SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Live at Barrymore’s, Ottawa, ON, (February 2, 1996 & May 23, 1996).
There are many many Rheostatics shows recorded at Barrymore’s in Ottawa. These two are the earliest and, strangely perhaps, are only a few months apart.
The first show is over two hours long with a great set list. The problem is the audio. It was recorded from the floor and, like any bootleg quality show, you can hear more audience than band. That’s not entirely true, but you can’t hear the band talk at all and during songs you hear clinking glasses and conversations. It’s kind of a shame, because they cover Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” but you can barely tell what it is. So, it’s not a great show except for diehards.
The May 23 show, on the other hand, sounds great. The notes say it was also recorded from the audience, and yet it is crystal clear. And the set list doesn’t differ too too much from the Feb 2 show. The opening of the set sounds a little funny–the microphones are too loud or the guitars are too quiet, so “Claire” sounds off, but the rest of the show is very good. And as it does not feature Dave Clark, but rather Don Kerr on drums, the zaniness that Clark brought is gone, although the band is still quite funny.
There’s a very funny story about chickadees being quite the bad ass in terms of birds, and Tielli drew a great banner featuring a bad ass chickadee (see bottom of post). Tielli also mentions Nick Buzz, his side project which had an album out at this time. Bidini tells a great story about meeting and interviewing Joey Ramone (and getting his glasses fixed).
There’s talk of “Four Little Songs” have multiple sections so you never know what they’ll play, but I don’t think that every happened. And, finally, Tielli evidently had green hair that night (which leads to an impromptu version of “Heat Miser” (and his explanation of where the song came from).
This is a great show and a great introduction to an early Rheostatics setlist.
[READ: January 8, 2014] The Third Elevator
I don’t usually mention the book publisher when I post about books, but I’m quite taken with Madras Press. From their website:
Madras Press publishes limited-edition short stories and novella-length booklets and distributes the proceeds to a growing list of non-profit organizations chosen by our authors. The format of our books provides readers with the opportunity to experience stories on their own, with no advertisements or miscellaneous stuff surrounding them.
The format is a 5″ x 5″ square books that easily fit into a pocket. At present there are four series with four books in each series.
Proceeds from Bender’s book go to InsideOutWriters.org.
For a first book from a new publisher, this is certainly a peculiar story. It begins with a swan and a queen. The swan is the queen’s pet and never leaves her side. She wants the swan happily paired off with another beautiful swan, but he is quite picky. Until he meets a bluebird. The swan falls for the bluebird and they pair off. Soon the bluebird is sitting on an egg. But when it opens, it is not a bird at all, but a cloud, which hangs around and which the swan tries to protect. So far, so allegorical.
Then the story shifts two miles away to a glassed in lobby of a building that has three elevators. One goes into the ground where miners work. The miners are not allowed to leave the mine. They simply fill up the elevator with gold and send it up to the surface. A second eevator opens into the forest. The third elevator goes up into the sky.
Then we meet a logger. The logger is amazing at cutting things down. But whenever he so much as harms a tree it makes his insides burst. So he cuts down telephone poles and other man-made objects. And he is soon asked to leave the logging community, despite his family ties to it.
So he goes into the elevator and heads down to the mines. The miners distrust the logger, but he promises that he will be good–using his chopping skills to get the gold from the mines. I liked that the loggers and miners each sang very different styles of song. But the logger finds that removing the gold wounds him as much as chopping trees. He is sent back above ground.
One of the best miners watched the logger go up the elevator–he didn’t know anyone could ride up the elevator. And so he goes up too, even though it is strictly forbidden. He rides to the surface and then takes the sky elevator all the way up to the clouds. Where he is overwhelmed by the beauty.
The swan, the logger and the miner all converge in the lobby of the building where this strange but quite beautiful story plays out. It grows more fascinating and a little melancholy. And I was fascinated to see where this story would take me.
I have read a few of Bender’s stories. They’re all a little peculiar, but are all very satisfying.
I’m so glad you like Madras Press! They do really weird things – reprints as well as new stuff (I sent you there, didn’t I? I hope you don’t regret it). I don’t always like every release, but they’re always at least interesting, and there’s only 4 a year; at about $7 a hit, why not – it adds up to one hardcover, and they make me very happy.
Amy Bender is definitely weird, but this story just enchanted me; I carry it around in my rucksack for when I’m stuck waiting without a book, always makes me smile. Where did you ever find a copy, it’s been out of stock forever.
Karen, you did indeed send me there. Thank you. I ordered a copy of every book that they had in stock. And when he wrote back, he said that he’d found a few copies of that and one other one that was out of print. (My copy is even signed, oooh). I’m excited to keep reading them. I initially thought I’d read them fairly quickly, but even at 5×5 100 pages is still a big read.