Dany Laj and the Looks is hitting the road with a new single, ‘Meet Me on the Floor,’ and the band is making sure to stop in North Bay, taking the stage at Lou Dawg’s this Thursday, September 26th. North Bay’s own Smooth Brains opens the show. There’s a $10 cover.
Featuring Jeanette Dowling on bass, David Laplante on guitar, and Alex Pauzé on drums, Dany Laj and the Looks is a power pop band with a touch of garage rock mojo thrown into the mix. Based in Montreal, the band’s first EP The Match, was released in 2011, since then, the crew have put out a steady supply of singles and full-length albums.
The band hasn’t toured since 2019, and the call of the open road could no longer be denied. “Honestly, we were sick of not touring,” Laj admitted. “We miss it, and the road is where we belong.”
When BayToday called Laj to catch up, he was at his studio in Montreal, finishing up some tracks for another band before the tour began. There are 26 gigs scheduled for this cross-country tour, with plenty of stops south of the border as well.
Laj is from Kirkland Lake, so the band kicked off the tour there a couple of weeks ago, and besides North Bay, there are stops scheduled for the Townehouse Tavern in Sudbury (September 27th) and Eagles Hall in Sault Ste. Marie (September 28th.)
Laj has lived in both North Bay and Sudbury, so he’s looking forward to returning with the band. He’s been making music much of his life, and “was 18 years old when I started making my own records with friends. When I lived in Kirkland Lake, there wasn’t really a recording facility there, so we just kind of learned to do it ourselves.”
“It’s sort of the punk rock ethos that we go with, and we’re very self sufficient that way,” he said.
Laj and his bandmates are no strangers to the touring life, Laj himself has toured a rock and roll show across Canada “probably over 30 times. I’ve been through the whole country, and I’ve done a tremendous amount of touring in the United States.
He always followed the idea that “a band puts out a record and they tour it.” He explained that the band is following that trajectory having released the new single, “Meet Me on the Floor.”
“We really thrive when we play live,” Laj said, “we have a fun live show and people love coming to it.” After all these years, and so many gigs and tours, the magic still holds. “I still like bringing my gear into the van, knowing I’ll be playing guitar that day. I love being at sound check, and finally getting to plug my amp in, and when you take the amp off standby, and you hear that first chord.”
“That’s magic to me,” Laj said, “I hear that crunching guitar and to me that’s the greatest sound ever. It absolutely changed my life.”
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
