SLCR #368: Headstones (November 25, 2022)

This was maybe the most concerty concert since we went back to doing stuff. Loud. Bright lights. So many people.

Granted, it was a band that was big when I was in university now playing the casino circuit, so it’s a concerty concert for people of a certain age, by people of a certain age. But I am of said certain age, getting more certain with every passing year.

In regards to said certain age, we got to the end of the workweek and the idea of going out to a show felt daunting. You know what’s nice? My house. I mean, not really; if you’ve seen it, you know it does a passable job of keeping the elements out and that’s about it. But it’s there, and we were already there. Did we really want to go elsewhere?

Ultimately, I guess we did. We arrived at the casino and the opener was already playing. I got a new Apple Watch a few weeks ago, and immediately upon walking into the show lounge, I was introduced to one of the new watch’s new features: the loud environment warning. “Repeated, long-term exposure to sounds at this level can damage your hearing,” it says. I know, watch.

The opener was Arcana Kings, formerly known as the Johnny McCuaig Band. The new name is probably an improvement, if only because I’ve never understood the Person’s Name Band format. Be a solo act or a band, not both at once. Anyway, to the best of my knowledge, I’d never seen them before, but I knew the name as they’re originally from Regina. This was fine. They had bagpipes, played by the aforementioned Johnny McCuaig, which worked for me and made them more interesting than your average bar band. They closed with a crowd-pleasing cover of It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll).

As for the Headstones, look, I really like the Headstones. For a few years there, I was seeing ridiculous numbers of concerts, and those shows elevated the Headstones in my eyes more than almost any other band I saw. They went from “I know of them, I’ve heard a few songs, they’re fine, I guess, I dunno” to one of my favourite bands of their era. They put on better live shows than their contemporaries that are still going concerns, and you know you’re going to have a good time.

But you also know exactly what you’re going to get. They’ll play all the hits, they’ll cover New Orleans is Sinking and House of the Rising Sun, you’ll get to sing along with the one that goes “fuck you, fuck you, fuck you and only you” (it’s called Fuck You), Hugh Dillon will wade out into the crowd with a long-corded mic and make the roadies’ lives difficult. (He came right up to me! I got to duck under the cord!) There were a few new songs – they just put out a new album – but then there are always a few new songs.

All of which is to say I didn’t dig this like I usually do, but it’s a me thing and not a them thing. Apart from just being tired and lazy at the end of the week, this was easily the loudest show I’d been to in years, and the most crowded show too. And we’re still masking, but judging from the crowd, we’re the only ones. (Mika overheard someone calling our masks “silly,” and if that’s the most flack we take over them, fine by me, especially since I didn’t even notice.) But between the volume and the people – and the strobe lights, and the prerecorded screechy noise they played upon ending their set – it wasn’t the best time I’d ever had. All we have coming up are smaller sit-down shows and that might be fine for now.

UPCOMING CONCERTS:
• Pierre Kwenders w/Selci and DJ Hendrika (January 27)
• Hawksley Workman w/Mauvey (January 28)

SLCR #367: The Art of Time Ensemble (October 14, 2022)

This was a delightful last-minute addition to my Toronto trip.

It wasn’t the delightful last-minute addition I’d planned on. I’d left my Friday night open to see what I felt like doing. I’d talked to Bop – that’s not his government name, which speaks to his parents’ poor decision making – and we’d talked of going to see Death From Above 1979. Mika introduced me to their music, and she’s seen them, but I never have. And I’ve never met Bop in person, so that had the potential to be fun. Or maybe super awkward. But more likely fun.

But after a week of late nights out at wrestling shows and lots of walking and touristing, DFA1979 seemed like maybe a bit too raucous for my old bones. Bop wasn’t feeling great and opted out as well. Shame we didn’t get to meet up – maybe I’ll drag him out to wrestling next time.

The last time I stayed with Steve in Toronto, the show that brought me to town was Hawksley Workman with the Art of Time Ensemble doing a night of Bruce Cockburn songs. This show was multiple musicians with the Art of Time Ensemble doing a night of Leonard Cohen songs. I found out about the show from a Steven Page tweet that morning, and that’s not even the first time that’s happened – a few years back, I saw the Art of Time Ensemble in Calgary covering all of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band because of a Page tweet the morning of the show.

I should mention that for both the Sgt. Pepper show and this one, Page was tweeting about them because he was part of the show and not just a big fan. Though he is probably a big fan. Might make for some long shows otherwise.

My touristy events for that afternoon were the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit that everyone else in Saskatchewan has already seen, as well as the Immersive King Tut since it was in the same complex. I think there were also Frida Kahlo and Bob Marley exhibits – or else the gift shop had some weird ideas about what people might want. This isn’t a Stupid Little Immersive Exhibit Review so I’ll just say that the Van Gogh was good and the King Tut was skippable but covering the floor with sand was a nice touch.

The immersive things were right near the Harbourfront Centre, the night’s concert venue, which left me with a bit of a dilemma. I didn’t have enough time to go back to Steve’s place – I could have walked in, high-fived everyone, and it would have been time to leave for the show. But I also didn’t have much to do, so I just walked around a lot. I found a Jack Layton memorial and a bunch of trains and the SkyDome (not hard to find; it’s big) and I ate a Harvey’s burger which is honestly never that great but we don’t have them here because whenever we get a Harvey’s, it closes (see above re: honestly not that great).

Eventually, I found a place to sit and catch some Pokémon and take a few pictures of the CN Tower (also easy to find because: big) before deciding that it was close enough to showtime to where they’d probably let me in. And they did.

Because I bought my ticket so late, the seat was obstructed view, so I’m not going to hazard a guess at how many people were actually in the Art of Time Ensemble. There was at least one I couldn’t see at any given time. It would have been worse except the folks sitting next to me spotted a friend on the other side of the hall who had empty non-obstructed seats next to her, so they went and joined her. This left me with a little section all to myself so I could turn myself in a way that would have been pretty awkward otherwise. Regardless, the sound was good and that’s what matters.

The featured performers were Steven Page, formerly of Barenaked Ladies and whom I’ve seen multiple times; Tom Wilson (Tehohahake) of Junkhouse, Blackie & The Rodeo Kings, and Lee Harvey Osmond, friend of my coworker and pal Carver and whom I’ve also seen multiple times; Tamara Lindeman of The Weather Station, whom I’ve seen once; Sarah Slean of… Sarah Slean, I guess, whom I’ve also seen multiple times; and Gregory Hoskins, about whom I know nothing.

Hoskins’ write-up in the program references his 32-year recording career and says “he has flown faithfully and agilely under the radar.” Can confirm. I asked friends of mine who know more about music than me. They didn’t know the name either. I looked on Wikipedia but he has no Wikipedia page. There is one for Gregory Hoskins and the Stickpeople, a Canadian folk-rock band best known for their 1991 single “Neighbourhood.” I gave it a listen and it’s good, but I didn’t know it. So this was me learning.

One artist could come out, sing one song with the Ensemble, then switch out for another. I think everyone wound up getting three songs across two sets, apart from the encore (you get no bonus points for guessing that the encore was Hallelujah – done by Page and Hoskins in the only duet of the night, for those keeping score). There were also a few writers who read things they’d written about Cohen.

I’m not going to go song by song, in part because I took no notes and this was 2 months ago and I know there were deviations from what was written in the program. I’d say that Slean was likely my favourite on this night, as her voice and style is best suited for retaining the nuances of a Leonard Cohen song, whether somber or playful or romantic – but still making the song into something new. Wilson, on the other hand, has a deep gravelly voice that came closest to the originals. But you really couldn’t go wrong here – you know the songs are great and you had your pick of five ridiculously talented singers.

You could also go wrong if you needed to catch a late night subway back to your friend’s place and you didn’t think you needed to look at a map on your phone to find a subway station and so you just wander around for like an hour, carrying a vinyl record that seemed like a good purchase at the time but was not meant to be taken on a tour of Toronto’s downtown. Hypothetically.

SLCR #366: The Pack a.d. (October 2, 2022)

Here’s a show where I don’t know the band that well and I don’t have much to say apart from “we went out and it was nice.” Are we really back to normal?

I kind of know The Pack a.d. I’ve even seen them before – 7 years ago, which seems both impossible and pretty obviously accurate. Loud, fun, more of a Mika show than a James show but not in a bad way. I expected more of the same and that’s what we got. 

We showed up fairly early and attendance was… well, we didn’t have to look hard to find parking. A theme that’s come back time and again this year and one I’m tired of. Go to shows. If you can afford it. And if you feel comfortable doing so. And probably like 20 other qualifiers. I do get it, as much as I want to pretend otherwise. 

The opener was a local duo called Spoils, or possibly The Spoils, both were said. There are multiple bands by this name (both with and without the the), so if you’re looking for them, you’ll need to narrow it down by location – though doing so turned up a Bandcamp page with one (1) song on it, so you won’t get much of a taste. Loud, guitar-driven rock that would seem to pair nicely with The Pack a.d., though it started off not being my thing. I came around somewhat by the end of it. Not sure if they got it together or if I did. Probably me. Mika liked them and she has better taste than I do.

The Pack a.d. was more to my liking. I only know a handful of their songs but they played them all and the set flew by. 

This was their last show of 2022 and I did sense what Mika later called some “end of the tour vibes.” It felt like maybe a little fatigue was setting in. Not in terms of the performance, which was great. I just had a sense that maybe they were tired and ready to be off the road for a bit. Or maybe I’m imagining things. 

I look forward to seeing them again in 2029 and having a delightful time and having nothing to say about it.

SLCR #365: Joel Plaskett (September 17, 2022)

This show has been planned for so long that my tickets have the show date listed as May 2, 2020. At the pace I’m churning these things out as of late, you’d be forgiven for assuming I actually saw the show then and only got around to writing about it now.

Some of the advertising said “Joel Plaskett.” Other ads said “Joel Plaskett Emergency,” implying a full band. When it was booked, I was pretty sure Mo Kenney was opening, but as we finally approached the actual show, it was made clear that Mo would be here and was part of the show, but wasn’t doing a set of their own. So I just put “Joel Plaskett” up in the title for simplicity’s sake. Even though we got a full band. And Mo did 2 of their own songs. See? Simplicity.

The Exchange was a smaller venue than usual for Joel Plaskett and it sold out. Having 34 months between tickets going on sale and the thrice-delayed actual show gave the stragglers lots of time to make up their minds too, I suppose. 

With no opener, the band split the show into two sets. Joel and two of his bandmates started things off, with Mo Kenney joining a few songs in to sing the “at the post office” verse of Extraordinary. 

The first set drew heavily from Joel’s latest album, and honestly, I don’t know it well. He once put out a triple album called Three, but his new album is called 44 and is – you guessed it – a quadruple album with 44 songs. And I love Joel but that’s a lot to take in all at once (said the guy sending out 4 concert reviews in one day). I’ve heard some of it and did enjoy it – I’ve never thought “this Joel Plaskett song is unenjoyable” – but for me, live shows will determine the favourites off 44 over time.

The second half leaned more on Plaskett’s back catalogue so there was much singing along. This is where you’d find your Fashionable Peoples and Love This Towns and whatnot, but still with a few new tunes. One he wrote for a virtual campfire for a youth organization. Named – and this is a thinker – “Campfire Song,” this was made for singalongs. It’s rare that I’d remember much from a new song at a concert a month later, but I could still sing the chorus of this one and I assure you I will not. In addition, Dave Marsh from the band sang a song he’d written called What I Like About Charles. Not about our new King. Presumably.

What can you say? This was super fun. I’d have been stunned if it wasn’t. The next time will be super fun too and hopefully we don’t have to survive another global pandemic to get there. It seems like a reasonable ask, and yet.

SLCR #364: Crash Test Dummies (September 11, 2022)

I still can’t really wrap my head around this idea that it’s 2022 and the Crash Test Dummies are just going to play here every few years. I thought this was all done. I think they thought this was all done. 

I was anticipating an issue picking up the tickets, seeing as how the credit card I’d bought them with went missing (I left it at the Co-op as I am smart) and has since been replaced. The last time we saw the Dummies at the casino, I wound up with them having no record of my purchase and they gave me handwritten blank tickets with the seat numbers on them, so I was fearing the worst. I said as much to Jeff, who replied “yeah, but you’re with me,” and that put me at ease. Not only has he gotten into multiple events with missing tickets, he once made it into an entire other country without a passport. And, true to form, we had no problem with at all.

I checked out the stuff table before the show and it was pretty packed. Most of their albums were there, CD and vinyl, all autographed. And there was a wider variety of shirts than I’ve seen at most concerts. I picked up a few knickknack type things that I didn’t need at all but the urge to collect is, sadly, strong.

The opener – somewhat of a rarity at casino shows – was Carleton Stone. I’d seem him before as part of Port Cities when they opened for David Myles a few years back at the Artesian, but this was my first chance to see him solo. You know he’s famous because he had a song on Heartland, which I only mention because precisely one of you is a big Heartland fan (two of you, if one of you is Carleton Stone’s grandma) and I want to see if you’re still reading these things. Stone played a short, delightful set that was well-received. 

Maybe a little too well-received, actually. Our table was up at the front. To our right was a very excitable fan who was so excited for the Dummies, so excited for Carleton Stone, so excited for life itself. He was all about hollering to such an overenthusiastic degree that you kind of thought it had to be sarcastic. Pretty sure he was just trashed tho’.

I’ve seen and written about the Dummies many times and at this point, if you still need me to tell you what they sound like, you don’t care and never will. The key thing to me was that for all the times I’ve seen them, this was the time where it looked the most relaxed and like they were having the most fun. Ellen and Mitch had a whole routine worked out for How Does A Duck Know, which made her the best part of a song where she wouldn’t otherwise have much to do. And Brad was back playing guitar on some songs, which I don’t think I’ve seen him do since the times I saw them in 1999.

Ellen later told me that she didn’t think it was one of their best performances. There did seem to be some confusion about what song was next in the set at a few points, but it didn’t detract from the show, and anyway, I blame the setlist. I swiped one after the show and saw that it had some manual edits, so something got switched around late. 

That setlist:

God Shuffled His Feet

In The Days of the Caveman

Swimming In Your Ocean

Here I Stand Before Me

I Think I’ll Disappear Now

How Does a Duck Know?

When I Go Out With Artists

The Psychic

Androgynous

Comin’ Back Soon (The Bereft Man’s Song)

The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead

(A Little Something was scratched out and KNIGHTS was written in for Two Knights and Maidens – and they played neither)

He Liked to Feel It

Superman’s Song

Afternoons & Coffeespoons

(encore)

Heart of Stone

The Ghosts That Haunt Me

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

They have enough hits in Canada that I momentarily blanked on what the last song was going to be and then felt really dumb. I could leave this out and not tarnish your impression of me but I’ll look like an idiot for Content. Not the first time, won’t be the last.

They haven’t had a new album out since 2010’s Ooh-La-La, and with the focus on the 30th anniversary of God Shuffled His Feet, we only got one song off that album. For something that – as far as I know – didn’t sell in big numbers or get any real traction when it came out, it’s interesting to see how Heart of Stone has become an audience favourite. You could hear a pin drop during that one.  

Also an audience favourite? Ellen’s dress, primarily to the lady sitting behind us who excitedly yelled “it has pockets!” 

I’m long since back to being a civilian as far as the Dummies are concerned. I really only keep in touch with Ellen, mostly just to send each other pictures of our pets or my friends’ pets. If you got a new kitten or puppy in the past few years, odds are she’s seen them. She asked where I was sitting beforehand and made faces at me throughout the show. I tried to respond to in kind, but I was masked so had to do a lot of eyebrow work. A few of the other folks shot a quick wave or nod in my direction, which was nice. Or possibly entirely made up in my head. Really, nice either way.

SLCR #363: Regina Folk Festival (August 5-7, 2022)

DAY ONE

“It was cold as fuck and it smelled funny.”

Thank you, random stranger, for this overheard quote which summarizes Day One quite nicely. As I’m writing this over 2 months after the fact, I appreciate the assistance.

After several years, the Regina Folk Festival was back under the guidance of a new Artistic Director. We liked the lineup and got weekend passes, almost like things are normal.

They’re not, of course. It felt weird to be back. I don’t think it helped that the crowd was slow to arrive on the first night, so when we got there – a good half-hour or more after the gates opened – there was no line and there was a ton of space for us to set up our chairs. It felt a little alarming, to be honest. I always harp on how few people come out to shows here, but the folk festival has always been immune to that. Thankfully, it filled out nicely by the night’s end so we needn’t have worried.

Those who were late to arrive might have missed out on PIQSIQ. Their loss, since Mika and I agreed, once the festival was over, that they won the weekend. Two throat singing sisters from Yellowknife – super talented, funny, charming – 100% would go see again.

Look, I have approximately 73 more bands to talk about and 3 other half-finished reviews to knock off after this one and I want them out in the world before I go on vacation. In 17 hours. So I’m going to keep things short and skip the folks who had the brief in-between sets.

And I’ll also apologize now for any hilarious typos. I’m writing these on my iPad because if I have to go sit down at my computer in the office, I’ll just never do them at all, and the iPad likes to change peoples’ names on me. 

Anyway. Next up was Julie Doiron and Dany Placard. I may have seen Julie Doiron once before, opening for the Brothers Creegan a million years ago. Or maybe I didn’t and it was Julie someone else. I remember never being 100% sure. Anyway, she also falls into the talented, funny, and charming group. She was also quite sleep-deprived and was kinda giggly and spacey as a result. As far as I was concerned, this only increased the charm.

I’d seen Cadence Weapon a few times, most recently at the Exchange where the attendance barely crept into double digits. He deserved a bigger audience that night and got it here, earning the biggest reaction of the night up until that point by calling out Justin Trudeau in the song Play No Games (“I must face the facts / my Prime Minister wears blackface but he don’t really wanna face Blacks”). That said, the crowd was also really into the digs at Toronto Mayor John Tory, who really has no impact on our Saskatchewan lives whatsoever.

We missed much of Black Belt Eagle Scout as we were off getting food truck dinner. I went to El Tropezón and got fantastic tacos. Highly recommended. Mika went to the Ethiopian place and got a sampler plate. Is it conspicuous that I’m not saying more about that?

The New Pornographers are great in an I’ve-seen-them-numerous-times way. We got a solid set with a nice mix of songs spanning their entire career. AC Newman tried swapping guitars due to a broken string in the middle of Use It, which resulted in the whole song basically falling apart and they had to do it over – funny that it would happen during one of their most well-known songs given they’ve probably played at nearly every show since they released it. They tried to laugh it off but seemed a little upset by it, but oh well. Just one of those things that happens when playing live. 

It was also, as previously mentioned, cold as fuck and it smelled funny, both of which the band commented on. Welcome to Regina!

DAY TWO

A few weeks before the festival, Saturday night headliner Buffy Sainte-Marie came down with covid and was unable to appear. 

Saturday morning, Mika found out that the samosa from last night’s dinner was, indeed, as gluteny as she feared, so we were also unable to appear. 

If you’re wondering if the samosa was worth it, she assured me it was not.

DAY THREE

With better weather, we were rested, recovered, and back at it. Well, I didn’t need rest or recovery, I felt fine on Saturday and could have gone out, but the lineup was the weakest of the three nights and the folks I wanted to see come around here regularly anyway.

The opener was scheduled to be Dominique Fils-Aimé, but she pulled out a few days before the festival and was replaced by rising local star Megan Nash. I had suspected – and this was later confirmed – that a few local musicians were on standby in the event that one of the advertised acts had to pull out late. Festival planning in the age of covid, I guess. Anyway, I’d have liked to see Fils-Aimé but I’ve always enjoyed Nash so this worked out well too.

William Prince is someone else I’ve seen quite a few times. Soft-spoken, folksy, pleasant. Pleasant is a good word to describe William Prince. “This will be nice,” I think before every time I see him. And it is.

People went nuts for Begonia. I had seen her once before and I know she’s come through town repeatedly, but wasn’t expecting the amount of love Regina has for her. I don’t know if I’ll ever be a superfan but I came around – she’s got a really strong voice and seems like a cool human. 

Somewhere in here I got El Tropezón tacos again. Churros too. Mika got… something else. Not samosas. She’s sitting not far from me and I could ask her, but it was months ago now. Do you care? Would you care if it was today? Probably not. You know what you need to know which is, get tacos from El Tropezón. Maybe she got tacos? Or taco in a bag because the actual tacos had gluten? That sounds right. Let’s just assume that’s what happened.

I’ve seen Jeremy Dutcher twice now. Fantastic both times. Last time, he was with the Regina Symphony, so this was a lot more relaxed and loose. Fantastic presence and fascinating art, combining indigenous wax cylinder recordings with modern classical-insipired music. I probably butchered that description but I don’t claim to know things. My point is go listen to this.

I liked the lineup this year but will admit that by the end of Sunday I was excited for Lido Pimienta – someone I actually hadn’t seen before! This was a very politically charged set and there were some folks who seemed displeased as they packed up and left early. Musically great. Politically… I mean, I don’t think there were any sentiments that would be unexpected at a folk festival. Maybe they’re not always so overt but maybe they should be. 

All in all, a fun year if you discount any samosa-related mishaps. Good to be back. Good to be outside. Gotta check the weather next time. And invent a way to check stink levels.

SLCR #361: “Weird Al” Yankovic (July 8, 2022) / SLCR #362: Spoon (July 19, 2022)

Normally when I finish writing a review, I walk away from it and let it sit overnight. I come back the next day, fix typos, create new ones, tweak anything that no longer works for me, and send it out.

I wrote the Weird Al review the day before the Spoon show. Walked away. Came back. Hated it.

This is not entirely uncommon. Sometimes I just have to get these things to the point of “good enough” and get them out the door. Besides, history has shown that I’m a terrible judge of whether or not these reviews are actually worthwhile. The ones I really like tend to get no reaction. The ones I toss into the void because I’m tired of thinking about them get lots of feedback.

But this Weird Al one, I dunno. I really didn’t care for it. I think the issue is that the show was essentially a rerun. It was my second time seeing Al on The Ridiculously Self-Indulgent Ill-Advised Vanity Tour (technically, this was The Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent Ill-Advised Vanity Tour). So for the second time, no costume changes, no fancy sets, and no parodies – just originals. Comedian Emo Phillips returned as the opening act. And I re-read the old review from 2018, and it was a lot better than this new one. More detailed. Funnier. I could tell I was more into that show. I strongly considered just rerunning the old one with whatever adjustments were needed since nobody would know the difference anyway.

I think the other issue is that I’m still not that gung-ho to go places or do things. In the past 6 months, I’ve skipped a dozen concerts that I’d have gone to without question 3 years ago. My excitement level isn’t helped by the fact that because we’re seeing so few shows, we’re mostly sticking to familiar favourites. And yet the best show I’ve seen this year so far was TEKE::TEKE, who I knew very little about going in.

Which is how I got here, combining two reviews in one, contrasting a longtime favourite in Weird Al with Spoon, who I never really checked out before now. Why not try something different. You get double the value for your money, and I get to solve my problem of procrastination by making more work for myself, which – as Jeff pointed out after the all-haiku review – I often do.

Attendance at Weird Al was decent but it was far from a sell out. Fans in balcony seats were invited to move down and fill up the floor. I assume it was a combination of things – he was running opposite a Rider home game, plus there are people who still aren’t doing stuff (or are being selective about what they’re doing). Moreover, this was The Unfortunate Return of etc. etc. and maybe people just don’t want all originals and a pared-back stage show from Al.

The turnout for Spoon made Al’s look great. We got to the Arts Centre with a half-hour before the opener, and audibly cussed when I saw how empty the parking lot was. I liked having my choice of spots and a guaranteed easy exit, but I’d rather bands be able to sell more tickets so we get more bands. The balcony people weren’t invited to move down since the balconies were never opened in the first place. We’d bought our usual end-of-row-L seats for the legroom, and an usher encouraged us to move to better seats. This is why Regina can’t have nice things; because when we do, not enough people want them. Just another in the storied history of under-attended shows here. Ted Leo can sympathize.

As I mentioned, Al’s opener, like in 2018, was comedian Emo Phillips. Much of his material was repeated, though there were some new bits concerning that thing that’s the only thing that any of us have talked about for years now. “Anyone here have a fake vaccine card? The great thing about those is you can still die from COVID.” For real, there were people who got up and left after that one.

Spoon had no COVID protocols in place. Al required vaccines or a recent test. That’s a clear point in Al’s favour, though the folks who were in line ahead of us to enter the venue would disagree. They couldn’t show proof of vaccination because they hadn’t been, they couldn’t show a recent test result because they didn’t have one, and they weren’t about to take a rapid test at the door. This couple was not impressed with “Weird Al” Yankovic’s pandemic policy, and that is a factual sentence I just wrote. These past few years have been wild and I want to be done with them. Anyway, eventually we got in a different line, this time behind a family of 5 all dressed up as 80s-era Weird Als. That wasn’t the fastest line I’d ever been in either, but I’ll take exuberance over belligerence any day.

Spoon’s opener was Widowspeak, a band from New York who… well, let’s be clear. I liked them. But they were the epitome of the “that was fine” opening act that I immediately forget about. It’s been two weeks and I just had to look up their name. I’m listening to the new album The Jacket right now. Light poppy not-really-rock, not bad but not really for me. They were much better musicians than Emo Phillips, though he was funnier.

It’s been a whole paragraph so let’s go back to everyone’s second favourite global pandemic. I assume Al made the call to resurrect his stripped-down Vanity Tour because it meant a smaller crew and easier touring during COVID, which… well, he tried. Not only did Al get COVID and miss a few shows along the way, but just before our show, keyboardist Rubén Valtierra popped for the rona, forcing him to spend days quarantining in a Regina hotel room. Of all the places to be stuck. A friend of mine described Regina as “a great place to live, but you wouldn’t want to visit there.” The first part is questionable but I get what he was going for. I hope Rubén enjoyed his stay and someone at least told him to order in from Italian Star Deli.

Rubén’s unexpected absence actually resulted in a bit of history – the remaining 4-piece band played together for the first time in that configuration since 1986. The band, total pros, shuffled up the setlist and delivered some unique arrangements – Al played accordion on the song One More Minute for what he believed was the first time ever.

The setlists for the Vanity Tour shows are crapshoots. There are decades worth of songs to draw from, and there’s no guarantee you’ll get any of your favourites. Or my favourites, which is really what I’m concerned with, and what I didn’t really get. Much like the last time, I wound up without the songs I wanted most – and about half were repeats from the last Vanity Tour show here:

Young, Dumb & Ugly
My Own Eyes
Airline Amy
My Baby’s in Love with Eddie Vedder
One More Minute
Midnight Star
I Remember Larry
Melanie
Buy Me a Condo
Generic Blues
I’ll Sue Ya
Bob
Lame Claim to Fame
Good Old Days
CNR
You Don’t Love Me Anymore
Albuquerque
Encore:
She’s Got Everything (The Kinks cover)
medley (Amish Paradise, Smells Like Nirvana, White & Nerdy, Word Crimes, Yoda)

Some of those are great. A handful should be left in the past. Albuquerque was an extended version of what is an already ridiculously long (and ridiculous) song. I didn’t know the Kinks song but he’s doing a different cover in every city and has the whole of recorded music history to choose from so I’m fine with what we got.

I don’t have a setlist of the Spoon show for you. I could get one – Jeff sent me an Apple Music playlist of the songs – but it would feel dishonest. I know Weird Al songs. I don’t know Spoon songs.

My introduction to Spoon came from The Main, a Canadian Food Network show from like 15 years ago. The Main had a catchy theme song, and one day I heard Spoon’s “I Turn My Camera On” and went “oh hey, that’s the The Main song,” except it WASN’T, the The Main song just completely ripped off Spoon. I looked for a video clip of The Main’s intro to prove my point but they appear to have been erased from the internet. I can still find a handful of articles about the copycat song but not the song itself. (CRZ, do not take this as a challenge, nobody actually cares about the theme song to The Main anymore.)

Anyway, I said for a long time that this was the only Spoon song I knew, so Mika played me The Underdog, and I had to admit I knew that one too, mostly from other times that Mika played me The Underdog. So that’s two songs. I am informed.

I suppose I could mention that I listened to both their new album and the Spoon Essentials playlist but it’s funnier if I’m dumber, you see.

I was already in a good mood by the time Spoon started because I saw Jeff arrive so I texted him that I could see his head and then he’d look around, completely miss us, and then I’d text him about his head again and watch him look for us again. It didn’t really have to specifically be his head except it kind of did? Don’t make me explain it.

When Spoon came out, we moved down the aisle to the centre and wound up standing for the whole show since everyone else did too. Fine by me. The crowd was small but appreciative, and should have been – this was great. Just a straight-up rock show with all the lights and bells and whistles you’d want (which I guess is technically zero since there were no actual bells or whistles – look, I only have so many ways to say “the lights looked really cool”). The handful of songs I knew were highlights but the whole thing was start-to-finish great.

I love Weird Al and always will and surely will wind up seeing him again if he comes back here. But this little experiment makes a real compelling argument that I should skip the repeat shows and make a point of seeking out new(-to-me) bands. Which I’m sure we’ll… uh… oh.

UPCOMING CONCERTS:
• Regina Folk Festival w/The New Pornographers, Cadence Weapon, Andy Shauf, Belle Plaine, Jeremy Dutcher, Begonia, William Prince, Megan Nash, more (August 5-7)
• Metric (August 19)
• Crash Test Dummies (September 11)
• Joel Plaskett w/Mo Kenney (September 17)

SLCR #360: Hawksley Workman (April 21, 2022)

Hey, this guy again. After 26 concerts, what’s there left to say?

Out of ideas, I asked Mika for advice.

“Write it in haiku.”

So that’s what I’ll do. That should make it amusing, if only for me.

Dez and Reagan came. We met at the casino (that’s where the show was). We had front row seats – Hawksley’s first casino show. Seemed like a good crowd.

Saw a guy from work. He’d never heard Hawksley songs – asked what to expect. I couldn’t answer. Kind of pop or rock or folk, sometimes weird – or not. Never got to ask “how was your first Hawksley show?” Maybe tomorrow.

Ads for future shows: Matthew Good, Gowan, The Trews. And… who? Elton Rohn? Is this man’s name Ron? If so, just use Elton Ron. That H complicates. Tribute bands abound. Gilvis or GTFO, far as I’m concerned.

Local DJ time! Five minutes of blah blah blah, then came Hawk and band. No Mr. Lonely – more like MISSED-er Lonely, right? Right? Anyone? ::sigh::

This is the setlist. Will it haiku properly? I guess we’ll find out.

Beautiful and Nat-
ural , Wonderful and Sad,
Your Beauty Must Be

Rubbing Off, Ita-
ly, Baby Mosquito, Dev-
astating , Striptease,

No More Named Johnny,
Battlefords, Piano Blink,
Oh You Delicate

Heart, No Beginning
No End, Chemical, Around
Here, Who Do They Kiss?

Tahiti Treat, Don’t
Be Crushed, encore: We’ll Make Time,
Safe and Sound was last

That worked out okay. Sometimes awkward, sometimes good. Better than I’d guess.

So, about that show. You all know that I had fun; here’s what was unique. With no Lonely there, not as many softer songs. Highlight was Striptease. Super cool version – Hawk played drum pads with mallets. That was new to me. All throughout the show, he played different instruments; guitar, drums, and keys. Something we noticed – Hawksley seems the happiest when playing the drums.

Not much stage banter – usually we get stories. Not so much this time.

When the encore came, Hawksley came back out alone. T’was just him and us. First we had to sing, then – for Safe and Sound – whistle. Two risky choices; We’ll Make Time is fast, not the easiest to sing. (And our whistling stunk.)

Before we went home, I cashed in my free slot play. Took home fifty bucks.

UPCOMING CONCERTS
(I’M NOT GOING TO HAIKU THEM)
(LOL JK I WILL)

Gowan, if I’m bored
Haven’t bought a ticket yet
Sometime in late June?

“Weird Al” Yankovic
Opener: Emo Philips
That’s on July 8

Spoon, July 19
Food Network copied their song
for the show The Main

Regina Folk Fest
This one will need two haikus
Buffy Sainte-Marie,
New Pornographers,
Lido Pimienta, more
First weekend August

Metric with Dear Rouge
August 19th they’re here on
the Doomscroller tour

Crash Test Dummies play
September 11 – uh…
I’ll leave that alone

After 2+ years
Joel Plaskett with Mo Kenney
17th of Sept.

SLCR #359: TEKE::TEKE (March 31, 2022)

The description of TEKE::TEKE from the email announcing the folk festival‘s annual Winterruption concert series was intriguing enough to make me want to go see them, even though I’d never heard of them before.

Except I had. CRZ played them on his radio show, and Mika was disappointed at being scooped by him since she’d had them on her list of bands to request but he beat her to them. I vaguely remember this happening, but had no idea that TEKE::TEKE was the band at the heart of the issue. I think I might be admitting that I haven’t paid enough attention to several people here.

This show was scheduled for January but got bumped out due to covid, which is how we wound up celebrating Winterruption mid-spring. The Artesian has thus far kept all its covid policies in place; namely, mandatory vaccines (it had been so long since I’d gone anywhere that I’d almost forgotten how to use the app) and masks. Plus, let’s say that the attendance allowed for a respectable amount of social distancing. Wasn’t a bad turnout, but there was room for more.

One person who didn’t stay for the show was this dude near us who was talking on his phone, mask down, waiting for the show to start. A volunteer working the show asked him to pull his mask up. The guy said he would when he wasn’t on the phone; the volunteer pointed out that this was not actually a request per se, to which the guy said “why are you having a FUCKING concert if you’re going to be so uptight?” The volunteer, who had the patience of a saint while doing the Lord’s work, asked the guy to leave, which he did, swearing all the way. Bon voyage, dicknose.

Someone else near us sympathized with Swearing Man, grumbling through the whole show, sarcastically berating the emcee for not wearing a mask while talking to the crowd, and pulling his own mask down whenever there were no volunteers around. Too cowardly to have an actual confrontation, too delicate to just wear the god damned mask already. At least Swearing Man stood by his convictions. His stupid, stupid convictions.

Our openers were local band Snake River, playing their first show together since before the pandemic. I’d heard the name but hadn’t seen them before. Country-tinged rock, or maybe vice versa. I quite enjoyed their set, probably more so because it had been so long since I’d been out listening to something like this. The highlight was a cover of the Sadies’ A Good Flying Day in memory of singer and guitarist Dallas Good. Not only did Snake River cite the Sadies as an influence (“every Sadies show was the best show ever”), but the Sadies were actually scheduled to play as part of Winterruption, but their show also got postponed from January and Good passed away in February. This was a really nice – if bittersweet – tribute.

Back to that description of TEKE::TEKE: “Featuring traditional Japanese instruments, flute and trombone alongside raging guitars and a pulsing rhythm section, TEKE::TEKE creates a sound reminiscent of 1960’s and 70’s era psychedelic Japanese soundtracks, with a frenetic, modern twist.” And sure, let’s go with that, it’s better than anything I’d come up with. They also mentioned during the show that they’d begun as a Takeshi Terauchi cover band before moving on to their own originals. As a Philistine, this meant nothing to me but maybe you are more worldly than I.

Anyway, the short version is that this completely ruled. I don’t really know how to describe it – if I did, I wouldn’t be stealing bands’ own descriptions of themselves from their websites in place of using my own words – so I’ll just say that quote above is accurate but undersells just how good they are at it. The energy was great and they were enthralling to watch. Would go again, would recommend to others, have already done so, am recommending to you now.

Based on crowd response, I don’t think I’m alone in my assessment. They got a terrific reaction. As we were leaving, there wasn’t a line for merchandise so much as a swarm. It looked like everyone who was there was buying something on the way out. I’m not sure when I last spent actual paper money, but this showed it still has use; sometimes you need to buy a record and holding up the exact amount in cash (it was $20, they made it easy) is the international sign of “I will get out of your way quickly.” Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy your way home to bed five minutes sooner.

SLCR #358: Glass Tiger (March 10, 2022)

Deserée is bonkers over Glass Tiger. I present this information merely as context; a way of explaining why, exactly, I was at a Glass Tiger show in 2022. She was there to watch the band, and the rest of us were there to watch her watch the band.

I updated the year, but otherwise, that’s how I started my last Glass Tiger review. In my mind, this was maybe 4 years ago, but no, it was more than 7 years ago. As if I need more evidence that the past few years have completely destroyed my sense of time. Is this review late? The calendar suggests so. But as far as I can tell, I was at this concert two days ago and also late last year. I don’t know anymore.

When I got the tickets, it felt like maybe we were coming out of this. Isn’t that quaint? We’d had tickets to see Glass Tiger back in early 2020, but it was one of the first shows that cancelled when the world went to pot. And now they were coming back, Mika and I were heading out to see them, and we were… not excited, really. Kind of anxious. I can handle doing stuff (to some degree), but I think it’ll be a while before I’m really INTO the idea of doing stuff.

This marked my first trip to the casino since all the everything. They’d used the downtime to renovate, so it was a bit disorienting. Looked nice in spots, had weird traffic flows in others. Mika and I both got smacked by this old woman’s bag and she seemed real indignant that we’d dare get in its way. “Old bag’s bag” would have worked better but I’m being kind and showing restraint.

We met up with Dez and Reagan, collected as many free slot play vouchers as we could (I wound up cashing out with $17 in free money) and took our seats. I got us a table up at the front; this was deemed acceptable. A local DJ introduced the show and we were off.

The place was nearly sold out and it was weird being around quite so many people. For the most part, it wasn’t a big deal – the only standing area was off to the side behind these bike rack style barricades. The beleaguered security staff was in charge of keeping the tipsy dancing ladies confined to the designated dancing zones; this proved difficult and eventually a gentleman in a blazer had to be summoned to provide reinforcements.

For the record, if you ever want to meet a whole lot of tipsy dancing ladies who are just slightly older than me, you could do a lot worse than a Glass Tiger concert.

I also saw the guy I always see at casino old-man rock concerts, the guy who looks like Ricky Morton. Truly, nature is healing.

As for the show itself, I could probably copy and paste most of my old review and it would all hold true. I still know more Glass Tiger songs than I realize and they’re still real catchy. They played pretty much all the hits you’d expect. And once again, the sound was a bit too loud for the venue. I can only say that with confidence after reading that I’d felt the same way last time; with no big concerts over the past few years, I couldn’t tell if maybe my judgment was just shot.

They did play a few new-to-me covers – Right Here Right Now and Heroes. The latter was prefaced by Alan Frew saying that “David” was missed, leading to – as I was later told – a conversation about who this mysterious David could possibly be. I’ll let you figure that one out on your own.

The show closer, to no surprise, was Don’t Forget Me When I’m Gone. I haven’t learned where the parentheses go since last time and I’m not about to look it up now. This was the song where the not-particularly-strong-or-real dam of security guards and bike racks gave way and fans rushed up to the stage. At that point, I was pretty pleased with my decision to keep my mask on throughout the show.
Frew led a singalong and was thoroughly disappointed in the crowd’s inability to mimic a slightly longer than normal pause before the “my heart would break” part. I didn’t see what was so difficult about this and I famously can’t sing. Maybe I shouldn’t have spent all my skill points on “accurate pause lengths.” Eventually, he wanted just the men to sing “my heart would break,” at which point a stranger (presumably one of the tipsy dancing ladies, but I can’t keep track of everyone) turned to me and hollered “WE NEED YOU!” It turns out that not only do masks help stop you from getting and giving illnesses, but they also allow people to assume you’re singing when you’re merely miming for their approval. Mika seemed amused by the attention I was getting, saying “See? You’d be fine if I died.” She made me promise to include this part. She didn’t make me promise to explain it, however. Anyway, the women had to sing “my heart would break” next and the stranger was very encouraging to Mika as well. This led to more questions that shall not be answered or, indeed, contemplated here.

After the show, we waited around as the crowd thinned out, allowing Dez to get a picture with Alan Frew and an autograph on her stolen setlist. That worked out nicely for her and the other folks who were late in leaving. Maybe not so much for Frew, who probably just came out to visit with friends, but so it goes. He saw those tipsy dancing ladies, he knew the risks.