SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Starlight Club Waterloo, ON (March 25, 2007).
Rheostatics ended the first (or second, or third or whatever it was) phase of their career on March 30, 2007, presuming never to play again. Before that final show at Massey Hall, the band played a few warm up gigs.
This first one was in Waterloo, perhaps a little over a year since their last live gig together. It was hampered by the fact that Martin Tielli had laryngitis (just a few days before their final ever gig!). Martin sounds like a caricature of a mobster whenever he talks–deep voiced and strangely Brooklyn-y. And, obviously they don’t play many of the songs that he sings lead vocals on. So, it’s a practice show of a sort.
Martin’s guitar is also too loud in the mix for some reason. This means you can really hear the great sounds he’s making but it’s really distracting when it’s all you can hear.
“Fat” opens the show with all kinds of crazy sounds that Martin is making. It sounds really cool and it goes on for quite a while, but it totally overwhelms Dave’s guitar and you can barely hear the bass. The first time Martin sings backing vocals, he sounds completely sinister.
Next up is “Marginalized.” There’s a long intro with some cool guitar sounds. Tim’s voice is so quiet and Martin’s guitar so loud that the song sounds bizarre. It also feels strangely subdued for such an angry song, but that may just be the mix.
“Me and Stupid” sounds good, although Dave forgets some words: “hang on, I got it, I got it.”
Dave tells a story of their first ever trip away from their home town. Thanks to doc who brought us in to our first show in Waterloo in 1981. We were ate the Kent hotel opening for L’Étranger, an old heroic Toronto punk/new wave band with Andy Cash, Chuck Angus and Bruce “Bruce P.M.” Meikle. [Interestingly as of 2011, Angus and Cash were both in politics, sitting in the Canadian House of Commons as members of the New Democratic Party caucus]. We had on our dad’s blazers–our dads dressed cool at one time. We did our set and were preparing to get high when L’Étranger showed up. They had ripped jeans and leather jackets and they were shaking. They had opened for the Dead Kennedys at the Concert Hall where they had been driven from the stage by spit and blood. We thought they were a real band.
Tim picks up the story: they decided t o drive around and went to a park to get high. Then the police came by. Maybe they’d never smelled marijuana in Kitchener/Waterloo, but they let us go. Then we couldn’t find our way out of the twin cities. We always got lost and ended up at the Alexanian Carpet Factory.
Paul Macleod fronts us for the next song, “Soul Glue,” another Northern Ontario tragedy. Although it is sung by Tim.
“Four Little Songs” runs to 12 minutes long. It has a fun cheesy keyboard sound and a silly long introduction. Martin sings his and sounds insane. Ford would you like to sing us a song? Ford recites a quote from Valley of the Dolls, and the band poo poos that it was a song. Martin sounding like a movie wise guy asks, “Ford was that really a song?” So Ford sings a new song about Martin having laryngitis and he gets half of the room to sing “laryn” and the other have “gitis.” Dave: “That bit’s gonna be great at Massey Hall.”
They do a really nice harmony at he end of the song “now they’re gone.”
Paul is back to the stage for “Little Bird, Little Bird,” although I’m not sure doing what.
Tim sings “Here comes the Image.” I guess Martin is not on this song at all because everyone sounds the same level. The keyboard solo is all back and forth in the headphones.
Guitar tech Tim Mech plays the terrific solo on “Legal Age Life.” Then Martin says, “we’re gonna do ‘Take Me In Your Hand.'” He gets cranky (or it’s just his voice–“oh Jesus, I’ll play it on electric.” They either don;t play it or it didn’t get taped. They move on to “Ozzy,” instead. Martin, “we’re skipping tunes… things are changing… We’re doing “Feed Yourself.” This version is really intense with a lengthy guitar solo. It runs about nine minutes.
Selina Martin comes out to sing “Dope Fiends and Booze Hounds.” She says, “Poor Martin broke his voice.” He makes up for it with a wild loud solo. Then the go for a break.
Tim comes back out for the encore. He says some nice things, explains Martin’s voice and says somebody asked “Row” which he hasn’t done in a long time. It sounds pretty good.
Andrew Roark the world’s tallest guitar tech and Paul will help us sing “Claire.” Then they start “Horses” and Dave asks, “who has it in them to sing ‘Horses’ for us?” The unnamed fan comes up and does a pretty decent job. Martin’s solo is also really loud.
Finally Paul Macleod comes back to sing “Record Body Count.” He says can you believe I get to to do this? This is fucking crazy? He sings an angry sounding version (not all that well). Then he starts singing the praises of the band–really lays it on thick. “This is the best band of all time. Nobody is as good as this. He gives a nod to Rush (Martin plays the Tom Sawyer riff). He ends with I cannot believe that I have been alive during the time of this band (Dave: Holy shit!)
Martin recites (incorrectly) the end of the lyrics in that scary voice.
Someone (Paul, Michael?) starts the “whoo hoo hoo” intro to “Aliens.” It’s pretty poor singing (he can’t get even close to the high notes), but it’s all in fun.
Michael: “give me more of Martin’s guitar in the monitor.” Tim: “give me more of Martin’s voice, I can’t hear him.” (ha)
They play a really solid version of “When Winter Comes” (all 8 minutes of it), with Dave correcting one mistaken lyric “It’s ‘coal men’ not ‘snow men.'”
The show ends with a wild, scorching rendition of “R.D.A” with lots and lots of screaming from everyone except for Martin. We hope that he will be ready in five days.
[READ: September 10, 2017] “Synchronicity”
I don’t know if it’s because I’m a city slicker or cosmopolitan or whatever stupid word people use for us East Coasters, but I don’t get stories like this. And I don’t like them, either.
I can never tell if there’s supposed to be something beyond the obvious–some down home wisdom that I’m missing, maybe?
As far as I can tell, this story is about a guy visiting his friend Ward. Ward likes to fix things, so when the narrator has a problem–like with his John Deere, he asks Ward for help. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 