SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Record Runner, Ottawa ON, November 29, 1996 – In Store Acoustic (1996).
In Dave Bidini’s book On a Cold Road (which I am reading now), he writes how bad in store record appearances really are. You don’t play your own equipment, typically (no room), you have to play stripped down versions of the songs. People are shopping around you. And, the punch line (see end of the review).
Despite that, this set (a pit stop after opening for the Tragically Hip the night before (and later the same night, too)) is really fun. Martin Tielli says that they’re usually not up so early (it’s 2PM). They play a couple of acoustic numbers and then invite someone in the crowd to sing “The Ballad of Wendell Clark Pts 1 & 2,” and a young lady does an admirable job. They also throw in “Bud the Spud.”
Then the take some more requests, and tell the crowd that they have a new shirt out (with Chickadees on it). But they tell them not to buy it at the HIP show, because they had to sell the shirts for $40 (what the HIP charge). They’ll be back in a couple of months and they’ll sell them cheaper.
The punchline at the end of the show is when they say that their albums are available at the store. And when they ask someone if that’s true, it turns out that they have one copy of their new album and one copy of an old one. (“enough for everyone,” quips Tielli).
You can download it here.
[READ: July 29, 2010] “Twins”
I didn’t like this story in the beginning. In fact, if I hadn’t promised myself I’d read all 20 of the 20 under 40 authors, I probably wouldn’t have finished it. The exposition felt too long, too detailed, and without a lot of focus. In fact, it wasn’t until about four pages into the story that it really caught my interest.
The story is about twins, born to a single black mother from a white father. One of the babies, Mickey (named after his father Mike) is white, while the other boy, Allmon, is black. But other than that they look alike.
And the interesting part for me came when the mother (Mike is long out of the picture at this point) is walking with the kids and they see a yard sale. The host of the sale can’t help but comment about the two kids. And she asks one question after another until she goes too far. The way this scene played out was very emotional, very powerful, and it really brought the story to life.
The kids’ live in a small studio in Cincinnati, in a poor neighborhood. And one day, when the kids are around 5, their mom excitedly says that their father is coming back. Mike saunters in on Friday morning, says a few words to everyone and collapses on the couch. The boys are so excited that their father is back. And that’s even more disappointing because he’s as pathetic as you would expect. In fact, once he asks Allmon to bring him a beer, and another beer, and another beer. You know all you need to know about him. And how this will turn out.
There’s another cute scene when the boys play jump rope in the parking lot of their building. It’s alive and exciting and is wonderfully told.
There’s a twist surprise near the end of the story where the kids sneak out of the house while Mike is asleep. The see some amazing things, but I was surprised there was very little in the way of a payoff.
I have to assume that this is all an excerpt from a longer piece: so much exposition and no payoff at the end. If this were a longer piece, I think the pacing would be good. I’m just concerned that the premise was so promising, but there was more much attention paid not to the twins (long history of the town they live in and of Mike’s past).
The Q & A with C.E. Morgan is here, and indeed, this is from a longer piece. I often feel that excepting pieces from a longer work does a disservice to a writer, because I now have a faulty opinion of Morgan’s pacing skills.
[…] have already posted about this show before. And I concur with my assessment of what I said last […]