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A lot can happen in 30 days

The Daniel Wesley Band returns to Whistler with new music and business sense
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Laid Back Beach Vibe The Daniel Wesley Band returns to Whistler with reggae grooves on Nov. 23 and 24 at the Garibaldi Lift Company (GLC).

Who: The Daniel Wesley Band

When: Friday, Nov. 23 and Saturday, Nov. 24

Tickets: $10

Where: Garibaldi Lift Company

If you ever listen to The Fox radio, there is a 99.9 per cent chance you’ve heard The Daniel Wesley Band’s hit single, Ooo Oh, currently charting the Top 30 most requested songs at the Vancouver radio station.

“It’s starting to feel like the way I used to feel when I was a kid listening to the Z,” said bassist Mark Luongo. “They always played N’ Sync over and over again. I never wanted to hear it again.”

Fortunately the reggae groove with pop hooks keeps radio listeners coming back for their Ooo Oh fix more and more.

However, The Daniel Wesley Band hopes to broaden their fans’ listening to other songs from their debut album, Sing and Dance , as well as new tracks from their not-yet-recorded album at their next shows in Whistler on Friday, Nov. 23 and Saturday, Nov. 24 at the Garibaldi Lift Company (GLC).

The threesome of Luongo, frontman Daniel Wesley and drummer Alexander James Glassford last visited Whistler to play for the special edition of Urban Rush celebrating the launch of Whistler Shaw TV last month.

For a one-year-old band just out of the gate with sold out shows at Richard’s on Richards, a December booking at the Commodore and a top five standing at The Fox Seeds 2007 battle of the bands competition, a lot has happened in the last 30 days: new management, sold-out show at the Red Room in Vancouver, national distribution and the closing spot for the Santa Fox fundraiser at the Commodore Ballroom in December, just to name a few.

“The biggest thing we’ve been up to is sorting out the business end of what we are doing,” Luongo said. “We’ve been getting the attention of the top agents and agencies in Canada. We are making the next step. We’ve done the Vancouver thing, so our next step is breaking out of Western Canada.”

As well as recruiting Whistler locals to the Ooo Oh sound and a few turns in the powder.

“We were really excited to have broken into the Whistler scene with the Urban Rush show,” he said. “I tried to book our show into Whistler a year ago with no luck. It’s a tough place to break into with shows.”

With two nights at the GLC and a recent invite to perform at the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival, Whistler is now embracing the White Rock band.

The easy grooves spanning roots, reggae and rock with catchy hooks and solid instrumentals is the perfect vibe for the ski/snowboard crowd.

Other Ooo Oh gems to listen for include the band’s cover of Genuine’s My Pony where Wesley changes up the lyrics in the verses, but plays out the regular chorus, only with a harder-hitting edge.

“This one gets a lot of people rushing to the dance floor,” Luongo said.

Another Top 3 song for Luongo is NyQuil — no, not the cough syrup.

“No, it’s not a pitch; we’re not sponsored by NyQuil,” he said. “It’s just a mellow acoustic ballad. Most people are like, ‘What does this mean?’ The first half starts with biblical references and then there is this ode to NyQuil. I don’t know what Daniel was feeling at the moment, sort of a stream of consciousness thing.”

Dance into the Daniel Wesley Band consciousness with advance $10 tickets now on sale at the GLC.