Scene and Heard with Will McGuirk :

The Green Bottle opens Saturday

News of a new live music venue in the Lady Shwa is most welcome. The Green Bottle is on the site of the old Tailgate Charlies/ Tequila Willies behind the Golden Griddle on King St. The fact thats its been operated by Craig and Jen Toutant is even more welcome news. Craig has been on our scene for years and has been in more bands concurrently and chronically than anyone I can name. He is a drum machine.
The bar will feature live music nightly with an emphasis on originals. Frequency Tuesdays will be run by one Matt Diamond and that line up recently announced is ecletic to say the least.
August 4 - Matt York, Hybrid Radio, Hello Marx, August 11 Anthony Howell, Elvyn, Anderson Council, August 18 - Dan Brooks, We Paperback, The Grey Owls, August 25 - Backlash, Urban Preacher, Breaching Vista.
Saturday August 1 is the kick-off party but there will be an actual Grand Opening in September. Saturday's gig includes the Mark Inside, Volcano Playground and The Fuzz. $5 will get you through the door.
This bar has been the dream of Craig and Jen for such a long time. Scene n Heard wishes them all the best and I know all in the D-Rock do too.

July 31, 2009 in Music | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gigs This Week

Friday July 31 Patrick Dorie, Trish Robb and the Bootleg Glory play the Groove Lounge

Saturday August 1 the Mark Inside, Volcano Playground, The Fuzz play the Green Bottle; Liqourbox, Doug Hell, Baker Muck Rattlers play the Atria.

Sunday August 2 Arietta, Exclaimation Kid, Love The Empire, Soundspeed, Baker Muck Rattlers play the North Oshawa Community Centre.

July 30, 2009 in Music | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hillside Festival 2009 - Lightning strikes twice

pix by alexis ward

Four days later and I am still riding the Guelph Hillside Festival buzz...and it was not induced by any artificial means but by Nature at its worst and humanity at its best. I may ride it for a while. I hope so...right into the SHWALTZ set for September.
So why the high? Put simply simply the best fest I've been at. My list is short actually...I am a music lover who lives in Oshawa which seems to have an allergy to music festivals. I'm no expert on Bonnaroo or SXSE or Coachella or Winnipeg Folk Festival or VirginFest. I did go to Glastonbury one time which was wicked. However Hillside has been named among the best festivals and this weekend past was the best of that fest. Best ever easily.
Line up: Buffy St. Marie, Loreena McKennitt, Tokyo Police Club, Skydiggers, among the bigger names... Attack In Black, USS, Hey Rosetta, Great Lake Swimmers, Patrick Watson, Final Fantasy among the up 'n comers.
Yet while the music was wonderful it was the actual festival atmosphere I will recall for quite sometime.
Babies, seniors, hippies, indiekids, moms, pops, gay, straight and everyone inbetween.... Tillyhat wearing, backpack toting rubberbooting it through mudslides then sun dried then mud slides...Hillside pride bursting at the doublestitched sides.
On Sunday evening clouds continued to build. Rain expected. Final Fantasy took to the main stage and began. The Guelph fiddler was alone as curtains of rain enveloped him, driven by double digit kilometre winds. Security scurried and crew crawled to cover the equipment on stage. Lightning appeared to the west.... heading east. The call was made to shut down.
Final Fantasy (Owen Pallette) refused, calling for one more minute. wanting to finish his song, wanting to finish his headlining set on his home fest before his home crowd...one more minute and he played faster and louder and faster and louder daring the wind the rain the weather to take him on.... a dual to possible death... alone before the wrath... such courage such conviction...such power he had...he held off the forces with his bow and fiddle. He sang, he sawed at the instrument... until the sound grew to the cloud tops and then the crowd began to notice, began to see, slowly the clapping started, then cheers then roars of appreciation, then all at once it was like the surge of thunder and lightning the audience joined with Owen and refused too to give in. We stood together against the storm. Too briefly because eventually, Nature bats last and the show was put on hold until She, tired of tossing us around moved, on.
But what a time. What a memory.
Yet not the best of the Festival...
Nope, because earlier there had been a worse storm....
First a few musical highlights, The Arkells on Saturday night in the Island tent killed it...packed tent, over capacity folks flowing out either side, body surfing....my all access pass wasn't so I stood outside backstage, glimpsing the band through an open tent flap, watching them thrash on stage while the drummer's shadow played on the tent wall beside me.
Stood main stage side stage for Buffy St. Marie, witnessed in person the Universal Soldier, now ticked off the Things To Do Before I Die list.
On Friday USS (Ash and the Human Kebab, frequent visitors to the Velvet Elvis) also thrashed their way through their set on the Island stage. Herky jerky actions from the Kebab as he scratched and spun the turntables with just about every part of his body. Again the tent was at capacity. Last time I saw those kats it was over a bottle of Jaegar in the Groove Lounge parking lot, down by the creek.
I have to say that a lot of what I was feeling that weekend was pride...pride in the D-Rock.... USS are honourary members. Jonas Bonnetta and Kat Burns were there too as guests of Ohbijou (featured in this month's Exclaim). Jonas and Kat joined the band on stage for a number.
Timber Timbre (Taylor Kirk) had the tent packed too. He held the kids rapt with his box of effects and goth-country.
Paul Lowman of Cuff The Duke was also at the festival; he's been sitting in with Gentleman Reg on tour.
Also performing Jay and Jesse Baird and Fred Squires all members of Julie Doiron's band.
What I found most remarkable and what was fuelling the sense of pride was that the musicians from Durham Region are not particularly well known.... no superstars but they are well known by their peers. They are respected by other musicians and often invited in as tour or session players. So stand up DROCKERS and clap yourself on the back for your accomplishments. If only the folks back home saw how well you were doing I think they too would swell with delight.
Julie, Fred, Jesse and Jay sat in with Patrick Watson and his band for an improv workshop. They made songs up on the spot which were both hilarious and credible. Paddy Watson by the way is a very funny chap, quite comfortable on stage.... a real entertainer. His set prior to Final Fantasy was a revelation in technique. Funny thing was he didn't play The Storm which was getting closer every minute.
Didn't stay for all of Gentleman Reg's set ( he was on the same time as Watson and Julie) so not sure if he played We Are In A Thunderstorm. My guess is he did.
However I was on hand for that first downpour of Sunday. There were a bunch of Shwakats I was to meet side stage for the Witchies and the Clues (presented by Pop Montreal). Only Liise Whalley made it in so we stood waiting for the band to set up. Next thing we know this incredible rain dropped in literally, like in buckets, in seconds the ground was flooded, the fields turned to mud, the trails impassable...just a mess of Bliblical proportions. Folk, babies, prams, kids, players, equipment pushed in under the tent. Room was made for all. We were forced closer together seeking shelter. Rain poured down and in on the grassy floor. Long poles were used to push the water off the tent roof, flooding down the backs of those to slow to notice.
We were told to stay away from the metal poles supporting the roof. Don't lick the pole either was the cry. We waited. The storm ranted and raved and stomped and raged outside. Trees bent like wheat as an invisible hand moved over them.
I looked at Whalley and in a euphoric moment began to sing Neil Young's Like A Hurricane. While outside the thunder roared inside we sang.... "And I'm getting blown away...".
Then something remarkable happened. A few folks near us joined in... folk with scared kids and wet clothes began to sing. The soundman must have figured it because over the speakers came Neil himself singing....loud, louder than the storm..."You are like a hurricane....."
Chills, goosebumps, hair raising, electrical moment with hundreds of folks singing in the oddest choir in the oddest circumstances...our protection was a song. Such a time. We drew that song in around us tighter, a sheild.
We thought we had Mother Nature on the run. No such luck. She clapped her hands and we knew who was the Boss. An almighty apocalyptic crack deafened us as lightning struck the Childrens Area outside our tent behind us (no official confirmations on that but I overheard security speak). It stopped us cold. Eyes wide open. The Old Mother reminded us we are here at her bidding and her will.
Right before me and Llise a young girl was brought in, a place cleared for her on a picnic table. Onsite medics attended to her. She had been hit by lightning... well she had bare feet and was standing in a puddle when the lightning had hit close by, travelling up her legs. I was told she had collapsed. lay still momentarily then stood back up seemingly OK. She went in to shock. Funny in a macabre and ironic way.
The rain eased off. Ambulance and Fire wound their way through the winding Conservation road up the causeway to the Festival's island site. I left to check on my tent high as Benjamin Franklin's kite and for the same reason.
My respect for nature deepend but my belief in art as humanity's best defense was solidfied.

July 30, 2009 in Music | Permalink | Comments (1)

Dustin Bentall Outfit - Six Shooter

Download 01 Railroad

July 29, 2009 in Music | Permalink | Comments (0)

Neil Young Archives Vol1

The Thrashers Wheat blog has gotten around to filing on NY Archive box released earlier this year. I don't have $400 to drop on this, no editor to expense it to and no connections at the label to have one shipped out so I'm deferring to the TW blog. For all things Neil the TW blog is gold anyway.