I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Starlight Social Club, Waterloo, ON (April 24, 2016). 

After reuniting for the AGO shows back in 2015, Rheostatics decided to make a proper go of it again.  This included yet another show at Massey Hall (this time with Martin’s voice working).  In order to prep for that show, they first played this show

Warm Up show prior to April 29 2016 Massey Hall show. First club show since March 29 2007 at The Horseshoe Tavern. The Band consisted of Dave Bidini, Don Kerr, Martin Tielli, and Tim Vesely. With Hugh Marsh on Violin and Kevin Hearn on Keyboards/vocals. Trent Severn guested on Fan Letter To Michael Jackson and Making Progress. Norman Blake from Teenage Fanclub was in attendance at this show.

This is a great show with everyone sounding in good form.  Although I love Hugh Marsh and think he is amazing, his violin does tend to take front and center for a lot of this material.  Same with Kevin Hearn’s piano.  They are both essential, but they sometimes feel like more than the other guys (especially he soaring solo of “Stolen Car”).

As the show starts, Dave Bidini begins the banter: Great to be in Kitchener, Waterloo… you’ve changed.  The first show we ever did as Rheostatics was in the hotel across the way.  We slept in the carpark and couldn’t escape Alexanian Carpet (which they talked about back in 2007).  Here’s a bunch of songs.  Hope you like them.

“King of the Past” seems subdued but lovely, with Hugh Marsh’s soaring violin.  It’s followed by “California Dreamline” which opens with soaring guitars from Martin.

It’s followed by “Claire” which sounds great.

Dave says it will take a while for our patter to come back.  Then there’s some new country played on the monitors and Dave suggests that a new direction for them.

“P.I.N.”  sounds bright and positive although I think Kevin’s keys are too much in the chorus.  Martin even sneaks in a “Dirty Boulevard” line.

Dave notes that they were a band before drinking out of a water bottle was cliched–to give you an idea of the age of the band.  We predated grunge.  Actually we invented grunge and then decided it was a bad idea but we left it lying around and someone found it.

The first of Dave’s songs comes in with “Mumbletypeg” it is of course poppy and fun.

Then Kevin recites some of the story of Dot and Bug before starting “Monkeybird.”  Martin makes some wonderful crazy sounds and by the end Kevin starts a chant: I say banana you saw worms.

“It’s Easy To Be With You” is also very keyboardy, with a solo from Hugh or Martin, I’m not sure.

“Song Of The Garden” almost feels entirely like Kevin and Hugh.  It’s lovely.

Kevin starts a sample from Mister Rogers which can only mean “Fan Letter To Michael Jackson.”  Dave says they’ll play this for Prince and for Michael.  Trent Severn (Lindsay Schindler, Dayna Manning and Emm Gryner, in the flesh) sing the “it feels good to be alive” part.  The entire ending (with Martin joining in) is spectacular.

There’s a pretty one-minute guitar segue into “Making Progress” with a very cool long solo by Marsh.

They play a great version of “Self Serve Gas Station” at the end of which Martin says, “and then that guys escaped out of the bathroom window, he’s climbing down the side of the building.”

“Queer” has a lengthy piano solo from Kevin but there’s no “find me another home” outro.  “Dope Fiends and Boozehounds” has a big drum (and much percussion) solo by Don Kerr.  The song ends with some great howling while Martin’s guitar soars.  Martin even brings up the old jokes about someone misunderstanding Don Kerr’s name:  In heavy accent: “Why do you call yourself ‘dont care.'”

“Shaved Head” sounds great as they head into the first encore break.

When they come back out Dave says “I’m working on this solo bass project if you’ll bear with me…..no?  your loss.”

Kevin asks “how many of you are going to Massey Hall?  Don’t share the setlist online so it’s a surprise for everyone.”  It will be next Friday at Massey hall with Amelia Curran

After many requests, they play a slow and powerful “Palomar.”  It’s followed by a pretty version of “Stolen Car” with what I think is a drum machine.  When it’s done, Martin says, “Let’s all smoke cigarettes!”  Dave tells everyone, “Enjoy Game of Thrones.”

There’s a five-minute encore break.  After 4 minutes you can hear country music playing as if it over, but the boys come back out.  Dave: “Now I’m gonna miss Game of Thrones for sure!”

They return with Kevin’s “Yellow Days Under A Lemon Sun” and then a great version of “Saskatchewan” (even if Martin forgets some of the words).

They end with “Legal Age Life At Variety Store.”  The special guest on guitar: “Ladies and gentlemen, Martin Telli’s son… they’ve never met before.  It’s beautiful.”  I don;t know who it is but he plays a solid rockabilly guitar solo followed by a ripping piano solo from Kevin.  It’s all over after 5 minutes.

With a total show time of just over 2 hours, it’s a nice welcome back.

[READ: January 11, 2018]  A Legacy of Canadian Art from Kelowna Collections

I find the subject of Canadian Art to be rather fascinating (possibly because it’s more digestible than the expansive European or American histories).  This stems from my appreciation of The Group of Seven.  They loom (probably unfairly) large in the Canadian Art world.  So it’s interesting to see how the fit in with the rest of the history of Canadian Art.

This book is the publication from an art exhibit that from July 1 to October 15 2017 at the Kelowna Art Gallery.  What I found especially interesting about this show was that the pieces came from eight probate collections in Kelowna (as well as the gallery’s permanent collection).  But basically eight art collectors in Kelowna allowed the public to see their private collections.   That’s fascinating to me and I have no idea how common that is.

The book opens with thanks and kind words from the director and the curator with a longer essay from Roger Boulet.  He talks about the history of art and artists in Canada as well as collectors and their beneficence to artists and the public at large.

The book is divided up into eras.

Starting with Before Confederation (Canadian art is not contained only to the 150 years since Confederation).  He talks about the thee-dimensional art that Indigenous artists created.  But there’s also some art from just before Confederation like the artist Cornelius David Krieghoff who has an amusing painting called The Baker’s Mishap, which shows a man skipping on the icy road.  Krieghoff’s painting were so popular that he inspired imitators.  In addition to the comic painting (which is very realistically done, it must be said) he also did some gorgeous landscapes (some of which have fictional elements or were composites). Circa 1846.

The next group is from Confederation to World War.  Railways allowed for the expansion of the country and artists followed.  Frederick Arthur Verner is known foe his work depicting the Indigenous people of Ontario and Marmaduke Matthews has a tremendous scene called Panoramic Scene (circa 1892-93) that is just breathtaking.

French Influences on Canadian Art.
Most artists worked in Toronto but serious artists tried to get to Great Britain or France.  Robert Harris was among the first to seek extra training in Paris in 1897. He was ultimately commissioned by the Canadian government to do work.  Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté went to Paris in the 1890s and often returned to Montreal to favorable reviews –you can see aspects of Impressionism in his paintings especially Port Blanc en Bretagne 1907.  This led to the arrival of Impressionism and Plein Air paining.   I was also delighted to see a number of women artists represented–women are often pushed aside in the classical canon.

Florence Carlyle was a Paris-trained artist.  She did work deemed appropriate for women, (meaning domestic scenes), but they are wonderful.  Also Laura Muntz, who showcases some Japanese aesthetics in her painting.

James Wilson Morrice’s Along the Seine shows the modern style that would be adopted by younger Canadians around the start of the 20th century.

The early 20th century saw renewed nationalism and the rise of progressive artists.  This led to the Group of 7, (who are represented in the book with one picture each).  I often try to decide who my favorite of the Group is and I’m torn, precisely because the artists themselves went through different styles in a short period of time.  I love Mount Samson Maligne Lake by Lawren Harris (1924) but am less keep on his Autumn, Lake Superior from 1921.  I find James Edward Harvey Macdonald’s 1926 Autumn Larch to be too “sloppy” for my tastes, same with A.Y. Jackson’s 1926 Spuksju or Port Essington.  And yet I really like Jackson’s A Quebec Village Winter Saint Fidele (1930).

At the same time as the Group of Seven was a Montreal collective called The Beaver Hall Group (I hadn’t heard of them before).  There’s lot of snowy scenes and small villages. Although the one which stands out to me Maud Lewis who was self-taught and made naive, direct style paintings which were sold as greeting cards.

Next up is Regional Inspirations.  Emily Carr did some lovely landscapes around Vancouver and Henri Léopold Masson used bright colors and was quite popular. James Wilson Galloway (Jock) Macdonald used the Group of 7 style in the Okanagan Valley; his painting “Victory” Garden, Rutland, BC (1944) is wonderful.  Sybil Andrews evoked Native Canadians in her art work–Indian Dance, 1951  is a very cool looking linocut.

I was quite surprised by the jump in this section to a painting from 1963–a wonderfully abstract and geometric urban landscape by Alfred William Davey called Prairie Sentinels.  Alfred Joseph Casson’s Farmhouse in Highway #7 near Wodbridge Ontariro, 1962 is also quite lovely for its shapes and colors.

Joseph (Joe) Fafard made a bronze (painted) sculpture of The Candidate (Chretien) sitting in a chair, 1987.

Next up is The Lure of the Arctic.  Since the Group of 7 seemed bent on capturing all of Canadian landscapes it was joked that they would reach the North Pole.  A.Y Jackson said challenge accepted! and he went on a trip there in 1927 and again in 1930, with Lawren Harris.  Fred Varley also went in 1938 and many more followed.  Varley’s Midnight Sun (1938) is stunning for the amount of color he uses in a scene of the arctic.  And A.Y. Jackson’s Morning Baffin Island 1928 is equally colorful and wonderful.

Les Automatistes and Other Non-Objective Movements.
Quebec ushered in some Surrealism and abstraction.  There were 16 signers of the Refus Global— a document that rejected the Quebec Social political and religious status quo–a liberation from the past and a call to anarchy.  This brings some highly abstract art from Jean-Paul Riopelle, Marcelle Ferron and Paul-Émile Borduas in the 1950s as well as works in the 1960s and 70s by Rita Letendre.  I especially like her Soran 1978.  Gordon Smith also did some cool things with squares and lines (Untitled) [Green , Blue, Grey], 1970.

The book ends with a section of Indigenous Artists  It explains that they had been excluded for quite sometime–often put in historical and cultural context rater than artistic ones.  I love the last line: Indigenous peoples have resisted this colonial narrative with great success.

I love the purple spiral of Benjamin Chee Chee in Untitled 1973 and the very cool graphic style of Daphne Odjig’s two pieces.  The cool and colorful Time to Share (1987) and the creepy but with so much going on The Shaman and the Shaking Tent (1974).

The end of the book wonders how the internet will impact galleries in the future.  Boulet hopes that collections like these will help to keep art galleries relevant in an ages when things are available to be seen online so easily.

This is a great collection–a worthwhile overview of an underrepresented art.