Uncle Strut is walking the walk with a charity show at the WISE Hall | Georgia Straight Vancouver’s source for arts, culture, and events

1 of 1 2 of 1 Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday. Sign up for our free newsletter.When I log onto the Zoom call, I’m expecting just one person on the other end. Big mistake, it turns out. Faces adorned with long hair and mustaches—their heads topped with toques and their backgrounds invariably showing at least two plants—continue popping up like surf bro Pokemon until all four members of Uncle Strut are in attendance. “We’re multiplying!” says drummer Quincy Flowers. The Vancouver band’s rise is happening just as quick as they proliferate across my screen. Since the Straight last profiled the group in 2024, they’ve added a permanent member in guitarist Jasper Matthias and released their first album, last year’s Home At Last, which saw songs like “Love” and “7:30” strike a chord with audiences and rack up hundreds of thousands of streams online. All that is to say that the pace of the group hasn’t slowed down one bit. I’m talking to the foursome in their respective homes the day after they left Revelstoke, the seventh and last stop on a tour that saw them play colder locales like Canmore and Nelson. “It was fun being in these ski towns,” says Flowers. “Everyone's down to party on, like, a Tuesday night. So all the shows got pretty rowdy across the board.”This weekend, the group will be partying one more, but with a bit more of a purpose. Uncle Strut is playing tomorrow (Saturday, March 14) at the WISE Hall, headlining a bill that includes fellow Vancouver acts Fionn and Ché Aimee Dorval. The show is a Breakfast Club fundraiser meant to raise money for the Three Links Care Foundation, a community-run charity that provides meals to those experiencing food insecurity in the Fairview area. Every Sunday, volunteers gather together to serve over 100 people that come together to experience a welcoming environment with hot food, snacks, clothing, and personal items. “It sort of started as a little idea, because we'd seen a couple bands that played in their hall that they do their breakfast in,” says Flowers. “And we were like, ‘Maybe we could do a show here and raise a bit of money.’ And then us being us, the idea kind of expanded to playing at the WISE Hall and trying to raise $10,000 and getting Ché and Fionn on board.”Adds bass player Simon Tejani: “Yeah, it’s a special thing, because instead of just making it about people in need getting food, it became more of a community event, this thing where people are stoked to be there.”In addition to selling tickets (which are now sold out, but there may be some extras at the door if you’re lucky), the group is also raising money via a 50/50 raffle on the night. Uncle Strut is less forthcoming about what its plans are after the weekend. There will be shows and festival performances, but they can’t be specific. There will be a second album, likely released in spring 2027. The band has written and performed most of the songs off that album already (one of which, “Call My Name”, has been released). “It still kind of mirrors the music we've already been making—we’ve got the indie rock, surfy vibes, but then also we're pulling from some punk inspiration too, and some classic rock and roll stuff that we like,” says lead singer Tyson McNamara. “But then there’s some very emotional and meaningful music we’re going to be putting out as well.”Asked which of the songs off the album is really popping live, the band gives credit to the first song that Matthias has ever written for the band, the as-yet-unreleased “Honestly Probably”. “It was actually crazy when we were playing in Canmore and we started playing that song,” recalls Matthias, holding back laughter. “I don’t know who said it, but somebody was like, ‘If you want to stage dive, now is your chance. And so some dude rushes the stage. He’s got an Uncle Strut shirt on. He rips it off, and it reveals another Uncle Strut shirt underneath, and then he runs and just jumps off the stage.” Join the mosh this Saturday when Uncle Strut plays the WISE Hall. Join the discussion Facebook comments not loading? Please check your browser settings to ensure that it is not blocking Facebook from running on straight.com