Your Vegas kicks off Duran Duran

Tom Harrison, The Province

Sunday, April 27, 2008

By the time Your Vegas opens for Duran Duran, the quintet won't be a stranger to the role.

The band has done its time with fellow New Yorkers The Bravery, creating exposure for what is largely a new and unknown band.

"It's a big country," stresses singer Coyle Girelli. "People still want music. It's very important [to tour]. The record can hit people on a personal level, but the touring puts a face on it."

Duran Duran starts its latest tour at GM Place and this might be a good match for Your Vegas. The band's debut album, A Town and Two Cities, has dramatic songs and a boldness that compares favourably to that of Duran Duran. Or The Bravery, for that matter. There is a similar sort of ambition.

"We're all very ambitious and extremely driven," Girelli agrees. As an opening act, it usually has 30 minutes to make an impression. Your Vegas's album seems grander than that; that is, it wants a fuller expression.

"I've been looking at our songs and they're very powerful," the singer believes. "We're working on the show, still working, still learning what has the greatest impact."

Your Vegas formed in 2004 and originally came from Leeds, England. A trip by Corelli to New York convinced him to move there and he talked the others -- Mat Steel, Mark Heaton, Jon Langford and Mal Taylor -- to join him. The band had recorded two singles before signing to Universal. The album will be released in Canada Tuesday.

The album contains a weird mixture of the political and personal, but always with Girelli's sense of urgency.

"That's the way I happen to write songs," he says. "It was never anything I sat down and thought about. We write music we want to hear, at the end of the day."

tharrison@png.canwest.com

IN CONCERT

Your Vegas, opening for Duran Duran

Where: GM Place

When: Tuesday night at 7:30

Tickets: $42-$115 at Ticketmaster

Courtesy The Vancouver Province 2008