SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Reverb, Toronto, ON (August 29, 1997).
This is the final show Rheostatics show from the 1990s that I haven’t mentioned thus far.
I’m not sure what the band had been doing before this show (aside from making he Nightlines show), but they’ve apparently not played live for a while. This return to performance seems to have brought out the wildness in them. This show has all kinds of jamming moments with eight songs lasting over 7 minutes. There’s also some slower moments or songs played differently. It’s a cool, unique show–very different from their other shows.
There’s even an “opening jam” with a guitar riff explored around some bass notes. Then a new guitar comes in with some rums. The whole jam is about 3 minutes but it doesn’t really turn into anything, it’s just a like a warm up jam–I even wondered if it was just the guys messing around until all four of them were on stage.
They play the opening riff to “Fat” but he only plays a clip of it and then stops (allowing Tim to do some bass fills). During the “bye bye” section they stop the music a few times unexpectedly as well. It’s an interesting jamming opportunity and runs a pretty long time.
After the song Dave says, “we haven’t played togetehr in a long time well, we haven’t played live in front of people. We played together at the CBC.” (the Nightlines show mentioned later). “So now we got one under our belt. We forgot our songs had so many parts.”
Dave continues, “There’s a lot of people from Michigan here tonight for some strange reason. They think the Stanley Cups is here. But it’s not. We’ll send this next song out to them.” It’s “Aliens” At the end, Martin takes off on a wild solo as the band really rocks out. There’s also an extended jam with someone singing a “dit dit dit” part while Martin plays along on guitar.
“All the Same Eyes” is pretty straightforward except that there’s some real wailing from Martin throughout.
Someone shouts “Are you looking for some fun?” and Martin says “We’ve got a new version of that song we’re gonna play.” Then Tim says, “Just write your requests on a plate. Dave: “There’s a private party upstairs and there’s lots of plates outside the door.” Martin: “There’s a private party for um the three little boys with sandy blonde hair… hamsum? handsome?”
Then they play the first known occurrence of “Junction Foil Ball.” Martin introduces it: “we’ll do a kind of a new song” Don: “its new and we’re kind of going to do it.” I’m impressed with the interesting sound effects that Martin gets while playing this song. During the “acoustic tile” section he even distorts his voice like it has slowed down–is that effect of Martin’s singing.
“Four Little Songs” sounds totally different. It’s got a kind of swinging opening. The first part is really heavy. Dave’s part is interesting because while still in the trippy intro section, he begins singing the lyrics to Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold.” When he finally gets to the song, people sing along to his first lines! Martin has crazy fun with the riff at the end–lots of squeaking solo noises.
Dave asks: “How are those chamois working out, martin?” “They’re remarkably absorbent for large quantities of liquid.” When I saw them Martin was very sweaty. I wonder if he always was. There’s a solid, slow version of “Bad Time to Be Poor,” which Dave says was written awhile ago…but it’s still a bad time to be poor.
Before “Sweet Rich” Martin says, so I’m going to do this solo, okay Tim. Just the first bit.” It’s a great version.
“Joey II” has a long rollicking jam in the intro with Martin chanting “I’m about to fuck up, I’m going to fuck up.” During the middle of the song he asks if any musicians in the audience have played at the Royal Albert Hall in Winnipeg–well that’s what this song is about.
They play an early version of “Easy to Be with You” which goes to “California” instead of “Harmelodia.”
Dave introduces “Stolen Car” by saying “We’d like to do another new one for you. We played this at our last concert but we’re going to play it a little differently. This is Tim Mech one of North America’s greatest unsigned artists. Seriously, he won a contest in Musicians magazine and was named one of the ten best unsigned artists. We recorded this for the last Nightlines program. We recorded about 32 minutes of music. Old stuff, new stuff and a version of this song. Dave’s last show is tomorrow night. Thats 104.1 FM CICZ-FM in the local area!”
As the song starts he says (I assume referring to Mech’s guitar) “this is a Hawaiian guitar that’s autographed by Ben Harper.” ( I had no idea Ben Harper was noteworthy back in 1997). There’s a weird electronic drumbeat through the song, and the music is primarily guitars–gentle and smooth.
Martin shouts, “Its’ been great playing in our home town–Toronto!” They play a long version of “My First Rock Show” with a lengthy introductory instrumental section. Near the final verse, he whispers the “many years later” section and someone shouts “bird in a cage” at the right time. As the song ends they play the chorus of Trooper’s “We’re Here For A Good Time (Not A Long Time).”
“California Dreamline” is quite extended as well. After the first verse there’s a dance jam before the second verse begins. The middle has a kind of vocal jam with a light bass and guitar motif and everyone singing different parts in a fugue state. It’s a weirdly unique version. At the end Martin says, “That was ‘California Dreamline,’ we’re going to do ‘Record Horse Count’ next. They do neither and in fact play a really slow almost country-feeling version of “Claire.” It’s so different sounding that they kind of mess it up here and there.
Things get quiet and then people start clapping along and you can barely hear them playing an acoustic un-mic’d version of “Bread Meat Peas and Rice.” Dave says the name of the song “for those of you who could hear it. You kind of understand why you use microphones.” Tim starts talking about the band Farm Fresh. “They had a similar kind of thing with their Peanuts and Corn record [what?] and apparently they’re supposed to be releasing a new record, is that right? They’ve made two cassettes and they are both for sale and are both really good.” Dave: “Whats with that T-shirt, Tim?” “Free with every cassette sold.”
Someone shouts again, “We’re looking for some fun.” Dave: “Are you?” And they launch into “Fishtailin'” which opens with that lyric.
After the song Dave asks “What is the time, late or early or what? What time do bars say open til 4? 5? [Shouts of four and Five] Tim: According to the new mega city law they close at 1 [boooos], so we’ve got half a song left.
They surprise ever one with “Bees,” a short quiet song with Martin making bee-like sounds on his guitar. It leads to a long, quiet intro for “Michael Jackson” with Martin still doing some cool guitar sounds. The whole beginning is slow and a little odd, with Dave singing “but an auto-bon would be better.” And later, “Elvis is king because he’s dead.” In the middle of the song Dave starts “rapping” and he says “I’d like to call Pip Skid (I assume) to the stage. Pip Skid from Manitoba does a rap that’s kind of hard to hear. Then there’s some soaring guitars from Martin. The whole song is 11 minutes long and ends in a vocal jam that grows ever quieter. Martin sings “It feels good to be alive” (hitting great falsettos) while the others are singing snippets and oh yeas.
They play an 11 minute “Dope Fiends” which has a bass and drum solo in the middle as well as just a drum solo later. After 8 and a half minutes the band keeps going with some simple rocking. At the end Martin says, “Thanks guys for giving me a second chance.” [?].
They leave the stage for the encore with a drum machine blipping away. They come back with the drum machine still playing and someone plays a slow meandering guitar line. Another instrumental jam for 3 or so minutes before Dave says, “We’ll play one more.” He also says that they’ll have their live album out by Christmas (stocking stuffers!). And they end the show with a great non-nonsense version of “A Midwinter Night’s Dream.”
This is a wonderfully atypical show for the band. A real treat for fans and an interesting entry point for fans of jamming shows.
The next Rheostatics show that I’ll mention will be in 2001!
[READ: March 16, 2017] “The Pickle Index”
This story is written in a fascinating way. There are newspaper articles from The Daily Scrutinizer (written by Mark Hamper) and with them, there is the Pickle Index, a series of recipes. In fact, it’s a recipe-exchange network “for citizens by citizens.” Daily participation is mandatory (though surely that’s unnecessary since the treats within are so tasty).
From the Scrutinizer we learn that the official strike team has captured Zloty Kornblatt,the instigator, conspirator and fomenter. He brought a troupe of “performers” into the village to mock, destabilize and cause anarchy.
The Pickle Index begins with Fisherman’s Dills (by Sarafina Loop)–brine-ing cucumbers in the ocean. And then comes Hollow Gherkins by Flora Bialy. Although midway through the recipe, it shifts directions and talks about Zloty. How he left them last night and the writer, Flora Bialy wonders why–was it their incompetence or was it her? She says that once, years ago Zloty’s team was a real circus with clowns, a trapeze and roasted nuts, but now they were reduced to an extended residency in Burford. (more…)
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And now, the resurgence had made a third postponement.
The Rheostatics, live at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, November 14, 2004. This was 
I Just Read About That... 