Decades later, Dave still rocks til he drops

By Alexandra Noad - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on January 28, 2025.

photo Courtesy Dave Chomiak Local musician Dave Chomiak, former bass player for The Chevelles, now runs a 14-member team playing a variety of tribute shows, such as Def Leppard, Motley Crue, White Snake and Bon Jovi.

James Brown was once known as the “hardest working man in rock n’ roll,” but local musician Dave Chomiak is giving him a run for his money.

Chomiak, the former bass player for The Chevelles, continues to tour across the prairies with a number of cover bands, somehow balancing a full-time job at the same time. That’s not surprising, given that he’s had rock n’ roll running through his veins since he was in junior high, when he would spend his Friday nights watching MTV videos.

In his last year of junior high, he was the DJ for a dance marathon which went on for an extremely long time. He used CDs in his own collection as well as his friends collection and quickly found what was popular and what was not so popular with the other kids.

In high school, Chomiak met some friends who decided they were actually going to learn how to play music themselves, instead of just pretending. He was inspired by the televised version of the California Us Festival which had many rock legends playing, including Ozzy Osborne, Quiet Riot, Motley Crue, Judas Priest, Scorpions and the headliner Van Halen, who were in their prime.

“For us to watch all that unfold before our very eyes, it was very inspiring,” says Chomiak. “It set us in a mindset that we would love to do this too.”

And so began the basement rehearsals. Watching other bands who had been in business gave them motivation that they could do this as well.

“It just makes it so real and appealing and achievable watching somebody else do it,” says Chomiak. “There’s no reason why you can’t do it as well, if that’s what you goal is.”

Once the members of the band hit the age of 18, they were able to play in clubs and while they weren’t big clubs, it was good practice.

In 1990, the band decided they were done with the little shows and wanted to hit the road, which back then was the Feldman Touring Circuit which travelled between Saskatchewan, Alberta and parts of B.C.

Eventually the band parted ways, but Chomiak stayed on the Feldman circuit joining two different bands, but he really had his eyes opened up to what happens in the scene.

“Meeting the people, the agents, the venue owner and working with a whole different array of sound men, lighting technicians, and you really got trial by fire by just being immersed into it and meeting all these people.”

Chomiak says he could tell immediately who was just surviving and who was thriving in the industry. In the mid-90s the rock scene had nearly dissipated and in 94 Chomiak decided to take a break, as he wasn’t a fan of where live music was headed.

“I know personally, I had to come off the road in 94,” he says. “I just didn’t like how it was anymore and it wasn’t sustainable at that point, unless you were willing to go into country music and move out to the west coast.”

Chomiak’s live music days didn’t end there, though. He played small local shows as a background vocalist and bass player as well as a lead singer in a different band. The bands played almost everywhere, except Lethbridge, which was the case for many local bands at the time.

After another break in 1999, he met Don Plettell and Tim Carter, who were trying to bring live music back to Lethbridge and as of the new year of 2001, the Chevelles were created.

In their prime they were playing across the country and had several national sporting entertainment contracts, national award corporate ceremony and were the band everyone wanted at their event.

The Chevelles would go on for another 25 years, however at around the 20-year mark things started to dwindle and Chomiak decided in 2020 he would part ways with the band.

At that time, he was introduced to the realm of tribute shows. What was once mainstream music was now considered classic music, but there was a demographic who loved the tribute shows and all the memories they brought back.

Using his contacts, he immersed himself into the tribute scene with the first one being Def Leopard and a show called Stage Fright: The Def Leopard Experience.

In spring of 2020, the COVID pandemic rocked the world and the live music industry took a big hit, being one of the first to be shut down and the last to start up.

Chomiak recalls how devastating the pandemic years were for the industry.

“Everyone was scared to go out, having crowds, it was really detrimental to everything we had love growing up and enjoyed so much.”

That said, the years also offered Chomiak time that he could use to perfect his act.

“There’s a lot of negative ways to look at covid and we just really try to focus on the positives,” says Chomiak. “It gave us a lot of time to really sharpen up what we wanted to do.”

In 2022 the world reopened, but for many in the music industry, it meant starting from square one, earning back each ticket one by one by putting on fantastic shows each and every night.

Chomiak says it wasn’t until the end of 2023 that their hard work was paying off and they could see the fruits of their labours.

“2023, especially at the end of the year, I was very lucky as a team manager where I had some amazing people gravitate into these projects. After all the hard work and people sitting on the sidelines doing what they did, they could see that this was paying off.”

Chomiak now runs a 14-member team playing a variety of tribute shows, including Def Leppard, Motley Crue, White Snake and Bon Jovi.

They currently travel all over the western provinces and are always working on making the project the best it can be, all while having the time of their lives.

Chomiak says it is nice to see all of his hard work pay off.

“It’s really nice to see all these doors open and all this hard work pay off and all the players we have here are very appreciative of it.”

When asked how he juggles his working life and being a team leader of multiple tribute bands he says he embraces the chaos of it all.