{"id":931298,"date":"2026-10-13T09:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T09:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/931298\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T09:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T09:20:09","slug":"the-zolas-make-the-pearl-swoon-all-over-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/931298\/","title":{"rendered":"The Zolas make the Pearl swoon all over again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday.\u00a0Sign up for our free newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the Zolas began on the band\u2019s first tour in years at the start of this month, I was anxious to see them live in Vancouver on the weekend. I also had questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Zolas have been in my life for a long time and I can\u2019t really be objective about the band. My parents had a cabin on the Sunshine Coast, and I was there for the summer, barely in high school, when a neighbour that my parents started making friends with brought by a CD that was made by her son for my brothers and I to check out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We put it on, thinking, \u2018Hey, we\u2019ll give it a shot\u2014worse case it soundtracks a couple of Mario Kart 64 races and we never listen again.\u2019 That album was Gossip Diet by Lotus Child, and from the opening keys of \u201cLids\u201d, we were hooked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, Zachary Gray and Tom Dobrzanski started Lotus Child and then formed the Zolas, later adding Dwight Abell and Cody Hiles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The quartet really hit it big with 2015\u2019s Swooner, which was packed with Canadian radio station smashes like \u201cMolotov Girls\u201d and \u201cSwooner\u201d, but also has a phenomenal and deep bench with some underappreciated tunes that Dobrzanski in particular really lets loose on, like \u201cThis Changes Everything\u201d and \u201cFreida on the Mountain\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dobrzanski left the band in 2017 to focus on his family and his recording studio work<\/a>. The Zolas released the more guitar-heavy Come Back to Life in 2022, which was featured on Sportsnet<\/a> during the Canucks\u2019 bubble playoff run. But after that, the band took a hiatus, with Gray living in Europe for a number of years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the band\u2019s social media accounts started becoming active for the first time in awhile. It was true; a Zolas reunion was in the cards. The band released a 10-year anniversary version of Swooner, along with a new song, \u201cBlack Gatorade\u201d, and plans for a small Canadian tour. Of course, my youngest brother and I made plans to head to the Saturday night show at the Pearl (the second Vancouver date and sixth overall).\u00a0<\/p>\n

But back to my questions. I had two.<\/p>\n

One: How would the band sound after so much time off?\u00a0<\/p>\n

And two: Would Dobrzanski be back? The band is just different without him, and his signature is all over Swooner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My brother also had a question: What would they open with?\u00a0<\/p>\n

I thought that last one had an obvious answer (it did), but it turns out that mine had obvious answers too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Zolas took to the stage, and even before Gray got there, Dobrzanski led him in with the pulsating intro to \u201cMolotov Girls\u201d, answering two questions at once. And as soon as it demanded, Gray hit the high notes with ease. Yep, all three taken care of. And the crowd was in the band’s pocket from the get go\u2014the dancing was early and often, with most of the lyrics being sung by everyone in attendance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The band ran through all of Swooner, with a couple of major highlights. The titular song of course played extremely well, getting some in the crowd off their feet and into the air.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInvisible\u201d, which Gray described as having a \u201cLuigi energy\u201d to it, and \u201cGer Dark\u201d sounded great on stage as the band hit every note and the crowd followed along breathlessly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the band approached \u201cCV Dazzle\u201d, I had made a note to get a beer, as, in my opinion, it\u2019s one of the record\u2019s weaker songs. But it was a remixed, dancy, and fun version that worked extremely well. \u201cFreida on the Mountain\u201d was buoyed enormously by Dobrzanski\u2019s presence and Gray was at his showmanship best, even as he was somehow wearing wearing a collared shirt and tie in a sweltering Pearl.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The band only broke the album\u2019s chronology via an incredibly slick and fitting transition from \u201cThis Changes Everything\u201d into 2012 hit \u201cAncient Mars\u201d, which had the entire crowd shouting the chorus. Gray let the Pearl do its thing. \u201cI think that\u2019s the longest I\u2019ve ever let that go,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The heartfelt \u201cWhy Do I Wait (When I Know You\u2019ve Got a Lover)\u201d finished off Swooner officially before Gray told a story about how Dobrzanski came on tour. The pair met in Europe and Dobrzanski asked if maybe the whole band should come out. \u201cI kinda knew he wasn\u2019t going to ask me,\u201d Dobrzanski recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then Gray said, \u201cThis is for the day ones,\u201d before launching into a raucous version of the Biltmore-referencing \u201cYou\u2019re Too Cool\u201d. A couple other oldies were hit, including \u201cStrange Girl\u201d and \u201cEnergy Czar\u201d from Come Back to Life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The band ended on \u201cEscape Artist\u201d, with Gray moving off the stage into the middle of the floor and imploring everyone to shine phone lights. After the extended singalong, he told the crowd that he\u2019d be at the merch table to sign stuff. The line snaked all the way around the venue, but Gray was true to his word, signing until people started to come in for the next show, a 2000s club hits night. Maybe some Gossip Diet at that?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday.\u00a0Sign up for our free newsletter. As…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[76,49,48,8497,569,16291,75,1048,1187,1554,2998,890,341,13117,3560,404,348,55],"class_list":["post-931298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-arts","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-city","tag-culture","tag-dining","tag-entertainment","tag-events","tag-fashion","tag-film","tag-food","tag-lifestyle","tag-music","tag-nightlife","tag-restaurants","tag-shopping","tag-tv","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}