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Chinatown part of the Northwest rock resurgence

Who: Chinatown What: The Punk Night Where: Boot Pub When: Sunday, Dec. 21 With their heavy guitar-driven tunes, Vancouver’s Chinatown seem to be channeling early "’70s Alice Cooper or one of his contemporaries.

Who: Chinatown

What: The Punk Night

Where: Boot Pub

When: Sunday, Dec. 21

With their heavy guitar-driven tunes, Vancouver’s Chinatown seem to be channeling early "’70s Alice Cooper or one of his contemporaries.

"We love that era," confirms singer/guitarist Ben Yardley. "KISS, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper. I’d like to think we’re kind of modern sounding, but our influences are older."

The influences include Thin Lizzy — whose Chinatown album lent itself to the new band’s name at the suggestion of drummer Chucky a couple years ago.

"It’s also because we’re from Vancouver and we’ve all spent time in the downtown eastside, the Chinatown area. It’s a really crazy place.

"We consider ourselves a pretty sleazy sounding band and that’s a pretty sleazy part of town," adds Yardley.

Whistler fans of gritty sleazeball rockers The Black Halos likely remember Chinatown’s opening set at their last show back in October. The bands played to a capacity crowd at the Boot Pub and the crazy energy in the room that night has the Chinatown boys stoked to return to Whistler.

But it’s not just Whistler that has welcomed their twentysomething interpretation of a 30-year-old style of music. Yardley says all across the Pacific Northwest, their home, along with The Halos and other acts like Vancouver metal maniacs 3 Inches of Blood and Seattle’s Jet City Fix, he’s felt a new resurgence for rock. With the contemporary radio and music TV stations for the most part pumping out the latest greatest pop-hop/R&B production, Yardley says he’s noticed a new generation of rockers on the rise alongside the older crowd already loyal to the sound.

"We’ve been going down to Washington state a lot and playing some all ages shows and the young kids are starting to really go crazy for what we do," he says. "It’s cool because some of those kids who were born in the ’80s, they haven’t had any real rock bands. It’s all been cookie-cutter pop and stupid boy bands. They missed Guns ’n’ Roses, they missed Nirvana, they missed a lot of stuff."

The Punk Night’s loyal following won’t want to miss Chinatown this Sunday evening at the Boot Pub, with openers The Iotolas. Call 604-932- 3338 for more information.