Oh Nintendo, You Really Do Love Deep Frying Squirrels

I'm not sure that I can ever properly explain why I would be so excited to see songs about Nintendo, pirates, Jesus' love for the Hamilton Tigercats, hot-dog-cart neighbors, hating squirrels, and loving deep fryers- but I am gonna give it a shot anyways...

A few years ago... Many years ago... Six years ago when I had first moved to Halifax, this 'singer' named B.A. Johnson got stranded out east and had to play several shows a week in order to make enough money to get home. I happened to see him open for Cuff the Duke and was really really REALLY taken by surprise. In his own words B.A. is a 'thirty year old boy,' who follows the golden rule of 'write what you know.' Only all B.A. knows is working at a fast food restaurant, playing video games, and living in his mom's basement. Surprisingly it makes for some of the funniest and most entertaining songs you'll ever hear, and perhaps consequently un-suprprisingly, I used to go see him play on almost a weekly basis. Eventually he made enough money to go back to Hamilton/Peterborough and I never saw him again. Until...

Fast forward to this past summer: I get a tantalising update of B.A. when, while at the hillside festival, I see a gentleman wearing a brand new B.A. Johnson T-shirt! He saw him perform in Peterborough only last week! B.A. has a new CD! We both love the 'I hate squirrels' song! I am sad he is not coming to Ottawa...

Fast forward about three weeks: My friend Josh is telling me about his weekend and mentioned that he saw "This guy B.A. Johnson play..." and I kind of flip out about it. I love B.A.! You love B.A.? You know who B.A. IS? I am excited josh knows who B.A. is! Josh is excited I know who B.A. is! We agree to go see him together next time he's in town...

Fast forward again to last night. B.A. at Irene's. We showed up part way through the opener and the bar was full (Full!?!?! but no! we have to see B.A.!!!). Waited for about half an hour and finally got in (with some gentlemanly 'No Ladies, you go ahead first.' -thanks Phil and Josh!) with a few songs to spare. then B.A. took the stage. Maybe stormed the stage would be more appropriate? Engulfed the stage?

B.A. Johnson is someone you really have to see live in order to fully appreciate him. He is one of the most skid people you will ever meet. He's got a damn respectable beer gut and some killer chops (yes, the facial hair kind), and I don't think I have ever seen him without a trucker hat (usually accompanied by a plaid shirt if wearing one at all). And he is funny. I mean really funny. He doesn't take himself seriously at all, plays the guitar and keyboard just well enough, and remembers all people who come to see him every time he's in town. He gave me a free CD when I told him that my ex took my copy when we broke up. I mean c'mon now, how can you not love this guy?

The night did not disappoint- it was funny, ridiculous, entertaining, and just a little bit gross. We drank beers, sang our hearts out, squeezed in to the women's bathroom for the smallest stage encore I have ever seen (B.A. standing on a sink is a sight not to be missed, in fact it need not be missed, as that up there is a video of the very event to which i just alluded...!). It was great.

Also it ended with me and two of my friends trying to prove we could kick the ceiling. Appropriate, no?

The Opposite of the Bluegrass Blues...

Have I mentioned that I have fairly recently discovered that I adore bluegrass music? I put it that way, because I am pretty sure I've loved it for a while, I just had this mind-block about liking country (aka country is the best kind of music to not-like...), but I think I was only lying to myself. Cuz bluegrass is amazing.

Yesterday I got to experience two firsts and a wonderful... twentieth? eighteenth? (I'm not really sure actually...) It was my first time at the Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield, my first time seeing (or even ever hearing of) Lake of Stew and my many many many-th time seeing the incomparable Old Man Luedecke.

So The Black Sheep Inn. I've heard tell of its awesomeness via our loverly CBC radio, but had yet to experience it for myself. Now I've been to a lot of new (to me) venues over the past year, from the good (La Sala Rosa, Irene's)  to the okay (the Bronson Centre), the awesome (Raw Sugar), and the pretty awful (I'm sorry Maverick's but your sound quality is just bad!), and the Black Sheep Inn is pretty tops. Sitting down without feeling stuffy (comfy chairs, good sized tables and standing room in back), good food and beer (mmmmm burgers...), not too loud (you can talk without shouting or feeling like you're interrupting the show), good sound (small enough to hear it mostly from the stage, but a good system too), and a great crowd (whom you get the feeling have been putting a shine on the bar for years..) this place is a great location to see live music.  (Elliott Brood there in January- can't wait!)

So last night we started off with Lake of Stew- and a better starter could not have been had! One of those five-seconds-in-you-already-know-you-love-them kind of bands- at least for me, the rest of my table, and most of the audience, judging by the explosive applause (and the first time I have ever seen an opener do an encore!). Bluegrass to the absolute core, this Montreal-based ensemble boasts a wash-tub bass, harmonica, mandolin, banjo (of course), guitar, accordion, kazoo and washboard-percussion-section (you'd think maybe I have a bit of a thing for bands with weird instruments... did someone say Graveyard Train?). With oddly old-timey voices to match their oddly old-timey instruments, these guys really know how to rock out hillbilly style (which, believe it or not I mean as a compliment!). They are so down-home its almost hard to believe they hail from such a big city. Part of that is the feeling that you're just hangin' out in someone's [very big] living room, listening to a bunch of friends improv songs about food, love, and guys who almost were sorta kinda good at track back in high school. I swear they could get an adamant country-music-hater slapping their knee after a song or two- something I will remember in future should I encounter such a person...

Lake of Stew  also just recently recorded an EP with Old Man Luedecke so he joined them for three or four songs at the end (including the aforementioned encore). It was nice to see two bands playing together and feeding off of one anothers' groove (almost like a workshop sessions at the hillside festival)- I wish more bands would do that...

Which brings us to Chris Luedecke- I've actually been seeing him perform for years (almost six years I think?) but he never ceases to impress me. His banjo playing is always astounding, but its his storytelling skillz that bring everything together. Whether its through the lyrics or the best between-song banter you'll ever experience (especially impressive as he is up there all alone...) you'll soon find yourself smiling your face off. Watching him perform is particularly odd for me as I often get flashbacks (I tried to think of a different word to use there cuz that makes me sound like I'm in some sort of horrible superhero tv show, but alas it is the only one which seems to appropriately describe them...) to the first time I heard him play whichever song he is about to perform. I was there for so many of the "This is the first time I've played this at a show" times that it feels like I've been watching his journey as an artist... I know that sounds super sappy, and I am a little embarrassed at having written it, but Chris is just so adorable (and amazingly talented and friendly etc etc etc) that its difficult to not get a little soppy when talking about him.

There's just something about the simplicity and the, lets face it, friendliness, of bluegrass that really gets to you, especially when you consider its actual complexity, and sometimes deceptively serious subject matter. If you're one of those people who finds themselves sitting on the 'I Hate Country/I Tap My Foot to Johnny Cash' fence, check out Lake of Stew or Old Man Luedecke in concert and I all but guarantee you'll find yourself in a field of  'I Love Bluegrass'

The Best Drum Kit in All The Land

So a few weeks ago I kinda really ripped into the band One Hundred Dollars for being one of the most ineffective opening acts I had ever seen (aka super creepy, played for too long, would have been better on CD, etc...). To be honest (and I'm not sure if i said this at the time) but it kind of ruined the rest of the show for me. Alright, not strictly speaking, as it is practically impossible for anything to ruin Elliott Brood, but it was definitely the least fun I had ever had at an EB show... Now normally that would mean I would really try to never see said offending band again, but 'twas not to be so. Elliott Brood played in Montreal last night, and I could not resist, despite the opening act.

I was tempted to skip them (the opener, not the whole show) but I had hyped their creepyness so much to my sister and her friend that it would have just been mean to deprive them of their own experience... Then I realised that it was actually a win win situation- if they were horrible again I was not only prepared, but would enjoy seeing everyone else's reaction, and if they were great (or even just good!) I would be pleasantly surprised. The only way they could possibly disappoint me would be by being slightly better than barely passable. So I guess technically more of a win-win-lose situation (66/33 odds are better than 50/50...) So we went for the whole show. Good decision.


One Hundred Dollars
To be fair, it would have been pretty difficult for them to get much worse, but One Hundred Dollars' performance was vastly superior to the last time I saw them. There were no scary eyes and pointing,  no glares full of loathing, no horrible tension and sense of impending doom... I mean don't get me wrong, the lead singer still had her super creepy moments, but they were few and far between, and actually seemed to fit with the songs (as opposed to overshadow them like the darkness of everlasting night...). It felt like classic country instead of the jumble of conflicting and depressing visuals (and soundicals) of their previous performance. The lyrics fit nicely with the flowing and surprisingly upbeat music, the crowd sang along with most of the songs (we even seemed to learn a lot of new ones by then end) and everyone benefited from the general sense of camaraderie resulting from this being the last date they would play with Elliott Brood. It didn't completely wipe their last performance from my mind, but it was a good set and it created a mood the way an opening act should do. Should I ever happen upon them at a festival or as an opening act, I look forward to having my first impression of them more fully expunged.



Elliott Brood
Now THIS is what I'm talkin' about!!! With the much much MUCH improved opening performance the crowd was in just the right kind of mood for the Brood boys. Enthusiastically joking, jumping and juggling (ok there wasn't any juggling- I just couldn't think of another 'j' word...) they blazed through  one of the best sets I've ever seen them play. With songs I havn't seen in years (President 35 was faaaaantastic), classy duds, and the best drum kit this side of anywhere (ok I might be a little biased, but c'mon, a birch bark and tree-cross-section kit? so appropriate...) they had the audience belting it out and dancing along with every song.  Danielle even mentioned that this was practically the most enthusiastic she had ever seen a Montreal crowd (an impressive compliment, as many Montreal concert-goers will know).

Elliot Brood's strikingly appropriate and amazing drum kit

Nobutseriously I am completely in love with their choice of visuals...

(Its not every day you get to love a band for their music and their artwork!)

I wouldn't have admitted it before, but I was really disappointed in the last show and pretty sad to have to have that as my most recent memory of them for even a few weeks. Happily this fantastic concert has all but erased the un-fantasticness of the former one. Next up? At the Black Sheep Tavern in January... Four times in seven months? Not bad.

Oh right, one last thing; my sister finally got the opportunity to massively make fun of me for my Mark Sasso love when he walked in front of us and I turned all red. Really really red. Yes they could tell even in the dark, that's how bad it was. Damn band loves... Now I just have to figure out a way to get back at her by making her be suddenly face to face with Library Voices...!

Cuff the Duke: They make bad sound sound good

Oh Cuff the Duke, so very country, so very Oshawa, so very much the only band that seems to be able to consistently sound good when playing at the consistently-bad-sounding Maverick's... I'm not quite sure how they do it- perhaps they are very thorough in their sound checks? Maybe they've just played there so many times that they have this special way of tuning their instruments? Maybe they're just magical... Whatever it is, they consistently deliver.

I don't know that that sounds like a compliment, but it is certainly meant as such. With Cuff the Duke you know what you're getting: they're straightforward blue collar guys singing about their experiences growing up in a straight-up blue collar town- something that is a really common experience in life, but not something commonly sung about in music. And it speaks to me. It sounds corny, but its true! There is something about  Cuff the Duke's music that makes me feel at home.

It may be because half of my family is from Oshawa- I grew up going to family gatherings there in the old house, driving by the GM plant, thinking it was super cool to have a corner store literally right on the corner (we didn't really have that kind of stuff in the 'burbs). So many of my Grandma's childhood stories were about the quintessentially blue-collar-Oshawa that I'm sure I likely always pictured it as the depression era town where my Great Grandfather fixed porches to put food on the table and my Grandma scooped at the ice cream counter... but there is just something about Oshawa, something shared by London Ontario, by Edmonton, by Winnipeg, and by parts of Calgary and Hamilton... something so rarely captured in popular music but so clearly its very distinct thing... and Cuff the Duke  encapsulates it perfectly.

Maybe thats why they sound good at Maverick's when everyone else sounds like crap- They understand the uneven floors, they understand the weirdly placed pillars and the unhinged bathrooms doors, the room sees that they understand it and it pays them thanks by helping them sound good. Or maybe they just sound that good. I guess we'll never know...

Please tell me you love something this much...

I am at this particular moment realizing the extent of my love for Elliot Brood.

Its extensive.

Having said that, I find that I don't really care one way or another whether friends, family or strangers feel the same way.  Elliot Brood brings me great amounts of joy (They make me happy when I'm feeling sad, happier when I'm already feeling happy, and like dancing around my living room when I've had too much to drink. that may or may not be what I am doing at this very moment. Yes while holding my computer and typing. I'm just awesome like that), but it is completely inconsequential to me whether they make anyone else just as happy. What I do want, what I want most definitely, is for everyone to have something, anything, that makes them feel like this. A band, a television show, a favourite meal or whatever else. Something, just something, that makes them feel like everything in the world is fine. Like nothing could possibly be wrong if something so happy-making exists.

Because seriously, if the opening chord of The Valley Town doesn't represent all that is right with the world, I am made of a pile of sticks. Or carrots. One of the two.