SOUNDTRACK: THE WOODSHED ORCHESTRA-The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto (December 5, 2012).
The Rheostatics were originally supposed to play 3 Reunion concerts to help celebrate the 65th Anniversary of The Horseshoe Tavern. Unfortunately the concerts got cancelled but Dave stepped in and offered up a free show on Wednesday December 5 2012, what was to be the first of the reunion shows. Dave Clark’s Woodshed Orchestra opened the show with a 48 minute set of New Orleans-style jazz (a limiting descriptor since their site says):
Legendary Toronto drummer Dave Clark (Rheostatics, Dinner is Ruined, The WoodChoppers Association, Gord Downie and Charles Spearin) pilots a five-piece horn section, four-piece rhythm section and full-ensemble vocals through New Orleans Funk, 2nd line and Jazz, R&B, Ska, Soul, Reggae, Punk, Rock n Roll, Blues, Country, Surf Rock, Neo-Greek, Ranchero, Polka, Disco, Samba, Afro-Pop, Waltz, New Wave, Cajun, Tex-Mex, Power Pop, Klezmer, Torch Ballads, Tango and Calypso, in an extraordinary celebration. This band is a funky, uplifting and joyful ride every time it plays.
The joy is utterly true. Dave is a warm and friendly guy, introducing all songs with a smile and calling everyone “friends.”
The play nine songs from their three albums. Each song is a variant on that New Orleans style of tuba and banjo (and more of course). It’s exemplified by “Love Letter to New Orleans” a song that seems like an instrumental but which is actually just really long before the words come in.
Dave introduces the second song, “There’s certain things I forget…. ” “Drugs & Alcohol” is, unsurprisingly, a song about drinking. He introduces our friend Pavel (Paul Kolinski) and then Karen Ng on “I Got No Clue.”
The next song’s entire lyrics are the band members meowing while they play. I can’t find the name of the song.
Dave introduces the next song as a dancing song dedicated to one of the greatest guitarists to walk the planet. It could be me or you or anyone on the planet because were all great then we try. But this is for “Levon Helm” who looks like he was a bout to die on stage but still gave two hours of the slinkiest, grooviest music.
Next, Karen Ng is going to play you a song and then teach it to you: “Seasons of our Lives.”
Dave says, “We’re good for two more numbers or so and then we’ll take it out to the hallway.”
Then: “Let me name some names: Geezer Butler, Erica Badu, the guy from Crazy Horse who doesn’t t move but he’s got a really good voice. Tim Vesely.” This is all an introduction to their song “Geddy Lee.”
Want to hear a sing about sex? “Clothes Off” features the line: “Come on take your clothes off I wanna see you naked.”
The final song is dedicated to each and every one of you and people you don’t get to see.” “Penny & Mousie’s Antidotal Lullabye” is a sweet slow number, a nice send off of love and tenderness.
Considering that Dave Clark was always the weirdo in the band, and he is still a bit of a goof, this music is really sincere, and really good.
[READ: April 16, 2017] Birthright Volume 1
The name of this book intrigued me when I saw it in the library. And I really liked the cover image. So I grabbed it and volume two.
And man, did I love how quick and abrupt the beginning of the story came.
On page one a dad is throwing a ball to his young son. On page two the dad talks to his wife while the boy, Mikey, runs into the woods for the ball. On page four Mikey is officially missing and the police have been called in. On page five the dad is being accused of killing his son and by page ten the parents have filed for divorce. Yowza.
In that time the mom has started dating one of the detectives (I think). The dad, Aaron, has become a useless drunk. But there is some news on the case. The detective calls both of the parents and their older son Brennan into the precinct because they have brought someone in.
The man is in his mid 30s, totally muscular and wearing intense armor. They immediately think that this man abducted Mikey. But the dad says no, that IS Mikey. WHAT? The detective says that the DNA matches. It makes no sense, but there are real indications that it is indeed Mikey. It’s just that time moves faster where he went, obviously.
Mikey tells them it was destiny and then we see how he was grabbed by some flying creatures and some large orc-like creatures. There is a brief story of Mikey’s introduction to Terranos–where it is his destiny to be the world’s hero. And he has come back to earth to protect it from the bad guys of Terranos who plan to invade.
Twists upon twists and great storytelling. But a pretty standard premise, right?
No, because Williamson has one more twist up his sleeve.
Turns out that Mikey did not fulfill his destiny when he was in Terranos and, in fact, he gave in to the bad guy, King Lore. So instead of saving earth from the bad guys, he actually plans to conquer earth for the bad guys. Woah.
Mikey’s older brother Brennan takes over the questions because they share things only his brother would know and soon enough Brennan and his dad are 100% behind Mikey in his plan of saving the earth from King Lore. Mikey’s mom on the other hand is super pissed because once again, Aaron gets to be the fun dad running of to play battle with his kids while she has to be the sensible one.
The story is full of flashbacks in which we learn of what happened to Mikey when he arrived in Terranos. He was a small weak child and the warriors there made fun of him immediately. But back on Earth he is a huge warrior and he also possesses magical swords. He makes quick work of the police in town (not killing anyone, as far as I can tell–he is supposed to be a good guy) but destroying tons of property in spectacular scenes.
The story bounces between the past as we see Mikey learn to kill–he must be able to kill the bad guys if he is to succeed. But he doesn’t want to and even gets sick the first time he does. To the current day where he is loaded up with weapons and stories of battle as they head off to defeat the first of the “evil” people on Earth.
My favorite moment is when they are driving and Mikey is telling an exciting story of a battle and his dad interrupts “Put a pin in it we need to make a pit stop.” What?? Hilarious.
I wondered how does he kill a good guy in front of his family and have them not know it? This was done very well indeed. With just a seed of doubt planted into Brennan’s head
And as the story ends, the barrier between worlds breaks once more so that Mikey’s wife–an honest to god princess (who is pregnant) can come and hunt him down (Brennan’s question about how Mikey got involved with a girl is hilarious because Mikey is now so much older than him).
Boy did I enjoy this book and couldn’t wait for book 2.
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