Piggy reunion show to steal Haligonians' hearts all over again

You'd be hard-pressed to find a group of local music lovers more enthusiastic and nostalgic than those who will undoubtedly be lining the sidewalk of Gottingen Street in Halifax next week.

They also might be a little more grizzled than your average audience for a local gig — though, in fairness, the musicians may be, too.

On May 8, a tiny slice of Halifax music history will be revived, as Piggy the Calypso Orchestra of the Maritimes plays a one-night-only reunion show.

The beloved Halifax band won the hearts of many Haligonians through the eclectic, energetic shows they played from 1994 to late 2000.

Up to 10 musicians would crowd the stage, including the usual guitar, drums, bass and keyboards, but also horns, flute, clarinet, banjo, accordion and the occasional kazoo, and the result was a joyful raucousness driven by ideals of social justice and infused with kindness.

"It was kind of like if there was an outlaw hippie Sesame Street," says Maggie Rahr, who attended Piggy shows as an early teenager.

"They were just so sweet and open, but also unpacking some human complexity and just kind of showing us a way of being that is peaceful and loving."

Piggy songs frequently touched on themes of inequality, poverty, capitalism and other serious subjects, but almost always with a playful sound.

The Person Behind the Counter encouraged people to be nice to those in the service industry, The Thin Man examined the issues of hunger and poverty, She's Stepping Out is about coming out as queer, and Emma Goldman is a true banger of a tribute to the famous anarchist.

Lead singer Paul Gailiunas says Piggy's political bent was intentional.

"That was a main motivating factor for me personally in a band was to try to address, you know, things that were important issues," he says.

The other motive, he says, was to make it "as fun and wacky as possible." Musicians often dressed up in costumes and shows frequently featured dance contests — which Rahr once won, and was treated to a special prize of going to see the movie Babe: Pig in the City with the entire band.

In an era when Halifax was dubbed the "next Seattle" and bands like Sloan, Thrush Hermit, Jale and The Super Friendz were making it big, Piggy wasn't angling for record deals or fame.

"It was more of a labour of love and a fun art project, a communal art project," Gailiunas says.

Drummer Graham MacDougall will be performing with the band at the reunion show, and says it's been fun revisiting the songs after a quarter century — even if he can't quite remember some of them because they're only on cassette tapes and he doesn't have a player anymore.

With some members of the band — like Gailiunas, who now lives in California — coming from out of town, MacDougall says group rehearsals will be limited, so the reunion show will likely be "pretty scrappy and pretty much in spirit with the original band."

Although many of the performers were very accomplished musicians, that "ad hoc, ad libbed" sound is simply "part of the charm" of Piggy, MacDougall says.

Stephen Kelly, who played banjo with the band, says the performances were sometimes on the brink of devolving into chaos — especially when Gailiunas would shout "everybody solo!" and all the members would do a solo at the same time.

"You just went with it and tried to stay in tune … but grounded by the structure of these awesome songs," Kelly says.

Rooted in community

At the heart of Piggy's music was always the community — particularly the North End, where many band members lived and where Gailiunas, a doctor, practised medicine at the community health clinic on Gottingen Street.

Kelly says he remembers running into Gailiunas one May Day in Halifax when Gailiunas was wandering the streets with his guitar, singing.

"One of the ways he wrote songs was to walk around the neighborhood with his acoustic guitar and think about Halifax and think about what was going on as inspiration for the melodies and the lyrics that he came up with," Kelly says.

Gailiunas left Halifax in 2001, moving to New Orleans with his wife, Helen Hill, an artist, animator and filmmaker who was part of the creative genius behind Piggy, wrote some of the songs with Gailiunas and directed several music videos for the band.

Hill died in 2007 when an intruder entered the couple's New Orleans home and shot them, killing her and injuring Gailiunas. The couple's son Francis, who was a toddler at the time, was uninjured.

Although Gailiunas's time in Halifax was steeped in his life with Hill, and those memories are sure to surface when he visits, Gailiunas says he's feeling "really positive and excited" about returning. 

"I loved being there so much. That was a great time in my life," he says.

Gailiunas will be visiting Halifax this time with his son Francis and his wife Lecie, and he plans to make sure they try authentic Nova Scotia oatcakes, see Peggys Cove and walk around the North End.

Francis will perform some songs with the band, which will also debut a new Piggy song. 

Gailiunas says Piggy songs tend to be very simple, so he's not too worried about forgetting the chords or words.

"Most of them we just sang them so much that they're always going to be there," he says.

One challenge with the show, Gailiunas says, is that the Gottingen Street venue, Radstorm, is small, with a capacity of about 50 people.

But for fans who are worried that they won't get in, just remember Piggy's immortal words: "Down on Gottingen Street there's always room for you!"