SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto, ON (March 29, 2007).
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So this is the final show before the band;s final show (before they reunited). Martin’s voice is still out, but he tries valiantly.
The Horseshoe Tavern show opened with a lengthy intro of Dave mucking about on acoustic guitar. He announces Tim Vesely on the bass and joining us tonight Mr Ford Pier on the keyboards. That intro segues into “Easy to Be with You,” and this proves to be one of my favorite version of the song. They are having such a lot of fun with it the “do dah do dah” is terrific and big and I love that the “…to Harmelodia” line is done entirely on the synth. And while we’re at it that Martin Tielli on the guitar and hat.
Martin: “welcome to our penultimate show.”
Dave: “now I know what ‘penultimate’ means.
Mike: “Hot?”
Dave: “I always that it meant better than the best.”
Martin takes lead on “Aliens (1988).” He doesn’t sound great but he valiantly tries his best–whispering when he needs to. As has become customary, Tim plays the “Artenings Made of Gold” riff during the middle section of the song and then they sing it at the end. When he whispers it sounds good–although not as good as his real voice. Ford asks what an artening is “I’ve been wondering this for am awfully long time and I think I have a right to know.” Martin whispers: “a simple precious object.” Tim: “we’ve narrowed down that they’re made of gold.” Ford: “as opposed to artenings made of dung I suppose.” Dave: “No there are those.”
“This next song is from our Bahamian period… hanging with the Baja Boys … and Ozzy.” Tim says, “This is the song about our cats at home. They’re still around Alfalfa and Wolfman.” A great version of “Introducing Happiness.”
Martin says “Christopher” is about growing up in Ontario. I wrote it when I was quite young. There’s a cool jamming solo in the middle that Tim gets in on as well.
At the end of “King of the Past” Tim says, “nice song, Dave… Martin: One of the many songs that Dave writes and others sing. Tim: And finish for him–i wrote the third verse (try to make sense of it). Dave: “That’s what a band is all about… a musical soccer team.”
“I’ve been cursed with a problem that a lot of people have been…” Dave: “Being Italian?” Tim: “Listening to too much Marianne Faithfull.” Martin: “I never know what’s going to come out of my mouth.” Tim continues: “This song pretty much sings itself.” Dave: “We’ve got the Hitmaker 2000.”
Martin plays “P.I.N.” and says, “I’ll do the rock and roll thing and ask for help for you to sing along.”
“Mumbletypeg” opens with Dave saying, “have you heard the news, there’s going to be good rocking tonight. We’re going to bring back all of the 80s catch phrases because we lived through it. We suffered through … a few good moments in a sea of piano key ties. Tim starts “calling out the chords” –give me a C minor. Tim “That’s it. That’s enough. Two C minors are pretty good.” Dave: “Whatever you want, Tim. G? A7? D? I know all the chords.” Tim: “How about some handclaps…. No I don’t like the handclaps. I liked the C minor better… wait C minor with handclaps. Mike: “I feel like Tyler Stewart back here–keep going Ty! Dave: “You don’t have enough splash cymbals to pull of the Tyler Stewart.” The song sounds great.
“Pornography” is sent out to all our american friends. And then as Martin plays “In This Town” he says, help me out i haven’t played this in a year. What’s the verse everyone?” Everyone happily sings along.
Dave: “So we’re breaking up and it feels alright. We’re all going to be a mess tomorrow. When are we going to have a big stage cry?” Mike: “Are you going to play the note that makes everybody weep?”
He’s not, instead they play a lovely “Loving Arms.”
And then Paul Linklater “The Scribbled Out Man” will play with them. Mike says, “You guys got a nice drummer (It’s Don Kerr). Tim: “And so do we.” Mike: “I’m not threatened.”
Ford asks how many people have been in the Rheostatics. Dave: “define ‘in.'” Does Seth the Magician count? He wasn’t into us.” Then some solid advice: approach with caution when playing with magicians. Dave: “I gotta be careful that Mysterium doesn’t put a curse on me. Then more words of wisdom from Geddy Lee: “always take your wallet on stage.” Tim: “And I’ve not lost a dollar since I’ve been in this band.”
Martin tells a story about that one time the woman with the short skirt and the diaper was dancing at the Town Pump. People were pointing at her and after the show she and a guy with a harmonica and a neck beard were going through our coats on my amp. She was wise to the Geddy Lee advice. Dave: “It actually was Geddy Lee.” Martin: she was doing splits on stage really hard in her adult diapers–the diapers must have been for cushioning not pee pee. Luckily we never have any money so martin didn’t lose anything.”
Martin: I went to see Colin Hay… some people after they finish… they go on tour and sing their songs and they spend about half an hour talking about how I wrote a fucking song. (Dave: I think you’re selling Colin Hay a little short”). And the guy from The Kinks and they’re brilliant and I love them but get off the stage already. Dave: “Colin Hay talked about being drunk at the US Festival — he was wearing a brown suit and decided to shit his pants rather than using the porta porty.”
Dave: “That’s where I’m headed story and song isn’t it inevitable.” Mike: “Live and incontinent.”
I wrote [“The Ballad Of Wendel Clark”] about being a skinny effeminate Etobiocokian kid, angry in my basement and I didn’t like the guys who liked hockey at the time (Tim: at the time?). “Hey, I got into the playoffs last year.” The song features the bridge from Stompin’ Tom Connors’ “Bridge Came Tumbling Down”). There’s a wild picking solo from Paul Linklater (sounds nothing like Martin’s playing). Paul’s first band was called Gig Vest from Justice, Manitoba, they totally blew us away and we’ve been fans of Paul’s ever since. Tim: “but we mostly prefer the early funnier stuff.”
“Song of Flight” sounds gorgeous and segues nicely into a wonky and fun version of “Song of the Garden.” They play a noisy weird jam. Dave: “take it up to A. they start playing “Radios In Motion” by XTC (they keep chanting “new science” which leads to Ford singing “She Blinded With Science” and playing weird chords.
Dave starts off “Queer” by singing the chorus of “Big Leagues” by Tom Cochrane.
They send “Queer” out to Hawksley Workman. After a few verses it segues to a slow “Saskatchewan” which eventually leads back to the conclusion of “Queer.”
Somebody yells and insanely long “yeah” it lasts about 8 seconds as Dave starts singing “The List.” I assume it’s an early version. It’s followed by another acoustic song “My First Rock Show” When he gets to the Massey Hall line, he starts a “Massey Hall” chant.
Hey Ford, what was your first rock concert Ford: D.O.A. (that’s too good) my first larger show at an arena the first one my parents knew I was gong to was Big Country in Munich in 1984. Big Country were kind of the ELO of new wave. For D.O.A., I had to sneak out because I was young. Dave: Do you have a D.O.A. song you can do for us? It’s only fitting. Tim Vesely was born to play D.O.A. drums. Ford starts “The Enemy.” Then says, they used to give me money to do that. It’s a fun interlude: “Wonder if Martin has done his cigarette yet.”
For the first encore they play “We Went West” with some input from the other guys-backing vocals and Dave saying “I remember that.” The songs seems to rock harder by the end. “Joey 2” is solid and uneventful but his voice is pretty much gone for “Self Serve Gas Station.” He whispers some of the moments but his voice is lost on “the morning time has come!”
“Michael Jackson” is pretty quiet (with Tim singing “abc,123”). Finally Dave asks Tim: “Do you like the rock?” Tim: “I don’t know I like the classical, I like the jazz.” Dave: “Martin’s got the rock, Timmy’s got the roll. Mikey’s got the funk. Fordy’s got the roll” Tim: “I don’t feel it…. I’m starting to feel it…. I still don’t feel it.” An extended ending started by Tim on bass with Martin adding solos.
Then a quick run through the “Green Sprouts Theme” with Tim calmly saying “from the ground” but then screaming, take it to the bridge!”
They came back out again for “Legal Age Life” w/ Peter Elkas and Ben Gunning from Local Rabbits (and no Martin who was having a beer and a chat at the back of the bar for this encore). Four fans sings verses. They all try to jump to the chorus too soon, but they sound good. Then it’s time for a guitar solo or a bass solo we’ll have one of our guests–the shaggy guy or the clean cut guy (clean cut!) The guy plays the solo. Then the shaggy guy plays a solo. And then the segue into “Record Body Count” which Ben or Peter sings.
Then they talk about the weirdest fans:
- the girl Julia who brought a stuffed chicken to all our gigs
- Kai the Ass Dancer guy with irreverence sweatband who did creative dance to our early days
- the guy with a Riverdance headband who did creative dance to our early songs.
- the gypsy from Dawson City
“Oh, there’s Martin.” They call him up from the crowd, it’s pretty neat watching from the crowd. Tim: “make sure you know the words.” There’s talk of Padre Pio and bilocation. They send “Stolen Car” out to John Tielli. Martin: “he’s my brother….I mean literally.”
They apparently ended the show with an acoustic “Northern Wish,” although there’s no recording of it.
[READ: January 6, 2018] “Take Me”
I have only read one other piece from Lispector and it was peculiar, but I liked it.
This one was peculiar but I did not like it at all. I’m willing to accept that since it was an excerpt from the novel The Chandelier, it was less clear than it could have been. But no, this was just an unpleasant read.
It begins with Virginia looking in the mirror . The entire story is in her head. She knows she looks lovely and she wonders “who will buy me? I want someone to buy me so much. I want someone to buy me so much that…that…that…I’ll kill myself.”
Then she goes out on the town, kills a dog (seriously) and asks a disgusting man to take her. He gets all excited and then she stepped on his face and spat on him. (more…)
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