SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Fall Nationals, Night 7 of 10, The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto (November 17, 2004).
The Rheostatics, live at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, November 14, 2004. This was the 7th night of their 10 night Fall Nationals run at the Horseshoe.
I compared all of the setlists from the nine shows and was somewhat surprised to see just how much repeating they did. Most of the rep
Two versions are available – Mark Sloggett’s soundboard recording and 8 track files provided by Steve Clarkson. The Sloggett download has 8 minutes of pre show intro music, which I assume is on the PA. It starts out kind of synthy and cool then turns into piano music then a big horn-filled jazzy song then back to piano as mike starts playing some drums and that’s the official start of “Who Is This Man, And Why Is He Laughing?” even with the PA music still playing. Despite this being guest vocalist night, this song is instrumental with accordion and clearly spoken Polish.
Martin says they’re not supposed to sing tonight so they’ll do an instrumental version of “Four Little songs.” No one sings their verse, but Chris String on keyboards plays a lengthy sample: you gave this to, me but you cannot escape, not this time.” They play the song really well without the vocals and for the end someone is ringing bells in tune.
Dave welcomes everyone to the 4th annual Fall Nationals and introduces their first guest vocalist Robin Lowe from Pittsburgh, PA. She sounds great singing “Introducing Happiness.” She’s followed by Melissa McClelland who asks, “Can I do something on this?” and someone jokes, “no don’t touch the keyboard.” “Can I do some beat boxing on the mic?” “Absolutely.” She doesn’t beatbox but she sings a beautiful version of “Aliens (Christmas 1988).” It’s a bit of a different vocal melody than martin sings and is quite wonderful.
Mike Bell comes out to sing “Beerbash” guessing that they haven’t done this in a while. It’s rocking and fun/sloppy. Then Paul Linklater and Donna Orchard
come out to sing “King Of The Past.” Dave notes that “you guys sang separately last year.” Which they did. They do a kind of dramatic singing of the song which I think I like, but not as much as the original.
Dave says, “The beer is here and so is my adorable wife.” Janet Morassutti who has co-written many songs sings “It’s Easy To Be With You.” She has a good, deep voice and I love when she gets into the 1,2,3,4.
Kurt Swinghammer comes out and introduces the Trands-Canada Soul Patrol back in the house. But Dave says they’re supposed to be backing Brenda Lee. Kurt continues, “It’s time for a Tim Vesely song. He’s sort of the George Harrison in the band.” This brings forth three jokes at once including Dave saying he;s more of the George Foreman of the band. They do “Loving Arms” and Dave says, “you’re lucky we did this last night.” He sings in a deep and ponderous voice not sure it’s quiet right for this sweet song, but he does a great job with it. The song ends but the give Kurt an extra solo.
Michelle Rumball comes out and says, “Dave do you know that the last time that I was supposed to sing this song, I showed up and only knew the backing vocals.” Dave says, “I’ve never forgiven you for that.” “It was like ten years ago.” Then Dave notes “No one ever sings “Saskatchewan Part 2” Michelle says, “next year?” It’s slow and moody and she kind of messes up a bit but holds it together. Chris Brown gets a keyboard solo.
Greg Smith of the Weakerthans recently. He’s going to sing “The Tarleks” and they start asking him “what are you doing now that KRP shut down?” He says he gets a lot of questions about Bailey Quarters–everybody liked her more than Loni Anderson. There’s lots of wild synth stuff in the middle.
Chris Brown comes out for “Bad Time To Be Poor” and there’s some seriously off guitar to start the song, but they settle down and play along nicely.
Then they need to take a five-minute break to work on equipment. Martins Steinberger guitar died. It led a rich life and needs to go to the hospital. Sorry about that.
Royal Wood sings a pretty version of “It” and then Steve Stanley puts the power back in “Power Ballad For Ozzy Osbourne” including the intro. They say that he is currently in a band called Midi-Ogres. At the end of the song, there’s sustaining feedback note–“make it stop make the bad man stop, stop the fucking note, Mike.” While they’re fixing that, Chris plays a sample:, “I’ve been practicing every day for a year. I can’t even learn a piece in a week. When will I learn to play real good? How long does it take?”
Jen Foster sings “Take Me In Your Hand” (no accordion) and they do the penny whistle ending. Justin Rutledge comes up for “Marginalized.” Dave notes that he played with the last night and slayed the house. There’s some raw guitar sounds, but not as interesting as Martin’s.
Amer Diab comes up to play “Lying’s Wrong.” Mike says, “Shit, I don’t think I’ve ever played this one.” Dave: “me either. How does it start?” “Thanks for pulling that out of the closet.”
Howard Druckman and Beverly Kreller come out to sing “Chansons Les Ruelles.” Bev plays the bodhran, which is evidently too loud in the monitors, which makes Dave says, “You’re the John Bonham if bodhran players, aren’t you, Bev?” Mike: “John Bodhran.” Howard says, “I remember the People’s Republic of Dave.” Dave says, “You know Broken Social Scene stole everything from PROD.”
Kate Fenner sings “Northern Wish.” her raspy voice is nice with this although she misses the “built my rocket” section. Reid Jameson sings “In This Town” and dedicates it to all the Pisces in the room. “Posses of Pisces.” Martin says that he hasn’t listen to it since they recorded it. They typically play a different version.
Dennis Ellsworth sings “Palomar” but the teleprompter seems to give out for a few seconds.
Simon Wilcox sings “Dead is the Drunkest You Can Get.” But it causes nothing but trouble. “Anyone remember how to play my song?” Tim: “I thought this song only ever appeared on a t-shirt.” She has a sultry, almost sexy delivery.
Matthew Cowley sings “My First Rock Show” although ta the end he says “He was there, I’ve never seen any of those bands.” During the Joe Jackson saved my life part, Dave chimes in: “hes always doing that.”
Chris plays the “we are the music makers” sample from Willy Wonka.
Simon Head sings “Shaved Head.” He says “It’s fun to be part of Rheostatioke.” Martin says, we were thinking rheo-oke. It sounds good. The heavy part is really heavy. At the end everyone comments: “Nice Vegas walk off, Simon.” Martin: “next time we do that I’m going to do a walk off like that. The walk off is underrated.”
David Celia does a nice version of “Claire” and Yawd Sylvester sings “Record Body Count.” They have fun with Yawd (who mentions Tim’s album that he played on). They call him the one-armed bandit and then say that “Yawd gives this the one thumb up.” I wonder what happened to him. There’s some fun jamming guitars (and accordion?) and other sounds. And he says “Thanks you guys for putting smiles on 28 faces.”
Ford Pier comes out and Tim says, “Thanks, Ford, for not making us learn ‘Motorino.'” He retorts, “I didn’t not make you learn ‘Motorino,’ you refused to learn ‘Motorino.’ Who wants to hear ‘Motorino?’ Yea, well it’s not going to happen because of the lassitutde of these bastards.” Tim: “That song is fucked.” Ford: “It’s a damn good song and next year you’re not getting off the hook so easily.” [He doesn’t sing it next year]. Tim: “It’s like five or six songs.” Mike: “The only reason it didn’t happen is because you just got off a plane yesterday.” Ford: “Perhaps we should be doing “Connecting Flights.” But instead they play “Junction Foil Ball” and everyone messes it up at one point or another. Guitars, vocals, timing. It’s a mess, but fun. And then right away starts the clapping for the next song, “Rain, Rain, Rain.” Selina Martin sings it kind of crazy and growly and the final verse is pretty silly.
And then they’ve made it to the end. John Crossingham comes out and they comment that making it to the end is an achievement in itself.
Mike wonders, “Is there going to be an encore? Or are we going to be more theatrical about this?”
Tim: “The encore is tomorrow morning.”
Dave: “The encore is Selina Martin jumping around a bit more.”
The next song takes a bit of extra special tuning preparation, bear with us. So John takes the time to thank the band for such a wonderful idea. It means a lot to all of us who have graced the stage this evening.
Then Dave asks, “John where’d you get your toque?” John: “On the floor at a Green Day concert at the Rico Coliseum. I stepped on something and that was it. I did wash it before I put it on my head.” Dave: “You’d have to be pretty drunk to leave toque like that at a Green Day show. How was the tour?” John: “It was good. Had its ups and downs. His book On a Cold Road got us through. If you haven’t read it already pick it up. They’re even selling it over there, smartly. Or perhaps you’d like to read about Italian baseball or hockey in the Republic of China?”
And then they’re ready to end the night with a great version of “A Midwinter Night’s Dream” (which is not available on the Slogett MP3 download). John does an amazing job with this really difficult song. He even hits the super high note in the middle. It’s a solid version, and while I love Martin’ more of course, it’s really enjoyable.
There’s no encore since the show was already 3 hours long (!). Although there is a crazy noise at the end of the song for a couple of minute–with synths and Martin messing around.
What a fun night.
[READ: July 7 , 2017] Spill Zone
Sarah loves Scott Westerfeld, although I hadn’t read him before. I had to wonder if this graphic novel was also a traditional novel, because I’d love to see how he described the visuals. But I believe it is only a graphic novel, so I just get to marvel in the visual imagination of Alex Puvilland.
This book starts out weird, no doubt. Addison is a teen with a camera. She has been taking pictures of her hometown in upstate New York. Which isn’t so strange except that her town is a Spill Zone.
What’s that? Well, actually I don’t know yet. Suffice it to say that it’s not good. There are dead people, weird sightings and a roadblock with military personnel. Addison speculates it could be a nanotech accident colliding with the nuclear power plant, an alien visitation, something from another world? Some people escaped, like her sister Lexa, but most didn’t, like her parents. Addison was not there when it happened, and since the accident Lexa hasn’t spoken a word.
She is part of group if what she calls crazy tourists who like to take pictures of the disaster. (more…)
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SOUNDTRACK: BRAVE COMBO-It’s Christmas, Man (1991).
This is one of my all time favorite Christmas records.
I Just Read About That... 