SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto Ontario (August 11 1994).
This is a monster show. Nearly three hours long! I’ve said before that I’d love to have professional recordings of certain shows and this would absolutely be one of them. Most of the show sounds pretty good although near the end the audience starts talking a little too loud. But man, what a set list.
This is one of the last shows Dave Clark played before leaving the band. This show was on the same day Introducing Happiness was reviewed as a new release in Now Magazine. (See the review below right). The Setlist was a carefully constructed chronologically arranged 36 song, 2-set night.
They open the showing by thanking everyone for coming out on short notice, whatever that means. Dave says they had 35 songs on the list (they play 36 in total).
The first four songs are from Greatest Hits
Higher & Higher, Crescent Moon, Canadian Dream (which hasn’t gotten much play in the available shows) and Ditch Pigs. They joke about their older songs: because we play some older music sometimes, like now, we forget the words, right Tim? They also thank “anybody who helped us last night to cut our live track and video of Claire.”
The next song is “Royal Albert (Joey II)” which never appeared on an album, formally, so who knows how old it actually is.
Then there are five from Melville (+1 later on)
A slow “Saskatchewan” builds very big by the end with Dave taking some of the last verse. Tim observes that it’s a rough start tonight, although it all sounds quite good. “Chanson sans Ruelles” has a quiet middle with a brushed section on drums. When the song is over, because it is sung in French, Clark chimes: Tim Vesely for Governor General. Bidini agrees saying, “he is Ray Hnatyshyn of rock.” Upon assigning the rest of the cabinet: Bidini would be minister of sport; Tielli would be Finance Minister (of course) and Clark would be Minister of National Resources he is a national resource unto himself.
They start “When Winter Comes” and then they state: at this point in When Winter Comes we’d like to express individually what the review in Now Magazine meant to us (if you click on the image it seems to come out a little more clearly). Each of the four sings something. Bidini: “nothing sweet nothing.” Clark recites to the rhythm of his drum beats: “you know, Dave, I really like the things that they say all day but I got to know so I can tell you.” Giving up he says, I love that Sloan album they gave one N–it’s better than the last one it’s better it’s cooler… why be mean to such a good band? Bidini chimes in: “So the reason our album sucked is because Dave Clark listened to Sloan too much, obviously.” Martin kind of mumbles his response but it’s something along the lines of, “I guess it mad me sad but it’s just another thing for a shirt.” Tim says 1) we have to work really hard to complete that hoser rock opera. The other thing is that its my weekly paycheck … 120 bucks?” The rest of the song sounds great.
Clark: the next song [“It”] is one of my favorites and we don’t play it enough. It’s followed by a fairly slow version of “Record Body Count” that gets the crowd really riled up.
“Woodstuck” is also not on a record. But it’s a great song which they introduce as an “ode to a friend of ours who was really really into the hippie culture.” 1994 is the 25th anniversary of Woodstock (and the Woodstock ’94 concert). Dave says to someone “you got that at the original Woodstock at the Pizza Pizza kiosk. Woodstock ’94 is brought to you by Pizza Pizza and their new… herbal pizza.” In the “intermission” of the song Bidini throws in the lyrics to “Blitzkrieg Bop” with the same melody as the main song.
Referencing something, Bidini says Dan Aykroyd walked by and he was really polite, he said “excuse me,” which is pretty nice. Clark jokes, “Did you say Ghostbusters?”
Next there’s 8 from whale music (+2 songs later)
“Sickening Song” sounds great and bright. Afterward Dave sees “Matthew” and says “You got engaged? Cool, congratulations young lovers. It’s our second Green Sprouts anulmen….no engagement.”
“Who” sounds good but they have a little trouble with those last few thump thump notes. Soul Glue adds a heavy rocking coda to it.
Dave starts “Queer” by chanting “We’re here, we’re queer, we will not go away.” At the end, Dave recite sa poem that ends, “Acceptance, forgiveness, and love.” which he says is from Broadway Danny Rose. They also throw in a verse from “Good Guys and Bad Guys” from Camper Van Beethoven.
During he first verse of “Self Serve Gas Station,” the tape gets a little wonky. And Martin’s changes the line: “What went wrong with Martin? Is he stoned?” Someone shouts “yeaahh” and there’s the retort: “how do you know?”
Martin plays the blistering riff to RDA a few times before they take off with the song. And then it’s time for a short break.
Clark announces, “we’re back. This song is called “You Shook Me All Night Long with a Shaved Head.” “Shaved Head” is quite pretty and slow. They introduce James Gray of Blue Rodeo on keyboards and Tim plays accordion for “What’s Going On?”
They play 2 from the Whale Music Soundtrack. About “Song of Flight” Dave says, “we played that song in Kingston and a smallish college student did a bird dance in 7/8.” And then for those who got a free single at the Bathurst Street Theater, they play “Torque, Torque.”
Then there’s 10 from Introducing Happiness (+1 song later). They introduce “Claire” as “Wet Home Alabama.” After Fan Letter to Michael Jackson, they say, “The king is dead long live Lisa Marie and Michael. Congrats to Michael on his wedding… that’s three Green Sprouts weddings.”
After mentioning a convoy, Bidini asks Clark “What was your CB handle?” “Fuzzy Wuzzy. I played CB with my best friend–it was strictly platonic.”
As Earth/Monstrous Hummingbird opens, you can hear a lot more crowd noise. Talk of “I’d like to hear that recording.”
After “Me and Stupid,” Dave says “I’m afraid that when we go to England and play in front of packed house of 150 British screaming Moxy Fruvous fans and we get up there to play California Dreamline” this is all that’ll come out (some crazy nonsense noises) and they’ll love us and we’ll be on the cover of all the music magazines and we’ll never be able to face anybody in Canada again.” Clark disagrees: “bullshit don’t believe your own mythology.”
“The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos” is “about a great Canadian band.” And “Artenings Full of Gold” is weirder than ever, the “digging a hole” section sounds very much like Zappa (with high-pitched laughing whoooos).
Really fast PROD after which Clark asks, “how’s it feel to be in Ontario after the legal drinking hour?”
In the beginning of “California Dreamline,”Martin messes up and has to start over. And then they all mess up…hold on false start. Someone jokes, “Sounded like the Stones alright.” They resume mid-song. Martin says, “Stop. Fuck this song let’s move on.”
So they pick right up with “Horses.” Its fast and powerful and at the end he chants: “help break the owners of Major League Baseball, boycott professional sports.” Speaking of sports, “Might as well award the Montreal Expos works series champion right here and now, ok.” Then Dave says, “to my friend Steve from Hamilton…that didn’t count the CFL in that boycott of professional sports, all teams except the Hamilton Tigers.”
Bidini continues, “You braved the cold and blizzard conditions… oh it’s August, sorry. So our record came out Tuesday with general release in October when they’ll play the Bathurst Theater. He gives a plea to “Help Canadians music dominate worldwide in the 1990s.” Clark, “And don’t forget those condoms when they’re at the Commonwealth Games.”
They come back for an encore with “Row.” It’s sweet and quiet—not a really exciting encore, honestly. But it’s followed by a romping “Legal Age Life,” which gets everyone really moving.
Such a great show. It’s shows like this that make me wish that a) I knew about the band back then and b) I had actually seen them live.
[READ: June 5, 2017] “Clean, Cleaner, Cleanest“
This short story is a brief description of an older woman’s life. Not a lot happens in terms of plot, but it is a wonderful story full of detail and character with a satisfying ending.
Marie is a maid at a motel. She has worked there for nearly 30 years. She is Catholic and goes to confession often. But “she was more flexibly Catholic than strictly Catholic, so she did believe in birth control.” The condoms she found stopped bothering her because safe sex was better than abortion.
Over the years she had seen the drug users go from needles to pipes to meth and now back to needles.
She also learned to be clinical about the messes she cleaned up: feces and urine to made it sound like she was helping people rather than dealing with the worst of them. (more…)
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SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Copps Coliseum, Hamilton, ON (December 11 1996).
This is the final show on Rheostatics Live in which the band is opening for The Tragically Hip.
I Just Read About That... 