For the love of Grunge: Our Lady Peace hits the road with loud guitars, but no flannel

Being the torchbearer for grunge music in 2001 isn’t a very enviable position, but somehow Our Lady Peace has managed to wear the albatross well.

As the genre died out in the mid-1990s, OLP was just hitting the big-time music circuit as a Canadian quartet with the vocal stylings of singer Raine Maida bearing a Smashing resemblance to those of Billy Corgan.

But OLP is much more than a bunch of Seattle wannabes. If they were only riding the coattails of the Nirvana-Pearl Jam-Soundgarden renaissance, the fabric would have ripped at least five years ago. Hard work has been the key to a long life – six years – with respect to a host of one-hit grunge wonders that spawned a fashion trend of ripped flannel.

(Incidentally, how did the lumberjack trend ever catch on in pop music?)

OLP will bring its new old sound to the State Theatre in Portland at 8 p.m. Tuesday with special guest Sinomatic. Sorry, kiddies, this is an 18-plus show.

OLP has lasted as long as it has because the members never have let down their collective guard. Woven through numerous tours spanning months, the band makes guest appearances on television programs – most notably “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” – participates in Web chats with fans and churns out albums in the studio.

Sometimes when a band hangs on to a sound for too long, the result is staggering aggravation. But it’s not hard to root for OLP because they’ve worked so hard to develop a strong fan base.

The band started out like a house on fire in Canada, selling 2 million copies nationally of its first album. It took some time for U.S. audiences to stand up and take notice, but a 1997 album titled “Clumsy” changed all that.

“Clumsy” produced a pair of Top-40 hits, earning airplay on a host of radio stations.

Since then, the band hasn’t let the 18-49 target market forget about them. They realize that music fans are fickle and will jump on whatever wagon is rolling out of town.

You can only be En Vogue for so long before Eminem melts in your brain, not in your heart.

So OLP is touring again in support of its latest album, “Spiritual Machines,” which has received critical acclaim and has a single, “Life,” charting fairly well.

Every kind of music comes back in time. Grunge may be pretty far away from a tear-filled Soundgarden reunion, but its good to know someone out there is stoking the coals.

Tickets are $15.50 in advance or $17.50 the day of the show. For tickets or information, stop by the Stonecoast Brewing Co. box office or a Ticketmaster outlet, or call 775-3331.