SOUNDTRACK: BIDINIBAND AND FRIENDS-Yukon Arts Centre, Whitehorse YT (February 10, 2011).
Stolen From A Hockey Card
From the City of Charlottetown:
Hosted by CBC’s Ron MacLean, Stolen From a Hockey Card is a hockey-themed concert which pays tribute to Canada’s love and passion for the game of hockey. The impressive all-Canadian line-up of artists for the concert includes songstress Sarah Harmer, Chris Murphy (Sloan), Lennie Gallant, Stephen Stanley (Lowest of the Low), Carmen Townsend, Liam Corcoran (Two Hours Traffic), Bidiniband and former New York Islanders great and Hockey Hall of Fame member Bryan Trottier. [Not all of these performers are included below, if they were all there].
Each artist will write their own hockey-themed song which they will perform for the first time as part of the concert. In addition to their newly-written hockey song, each artist will also perform one of their own original songs. Bidiniband, featuring Dave Bidini, formerly of acclaimed rock band The Rheostatics and creator of the Stolen From a Hockey Card concert, will serve as house band for the evening.
The official line up: Paul Linklater – guitar; Douglas Friesen – bass; Don Kerr – drums
Geoff Berner – vocals, accordion; C.R. Avery – vocals; Buck 65 – vocals; Dave Bidini – vocals, guitar; John K. Samson – vocals, guitar; Kim Barlow – vocals, banjo; Mathias Kom – vocals, guitar; Sarah Harmer – vocals, guitar
There are 12 songs in total
Geoff Berner wrote “Fighting To Stay in the Game” The lyrics begin: “Mike Keenan ruined watching the Canucks for me when he traded away Trevor Linden.” It’s a rocking song that goes beyond hockey: “I’m just fighting to stay in the game… to keep the love of our spouses. …to keep the banks from taking our houses. …to keep the respect of our children. …to making a living not making a killing.”
I loved this verse about a hockey player I had not heard of: “As the first nations leader Gino Odjick met with the Pope (it’s true) / The Pope apologized for the Church’s role in Canada’s residential schools / I wondered if he was tempted to grab him by the jersey and pop him a few / but no, Gino forgave him. Said it was important to work together to build the future anew.”
After this one, he says, “I’m going to revert to form play a new song. It’s about people on the run trying to get to a country that is safe. There are a lot of people knocking on the door to Canada and we could have kids from Sri Lanka or Haiti playing hockey in the future. And that would be a good thing. The song is called “Wealthy Poet.” It’s all accordion and vocal–cool wild accordion riffs in between a strongly sung melody.
C.R. Avery performed “Already The Great One,” his story of the Wayne Gretzky transfer. He says, “I sat down to write a story about Eric Lindross–meant to write a good murder ballad. But that memory of Gretzky crying…” Avery has a raspy Springsteenish voice in this piano ballad. I enjoyed this section quite a bit: “I wanted to be that kid from Brantford, Ontario–between the pipes in a ski mask / I was cool like Ken Dryden / I was bad ass like Grant Fuhr / An arrogant outlaw: part Billy the Kid, part Patrick Roi (screamed wonderfully)–noisy screaming big loud pianos and guitars. It’s a great climax. And then after 5 minutes there a really intense electric harmonica solo.
Folk rapper Buck 65 was up next. He says, “So yea this is called ‘The Borje Salming Massacre’ a song about the night in November 1986 that Borje Salming got cut on the face and required 200 stitches. The backing band plays along–the chorus is a slightly disturbing “look away.” He talks about how he always wanted to be a hockey star, but after that incident, form which he couldn’t look away, even though “the Leafs won that game in the end / but I never played hockey again.” He also plays a short fun song called “Wicked and Weird” (not hockey related). It’s his folky rap delivery over some interesting electronic percussion and samples.
Dave Bidini and Bidiniband performed “Val Marie.” Bidini talks about being a Leafs fan but when he was in grade 10 he made a TV tray and put Bryan Trottier’s face n it. Why not a leaf? He can’t say. But Bryan Trottier and his brother used to play in Val Marie Saskatchewan, and he says je was one of “hockey’s greatest musicians.”
John K. Samson is there “making his case for Reggie Leach joining the hall of fame.” His song “Petition” has a “choir” backing him: “we the undersigned put forth his name.” The host asks him why Reggie Leach. “I always thought he was an exemplary and fascinating player. Growing up I was not a Flyers fan, I was more of a Habs fan, but we made an exception for Reggie because he as from the Interlake Region…. Woah.” Reggie Leach comes up on stage. Samson: “I’m flabbergasted.” Samson, also plays “a song about curling. he was at the Dawson City 112th international bonspiel.” He plays a solo version of The Weakerthans’ “Tournament of Hearts.”
Kim Barlow’s “One Good Goalie” is an ode to Jaroslav Halák. She says, “this is for people who like goalies and appreciate their nobility. And it’s also for the gals who play hockey. She started playing and says “All the cool girls all play hockey in the Whitehorse women’s hockey league.” She sings that the first game she watched was for her boyfriend. But the game we caught that night was “the shining hour of Halák–he stopped 53 pucks they kept coming but he didn’t crack.” The chorus is just a repeated Halák, with a final line: “one good goalie made me understand I was born a Habs fan.” t
Mathias Kom sings “Dear Phoenix.” He says, “I went back to Winnipeg and was digging into the municipal archives and found a letter written by the city of Winnipeg that began, “Dear phoenix.” The Winnipeg Jets were transferred from Winnipeg to Phoenix in 1996. The letter reads in part: “Do you think they’ll be happy trading parkas for sunscreen. They say gentlemen prefer blondes but these are no gentlemen, they grew up with blood on frozen ponds.” He says the letter notes that they’d give it 15 years. 18 years later they changed the team name from the Phoenix Coyotes to Arizona Coyotes, which is not quite the same thing. Everyone enjoyed this line: “you can take the Jet out of the ‘Peg but never the ‘Peg out of the Jet.” And this fun conclusion:
I know there’s nothing I can do so please treat them well be loyal be kind and be true. Just so you know if i see you around my gloves will come off, you know i’ll throw down, oh Phoenix, I mean it I’ll break your arms and your legs okay, better sign off now. Yours truly, Winnipeg. Go Jets Go.”
Sarah Harmer “straight from the Wolf Island hockey tournament. She plays “Go to Sleep” and explains that “she had to go to bed after the first period and she would listen to games upstairs. Her dad used to do this one resounding clap when the Leafs scored. She imagined asking him to do two claps when they other team scores, but she never had the nerve. It’s a tender lullaby. The other song is “Harold Harvey Rink,” written by Luther Wright. Its a romping song about being a young hockey player and the various indignities you suffer for the love of the game.
Dave ends the night with “Land is Wild.” A somewhat subdued version of the song, probably because of the setting.
This is a fun show and is not the only Stolen From a Hockey Card Night. I don;t think it’s annual , but there was another one in 2015.
From the RheostaticsLive site:
Still have an old shoebox filled with hockey cards from your childhood? Did you sneak outside for a game of street hockey when you were supposed to be doing homework? Remember providing your own play-by-play, ending with “He shoots, he scores!!”?
This concert’s for you – all Canadian music celebrating the sport of hockey. Hear songs freshly written and performed by Dave Bidini and BidiniBand, C.R. Avery, Kim Barlow, Buck 65, Geoff Berner, Sarah Harmer, John K. Samson, and Mathias Kom. From Wayne Gretzky to Reggie Leach, from Borje Salming to Jaroslav Halak – emulated players get idolized in song.
Dave Bidini coerced this incredible line-up of stars to convene in Whitehorse to celebrate Scotia Bank’s Hockey Day in Canada back on February 10, 2011. The Yukon Arts Centre won’t ever be the same! (Eric Mac Innis)
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The fiance wrote home regularly but then the letters stopped. People feared the worst but his sister needed to know the truth. So Thacker and his family spent a considerable fortune (which they had), to commission a boat to find this man. Thacker feels a sense foreboding about the trip and well he should. (more…)
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