I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Centennial Square, Victoria, BC (July 18 2001).

This concert was a free outdoor show outside of City Hall in Victoria.  It was in the afternoon and the band also played a paid show later that night.  How interesting.  They even joke at the end wondering if anyone will be coming to their show that night.  Someone asks if it will be the same songs and Dave says yes, and same sweat too.  They have a good rapport with the audience (the fact that it is outside makes the crowd sound really tiny although I imagine it wasn’t).

It’s also the first show (online anyhow) to feature Michael Phillip Wojewoda on drums.

The sound is a little odd here, even though it is a soundboard recording.  Maybe it’s because of the outdoor atmosphere of the location–perhaps they mixed it differently?  I have no idea.

They play most of the songs from, NotSS, but there’s also a few classics like “Stolen Car” and “Saskatchewan.”  They even play a great rendition of “Junction Foil Ball” which Dave says reveals was on their Nightlines record but that they re-recorded for the new one (which was not out yet).  Martin explains that the origin of the story is about a guy who collects the tin foil from cigarette wrappers and makes a ball out of them.

In “CCYPA” there’s along part with no singing—it seems as if something went wrong.  The volume also rises and falls a bit which is weird.  There’s a similar pause in “I Fab Thee” where Martin resumes singing ooh ooh ooh.  He explains that “P.I.N.” is played on a tenor guitar.  And then later they joke that they were going to name their album Kid, Eh?

This may be the first time they’ve played “In It Now” at least that I know of.  I love when they play “Satan is the Whistler” but they never seem to get the end right—this one is no exception.

The end, “Saskatchewan” is amazing—a very slow dramatic rendition.  It’s a nice show and as Lucky says in the notes, “Always a treat to see the Rheos twice in one day!”

[READ: April 15, 2015] “The House on Bony Lake”

Boswell crams a novel’s worth of information into this long short story.  It begins as Paul wakes in his Airstream. He is next to Melinda and they are talking about old TV.  She is naked and asks if he wants to have sex again.  He says he’s too sleepy.

Then we get some back story.   Paul’s marriage is over and since that happened he has slept with several women in the area–none of them resemble his wife.

And then we go further back–“In the whole of the twentieth century, the Iris clan floated just two offspring to the shores of adulthood.”  And floated is a good choice of words, because the family, all those generations had lived near Bony Lake the whole time.

His grandfather was Colman Sheelin Iris (there’s an amusing story about their last name).  He built the house that Paul grew up in but he refused any changes to it–no electricity, no upgrades–during his life time.  And during his lifetime his wife bore four children.  Only one, Sean, survived to adulthood.

The story of Colman is fascinating itself.  And it could easily be a lot longer–austere, hardly speaking, needing a woman for help but little else.

Then the story jumps back and forth–with Melinda (who seriously does not want to commit), to how he met his wife (and why he calls her Benz), to how Sean was able to put electricity in his father’s house, to when Paul was born to Sean and his wife.  And to how all of those antecedents died.

Obviously we learn a lot about Paul as well–the crux of his situation and why women seem so attracted to him (according to Melinda).

There are serious depths in this story–times where you can’t help but think that Bony Lake is a terrible place to be.  And yet somehow the Iris clan cannot leave it.  Ever.

This story was really compelling.  It would make a great longer story, although there’s so much detail here that it doesn’t need to be any longer.  But yes, I would love to know what happens to Paul after the story ends.