.
“I mean, I don’t need my iPhone to find my way around,” he said in an interview with the News on Tuesday.
He will be back again on Saturday, when the latest lineup of his band Big Sugar takes over the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre at 7 p.m.
The band’s output has alternately been called roots, rock, reggae and blues. For this tour, they are revisiting their roots, featuring a two-set format that includes a track-for-track performance of their 1996 album Hemi-Vision, celebrating its 30th year in 2026.
It’s not what Johnson thought the band would be doing right about now. But the current tour is the product of a twisting series of mutual influences and pop cultural trend cycles that couldn’t have been predicted.
“A lot of things that have happened to us the last couple years – it’s not something your manager can go out and get for you,” said Johnson.
One contributing factor to the shape of the recent tour is the resurgence of vinyl records.
According to statistics from Carleton University, while hardly one million new vinyl albums were sold in the U.S. in 2006, sales have soared since then, exceeding 49 million units in 2023. Trends are similar north of the border.
Capitalizing on the trend, Big Sugar released a 25th anniversary edition of Hemi-Vision. Johnson says they thought maybe they’d tour it when the pandemic ended. But fate had other plans.
Big Sugar has captivated audiences in Canada and abroad for more than 30 years, finding fans on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. As it turns out, that legion of fans in the 1990s included future 12-time Grammy-winning musician and producer Jack White.
A longtime fan, White’s record label reached out to ask if they could press a release of another of the band’s classic 90s records, 500 Pounds.
“Jack White’s talking about us on TV. Wait a sec. We got to do something here.”
The band toured 500 Pounds for much of the last two years. Then, Warren Haynes of Allman Brothers Band fame asked them to perform songs from Hemi-Vision at a joint show. Concert promoters quickly jumped on the revival.
It sparked a second act of the band taking old material on the road that will stretch into summer 2026.
Johnson says the back-to-back tours have brought in new audiences for Big Sugar. He says the appetite for good old-fashioned rock music is still there.
“I do see a lot of younger people at our shows who are interested in music. They’re interested in vinyl records and cool old guitars, and they’re not seeing the kind of music that we still do every day. You’re not going to get that just anywhere.”
Although the last two years have involved a lot of revisiting old material, Johnson says it’s hardly gotten stale for the performers. He says he surrounds himself with inspiring people who share his passion for the craft.
And with an intergenerational band including members in their 20s, 40s, and 60s, he says he’s constantly discovering new approaches to the old catalogue.
“It doesn’t feel like old music, you know what I mean? We’re not playing it the way the guys played it 20, 30 years ago. I’m not. I’ve evolved as a musician, too.”
But Big Sugar is not just a Big Sugar cover band. Johnson says new material is on the way.
“It’s already done and in the can and ready to release. But these other opportunities came up, so we’ve been taking advantage of that.”
The current tour format has no starters. Instead, the band performs Hemi-Vision for the first half and a regular set for the second, which will feature new music Johnson says fans can expect in the last quarter of the year.
Doors open for the Big Sugar show in Medicine Hat at 7 p.m. Saturday night. The band takes the stage at 8 p.m.
