Goodbye, punk doctor
Medical training puts The Cleats on hiatus

The Cleats Farewell Show
With Wednesday Night Heroes, Our Mercury, Emergency
Saturday, Aug. 3
At the Rev

Once again, the Cleats are going on indefinite hiatus. But this time, a lot more souls will mourn their passing. The Cleats are serious about success, and one of their guitarists has been called away to medical school.

"I told them they could keep it going," insists deserter Chris Venner, but his departure was enough to fold the entire band.

The Cleats introduced our city to street-level punk played with technical wizardry in 1996, although Venner has an additional year’s experience with bassist/vocalist Nik Kozub in the long-forgotten ska group Skeptics. And don’t forget their six-year history includes long layoffs when Kozub went on tour with Captain Tractor as the sound guy.

"That’s been the story with us all along," Venner says. "There’s always shit happening. It’s been the best band I’ve been in, but also the most frustrating."

While Kozub was island-hopping on the other side of the planet, his band waited around loyally for his eventual return, not once considering a replacement or moving on.

"When Nik went away it was at a time when we all knew we were gonna be the Cleats," Venner recalls. "That’s what it always was for us – playing the music you wanna play with the people you wanna play with. But I do it with people who have so much going on in their lives."

All members of the Cleats have their hands full: new guitarist Eric Budd spent the summer jamming with his other band, the Operators, and he’s spent the last month in Vancouver in engineering job-placement. Kozub has his Vancouver band Veal to fall back on, as well as some hefty travel plans – when he’s not busy in his basement studio recording albums for the likes of Riot99 and Wednesday Night Heroes, as well as a goodbye EP release from the Cleats.

"I don’t think it will be the absolute end of the Cleats," Venner says, "but the shows will be few and far between. Our lives are about to get crazy. I suppose it’s a natural time to go on indefinite hiatus. We will play again someday – I just don’t know when."

Venner is on his way to an intensive three-year medical program at the University of Calgary, followed by doctoral studies in England.

"I always knew that someday at some point I’d have to make sacrifices," says Venner, although he swears never to give up music completely. "I don’t really know where I’m going to end up. I’d sort of like to go into pediatrics. I wanna end up in a field that allows me to do it all: keep the research up but also stay in touch with patients."

The Cleats built up some critical momentum with their full-length album and split 7", but those days are at a temporary end. On the bright side, once he returns, the Edmonton punk scene may offer its own health-care package. If you ask him for medical advice at a show, he might whip out his bedside manner.

"I’d do it for the Edmonton music scene to keep those guys alive," he says. "As long as I don’t end up in proctology," he laughs. "The last thing I want is Graeme [from Wednesday Night Heroes] coming up to me and telling me he has a sore ass."