Scene and Heard with Will McGuirk

Downtown RSVP

I've had this idea for a while...still working out some kinks...but tell me what you think...

Download RSVPnov.pdf

OS2L play Groove Oct 30

A quick heads up to y'all heading to the likker store on Gibb over at the Oshawa Centre where One Second Two Late will be playing about 6 pm ...the band have also booked a surprise gig at the Groove for Thursday evening. They go on 11 pm. Good times as those in the know say. Its 19+ however and still no word on whether they open for Hedley on Monday or no at the Regent Theatre.

The Danks/ 21 Tandem Repeats

Sold Me Out
The Danks
Samples/ Collagen Rock Records

Seven songs in under 20 minutes make up this EP from Charottetown's other pop rockers. Two Hours Traffic are labelmates with the crew. This track with handclaps is walking on sunshine to a gem of a song. I wonder what Joel Plaskett could do with these chaps if he took on the role of producer as he did with THT?

 

On Frozen Pond
21 Tandem Repeats
No Junk Mail Please

Billed as Vancity's folk rock gurus, I find these guys as uninspiring as The Love Guru. There is a bit of the Rheostatics in them but not enough. Dave Bidini wouldn't pen such insipid lyrics as "Some people like to shop/ they shop until they drop" as this band sings on Mr. Greenie over a weak funk beat that hasn't been heard since the Parachute Club lost all that hot air. On Frozen Pond is for all the hockey heads out there. There is a bit of Stompin' Tom in it but not enough. They namecheck a whole bunch of capital cities where the kids sing "I hope the pond freezes over"... but in a place like Quebec City, I think that's a given. Anyway they'd sing it in French. No junk songs please.

Blue Rodeo @ GM Centre

No photopass for me so I stole this from their myspace. Its from Vancouver.

from Bad Timing
"And maybe soon there'll come a day
When no more tears will fall
We each forgive a little bit
And we both look back on it
As just bad timing thats all"...

Blue Rodeo
GM Centre October 24

Greg Keelor must have known something those of us who had arrived early at the gig didn't, because the band opened with Rain Down On Me and when the evening was over the crowd walked out into...rain. Go figure as Spirit Of The West might sing and its proves as the next big name coming in November Mr. Bob Dylan may sing you don't need a weatherman etc.

The Skydiggers were in support but I think they'd needed their own support as their sweatervest country rock was sleepy and lost. They were really just a soundtrack to finding your seat. Best see them in a smaller venue...maybe a living room.

But Blue Rodeo sure have moved on up over the years and can command a hockey arena no problems. And who knew Jim Cuddy could rock out like that. He was giving 'er, in particular on an extended guitar solo on encore Trust Yourself. I'm more used to seeing Keelor with his Crazy Horse vibe, sometimes with The Sadies. Jim Cuddy is usually the balladeer as he showed when he played a couple of solo gigs at Johnny B's last year. Not tonight... Cuddy was a revelation.

The set was about half their latest album Small Miracles interspersed with the hits. After Try from their debut Outskirts (twenty years ago) Cuddy told the crowd... Many of you were wondering if I can still get up there...(referring to the higher notes of the tune...) well there you go he said. And yes he can still get up there. With a band as familiar as Blue Rodeo, (sometimes I think I could tell my life's story using just their songs), its easy to fall into the songs and forget exactly how good they are.

Five Days In May, Lost Together got the big cheers and on Hasn't Hit Me Yet the crowd sang the first few verses themselves. Great moment as the band played along sans Keelor or Cuddy. The two went sans band themselves when they did an acoustic version of Bad Timing, which underlined how uncanny this band is at capturing the minutiae of life and love. Its also one of the ten acoustic songs they recorded recently at Massey Hall and available soon as a CD/DVD titled Blue Road. The DVD portion contains a film by our D-Rock friend Juno winner Christopher Mills.

And a quick observation on the crowd which I'd guess was about 2,500, small for that room. Does no one know how to clap with the beat in this town? There was one group of girls on the other side of where I sat and they were just off, loudly off. I don't know what songs they were hearing but it wasn't what the band was playing.

And to the guy who parked two spots down from Mary on the south side of King, leaving the ass end of his Jeep out in traffic... thats just ignorant. Your mama may love you but you're not that special. Park properly Princess. We've enough problems downtown without you adding to them.

The Last Pogo @ Let Them Eat Cake

OS2L @ LCBO

A while ago I had a chat with Brian Pisani of One Second Two Late.  The band from Newcastle are touring on and off cross Canada tour with Hedley and I've been waiting to hear if OS2L will open when Hedley play the new Regent Theatre November 3. No word yet though. But we will continue to dig.

You will however get a chance to hear the crew as they have their own separate tour and its one I think every band would die or kill for. OS2L are touring on the LCBO circuit. Seriously the band have been setting up at likker stores throughout the province since Oct. 16. Dream gig really.

Its been dreamtime for the band since they bugged Greg Nori (treblecharger) enough that he came to one of their shows and then took the band on. He produced the record World Time Bomb released under Sony's Red Ink Music. Ian D'Sa of Billy Talent also produced. Having a couple of the genre's heavy hitters on board sure isn't gonna hinder a band and now the Durham Rockers have been getting the kind of airplay they deserve. Fear Of A Nation is the lead single and while the band do have some bigger issues on their mind when writing songs L4TW (Living For The Weekend) is about growing up frustrated in those off the map small towns (Pisani is from Newtonville), which dot the 905 and itching for Saturday nights. A sentiment every rocker of substance has expressed since Buddy Holly sang on Rip It Up... "Well it's Saturday night and I just got paid/ I'm a fool about my money, don't try to save/ My heart says go go, have a time/ Saturday night and I'm feelin' fine". OS2L continue the tradition of in your prime time teenage rock n roll.

The band will be at the Gibb Street LCBO on October 30, 6:00 pm. Thats the big one at the O.C.... and its just in time for the weekend.

The Mark Inside start it up...

Here's something you don't see every day... the upcoming gig listing for the Mark Inside on their MySpace is...

New York
Oshawa
Montreal... lol

Wicked. The MI are at this week in NYNY showcasing for the CMJ crowd... they play Fontana's Bar on the Lower East Side Oct. 22 if you're in town.

They are also showcasing at the M Is For Montreal Festival set up by Sebastien Nasra (of Avalanche) in collaboration with Brit fest programmer Martin Elbourne. He does Glastonbury and co-founded WOMAD with Peter Gabriel. This is the third year for "M"  which takes place November 20 to 22. 15 bands represent Montreal including We Are Wolves, National Parcs, Les Dale Hawerchuk and Duchess Says. While open to the general public more than 50 reps from festivals worldwide will be taking in the bands, scouting in effect for their own bills. Suits from Glastonbury of course but also Coachella and Vancouver 2010 plus press from NME and the The Guardian.
This year a platform for Hogtown has been created called T Is For Toronto. Woodhands, Arkells and the Mark Inside have been chosen to represent whats new and HOT in the T.Dot.

Of course the band's Oshawa gig is at the Atria this Sat. as part of the Let Them Eat Cake fun and games soiree. Crummy Stuff, Gay Fog and Gentlemen Husbands are on the bill. I'm hoping to get a screener of The Last Pogo as well which will air before the bands play. The Last Pogo is out now on DVD. Its a short film documenting the last punk show at the Horseshoe Tavern, held in December 1978. Teenage Head played and it ended in a riot. Colin Brunton is the director.

Pitchfork keeps the D-Rock

Some D-Rock kats make the tridential website... one time ShwaKat Fred Squires and Julie Doiron (Eric's Trip) join with Mount Eerie for Lost Wisdom. Their disc is featured under the Best New Music section.

Also Pitchfork faves BSS get some time onscreen from Juan's Basement. An intimate concert in a space meant for less.
Here.

By way of an explanation...

"We gave up our language, and that created a kind of scission that has never healed," he says early one recent Sunday morning over a glass of water. "But it has produced an extraordinarily rich and pliant literary tool in what we call Hiberno-English. People think it's English, but it's not. My theory is that the Irish language is a very oblique language; it's a means of evasion rather than communication. So it's a very poetic language. We're a very basic people. We don't like to say things directly, we don't like telling the truth."

Bert Archer takes stock of the state of Irish literature in today's Star. The International Authors Festival at Harbourfront is focusing this year on the Emerald Isle. The above quote is from author John Banville. I find it curious as I have always explained my style of writing in similar terms to those (few) who complain they have no idea what I'm saying in my in-paper columns. I, however, never knew the style had a label...so I'm a Hiberno-English writer. Sweetness. I guess I had better start communicating in Canuckster English otherwise I may lose my vast and learned audience.

The Mark Inside

The Mark Inside have added some new (killer) tracks to the MySpace... and they will be playing the Let Them Eat Cake party at the Atria next Saturday Oct. 25, along with Crummy Stuff, Gentlemen Husbands and Gay Fog.