SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto, ON (December 7, 2017).
For the longest time, I thought that these last four shows of 2017 would be the final live shows on the Rheostatics Live website. But then mid-September, Darrin added more than 20 historical shows to the site. So, there will be some older shows posted about in the new year. But for now, while the Rheostatics are recording their next album (!), it’s fun to look back on shows from just one year ago.
First of three shows for the Horseshoe Tavern’s 70th anniversary celebrations. Kindly recorded and provided by Mark Sloggett and Matt Kositsky.
The opening band for this night was Ensign Broderick.
The show opens with “Saskatchewan,” it’s got a two-minute quiet guitar intro before the song proper starts. It’s a very quiet and chill rendition, with Martin almost whispering. It’s not until about 10 minutes that the song comes roaring out.
Starting “Supercontroller” is Hugh Marsh with a cool violin solo–a trippy echoing section. “Supercontroller” is so simple but I really like it, it’s so very catchy. It shifts to “AC/DC on My Stereo” which is just too simple for my tastes (homage to AC/DC?). The Clark section is weirdly flat–maybe the sound balance is off? There’s lots of Hugh and the a crazy sloppy ending.
People shout out requests and then someone says, “You can’t touch the Rheostatics.” To which Bidini responds, “Literally, it’s in our contract—no touching.” Clark chimes in, “That’s why we never did a double bill with The Feelies.” [groans] Clark: “Teacher humor…. I am older you know.”
Tim plays acoustic guitar for a lovely “Rear View,” a pretty acoustic number with a nice beat. Then DB thanks everyone for coming out on a Thursday night.
Clark asks if a pickerel is a small pike. Martin gets really into the discussion. How a walleye is called pickerel. And that pike is bony, although many species of pike are pickerel they are not related to walleye. DB: “That concludes our PowerPoint presentation.” The Clark continues to talk about making rainbow trout in avocado and olive oil, with all the free radicals.
Back to the music, it’s great to hear “The Headless One,” (apparently a Martin request). There’s some great violin from Hugh and great backing vocals from Martin. It’s followed by “Michael Jackson” with nice pizzicato strings and a big, soaring ending that totally kills.
Clark says he heard Martin say to DB: “Stop being a rock n roll grandstander.” And DB said, “I was being a rock n roll grandpa.” To which Martin coined, “grandstand grandpa.”
“Mountains and Sea” is a new song featuring Hugh Marsh. Martins guitar is a little too loud, then about halfway in, they mess up. DB: “Let’s do that again. Band meeting. I can’t remember that chord.” Live rehearsals… this is extra! Martin says something about their old live rehearsals at the Rivoli and Martin thought they were jam-packed and he saw a video and found that there were like 14 people there (it’s a video of Martin spanking Dave C on the ass with his guitar for messing up). Tim: I told you we were gonna fuck it up.
Clark offers a vote: it’s rare in any society that your voice gets heard. Should they do it from the top of the song or from the A minor part. [A minor wins].
Clark’s neighbor made the Guinness book of world records for making the worlds smallest playable violin. And Martin says he really like the name “Tim Gillette.”
Up next is Tim’s “Music is the Message” a slow but pretty song with lots of violin. It’s followed by “Sickening Song, which sounds great with just accordion.
“Sickening Song” sounded good with just accordion and guitar but then it gets pretty wobbly and they have to stop. But they get through it happily. Martin talks about looking for an operetta that he and Tom wrote called “These are things I cannot tell my dad.” I thought I found it in my parents house, but it turned out to be us working on “Sickening Song,” playing it 20 times. Tim: “I think your dad erased that tape.”
PIN sounds good but “they’ll never get the ending.” That’s why you play three nights because the first night’s always shit. They start talking about cursing on TV and how you can hear someone say Shit on CBC at 8PM. Martin jokes that at 8 o’ clock “that’s bullsandwiches” and then you hit 9 and it’s “motherfucker.”
DB: If you came from out of town thank you. If you’re not from out of town that’s fine too. Just not quite as awesome. And thanks for a youthful-looking crowd. That’s amazing. Lots of lovely sweaters. Sir you have a Tea Party shirt you have to stand at least ten feet back from me. I’m kidding as long as you’re not wearing leather pants. Clark: I thought he was talking tea party political shit.
Martin begins, “Remember….”
DB: “No not really.”
Clark: “Take us away there Jerry Garcia.”
DB: “I’d like to wish the group good luck as we embark on this next piece.” “Here Come the Wolves” opens with a deep riff and tribal drums and Martin says, “Speaking of leather pants…” To which DB concedes, “This is definitely our most Tea Party song for sure.” This is an unusual song and I love that it’s got heavy parts and I look forward to the recorded official version.
I like the way it is loud and heavy and then there’s a quiet martin bit
Northern Wish starts out rather quietly, but it sounds great. It segues into Clark singing “Johnny Had a Secret” acapella.
DB says, “We’re gonna take you home. We’re gonna stop 3 places along the way. The first is a slow and moody “Stolen Car.” The second is a bonkers “Legal Age Life” with the guys barking at each other and DB just rolling his r’s for a good ten seconds. Clark: “Let’s dedicate that one to Monty Hall.”
While the next song starts, Dave asks, “Martin do you ever have lapel neurosis?” Martin: Oh, you have lapel bulge—it has no crease.”
DB: Anyone been to California? Martin: We’re heading down to do our next album in California
Martin tells a long story about Compass Point in the tropics where they recorded their last album together. He talks about an old roll of film—you tried to make them count but inevitably there are fuckups. He’s been photographing his old slides with a macro lens. He found a picture of them swimming at night snorkeling. The place made Martin weep. Dave and Dave stayed in Tina Weymouth’s place. And yet, in front of the apartments is a pool! The Caribbean Ocean is right there. It’s luxury overkill.
This leads to a discussion of magenta. Does anybody like magenta? It has to be there but we hate it. If you’re ready to wear a magenta power suit I would have to bow to you. Ryan was just changing the lights to magenta–a lighting joke.
“Digital Beach” starts slow, but “Dreamline” takes off. Martin has a lot of fun with it and it eventually merges into a lovely acoustic “Claire
As the song fades out Dave starts singing Big Bottom and the band doesn’t change the music at all, but Tim sings along with him.
After an encore Clark comes out for a drum solo which leads to a stripped down sounding (but great vocal mix) of “Soul Glue.” Tim sounds great and the backing vocals are spot on. The end of the song blends nicely with “Song of Flight.” The final three minutes are a rollicking crazy sloppy fun lunatic version of “RDA.”
Tim observes, “That was show stopper if I ever heard one.”
[READ: December 1, 2015] “Oktober”
I like Martin Amis a lot. Although I have to say that this story confused me. Now, it’s true that Amis can be a trickster when he writes, but this story wasn’t fancy at all, it was just…unsatisfying. And really long.
Told in first person, the story begins with “I” drinking black tea in a hotel in Munich. It was the time of Oktoberfest.
Next to him is a businessman, Geoffrey, on his mobile phone. The man is aggressive and seems angry, speaking about clause 4C and saying things like “I’m accustomed to dealing with people who have some idea of what they’re up to.”
The photographer shows up to take a picture of the narrator. They talk about Germans and refugees until it’s time to go. He looks at his phone. Of the 1800 messages none are from his wife or children. (more…)
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In 2016, I went to see the second Strand of Oaks Winter Classic at Boot and Saddle. It was a wonderful night I wasn’t even that big of a Strand of Oaks fan–I liked the latest album, but that’s all I knew. The show was terrific and the whole night had a wonderful feeling of warmth and kindness. Timothy Showalter is a super nice guy and very grateful for his success.
I Just Read About That... 