None of the members at that time ever thought it would be another two-plus decades before they’d return. But that’s how long it’s been — 22 years, to be exact — since Belvedere has put together a proper tour of the Rocky Mountain West.
“They might not remember how much gray hair I have,” says Rawles, who founded Belvedere as a teenager in 1995. “There’s probably more of that than the last time I saw some people, but I’m sure they probably share the same. But they might be surprised that at my age I still jump around quite a bit.”
Now nearing fifty, Rawles can laugh at being an old head in the scene, but that doesn’t mean that Belvedere has slowed down with age or lost any of its edge. The band now includes new members Dan Wollach (guitar) and Ryan Mumby (bass), who are also on the 2021 album Hindsight Is the Sixth Sense, a record that leans heavily on skate-punk speed and catchy hooks — a Belvedere signature.
“We’re going to get up there and rip it up as hard as we can,” according to Rawles. “There’s still a lot of speed, a lot of energy and more than enough dad jokes throughout the set. I’m pumped to play Denver again.”
Belvedere will be at the hi-dive on Tuesday, March 5, with Record Thieves and Still Gonna Bail. Belvedere and Record Thieves are also playing Surfside 7 in Fort Collins on Monday, March 4.
Belvedere lead singer and guitarist Steve Rawles admits to throwing more dad jokes into the set nowadays.
Courtesy Mark Richards
“Now we’re with four people who are going in the same direction who all want to tour,” he adds. “We’re at a place in our life where we established a family and work-life balance where we can actually go away for some time and come back.”
The second iteration has resulted in two studio albums, including The Revenge of the Fifth (2016), and a regular spot on the European festival circuit. Initially, playing Canada and overseas proved to be easier than securing work visas for U.S. tours, which is “really expensive and time-consuming,” Rawles explains. But now that the band is back to a more full-time schedule, similar to its early-2000s heights, heading back to the States has become a priority. Throughout last summer, Belvedere covered the East Coast and Midwest.
“We had no expectations. When we toured in the ’90s, it was kind of like basement shows or Warped Tour — there was no middle ground,” Rawles recalls. “So this was the first time we got to actually play for more than five people in some of those cities. It was a trip.
“To come back and have people show up and actually be there for your band and tell you these stories of how they have seen you before, it’s pretty great,” he continues. “It throws me off a bit, because so often we spent time playing someone’s basement, booking shows on Book Your Own Fuckin’ Life, that kind of stuff. The dynamic has changed, but I’m not twenty anymore, so I’m glad it progressed a little bit.”
How Rawles approaches Belvedere, specifically his lyrical content, has also progressed over the years. On Hindsight Is the Sixth Sense, such songs as “Elephant March” and “Happily Never After” are more politically charged than early content, or at least more overt.
“Maybe it’s a comfort level,” Rawles mulls when asked about sharing his worldview so loudly through his music. “Also, you think of life differently when you’re forty and have a kid versus what you do when you’re eighteen. It was okay for me to talk about wrestling, because I didn’t think anyone would be around to listen to this music anyways. I never thought that we would play 35 countries.”
He admits to thinking more and more about the type of place he wants to leave behind for his children and their generation. Some of those thoughts can be heard throughout Hindsight Is the Sixth Sense as well.
“You write for yourself, but you want to say something, too. It’s something I’m proud of. I’m not sure how the next record will be, but I feel like I want to have purpose with what I write,” Rawles says, adding that anyone has the power to influence the world around them. Belvedere, to a degree, is proof of that.
“A few people can change a lot, whether for the good or bad. We’ve seen that. I think you have to have hope, because if you don’t have hope you don’t really have much else, because that’s no way to live,” he continues. “I don’t think I’m coming back here. This is my one life, so I’m going to try to do what I can. And in a small way, I don’t think that we have any influence as people other than the interactions we have in our lives. You try to do what you can and be a positive impact around you.”
Belvedere, 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 5, hi-dive, 7 South Broadway. Tickets are $15-$18.
