SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS–Humanities Theatre Waterloo ON (January 24, 1997).
Just as I was finishing up all of the newest live Rheostatics recordings, Daron posted a dozen or so more.
This is a pretty awesome soundboard recorded show just following the Rheos tour with The Tragically Hip and about 4 months after the release of The Blue Hysteria. One of the best versions of A Mid Winter Night’s Dream I’ve ever heard. As you can see on the DAT it used to be called Winter’s Tale. People From Earth opened the show. NB both First Rock Concert and RBC are incomplete recordings.
People from Earth opened.
After listening to all of those new recordings, it’s fun to go back to 1997 before they had broken up, while they were touring The Blue Hysteria. It’s also a little surreal to not really hear the crowd (because this is a soundboard).
This recording is 90 minutes (which means either they were playing shorter shows back then or a lot of it was cut off (which seem more likely).
Martin sounds great, playing a rather slow and hushed version of “California Dreamline.” I like the way the washes of guitar noise segue in to the acoustic guitar of “Claire.” Throughout the show I couldn’t help noticing how young Tim sounds (far more so than the other guys).
After a trippy “Digital Beach,” they segue into “Earth/Monstrous Hummingbirds.” It’s one of their weirder songs with lots of different parts. It sounds great–certainly a peak time for this kind of song.
There’s a fun boppy version of “Introducing Happiness”–Tim seems to be having a lot of fun with the song.
Dave Bidini says that last night, Martin talked the longest on stage ever in his life before introducing this next song. “You probably read about it on the internet or something.” Martin says, “I enjoyed it so much I can’t do it tonight.” He says that the recording of “Motorino” features the host of channel 47 show Jump cut for young Italian Canadians. That’s Felicia. She spoke (rapidly) in Italian for the record.
It’s interesting that this is the first song they’re playing off of the new album and they don’t mention it as such.
“Four Little Songs” is still new so they don;t get too crazy with it, although Martin has fun singing his part. Dave would like to dedicate his fourth little song to our backdrop the newest member of the Rheostatics. It’s the angry chickadee or two fish kissing. Dave asks Tim, “who would win in a fight? Angry Chickadee or Monstrous Hummingbird?” Tim: “How big is monstrous?” Martin: “Like Mothra.”
After not playing anything from Blue Hysteria, the play six new songs in a row. Martin introduces “Sweet Rich Beautiful Mine” as a song “about trying to help someone that you’re in love with….stop killing themselves. Sorry.” It’s wonderfully intense and the harmonies are outstanding. The sound of the guitar taking off half way through is tremendous and Martin hitting those falsetto notes gives me goose bumps.
“Fat” “is as song about having a best friend” (Dave says). It opens with a great slinky bass and Martin saying more drama on the lights–get rid of those white ones. More great backing vocals from Martin. It’s followed by Tim’s delicate “An Offer.” Tim;s voice seems to be much higher than in 2017.
The band loves talking about playing in Kitchener (they are still doing it in 2017). In 1982/1983 they played there at the Kent Hotel which was a strip joint.
“A Midwinter Nights Dream” is an absolutely stunning flawless performance. The crowd is great, the band is on fire and it sounds amazing. This has become one of my favorite Rheos songs and I love hearing it live (even if Dave doesn’t know what it’s called).
This song “Bad Time to Be Poor” is getting played on rock n’ roll radio (but it’s not its commercial radio). We get invited to radio stations named after animals: The Bear, The Lizard, The Fox, The Marmot (that’s in St. John). Now we’re getting a lot of guys dressed in denim coming to our shows. So we’re broadening our horizons. If someone sparks up a joint, don’t blame the song, blame commercial radio.
There is a rocking and fun “Dope Fiends” to end the set.
They come back for the encore and this recording cuts off the opening of “My First Rock Concert.” But Dave has fun explaining a lyric. When his friend was “on his back” it was a popular dance of the time called the worm. Then they talk about people swan diving to them when they get famous.
The recording ends with “Record Body Count.” It ends early, but has a nice fade at least.
This is, indeed a great show.
[READ: December 2018] Let’s Start a Riot
I just have to look at Bruce McCulloch on the cover of this book and it makes me laugh. McCulloch has played some of my favorite characters on Kids in the Hall (although I could never pick a favorite). But he is especially good at being an asshole. A very funny asshole.
And what better sums up Bruce than this:
Ever feel like you were once young and cool and then you woke up in the middle of your life, emptying the dishwasher?
What could this book be about (and how did I not even hear of it when it came out?). Well the answer to the first question is in the subtitle. There’s no answer for the second one. But there is an introduction to the book by Paul Feig (which has nothing to do with either of these questions).
Bruce says he always dreamed of writing a book. “One day. When I was old. Luckily, and unluckily, that day had come.” When he told his family his wife and children Roscoe and Heidi (five and seven, he thinks), they wonder what he’ll write about. He tells them that he will write about how he was once a young angry punk who crawled out of a crappy family, had this silly show on TV then somehow became a happy man with a pretty good family. “Why would anyone want to read that?” Heidi asks.
His children make appearances throughout the book, like the details that Heidi is nine hands high and can eat six oranges in one sitting. Meanwhile, Roscoe is small but he knows how to refresh your wine glass and which wine you should be drinking.
For the entire nook he refers to My Pretty Wife, which I rather like. As she enters she is carrying catalogs from the mailbox–“they just keep inventing new things for her to need.”
He tells us that he and My Pretty Wife, a good Canadian girl, now live in Hollywood. She played Nancy Drew in a short-lived series in the 90s. He takes great pleasure in this fact whenever she loses her keys. There’s also a very funny chapter late in the book when they go away for a sex weekend (romantic getaway) and it is ruined when the hotel person mistakes her for being pregnant.
Each (short) chapter is full of funny things. And who knows which of these are true. Are these even his kids real names? He talks about a children’s book he wanted to write called Angie, the HIV Unicorn. Did he actually want to make that? Who knows, but this , and many other poems are included in the book.
He tells some funny anecdotes about being in Hollywood. Like when he was at the gym on the treadmill. He looked over and Eminem was on the treadmill next to him. Behind him walking on his own treadmill was Eminem’s security. “What was he going to do? Chase someone on his treadmill, while that zany Muppets music played?”
He says he had one Eminem song on his playlist and he cranked it up
Yes, I am going to use your music to inspire me to beat you. Ha! Alanis, that’s what ironic means. Then I cranked up the speed of my treadmill to pass him. Without looking up from under his death-dark hoodie, Eminem upped his speed to match mine. And I can’t be certain but I think Security sped up on his treadmill to follow me too. It’s on!
The end of this anecdote is very funny.
I laughed pretty hard at the “Rat Scare of 2012.” I also enjoyed the joke that as a young punk “I used to wear pyjamas ironically. now I just wear them.”
The first time you leave the house in your PJs it’s exhilarating…you feel so free. You wonder ‘what has been holding me back for so long?’
But despite all of the humor, there is a darkness in Bruce (as you can tell from his humor). His father was a boozer and a salesman–the better he was at one the worse he was at the other, He talks about some pretty harsh days growing up in that household. He’s got a chapter called “The beautiful day you beat up your dad.”
Many of his memories are bittersweet or just bitter. Like his first dance. A preteen dance that was full of teenage boys. Or this joke:
they say that if you want to get to know someone, go out with them. I disagree, I say if you want to get to know someone, break up with them Oh, you’ll get to know them real quick.
He talks about high school, being not popular but also not unpopular. He talks about women he hooked up with and the crazy relationships he’s had (but remains most,y tasteful about it). But it always comes back to his jokes:
“My sense of humor has gotten me out of trouble. But more often it’s almost gotten me killed.”
Music is very important to Bruce and he talks about the bands he loved as kid–Uriah Heep, Slade, Deep Purple, Mott the Hoople. He and his friend used to go to shows at the Calgary Corral all the time. They always got there early and rushed the stage (so they could wait two hours until it started). He mentions on concert that was especially memorable.
It was Joe Cocker and on his monitor beside his setlist was a piece of paper that sai Calgary. To remind the world-weary musician where this stopover gig was…and between songs whenever he glanced down and thanked Calgary, I thought it was hilarious.
He talks about leaving Calgary and going to college and then meeting Mark McKinney, the only person who got his humor. Their early comedy was surreal and funny. They performed “urinal concerts” in which they would sing a song to/about whoever walked in the bathroom. Or the time(s) they played in a prison–a real money maker.
He mentions he Edmonton Fringe Festival and how eventually he and Mark met Kevin McDonald and Dave Foley who were “young old men quoting vaudeville and Lenny Bruce.”
He doesn’t spend a ton of time talking about the Kids in the Hall, which is kind of a bummer, but that’s not really what this is for. He defines the Kids as collectively one dumb guy.
Individually we are smart, but collectively we are five guys on a street corner, blood sugar crashing, trying to decide where to eat. One is a vegetarian, one only eats meat, two are dyslexic and one isn’t eating but still has a very strong opinion of where we should go.
Amid all the humor and darkness, there is also some real tenderness. “Jean Jacket Love” is a wonderful chapter of first, lost love–which is connected to a hilarious review of a Radiohead concert (they did a “begrudging encore”). “Lulu” is the tender story about his dog and his children. The chapter called “Liver” in which he “learns” that he has liver cancer (he didn’t) is one of the most moving (and funny) things I’ve read, possibly ever.
There is a little bit, about KITH’s newish miniseries Death Comes to Town. And the fact that one of them really did have cancer:
See if you can tell who is who:
The Showman of the group is now The Sick One.
The Serious one reads his newspaper.
The once boyish Quippy One.
The Head Crusher.
The dad of the group.
The book maybe isn’t as funny as I thought it would be. But it’s a memoir, not a comedy book. But it is very enjoyable. The sweet and tender parts really let you see a side of Brucio that maybe isn’t always visible (unless you look deeply into the comedy).
The end of the book has a surprising twist. In a memoir? Yes.
I Just Read About That... 
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