SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Railway Club, Vancouver, BC (November 1987).
It’s pretty impressive that this show (ostensibly from the same month as the previous show) has such a different setlist. Between the two shows they play 22 songs and only four are repeated. And this time five of the songs come from their debut album, Greatest Hits.
This tape begins with a recording of “Indian Arrow” by the 13 Engines. It sounds very different from the other songs on the tape–the audience is very loud and you can hear a woman say “I wanna sing this one” (!). I know this song from a Martin Tielli solo tour (and indeed, he sounds pretty much solo here–although there is a piano, too).
The rest of the tape all has the same audio quality but sounds different from the first song. “Crescent Moon” begins mid-song (as if it was recorded over by “Indian Arrow”). “Sad Sad World” is more upbeat than the title suggests with a “vocal solo” introduced with Dave and Tim chanting M-R-T-I-N in time with the music. An upbeat “Ditch Pigs” leads to some silly banter during the guitar solo. “Churches and Schools” sounds a lot like Talking Heads. “Bridge Came Tumbling Down” is a Stompin’ Tom Connors song–they really had been playing him since forever. Then they play a good version of “Higher and Higher” (from Greatest Hits).
It’s their last night in Vancouver, apparently which leads to a lengthy talk about he next song–a funky version of “Good on the Uptake” with lots of screaming at the end (from Tim).
The band plays the full version of “The Ballad of Wendell Clark” (with a some jokes about “Joel” whoever that is). It’s rollicking and stomping and Martin starts playing “O Canada” as part of the solo. Bidini stops the song and asks him to play it again, so Martin plays it on a good echoed effect (and Dave Clark shouts “alright Joel!”) There’s some inappropriate jokes before Martin launches into a delicate version of The Beatles’ “Across the Universe-“-not the best version I’ve heard but still nice.
The final song is a romping stompin “PROD”–the only song The Rheostatics play in G#. It has a fun shambolic end and it ends the set with them saying they’ll be back to play some Menudo tunes after a short break (which we never do hear).
[READ: January 15, 2016] Making Friends
It’s unsettling to me that the Liō books come in different shapes. This one is even hardcover! The contents of these stories are not unsettling to me though, even if they are to some readers (looking online, you can find gripes).
Liō continues to be a strange kid who loves zombies and squids and spiders and playing pranks. This is his latest book (and I just confirmed to see that he is still publishing daily, so a new book must be coming soon, right?).
Tatulli still has some great gags. And this format book has some of the strips in color. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 