killer-deadly

One thing I learnt this summer break is that I couldn’t possibly get enough of Great Aunt Ida. Sure, the songs are gorgeous and catchy but it’s mostly the way Ida carries herself on stage that makes them so appealing. Her bantering in between songs is humbly humourous, which contrasts with the air of confidence (rightfully so) in her music—like she’s saying “I know my stuff is good, so pay attention.” Needless to say her performance at the Butchershop was excellent; Dan Goldman and Peter La Grand were not shabby either, although Peter’s set was probably a bit too long. Openers should not play longer than half an hour.

Summer School Week 6

I feel lame – last weekend was the first time I’ve been to the Candy Bar. I’ve been meaning to go for a while but every time there’s a good gig there I seem to be busy somewhere else, whether it be a friend’s wedding or a radio show I have to fill in. Frank Rumbletone has been hyping the place quite a bit and it was nice to finally check it out. A description of the place follows, please note however that even though I’ve seen a few episodes of Restaurant Makeover, I’m no Debbie Travis so please take my comments with a grain of salt. As soon as I walked into the Candy Bar I was treated to a restaurant the style of a 70’s café – with booths along one side of the wall, a counter/bar on the other, and two black couches in between. It seems like a good cozy place to hang out. The stage area, the place where the bands play, is in a separate room down a hallway in the back of the restaurant. This backroom resembles a mini basement rec room with a small stage. This two room setup is unheard of in Vancouver but very common in Toronto and apparently Portland as well (or so I was told). It certain works well and makes it a marvellous place to check out bands.

I’ll be in Toronto for North By Northeast this weekend, which is neat but it means that I’m going to have to miss a whole whack of first-rate shows here in Vancouver. Great Aunt Ida’s CD Release party is happening Friday at the Western Front; they’ll be sharing the stage with The Fits and Joel RL Phelps with The Secret Three. Great Aunt Ida is wonderful to watch, the new album is fantastic, so don’t miss this show. However, if there is some sort of restraining order preventing you from hitting that side of town there are other options. Rumbletone is putting Sparrow with* The Neins Circa* at the Marine Club, and Prints, Badamps and the Spinoffs at the Candy Bar on the same evening.

If you go the Railway Club regularly, you probably know Dana and understand how she makes visiting the bar a little bit more worthwhile. Funny and always having a good story to tell, she is a favorite among bar patrons and the bands alike. Obviously I have to stop by the Railway last Sunday for Dana’s final shift, jut to ordered my last Guinness from her and wished her luck with her new career (a daytime promotion job—she gets an office and client and such, sounds pretty sweet).

Hope you got enough rest last week because this weekend is going to be insane with Music Waste happening all around town. At $15 a pass it’s the best deal in town, and I don’t think I’m being biased here (most of you probably know that the festival is in part organized by the Only staff). For the price of a movie and a drink you can get a pass that’ll get you into 20+ shows showcasing well over 60 acts. If you haven’t show hopped before, you should start this weekend – trust me, it’s fun.

The official start to Music Waste is on Thursday and some great shows are happening. The Immaculate Machine, Regional Hats, Parlour Steps and the Basement Sweets are at the Media Club. The Basement Sweets are coming out of a long baby-related hiatus. At the Adonai Pub (which used to be The Columbia/Mike’s Tavern), there’s Human Hi-Lite Reel and Ghettoblaster. And finally the Raking Bombs and Live Girls are over at the Pic. Got your Music Waste pass yet?

Like many expected, there will not be a New Music West this year, as the industry smooch-fest is taking some time off to regroup. All in all it’s probably a good thing since the 2004 festival wasn’t particularly well run, especially for an event that’s dying to be mentioned in the same breath as South by Southwest or Canadian Music Week. On the other hand, the anti-New Music West, Music Waste, is back and fast approaching once again this year. By the time you read this you should be able to buy passes to the festival at your local mom and pop record shop. Last Friday night I went to the Music Waste benefit show at the Lamplighter, and it was a blast. Fun 100 was the first band on stage and I’m starting to really dig these kids from Abbottsford. Catchy songs, tons of energy and a hell of a lot of fun. Hot Loins came on after Fun 100 and they are a keyboard punk band who started the set with knitting yarn wrapped all over their bodies, which was a bizarre sight. Their music was good, although it could use a tad more variation. The singer mentioned that this was only their second gig ever, if that’s true then they are quite a promising act. Every time I see The Christa Min I’m always distracted by the name of the band – every five minutes I’d think, “Where’s Christa Min? Why isn’t she on stage? Oh wait, she’s not supposed to be in the band…” And if you are going to name your band after Christa Min the least you can do is put a giant photo of her on the drum set. Am I alone in thinking that this is the obvious thing to do? Channels 3 & 4 ended the evening, and they were mighty swell as usual. I always love it when I see Sarah strutting into the crowd and doing her stuff.

Last Friday at the Waldorf the bar pulled the plug on the Raking Bombs half way through their performance. They were scheduled as the lone act in between the two sets Foster Kare was going to play that night. Because of the premature end to Raking Bombs’ show, Foster Kare refused to play their second set and thus ended the evening. I wasn’t at the show myself to witness it firsthand but I did talk to some of the parties involved.

I caught this evil, nasty flu last week and was bullied into staying home. I had to miss the Dead Meadow/Jennifer Gentle/The Out Crowd show at the Brickyard on Friday. Too bad ‘cause I heard good things about it. I did make it out on Saturday for a couple of shows, starting with the Girl Nobody video release party at the Media Club. I have never seen Girl Nobody or been to one of these video release shindigs before so it seemed like a good idea. Bontempi opened the show and were excellent, as always.

Last Thursday I was at the Exclaim showcase at the Commodore and the thing was surprisingly packed. The place was almost full when Montreal’s solo electronic pop act, Montag, got on stage. His material sounded a lot like stuff you’d hear in a Super Mario game, but I’m not speaking about the cool tunes you hear during the boss battles or even in the ice caves – I’m talking about the lame music you hear when Mario is flying in the clouds or walking in a field. So I hid in the back until it was time to see Apostle of Hustle.

Music Waste is not happening for another two months, yet somehow this past week I went to 7 shows and saw a total of 18 different acts (yes, I get enjoyment from counting these things). There’s really not enough space here for me to discuss everything in detail so I’m only going to touch on a few highlights here and there, hoping that I don’t confuse all of you.

A lot of folks were quite disappointed last Saturday when they showed up at Richard’s only to discover that the Decemberist/Okkervil River show was postponed. The Decemberists’ trailer containing most of their gear was stolen in Portland on Thursday and the band just wasn’t able to find replacements for almost $45,000 worth of gear – the majority uninsured. Ouch. Maybe because of the cancellation, Pub 340 got quite busy that same night and the crowd was treated to a good bill. Human Hi-Lite Reel started it off with an entertaining and more intense than usual set. True to their name, Abbotsford’s new-wave pop-punkers Fun 100 were a hell of a lot of fun to watch. Their “Computer” song is about as danceable as they get and bonus points to the lead vocalist who wore the same Mario Lemieux T-shirt that a friend of mine had in Grade 7. The night ended with Paper Lanterns who weren’t bad, but compared to the other two bands they were definitely bordering on the bland side.

LAST week I went to the And You Will Know Us from the Trail of Dead show, and really, we should force these guys to always end their tours in Vancouver. They played a kick-ass set, but I’m still thinking “Man, they didn’t break as much gear as they did last time.” More destroying please.
This Friday night at the Lamplighter we have the big launch party for Only Magazine—you know, this masterpiece of Canadian literature you are holding in your hands right now. Not to brag, but there are also a lot of other brilliant writers in the pages of this magazine that have worthy things to say besides me, so come down and show your support. Buy Alan Hindle a drink while you’re at it. And here’s your chance to tell me that I was dead wrong and your band doesn’t suck. And if that’s not enough, there’ll be a sweet night of music with T.A.L.A. Band, You Say Party! We Say Die!, and Video Games rocking out while DJ John Cougar spins the records.

I don’t know how they scheme up this shit, but last Saturday the VPD went to the Astoria Hotel and basically ordered the owners to cancel the Descention/Demyse/Anatolian Wisdom show and close the bar for the night. Apparently the cops were worried the crowd would start a riot and burn the hotel down like they did to the houses on Main & 12th. What the fuck? This is a concert for music fans in a city-licensed venue with staff and security, not some half-assed drunken party in an abandoned house. “Sucks but had enough dealings with the city to know when to comply or else. With this compliance we get to enjoy our beloved music another day as opposed to not at all”, says Wendythirteen. She has been putting on shows like this for years at the Cobalt/Asbalt and the most trouble you’ll get is maybe somebody will spit on your face a couple times. Not exactly a cause for a riot, folks.

Normally finding a good house party in Vancouver is a cinch, all you have to do is to visit the Party Army webpage and voila you have a shopping list of choices. But not this week. The word is that cops have been monitoring the website regularly after the infamous 12th & Main house fires—they are so scared about this weekend that they’ve even visited the house where a high profile Halloween party was going to take place and promptly cancelled the party. In order to save parties from being preemptively stopped the Party Army decided to shutdown their website. So this week you’ll have to find your parties the old fashion way, by word of mouth.