Cody Canada & The Departed – Why They Will Make It

After seeing another Departed show I walked out knowing that these guys are going to make an enormous impact on what we all know and love about music. But, even after all that, I walked out with a feeling that something wasn’t sitting right. I knew these guys were one of the best bands I’d ever seen and it’s taken me a few days to figure that what I was feeling. It turns out that it had nothing to do with the band, but rather everything to do with watching something new.

Change

Change. It’s a bitch. And no one likes change that’s out of their control. We all say, at some time, that we “need a change of pace”, but what we really mean is that we only want the bad things to change into good things. Why change a good thing… you don’t fix what ain’t broken, right? And on the surface, no one thought of Ragweed as being bad or broken, so why go changing what wasn’t broken?

Well there’s the personal changes that were coming. And we can argue whether or not Ragweed’s latest albums were on par till we’re blue in the face, but the bottom line is that they are done and moving on. Would we have rather seen these guys just disappear? Let me answer that for you… Hell No! It’s in their blood and the only alternative is to start something new.

Change. It’s a bitch. And sometimes it’s the best thing you could have never hoped for.

Baby Steps

The first step I had to come to grips with was moving past that things were changing. The breakup with Ragweed sucked. Plain and Simple. I’d be a shitty music fan if I hold that against The Departed. But damn it’s hard when you go see The Departed and Cody Canada is playing on stage… it just brings back so many Ragweed memories.You’ve just got to do what I did and get past it.

Going in to see The Departed, you may not know the songs at first, but what you’ll find on stage is 5 of the best musicians in this scene. And that’s saying alot for a band that has only been together for a few months. The sound rolling off the stage is so good it will make other bands either try harder or just plain give up. Go in with an open mind, cut those strings that hold you to the past and you’ll begin to appreciate how great this band really is.

So Now What

Embrace it. There is not one bad thing I can say about The Departed. Bands like Foo Fighters were born from bands like Nirvana being forced to quit, so we know that this can work. The Departed is an amazing band with a ton of potential and even more experience… which is something many of us are ready for and in fact have begged for.

The question isn’t if they will make it or not. I have no doubt they are going to make it becuase they really are that good. The question should be “How soon will you realize that they are better than you hoped?”