SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Live at the Bathurst Street Theatre, Toronto ON, April 5, 1997 (1997).
This is the second of two nights that The Rheostatics played at The Bathurst Theatre. It is also available for free on their live site.
This concert also features a lot on their Double Live album. There are seven tracks that come from this show: “Feed Yourself,” “Shaved Head,” “Dead is the Drunkest You Can Get,” “Bees,” “A Midwinter Night’s Dream” “Stolen Car,” and “Good Canadian.”
This recording is a lot better (sound wise) that the previous night’s and the band seems a lot more “on.” And, the band interacts with the audience a lot. “Feed Yourself” is great and “Mid-Winter” is stunning (both understandably picked for the live album). There’s an amusing “drum solo” during “Legal Age Life.” It’s a great set.
Some interesting notes: this is the first time the band has played “Stolen Car” live (and it hadn’t been released yet). It’s the same version as on Double Live, but here you hear a lengthy pause in which “Martin left the lyrics in his bag” and Dave has to entertain the crowd. “Good Canadian” also on Double Live, was a spontaneous little ditty that Martin made up. Also, during the show, they encourage people to listen to Nightlines, because it is danger of losing its funding. Fans will know that Nightlines went off the air not too long after that and the Rheos played the final show (and released an album of it).
Of the two shows, this one is definitely preferred. And even if you have Double Live, it’s worth downloading this entire show..
[READ: February 7, 2010] “Axis”
Alice Munro has another great, subtle story here. This one mixes things up a little bit in the storytelling, which I found intriguing and more than a little fun.
It opens with Grace and Avie, two farmers daughters who are at university. They are studying intellectual subjects, with the hope (let’s be honest) of finding intellectual boys to marry eventually. They are obviously not sorority material (just look at their coats), but they don’t really want boys who like sorority girls anyhow.
After we follow them for a bit, we narrow the focus to just Grace. Her boyfriend Hugo is on his way to visit her at the farm (and to meet her parents). He does not make a very good impression, and he is not to fond of them either. And, worse yet, they won’t leave them any time to be alone. Until Grace hatches a plan for them to be alone, which, if you’ve read any fiction, you know won’t turn out too well (but that’s not the climax of the story, don’t worry).
But what is so cool about this story is that when Hugo leaves, we follow him, basically leaving Grace and her family behind. He unexpectedly finds a direction for his life (ironic since Grace’s parents disapproved of his directionlessness). And then we jump back to Avie, and we learn a lot about what happened to her since college. Munro ties it all wonderfully together with an unexpected connection as the story draws to a close.
I loved the way this story was set up, that we picked up and dropped of people in the story as if we were the public transportation that all the characters ride on. It’s yet another great story of people making connections. And Munro is a master if short fiction.
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