Let's drink to the boys that we all left behind.

Last night, I made my way out to George's for a show that no one seemed to know whether it started at 9 or at 10. I got there a little bit after 9, and it was quite obvious that it wasn't starting then, but that didn't really matter. I just sat and drank. But before I knew it, it was 10, and the sound check was just getting underway. Still next to no one in the whole of the Roadhouse. It wasn't until nearly 11 that a small crowd of about 15-20 people showed up and the band got underway. The opening act, due to a storm, couldn't make it, so the United Steelworkers of Montreal played a double set.

Now I really liked these guys. There are six of them, creating a mess of acoustic guitar and mandolin and banjo and accordion and playing some simply wonderful blue-collar union country music. The personality of the live show and Gern's over-the-top shouting and banter, it's incredible. He's a big hulking tattooed man with a little travel guitar, and on the other side of the stage you have the red-haired vixen that is Felicity with her accordion and equally harsh voice. I loved the show, just loved it. I'll be seeing them again next week in Saint John, and I really can't wait.

USWM - The Ballad of Mary Gallagher
USWM - Three Hard Knocks

The dead dead children were worth it: Vancouver/Whistler Olympic Games!

SUCH a fantastic concert, holy mackerel. I don't know where to start.

I'll give you this much and retire for the night: Geoff's set started off with a bottle of Jameson being passed around the audience and then back to the band. Singularly wonderful stuff, this concert was. The quote in the title is from a song about government cutbacks..

Now here I am, writing a day on, and still a little bit in awe of the whole thing. Between and amidst songs, Geoff would make little comments here and there, stop the music and get to talking. The whole thing was just so amusing, so much fun to be around. The atmosphere at Struts, with the carpets down etc, it made it feel like it was just these guys playing in somebody's basement. It was the three of them, Geoff Berner with his accordion and singing, Diona Davies on the fiddle and Wayne Adams with a djembe and cymbals. The three of them work so well together, they're all just so damned talented, and so much fun. Stories were interspersed on the subject of eastern-european tours and just, my word. Diona's fiddling was magical, it really was. I don't know how else to describe it. But I'm in love with the fiddle, and with the accordion... songs about drinking, songs about smoking, songs about living hard. Folk music, real folk music, played in a dirty klezmer tradition. He held the audience, his good-hearted stories and sarcasm and wit and alcohol. The songs have a piquancy, if I can turn a phrase, that make them so wonderful to hear.

That, and the fact that the crowd was in stitches through half the show, make this one of the best I've yet been to. I'll upload music sometime. Keep an eye peeled.

THINGS IS FABULOUS

Today, CBC Radio 3 has announced the Top 10 live music venues in Canada.

The list has been pared down from 100 over the last little while, per votes at their website. Finding the best club is going to be done the same way.

George's Fabulous Roadhouse, right here in Sackville, has made the Top 10.

Get to the site and vote your pretty little fingers off!

Another blast from the past.

Hawksley Workman was my gateway drug into real music. I first heard him when I was in grade 7 or grade 8, and really got into his music in 2002 when I got to high school, and got myself a copy of The Delicious Wolves. When I saw him, I forget if this was when I did in 2004 or when I almost did in 2005 but the show was cancelled at the last minute, I picked up an album of early recordings he'd done, back in 1998, and just put out. For one who thinks The Delicious Wolves/Almost A Full Moon were the last good albums he put out, this was exciting. And the music is delicious. So now I'm going to share a couple of tracks with you. Do enjoy.

Hawksley Workman - Every Creepy Pusher
Hawksley Workman - I Can Be A Rock
Hawksley Workman - Your Naked Body

Things.

Life, it's strange. I'm not a big fan of some of the things in my life, at the moment. There are enough beautiful things to make it worthwhile, but, you know, some things should just be evacuated from my world. Take them away! Off with their heads! &c.

I also wish things would clean themselves. And papers would write themselves. And midterms would un-exist. And lots of things. I wish people were in different stages of living, different stages of life.

I wish I could just live music. That would be beautiful..

2009-02-16

THE MONDAY NIGHT SPECTACULAR
2009-02-16

1. The Tom Fun Orchestra - Last of the Curious Thieves
2. Adam Mowery - Dead Teenagers
3. Joel Plaskett - Down At The Khyber
4. Alicia Penney - So What Do You Think?
5. The Weakerthans - One Great City!
6. Boxer the Horse - Jackson Leftfield
7. Olenka & the Autumn Lovers - Soldier's Waltz
8. Geoff Berner - The Whiskey
9. Old Man Luedecke - Big Group Breakfast
10. Matt & Chris Time - That Someone Special
11. The Superfantastics - Lullaby Punches
12. Kyrie Kristmanson - Jump
13. Shotgun & Jaybird - Re:Tired
14. The Port City Allstars - Jenny With the High Socks
15. Hey Rosetta! - Handshake the Gangster

I've got to stay alive and drunk and unemployed.

This Wednesday, 18 February, Geoff Berner is playing at Struts Gallery, assumedly around 8. I can't find a time for this anywhere. I've given his latest albums a few listens, and it's enthralling.

He's an accordion-player from Vancouver whose mandate is to "drag klezmer music kicking and screaming back to the bars". Really, this is all that really needs to be said. He plays jewish klezmer music in a three-piece with a violinist and a drummer, but with the mind-set of punk music. It strikes me as having a lot in common with ska, but maybe I'm just crazy. I'll write a full review after the show, but for now you'll have to settle for a couple of songs. Take a listen! Enjoy the music! Come out to Struts!

Geoff Berner - Fukher
Geoff Berner - No Tobacco