SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS–The Media Club, Vancouver, BC, (October 21, 2004).
Every year, the Rheostatics would perform what they called Green Sprouts Week in Toronto. In 2004 they did a West Coast version. Five nights in a row at The Media Club (with each show being crazier than the last). There aren’t always recording available for these shows, but on this leg there are recordings from the third, fourth and fifth nights.
This recording is about 90 minutes and I assume is edited (most of their GSMW shows are quite long and there’s no banter). There’s also crazy static on a certain instrument, which mars the quality somewhat.
The band has added keyboards, although I’m not sure who is playing them. Morgan from The Buttless Chaps guests on a nice rendition of “Claire.” They play a great version of “Jesus Was Once a teenager Too” with a folky breakdown in the middle. “Take Me in Your Hand” is slow but really good.
There’s goofing on “Song of Flight” with them ending the song quickly and booing and yelling “stinky” I wonder what happened). “Marginalized” is blistering and “Record Body Count” is a little goofy. Perhaps the highlight of the night is “Horses” which is an amazing rendition and ends with a few lines and acoustic guitars from “When Winter Comes”
The encore starts with “Pornography” a song later recorded by Bidiniband. Then there’s some great harmonies on “Dope Fiends and Boozehounds.”
They do a rocking version of Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime” which is musically spot on, even though no one really knows the words. The last few songs are more covers. A very fast version of Jane Siberry’s “One More Colour,” and then a perfect version of “Takin’ Care of Business” (the guitar and vocals sound right on) which segues into a sloppy/fun “My Generation.”
The Green Sprouts shows often allow the band to mess around a bit which is great for fans.
[READ: July 21, 2015] “The Duniazát”
I generally like Rushdie’s work. This story is told in the style of a 1001 Arabian Nights tale and consequently I didn’t enjoy it that much. Although I was interested to find out some details about those stories. There was originally a Persian book called “One Thousand Stories” which had been translated into Arabic. In the Arabic version there were fewer than a thousand stories but the action was spread over a thousand nights, or, because round numbers are considered ugly, a thousand nights and one night more. Huh.
The stories featured a beautiful storyteller knows as Sheherazade, who told her tales to a murderous husband in order to keep him from executing her.
Anyone, in this story, Rushdie tells a similar type tale.
Set in the year 1195, the great philosopher Ibn Rushd (I enjoyed the play on his own name there) was a physician to the Caliph. But when he started espousing liberal views, he was discredited (sound familiar?). He wound up living in a village where Jews were forced to convert to Islam and could not speak of Judaism. So he felt right at home as an outcast. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 