SOUNDTRACK: BORN RUFFIANS-Live at Massey Hall (October 14, 2017).
Born Ruffians are a trio who plays fairly punky music but with a surprisingly high-pitched singer Luke Lalonde.
When the show opens, he says I don’t think I ever considered that I would play here–it wasn’t even something …it seemed out of the realm of possibility. Look at all the people who have played here (waves at pictures) Bassist Mitch Derosier says that these are employees of the month. And t here is silence. Drummer Steve Hamelin says do we have to laugh for that? Mitch: I wanted someone to.
Lalonde says “it feels cool as hell when you’re on that stage.” Hamelin: “hopefully it is the first of more.”
“Ocean’s Deep” has a loping bass and mostly high chords until the chorus when they burst forth more. Lalonde’s guitar is almost rockabilly sounding (because it is a hollowed body?) The drums totally pound (and Hamelin is up front facing the other two).
“Don’t Live Up” has an interesting guitar melody with rather unexpected notes
“& On & On & On” has a cool bass line and a catchy oh oh oh oh oh oh verse melody. Then he tells the crowd that they just recorded a record and its out soon so they’re going to play some songs off it. (Which this last song was but he next song isn’t).
“Fade to Black” has punchy drums and a fast punky bass. The chanted backing vocals give it a real punk edge.” After the song someone shouts, “you guys fucking rock, man,” to which Mitch responds: “that was my mom.”
“Miss You” has a great call and response punk feel “with your head held high–with your head held high” it sounds great.
“Love Too Soon” opens with gentle echoed guitars a weird-sounding whistle from Luke–echoed or processed and rather eerie, but very compelling.
“Forget Me” is a song about dying. It starts acoustically followed by a kick drum with Hamelin encouraging everyone t clap along with him. The song dramatically changes pace midway through–slowing down with big thumps until it slowly speeds up again.
Lalonde switches to electric guitar with a heavy echo for “Needle”. This was my favorite song and I wondered if I’d heard it before, the vocal melody was very familiar and catchy.
The final song, We Made It” has some cool fast plucked guitar chords (from bass and guitar) and some great triplets on the drums. It’s a powerful punky thrasher with a big, loud, crashing (very satisfying) false ending.
[READ: February 2, 2018] “Patrols”
I really enjoyed the way this story began.
Marty Mason was staying at a place which housed a dog, Murphy. Each night the dog left his owner’s room, snuffled around and came to settle by Marty. He would settle by Marty’s bed, alert, for the night. If Marty looked at the dog, it would slap its tail against the floor. If he tried to lock the dog out it would scratch and whine.
This prevented Marty from sleeping, but also prevented him from getting up.
Then the story flashes back to a military scene and I kind of lost focus. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 