SOUNDTRACK: BIDINIBAND-The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto (September 18, 2010).
From: Concerts On Demand: Bidiniband live at the Horseshoe Tavern.
So I gather this show was recorded on CBC Radio 2. It’s just over 32 minutes long and it rocks through some Bidiniband classics from the soon to be released In the Rock Hall. It also sounds terrific.
Dave Bidini is best known in the literary world as a “rock and roll sports” journalist but in the indie rock world he will be forever known as a member of Canada’s first indie band The Rheostatics.
After the Rheostatics played their last show in 2007, Dave Bidini traveled around the world playing Rock and Roll and writing a book about his journey around the world and the last days of being in The Rheostatics. Once he returned from this trip he thought the best thing to do in order to get over the loss of one band was to form a new band. The result is BidiniBand – a progressive acoustic rock band that sings songs about dead hockey players.
CBC Radio 2 caught up with BidiniBand at The Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto. After a summer of touring the festival scene the band was primed and ready to rock.
All hail the return of Dave Bidini! (Eric Mac Innis).
The set opens with a gorgeous version of “Memorial Day” (relatively short at 7 and a half minutes). There’s some intense guitar playing in the middle. Next up is “Big Men Go Fast on the Water,” a really catchy song. Dave doesn’t chat much during this set. And right up next is “The Best Thing About the 80s is You,” a fun poppy song. It’s pretty short and he name checks a whole bunch of 80s personalities: “Not Corey Hart, Pat Benatar, the 80s was you.” “DJ suitcase, the 80s was you. Oingo Boingo, the 80s was you. Flouride toothpaste, the 80s was you. Reagan football, the 80s was you.”
“Take a Wild Ride” is fast and almost punky. And it’s followed by “The Land is Wild,” which Dave introduces, “here’s a song about a dead hockey player. I mean, they’re all pretty much about dead hockey players, but as my son would say, this one is literally about a dead hockey player. It also sounds great–the band is in top form.
Dave introduces the band and mentions that he has a new book out about the Homeless World Cup (Home and Away). And they close the set with “Last of the Dead Wrong Things.” I love this line in the song: “We’re just a two-bit Neil Young rip of attack / they stole this song and we’re stealing it back / Doesn’t matter how good or bad you can sing.” The song rocks hard with a drum solo from Don Kerr and Dave going nuts on his acoustic guitar.
It’s a tight no-nonsense set, perfect for a half-hour radio show.
[READ: April 13, 2017] Sweet Tooth: Endangered Species
“Endangered Species” begins differently right off the bat–you have to turn the book sideways and read full-page pictures with lots of text. It’s far more narrative than piratical. But Lemire is a good story teller so it doesn’t feel like exposition.
This chapter one of the happiest in the series for not only do the travelers find a mall, which means warm clean clothes at last, but they also experience their first snow fall, which is magical to everyone.
With this new gear, everyone goes camping. And, feeling a bit more comfortable, the girls go for a walk–Lucy, Becky and Wendy (the hybrid pig girl).
And then we get some backstory and for the first time other artists contribute to the book, creating backstories that look very different and giving them an excellent sense of “this is different.”
NATE POWELL draws Lucy’s backstory where she was a nurse. She cares, she really does, but even nurses feel fatigue.
EMI LENOX changes the style intensely for Becky’s flashback. It’s all bright colors and big eyes. Becky’s parents died when she was very little. Foster families made it worse. Until she just fled to try to manage on her own.
MATT KINDT provides Wendy’s backstory–how was she kept hidden and safe for so long? It was fate–her mom became sick when people discovered Wendy. And she was taken away, never to see her mom again.
On their adventure, they are caught in a trap by a guy named Walter Fish. Fish lives in a dam that was once operated by an environmental group called Project Evergreen. Their purpose was to use that the energy that the dam created for a sustainable location. They were entirely self-sufficient. But Fish tells the women that the group was hunted down by a bad guy named Haggarty. Haggarty set the traps, Haggarty is always coming around trying to kill people. So Fish took over the abandoned dam and has been living by himself for years–pretty much in total luxury. And he offers to let them all stay as long as they want.
Meanwhile, Jepperd is trying to bond with Gus but Gus doesn’t trust him yet (with good reason). But a terrifying incident in which Jepperd saves Gus changes Gus’ mind. Once they realize that they women have been gone a long time, do Jepperd and Gus go looking for them. Until they come upon the dam.
Dr Singh stayed in the tent to read Gus’ father’s Bible/notebook. And he is getting more and more involved, further down the rabbit hole. And the culminating information seems to be the repeating of two words: Tekkeitsertok and Tekkeitserktock–mythological creatures part man and part animal.
But he is interrupted when Bobby hears something–snowmobiles. There is a confrontation between these men and our heroes. Victory is swift, but possibly not long-lasting.
Back in the dam, things are pretty idyllic They have food and shelter. The kids are playing, there are books galore. And Fish is nice o everyone. Bug Jepperd doesn’t trust the guy. Jepperd is a total jerk to this nice old man (who is on crutches by the way and has done nothing but good things for everyone. What the hell, Jepperd? Perhaps he is just upset because he has just learned that Lucy has contracted the Sick–after believing she must have been immune all this time.
Jepperd can’t handle the stress and he is cordially asked to leave the dam–at least for a time.
And as the book draws to a close we see Abbot with his hybrid beasts including Jepperd’s son, whom we believed to be dead. And they are on the hunt for our heroes.
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