SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Avening Hall, Creemore, ON (November 16, 2019.
At the moment, the link for the first show of this series downloads this show instead of the 15th). When the link is updated, I’ll post about November 15th.
It was pretty amazing that Rheostatics were going to do a mini tour. I wanted to go to these shows so badly, but it was really hard for me to get up to Toronto. I even bought a ticket for the final night, hoping something would allow me to go. But, alas.
Second of the 7 Ontario shows for the Here Come The Wolves mini tour. The band were having some sound issues during the first set and I think it threw them off so Clark suggested they take a 10 minute break to regroup. This recording is actually a mix of one of the audience mics and the soundboard. The Soundboard mix, however, was all instruments other than kick drum in the right channel so I had to turn it into a mono file or it would have been unlistenable. I added the audience mix in for some room ambience and added a bit of compression, etc in Garageband for the final mix.
This show did not have Kevin Hearn, but it did have Hugh Marsh. I’d have liked to see one show with Kevin and one without.
This show opens with a quiet intro and lots of Hugh Marsh playing as “Stolen Car” begins. There’s some wild soloing in the middle of the song with Martin and Hugh having a “conversation” with bending notes. Dave B sings the “I don’t need anger” verse.
Up next is “AC/DC On The Stereo (Country Version).” for whatever reason, they play this as a more folky song (hence the “country version” label). DB sings the first part; DC sings the middle. When it ends, Martin jokes “that’s the brand new country version.”
During “Rearview” someone plays a simple acoustic solo (Tim or Dave?) and BD jokes “pretty hot licks.”
They go a little nuts on “Here Come the Wolves” with barking and howling. When Hugh plays the middle violin riff, martin sings every day is silent and gray (Morrissey). ‘It’s The Supercontroller!” has a false start but a wonderfully trippy opening from Hugh and DC. Before the lyrics begin, DB asks for a monitor adjustment: “There’s a squirrel in my monitor.” Martin: you hate squirrels. Dave: No, Martin YOU hate squirrels. MT: It’s not that you hate them, it’s that you don’t think they are worth your time. Clark gets audience participation on the “ahhs”
DB says they are playing the new album in order. We are never out of order.
DC: We are never out of odor. My wife thinks I am never out of odor.
MT: I’ve never thought you were smelly–that’s not part of your reputation.
A lovely “Music in the Message.” Then Dave says that people flew in from Vancouver and asks if anyone is from further. DC: We’ll still thank you anyway. Then he jokes about Tyler Stewart and says we’re in the drummer’s union. It’s okay.
After babbling a bit, “I’m not sure what I’m trying to say. I’m not trying to say anything. I just feel like words belong here and I’m trying to make things flow.” He says “Vancouver” is a song he wrote when he was around 18 (he says he was born in 1967) and which he rewrote last year. This gets him to ask everyone’s birth year and hospital of birth.
DB 1963 in Etobicoke, St Michaels (a good Italian will be born in a hospital named after a Saint).
Tim: Etobicoke General (he’s the only real Etobicoke native).
DC 1965
Hugh: Montreal
Martin gives a shout out to Hugh and Nick Buzz: we’ve done 3 albums in 30 years.
“Vancouver” takes a bit of time to get going. The b vox are a little rough on this, but Martin’s echoing rippling guitar blasts at the end are awesome. The solo quotes from Journey’s “Who’s Crying Now.”
“I Wanna Be Your Robot” is rocking fun. DC encourages the audience to make a new friend tonight. Turn and introduce yourself. You’ll make a new friend, for life potentially. It feels really nice. You’re all fans, you might as well.
The start of “Beautiful Night” has Hugh making all kinds of cool trippy violin noises.
They take a little break you can hear LP’s “Lost on You” in the background.
They return with “Northern Wish” to some cheers and talking, but there’s lovely crowd singing at the end.
Dave says they’d like to thank their opening band. They were a little nervous: The Rheospastics.
Up next is one they haven’t done in a while. “P.I.N.” starts out happy, but “just you wait.” The final notes (Dave B) are messed up.
DB: IS it going a little better in the second set? Tim: a little funnier at least.
During “Power Ballad For Ozzy Osbourne,” Hugh plays a ripping solo and DB says “these are the rotation of chords where we think about what Hugh just played.” During the ending “Crazy Train” line Martin plays the riff and it fits perfectly. DB says that song is more of a PSA than anything.
They ask what do you want to hear (Horses of course). But they play “Legal Age Life” with a wicked wah wah violin solo. They have a little fun with a guy in the vest in the audience–“he’s not from Vancouver–MT: he lives in a shack in the parking lot.
I love the record version of “Goodbye Sister Butterfly,” but this live version feels a little weird. However, the disco ending is hot and they throw in some lines from “Good on the Uptake.” They get really silly making robot and dog sounds.
Martin introduces he next song: This next song is about a robot dog named “Claire.” He plays a ripping solo very Neil Youngish.
Then comes an 11 minute Horses -> Crosseyed And Painless -> Another Brick In The Wall -> Horses. DB sends this out to all the teachers. Thank you for being teachers. We love you. We got your back. There’s a percussion solo in the middle (glasses and wood blocks). The speakers crackle at the end.
I want to be in a audience to scream “holy mackinaw, joe.”
After the encore break, DC gives a nice talk about friendship and music. Then they introduce Hugh who is from Montreal and is “beautifully exotic” and was “born in a violin case.” Martin talks about Hugh’s first violin lesson. He plays a scratchy Mary Had a Little Lamb. How? on his guitar? on the violin? That’s how he got the Bruce Cockburn gig.
Then Martin talks about places where he’s lived. Funny jokes about Flesherton and sex cults. Finally someone shouts Play a song, then!
DB: Here’s a song, sir. But not for you. It’s for everybody else. Al the patient ones. They play a brooding “Albatross.”
Dave says this is the first time he’s ever directed anyone to a website in his life. But Darrin Cappe [the guy who runs the Rheostatics Live site!] who is here tonight has concerts going back to 1981. MT: Hey Darrin, How you doin?
The end with “Mountains And The Sea.” They mess up the challenging transition but quickly get it back and Hugh plays another wicked solo.
This show is almost two and a half hours long. There were some glitches and lots of chatting, but what fun. And great to have them back.
[READ June 25, 2021] Banned Book Club
I saw the title of this book and was instantly intrigued. I had no idea that it was about banned books in Korea, though. It’s immediately apparent that it is set there (the first page says South Korea, 1983), and that’s when I realized I knew nothing about South Korea in the 1980s.
The book opens on a family arguing. They are in their “Fancy Steak Restaurant” where the main character, Kim Hyun Sook, is planning to go to University. Her mother argues with her that she should be working in the restaurant not going to school. But her father wants her to pursue her dream, like he pursued his (which was to open a steak restaurant).
Next we see her arriving at University where protests are underway. She is irritated by them (her mother had bad things to say about them) and just wants to get to class.
She does well in school and joins a masked dance folk team as an extracurricular activity. The folk dancing is wonderful, but at their first performance, the protesters arrive. The drums team tells her that it was planned–they are part of the protests as well. She is outraged and says she doesn’t want to do anything political. (more…)
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I saw METZ open for Modest Mouse four years ago and my ears might still be ringing. I knew of Metz from their noise filled chaotic but amazing albums.
The COVID resurgence has forced Purity Ring to postponed their tour yet again, with their new date over two years from their first dates. Let’s hope everything is cool by June.
