SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Ted’s Wrecking Yard Toronto, ON, (March 25, 2000).
This was the sixth and final night of Green Sprouts Music Week–the band’s annual residency at Ted’s Wrecking Yard. Sadly this is the only night that is up on the site, but man, is it a good one. The band played for over two and a half hours and they cover nearly every album. There are guests galore, there’s on stage hijinks and a great sense of fun for band and fans alike.
I don’t know what they played on other nights but there is a still a focus on Harmelodia. Things are a little different this night from previous shows on the tour. “Song of the Garden” and “Sweet Rich Beautiful Mine” are really rocking. When they call in a female vocalist up, a fans shouts out “we could use a little estrogen” and they get it with her lead vocals.
Kevin Hearn joins them on keyboards. He ges a verse in “Four Little Songs.” He also adds piano to “Queer” which sounds extra jaunty And he puts accordion in “I Fab Thee.” There’s even the unexpected Kevin song “Yellow Days Under a Lemon Sun” which originally appears on the Group of 7 disc.
The most fun is had during “My First Rock Show, in which several “guests” appear during the song. Meatloaf (Kevin) plays a bit of “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad,” Geddy, Alex and Neil (Martin) show up to play a verse of “Closer to the Heart” with Martin screeching “salesmen!” There’s a brief jam of Walk This Way (although no one can remember the words). And there’s some fun with Joe Jackson’s “Is She Really Goin Out with Him.” Look over there. Where? That’s called a hook. There’s also a funny joke about playing “Harvest X-1, Rush Never Sleeps.”
There’s some real guests too, Karmen from Sheks? sings “One More Colour” and sounds awful, like she can’t hear what the band is doing. Julia Pietrus guests on “Home Again.” She sings her verse in Polish (and is part of a Polish Rheos tribute band!).
There’s a drum solo (!) on “Dope Fiends and Booze Hounds.” The set and the night ends with “A Midwinter Nights Dream.” Martin sounds in great voice even if he cant hit all th ehigh notes which is undetsnable after nearly 2 and a half hours of playing
They also mention that their next show is Canada Day and that is our next show as well
[READ: March 4, 2015] “Make Me Live”
I am always intrigued by the fiction that appears in the front section of each Harper’s issue. It is typically not an author I have heard of and is often a translation. It’s also usually really short (often excerpted) so that if it’s not so good, you’re not stuck with a long read and if it is good it whets your appetite for a longer piece.
This excerpt is a definite appetite whetter.
I genuinely can’t imagine how long Mislaid (the full novel) is, because this story just seems to fly through time in a real hurry 9and feels rather complete).
It opens with Peggy Vaillancourt’s birth in 1948 in Virginia. Her family was educated and rather reserved. Her mother had hoped to send her to Bryn Mawr, but Peggy wanted to go to Stillwater, a former plantation and current finishing school. It was considered a mecca for lesbians.
I’m confused about the transformative event in Peggy’s life in which a gym teacher, Miss Miller, readjusts her gym shorts and Peggy assumes she was meant to be a boy. The story seems to bulldoze forward whether you can keep up or not. So I have no idea if an average female reader would “get” what happened here (it doesn’t seem to be sexual to me). It also seems odd that one incident should affect her so profoundly, but there ya go. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 