SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Northlands Coliseum Edmonton AB (November 13, 1996).
Rheostatics opened for The Tragically Hip in Fall 1996. Some of the shows were online already, but in 2018, Rheostatics Live added about ten more shows. This is the 5th night of the 24 date Canadian Tour opening for The Tragically Hip on their Trouble At The Henhouse Tour. Only recordings of Shaved Head and Earth from this tour.
This is their second night in Edmonton and they play some of what I consider their more risky opening-set songs. The show begins with Martin playing “Digital Beach.” It’s a quiet song but the crowd seems really respectful. And Martin sounds in great voice with his falsetto hitting all the right notes.
The end segues perfectly into “Earth.” I feel like it takes a little while to get Earth going (again, thinking as an opening act and it’s such a slow song)–I find a very risky. But the loud part of “Monstrous Hummingbirds” roars out and Martin’s guitar sounds great and they have surely won people over by now.
Up next is “Claire.” Tim sounds in good voice and Martin has some cool phasing for his guitar solo.
Dave doesn’t sing a ton, but he thanks Edmonton. “Thank you, Edmonton the whole city’s here tonight. I see the mayor. I see the coach. I see the wizard.”
They rip into a great “Dope Fiends and Boozehounds” (some of you are here tonight). Everyone is right on and the vocals are terrific. There’s even a bit of a drum solo.
Dave mentions the cross country tour, the big crowds, the hockey rinks–shrines to the game of professional hockey. They’re happy to be there “despite the fact that they still let Peter Pocklington in here [Pocklington owned the Oilers and is quite a divisive figure–he sold Wayne Gretzsky to Los Angeles, among many other things. He will appear again in this show, shortly.]
Dave also says that they just released a record The Blue Hysteria, and if you get a chance to buy it we’d like that very much.
Up next is an amazing “Sweet Rich Beautiful Mine.” The vocals are wonderful–Martin is in top form tonight. I believe Tim is singing the really high backing vocals too. The song feels like a show stopper the way Martin’s voice soars majestically at the end–higher and higher.
Despite how amazing that is, they start right up with “Horses.” For years I have wondered what events this song commemorated. I wasn’t really sure how to find out. And then, here Dave introduces the song and tells all: “This is a song about the strike at the Gainers meat-packing plant in the mid-1980s. It is a privilege to sing this song here tonight.
This is where Pocklington returns. Dave doesn’t mention this, but I looked it up and found out [from Wikipedia]
Perhaps Pocklington’s most notorious setback was the result of a six-month strike with the United Food and Commercial Workers union that crippled Gainers, which at the time was Canada’s second-largest meat packer. Pocklington used strikebreakers, primarily from Quebec, to keep the plant operating despite the picket lines, a decision that earned him the enmity of Canada’s labour movement. Eventually, he agreed to settle the strike and rehire the striking workers at the request of the Alberta government.
So not only did Pocklington trade Gretzky, he was the inspiration for “Horses.” No wonder Dave hates him so much.
“Horses” is energized and spectacular and Martin plays a noisy, wild electrified solo with some great horse sounds at the end.
Normally this might end a show but they segue right into “Shaved Head” (someone in the audience screams twice–loudly like an actual shriek–I wonder if that was good or bad). Martin continues to sounds great–he’s hitting those high notes like nothing. A beautiful, powerful ending leads into the jolly intro of “Fan Letter to Michael Jackson.” Once again, everyone sounds great with this song.
They end the show with everyone repeating the refrain of “It feels good to be alive.” The voices all stop except Martin who sends everyone off with his gorgeous falsetto singing “it feels good to be alive.”
What a great opening act to see.
[READ: February 5, 2019] “All Will Be Well”
This story opens with a comic line, but the story is hardly a comedy.
“Once upon a time, I was addicted to a salon.”
I have really enjoyed the way Yiyun Li develops character and setting. In this story the salon is run by Lily. The magazines are in Chinese and Vietnamese and the TV is tuned to a Mandarin channel. It is in a neighborhood where armed robberies were common. Lily unlocks the door when she sees customers coming and immediately locks it again.
The narrator teaches at a local college, but she pretends that she is going to school for fiction-writing. The best part of her character is that she lied and told Lily that she “had been adopted by a couple from Holland when [she] was a year old and moved to America when she was in Middle School.” Because of this she was forgiven for not speaking one of the preferred languages.
She went to the salon more often than was necessary. She says if she had been superstitious, she would swear Lily put a spell on her. The narrator seemed mostly entranced by Lily’s stories–Lily loves to talk, and it gave the narrator a way out of her own life. “I listened, smiled, and asked questions–these were my most tiresome traits, and I used them tirelessly.” Normally she had to give her opinions all day (she was a teacher after all) but here she could forget about herself. (more…)
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