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Sunday, November 28, 2010

Mighty Power/Sons of Nova/Moss Rock @ The V-Lounge [Nov.25th]

Christmas is a hard time for most. There are those out there that aren't as fortunate, and that's why Master Joda's series of shows this holiday season is such a blessing. All donations upon entry go to The Mustard Seed, though it seemed for this Thursday night, charity couldn't compete with Zone Band of the Month. Not that I am saying the Zone is evil. It was just a fair bit of bad timing. Even with a sparse attendance, the show must go on and there was no reason not to have a good time.

Mighty Power - Photo by Master Joda Promtions
Opening the night was Mighty Power. They had an 80's punk ethic with a nice leaning of funky riffs by vocalist/guitarist Miles Lyndan. Things were a bit shaky to begin with and the group was nervous. Drummer Ian Anderson shuffled along as Mighty Power found their groove. This was the first show with the group for bassist Pedro Java, but kudos to him, because he fit right in. A note for note cover of the Raconteurs "Steady As She Goes" was some nice ear candy, though they did little to improve or ruin it. Their performance got better as time went on and I really enjoyed Lyndan's use of jazzy funk chords, but there's something lacking vocally for this band in all areas. Miles Lyndan has a good voice. It's the melody and the lyrics that need some buffering. During one song, he sings about how there are bigfoots and smallfoots. I get the reference, but when you sing "The bigfoot steps on the smallfoot and the smallfoot says 'Ouch!'"...it lacks mature lyricism. I would also like to hear Pedro Java harmonize with Lyndan. There is a lot of room that could compliment the vocals. Lyndan was very excited to be on stage, which is great. I like how the band was getting into the music, and feeling it in their bones. It's when that excitedness creeped into Lyndan's banter when you wish he would catch his breath. At times, he didn't even know what he was trying to say. Sometimes the music does the talking just fine, and I thought they succeeded in warming up the small crowd tonight at the V-Lounge.

SON - Picture by Master Joda Promotions
A bit more people were coming in as Sons of Nova were setting up. I've seen the band a couple times and each show they crank it up a notch. The group kicked things off with "It's On", which will be off their new record. It's like if you combined the heavy rock of Black Sabbath with the swagger of Aerosmith and pushed it into a tar pit. The vocals are shared between bassist Aram Heinze [who is more gruff/in your face] and guitarist Codine Vandal [who has a more clean sound]. Vandal has come a long way as a singer. It's great to see this band where they are at now. They could easily headline and bring in a crowd. They even started the first and only mosh pit of the night. Another highlight was a Kyuss cover, but no one in the crowd [including me] seemed very familiar with it. They mixed new material with a few classics from their humble beginnings, though I do miss City Limits and End of the Line. 2nd guitarist Rex Gielfeldt did a great job beefing up the riffs when Vandal would bust into a solo. Speaking of solos, Heinze amazed the crowd with a bass solo as well. Not to mention Adam Griffiths, who was drumming up a sweat and battling with the stage smoke machine. Sons of Nova definitely have found their sound. It's an endless barrage of stoner riffs that get straight to the point. Most of their song content is sexual. Whether it's about getting a hard on or how they are going to "turn you out". Hopefully they expand their inspirations with the next batch of songs to see what else they are capable of.

Moss Rock - Picture Courtesy of Master Joda Pormotions
Last but not least was Moss Rock. They had promised the first 100 people in the door would receive free paintball passes. It's a shame that didn't work out for them. All of those thoughts were nullified once they bust into my personal favourite "Cop". Nate Ripley was on fire tonight as he put his heart and soul into his performance. Lots of the songs, since they are a three piece, follow the formula where the first verse features little or no guitar. This was his time to croon and wave his hands dramatically. He was also sporting quite a furry guitar strap. That's the thing with this band. They don't take themselves too seriously. The three microphones were less about back up vocals and more about making people laugh. Bassist Jeff Bauman was a giant on stage, pounding away at his bass in something you'd call a power stance. Drummer Bryan Reiber, who also does duty for Handsome Distraction, was crisp at every moment. For someone who just uses a single kick, it's amazing how much he can accomplish. The songs are catchy as hell. This is a band that doesn't limit themselves or set parameters. They played a country song. They played a slow song. They entered into some psychedelia. Some riffs may have even fit in Sons of Nova's set. It was this time of the night when a group of guidos with their orange skinned arm candy bustled into the club expecting some fist pumping excitement. The men weren't so keen on this rock n' roll. One exclaimed to his girl "Come on, let's get out of here. I wanna hear some MUSIC!". The girls were, instead, caught in the Moss Rock web and the band's slick rhythm's got them dancing [although, they wouldn't stay till the end]. Things got pretty ugly when Ripley broke a string. Suddenly they didn't know what to do to fill the time it took for Nate to get the string on. Luckily, the sound guy advised them to do a bass and drum solo, which was pretty cool. There were also some really awful jokes. REALLY AWFUL. If there is anything this band needs to work on, it's banter. They are at there best just being themselves. It's when they have to answer to the crowd when things tend to stall. Bauman's banter seemed to originate from a totally different concert than he was at, like if he was playing for Slayer. Other than that, this band should be a lot more popular than they are right now. They were the only band this night that were asked for an encore, where they premiered a work in progress that didn't even have lyrics. The loose jamming worked for the song and it went over well. It's tough to top Cop, and I felt that it was a great way to ignite the crowd, but it would serve better to cap off the night.

In the end, you win some and you lose some. There are plenty more opportunities to catch one of these shows and make a donation to the Mustard Seed. The show is well worth the minimum five dollars.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Bosma, Coll, Linguanti, Jackson and Brown @ The Fort Street Cafe [Nov 16th]

Runway Studios presented us with a very special acoustic night at the Fort Street Cafe with many artists from local Victoria bands. The turn out was great and the atmosphere was quite welcoming.

Ciara Brown is an ex-member of the New Colors, and she was accompanied by Scawt Polachuk of the current New Colors. Isn't that nice? Things started off great with a cover of The Pixies "Where is my mind?". Once they kicked off Bush's "Glycerin", you would wager a guess we were going to have ourselves a cover extravaganza! Most of the covers were old alternative/grunge tunes from the early 90's. There was an original, and it was fairly in line with the others that were presented. It would be nice to hear more originals. Something that speaks from the heart. Despite a misstep during Pearl Jam's Black, it was a great set. Her voice brought an angelic quality to a lot of the dark material in the lyrics.

Some guy named Stinky Jackson played. He was an asshole, and everyone threw bottles of piss at the stage.

Next up was Gio Linguanti, and he brought a hip hop/reggae/rock flavour to the set. Two people actually danced! I would compare it to an artist like KO. He also plays in a band called Liquid Tuesdaze, which is much different from his solo work. Speaking with all honesty, what he presented was a much more concise sound than his band's catalogue, which suffers from a lack of focus. All of Gio's songs flowed together. I should also mention that he is theatrical in his set. His stage set-up included candles, vanilla scented incense and a lamp. During one song's introduction, he read a passage from a book. It seemed like a bit of a momentum killer to me, but the people that came to see him were into it. Not that I'm opposed to reading a book during a gig, it just seemed to drag. What do I know anyway?

Samuel Coll. The myth. The legend. The moustache. Good on him for his Movember ways. He played some non-Year of the Rat material for us and it was well fitted to the venue. I especially like him breaking out a cover of "Oh, Comely" by Neutral Milk Hotel. Although he told me he'd be playing his own stuff tonight, he did lay down a Year of the Rat goodie for us. Coll has a very distinctive voice. It took a while for me to warm up to it, but this is coming from someone who has seen Year of the Rat play more than once. For some people it is a bit of a hurdle to access his music. For anyone who hasn't heard Coll belt it out, it's in the same vein as Ian Curtis but not as bored. If you are having trouble, give it a chance. You shall be rewarded.

Closing the night out was David Bosma. He had a piano player with him and it really rounded out the sound. It was nothing too abrasive. Quite calming, but enough to keep one's interest. There's nothing bad I can say about this guy. A veteran of the local Victoria scene, it was fairly evident why he was headlining tonight. Consistent songwriting, a pleasant voice and pure musicianship prevails. Jack Weyler commanded the piano with vigour. The piano itself sounded just a tad out of tune, bringing a honky-tonk element to the proceedings. Still, the group was tight, so it didn't matter.

For all those who were there, thanks for coming on a Tuesday after a long weekend. For those who weren't, there are various youtube videos from Ciara Brown and DT Jackson [but he should bury his head in shame for playing such horrible sounding tripe].

The acceptance of lip-synching and auto-tune in modern society

From the invention of television, there has been that eager tension to put on the best performance. Through variety TV shows like The Ed Sullivan Show, there was no question that it could make or break a career. Somewhere down the line, someone decided that the best way to have an artist portray themselves was to pretend to sing. Even further down that dotted line, another idea was that you could take beautiful people and dub them over with different ugly people. Image was key. Now in today's world, you don't need talent, just as long as you have a pitch corrector.

The first time I had my audio innocence shattered was when I learned a band from Los Angeles named the Monkees didn't play their own instruments. Well, this is a half truth. Yes, they were hired as actors and although they did not contribute anything but vocals until 1967, they were fully functioning musicians. Problem was, at the conception of the show, no one played drums. The producers decided Davy Jones would be the frontman, Michael Nesmith on guitar, Peter Tork on bass and the unlucky Micky Dolenz on drums. For their first two albums, session musicians filled in for the boys and they had no creative input for the music. Though, the guys did tour without the use of trickery. Their show matched the oddball humour of A Hard Day's Night, and the public were eating it up. The band fought for their need to express themselves after many behind the scene arguments with the show's producers wrote and record an album called Headquarters, which reached #1 for one week in 1967. Unfortunately, that's when, instead of fighting with the producers, they started fighting amongst themselves about direction. The show was ultimately cancelled in 1968, though the band continued to release music. The problem with this is it's still happening with people like Miley Cyrus or whatever Disney and Nickalodeon is pushing down our kid's throats. The end result is always the same: The artist tries to redefine themselves by being the polar opposite of the sugar coated image that made them popular, usually through sexually explicit lyrics and imagery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScXXaBu1Ing

When we were not all singing and dancing with our tambourines, there was also a focus on pure image in the punk scene. In 1975, the UK brought us The Sex Pistols. Johnny Rotten on vocals, Steve Jones on guitar, Paul Cook on drums and Glen Matlock on bass. Matlock eventually left the band due to a mutual agreement, but the myth was he was kicked out for liking The Beatles. That's when Rotten spotted Sid Vicious. Although he had very little musical talent, he had the look and the edge Johnny was looking for. They put him on bass, but he was, indeed, terrible. He only played on one track on Nevermind the Bullocks for the song "Bodies" and even that was overdubbed. Matlock was brought back in behind the scenes. I even heard stories that someone would play bass behind a curtain during their shows. Issues arose when Sid got all strung out on Heroin and would attack fans. Rotten has said that Vicious had a thirst for fame. In the end, he murdered his girlfriend and then later committed suicide, but there will always be controversy that he would have been too high at the time to kill Nancy Spungen. This would be a case of having the bad boy image blow up in one's face. Yet we love it, don't we? We love when Bert McCracken of The Used excessively drops the f-bomb on live television or Mike Patton of Faith No More exposes himself. We want these people to shock us. Controversy can only fuel album sales. Just don't speak out against god, war or the president.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgWDYlGvyZk

Milli Vanilli was a pop duo formed in Germany in 1988. It was fronted by Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus, but they didn't actually sing at all like our past two stories. In 1990, their grammy for 2 X 2 was revoked when it was discovered their records were not the voices of Morvan or Pilatus. No, these two guys were model/dancers Frank Farian [The Mastermind] found in a Munich club. The duo had several hits, but even during their tours, they used pre-recorded vocals. It bit them in the ass in 1989 when during a performance for MTV, the vocals began to skip. The duo tried to play it off, but the damage was done. They were nothing but puppets on a string. Milli Vanilli tried to redeem themselves, like The Monkees, by releasing albums with their own voices but without much success. Rob Pilatus died of a drug overdose on April 2, 1998 right before their Back and in the Attack promotional tour. It makes me think, these guys are living the high life. All they do is get on stage and pretend to sing, while the real talent that has backed them since the beginning don't get the credit they deserve. Would you take anyone seriously if someone boasted they wrote for Milli Vanilli? No, the connotation will always be that they were fake and talentless. Here is their crowning glory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udS5qBrBFqE

It's still good to know a public display of lip-sync fail can ruin a career. Need I say more about Ashlee Simpson? Yes, I'm sure it must be very hard to follow in the shadow of your more talented sister. In October 2004, she was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. Her first song went without problems, but when they started the second song, the vocals for the first song played instead. The band did there best to cover it up and after some amazing redneck jiggery, Simpson exited the stage. At the end of the show, she had the lady balls to say that her band started playing the wrong song! Then it was her drummer pressed the wrong button. Poor Ashlee had acid reflux and "was not advised to sing". So, basically, it was any fault but her own. Though, even after this display, she did put out another album. I guess the lucky thing was that even though she was helped through the writing process, there weren't any grammies to take away from her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rt318_cEsw

Yet, for some odd reason, we've embraced lip syncing during concerts. It's one thing to screw up on live TV, but when you have big name artists touring to a vocal track, that's gotta be the biggest farce of it all. What are we paying for? Don't give me no shit that the show is so elaborate that an artist can't sing and dance at the same time. Why dance at all? Musicians is a term for people that produce music. Daily we are losing that term to sham entertainers who provide nothing but skimpy outfits and gyrations not uncommon in your local strip club. The show's focus is never about the music in the pop world. It resembles more of a Broadway extravaganza or Cirque de Soleil. My personal favourite offender is Britney Spears. It's hard to pick an exact moment that is her worst lip-syncing disaster, but unlike Simpsons, it hasn't seemed to have affected Spears at all. We should all remember a horrid moment at the MTV Video Music Awards where she "performed" Gimme More. The best parts were the shots of the various celebrities in the audience all with shocked facial expressions. Yet, even after a performance so mind numbingly bad [which, I think she blamed on cold medication], her album still rose to the top in Canada and #2 in the US. Even during her concerts, there are instances that she is NOT singing. Does the audience boo? Does the audience get up and ask for a refund? No, we just seemingly sit there and ignore it. Are we that fucking dense? Watch as a fan wanders up on stage and she yells at him to sit down. She must be speaking in tongues!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqfwYo1K1g8

Alas, the finale moment. Where you do nothing to hide the fact you can't sing and you openly use something called "auto-tune". It's right there in the title folks. T-Pain uses auto-tune. Kanye uses auto-tune. There is so much modulation on Ke$ha's voice she sounds like an alien, but don't worry, they can get away with it because auto-tune is totally trendy right now, like OMG. What message are we sending young inspiring musicians? You don't need to be talented. You just need the look. You just need the attitude. It's all backed up by the studios and music television nor radio do little to change that. Ever since the invention of Pro-Tools, it's not about playing the song until you get it right. Hell, you can stumble through a take and that can be that. Leave it in the hands of the producers to cut it up, correct the pitch and shine it up for release. Sorry, Lil Wayne is not a singer, and he will never be the new Jimi Hendrix. There's a lot of people that state rap is dead or that it's a fragment of its old self. That's true, but that doesn't mean Timbaland has to start swooning us in a duet with Chad Kroeger of Nickelback. I wish there was some way we could gather all the auto-tune devices and just have a massive fire, like the way they used to burn Beatles albums. We've accepted lip syncing and we've accepted voice modulation. The kind of stuff that would ruin your career back in the 60's if someone felt you weren't genuine. To prove anyone can use auto-tune, here's Antoine Dodson live on the BET awards

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke_ft98rDN8&feature=related

What can we do? Well, we need to support the artists out there that are writing and performing their own material without cheating. This accounts for CD/MP3 and vinyl sales. This accounts for concerts. Why is it so many great artists get dropped from their labels due to lack of album sales, when the mongoloids reach the top of the castle? It's all in the hands of the consumer. I like to think Victoria has pretty good taste. I hope you have enjoyed this little article. I'd love to hear what you think about it. Other than that, I'll see you at show soon!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Just for Laughs 10th Anniversary Alumni Edition ft/ Jeremy Hotz @ McPherson Playhouse [Nov.10th]

I am going to take a little detour here and tell you about the Just for Laughs 10th Anniversary Alumni Edition that happened at the McPherson Playhouse on Wednesday. It may not have had any bands, but the show did have its own personal DJ, who warmed up the crowd that tried to track down their seat numbers in the swanky venue. I suppose that's how I'm going to tie this to Bandnight.

The show began with Ben Seidman. It says in my "yearbook" program that Seidman is the only person in history to be named resident magician at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay. Sounds promising. I've always found Penn and Teller very entertaining. Unfortunately Ben Seidman's main trick was to make the crowd uncomfortable. He's one of those wacky comedians that would be better suited for a set at Chucky Cheese than here at the Playhouse. He told us that it bothered him that most people think he is gay, but that it was ok, because most people don't know he is a woman. Did you hear that? Even the crickets are uncomfortable. Well, it's magic time! He pulls someone out of the audience. I couldn't help but notice the man, whose name was Michelle, mouth the words "Oh fuck". The trick was probably one you've seen a million times. He asks for a twenty dollar bill. Man signs twenty dollar bill. Folds twenty dollar bill. Magician puts a paper clip on the twenty, and the man clips it to his pocket. With a little sleight of hand and distraction, Seidman swoops in. The money is gone! Where could it be? Well, it's paper clipped to the man's upper back, and for some reason he also has the man's credit card. I also have to say with every joke or trick, Seidman would turn black and go "Oh no he didn't!" or "Oh snap!" with various head movements. Again, uncomfortable. It doesn't end there. He tells poor Michelle he won't give back his belongings unless he passes a test. So, Michelle has to sit in a chair. Seidman cues some music to the DJ, who is positioned behind a veiled curtain. Basically it was a montage of guess which hand I'm holding a napkin. We finally reached some funny bits when he started distracting his captive and throwing the napkins away to show his hands were empty. It got a bit more ridiculous each time to the point he was throwing his shoes. He thanked Michelle and his act was over. I sink in my chair hoping this isn't the level of comedy we will be subjected to.

Then a booming voice came on, welcoming us to the show. Some lucky bastards in the nose bleeds get a "free seat upgrade" thanks to Capital One. The Just for Laugh theme song plays in full before our host, Frank Spadone, comes to the stage. I didn't know at the time but Spadone's credits are quite fantastic. I notice he had a role in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. I'll have to watch it again to point him out. He did a great job in warming up the crowd after such a frightful display. His shtick is about being a Catholic Italian with a traditional family upbringing in Canada. His job was to fill the holes in between each act, so I will give an overview of his whole act instead of trying to break each part down. A highlight was telling us that in the Italian house, you have the downstairs and then the top floor is basically the showroom, where everything is wrapped in plastic. That his father bought a new couch, and when Spadone tried to sit on it, he was told it wasn't for comfort, it was for decoration. There was a nice rant about how women like to control men because they are so used to playing with dolls in their childhood. So, for two minutes he plays his wife telling him what to wear, what to eat, he's driving too fast, he's driving too slow, don't fart, not to drink too much...with the climax where it resembles the teachers of Charlie Brown. There was also talk of the coming of age for women. How a mother can be proud of their daughter's first period, but you'll never hear a son tell his father about the first time he masturbated in the shower.

Next up was Ryan Hamilton. He was named one of Rolling Stone's top five comics to watch in 2009. He was also part of this years Last Comic Standing. Outside of Jeremy Hotz, who I will get to later, he was the best comedian of the night. His material was clean. He didn't dip into any blue material or resort to toilet humour. The best way I can describe him is you take the set up of Jerry Seinfeld and then the punchline of Will Farell, you'll get Ryan Hamilton. The main part of his set was about how he is from Idaho, and now he resides in New York. A New Yorker says "Oh yeah, Idaho. I know Idaho, that's in the Midwest". No it isn't. Hamilton describes New Yorkers just think of the west coast is LA, the east coast is New York and the rest of America is the Midwest. There was also a funny bit about hot air balloons being the worst form of transportation. Nobody goes to work in a hot air balloon. He described a date where he took a girl up in a hot air balloon, and how you are stuck with that person for, at least, two hours no matter if it's a good date or not. I'd definitely recommend him.

Spadone comes on again. Once Hamilton has raised the bar, you can sense Spadone is struggling a bit. He seems flustered. He tells some more jokes, but the crowd isn't as rewarding as his first set. It's just additional anecdotes about his Italian upbringing. I'm not exactly sure why he just didn't do his set, and then MC'd the rest of the night. Finally he introduces the next comic, Robert Kelly who plays Louis CK's brother on the show Louie and has also toured with Dane Cook.

This guy was the polar opposite of Hamilton's clean quirky delivery. This Boston native was crass and swore like a sailor. He was a heavy set man, and opened his set with his hatred for skinny people. He points to the man in the Capital One seats [who actually got called on by almost every comedian this night, for some reason], and tells him that he is doomed to become fat and ugly. He tells us he just doesn't care anymore. There comes a point in a man's life where he doesn't give a shit. This involves pushing his wife over while she's tying her shoes at the flea market and farting in a baby's face. Yes, farting in a baby's face. He told us he was holding one in for so long and someone rolled a baby carriage up behind him. He couldn't resist, on account of being old, fat and not caring. He went pretty far with it, to describe the baby's reactions. It sounds horrible and we all felt guilty for laughing. He tells the crowd you know you've become too fat when you drop something and then you consider if you really need it. The man was truly in your face and not pulling any punches. Another example of that was describing how he had to pull his fat up to expose his penis that resembled chewed up bubble gum in a bush. He brought the audience to tears telling us a story where his wife waxed his ass. There were other fart jokes involving tight jeans and the sound that followed. You get the point.

Spadone is here on stage trying to play off the toilet humour of Kelly. More fart jokes. Announces British comedian Gina Yashere.

She asks "How we doing, Victoria!?" in a harsh accent. I'm one of three that actually understood what she just said. Yikes. The crowd stares in a confused clutter of flesh. It took some time to adjust to her accent, but she did a decent job in making the crowd laugh. She talks about her mother immigrating to London from Nigeria, and why in the world out of every place on the map would she pick somewhere that rains so much. Plus a location with so much subtle racism. Then she asks where the black people are at. "Is there any black people in Victoria?". Someone in the back claps. It's funny when you think about it, and she picked up on it. Not sure if anyone registered it, or perhaps thought of it politically incorrect to laugh about a black person sitting way in the back of the theatre. She tells us about the time she wanted to get in touch with her Nigerian roots, so she went to her homeland. "Nigerians are fucking crazy! I stayed in my hotel the whole time with all the other white people". Then she also went below the taste level talking about how good she was in her 20's squatting over the toilet, but now she's pissing all down her thighs, her shoes and sometimes the woman in the next stall. She says she thinks her flaps are a bit off. There was commentary that she loves kids, but she's not into the whole childbirth part. Gina tells us she has a hard enough time with a big poo and it's not like you can break a baby into pieces. Again, guilty for laughing. Another highlight was how her mother keeps asking when Yashere is getting married and having children so she's been borrowing random kids. The problem is she can't get the same kid each time so there's an age gap. The kid was nine months last week and now he is three. Black one week, Chinese the next. She tells her mother he is just sleepy. There was a classic routine about modern rap, where she rapped the words "bitch ho ho bitch ho bitch n**ga bitch ho ho.....diamonds.....bitch ho ho bitch".

In comes Spadone to proclaim he was the one Gina peed on in the next stall, and that he should stop using women's bathrooms. Ok, that was a bit funny, but it was time for our main comic, the miserable Jeremy Hotz!

First thing you will notice if you've only seen Hotz on TV is that he likes to swear as much as the next guy. Instead of saying "_____, what a miserable _____ that is", miserable is replaced by the word "shit". A lot of the best laughs seemed to just come off the top of his head. First he dug into our recent weather the day before the show. How he was struggling through the wind, yet all the locals were acting like it was perfectly normal weather. He tells us a story about flying on Air Canada. What a shit airline that is, he says [though, he realizes that they are one of the sponsors, so he retracts. Tells us it's that shit airline with the leaf on it]. How he was looking at the map that showed all the places Air Canada flew and Victoria was just a red dot in the ocean. That Victoria must have been so small, it doesn't even show up on a map. Then when they were about to land, the plane began to sway back and forth erratically. "Fuck, the pilot can't find it either!". He scanned the audience, picking out a few choice faces to talk to. The best moments was when he would ask where in Victoria everyone was from. One person tells him they are from North Saanich. "North sandwich?", Hotz asks with a disgusted demeanour. He asks an old man if he knew where North Sandwich was. The old man informs him that's where all the rich snobs live. Hotz points to the VIP booths and gives the finger to the North Sandwich people. He chastises them a bit, before he realizes there are booths on the other side of the stage as well. There's North Sandwich people everywhere! He asks the same old man where he is from, he is from plain ol'saanich. Hotz makes an observation that the more north you are in the sandwich, the better. Another audience member lives in Gordon Head, which suddenly becomes Gordon's Head. "So, you aren't really here right now, are you? You live in Gordon's Head!". He asks the crowd if anyone just lives in simple Victoria. One man, the popular one with the Capital One seats, answers he is. He lives just down the street. Hotz asks him if he walked to the show. No, the man took a cab. Hotz buries his face in his hands, something he would do again and again. "You took a cab down the street? You lazy bastard". The great irony of it was that it was established the same man owned several shoe stores and that you'd think someone that sells shoes would have no problem walking down the street. At one point of the show, he catches someone leaning over in there seat. "What are you, fucking puking over there!?". The way he just read the audience was priceless. He would ask questions to relate to his giant Rolodex of comedy. There were also digs against Americans, how they start wars and then call Canada in to clean it up. He tells us about this one time, in LA if I remember correctly, where he was walking his dog and his dog went number two. A man rolled down his window and yells "You better get all of that!", so he picks up the feces and places it in the back of the man's truck so he can see he got all of it himself. Another funny bit was talking about playing on Prince Edward Island, and that anyone that lives on an island has to be a "stand-offish" person. He tells us PEI is even more stand-offish than Vancouver Island, but he saw something he couldn't believe. Right off the ocean, on their very own island sat a single house. "Who the fuck is that guy?", he pondered. He muses that the guy must be thinking if PEI gets any closer, he's getting the fuck out of there. Hotz amusingly says that Prince Edward Island should be renamed Quebec, since they want to separate anyway. It seems he just thought that one up, and caught himself chuckling. "I'll have to use that one again, but obviously not in Montreal". There was another bit about people who have crazy eyes, and how you aren't sure if they are looking at you. He also attacked nose hair trimmers. "What a shit product that is! They don't trim your nose hair, they sharpen them!". He was on for about forty minutes, but it felt like ten. He wishes us all a good night. Do comedians do encores?

It seemed over so quickly [the whole show was about an hour and a half]. All the comics made their ways out to say goodbye as the Just for Laughs theme song played. It was announced they would be available to sign our "yearbooks" after the show. Overall, it was a great show. I could have done without Seidman's wacky magicianship and Spadone should have just did one set instead of trying to segue with more of his own material between the others. I was very surprised at all the fart jokes. I guess I'm just too used to the Just for Laughs I see on television. You know, the ones from the early 90's they show repeatedly on the Comedy Network.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Weak Patrol/Funk Vigilante/Black Hat Villain @ V-Lounge [Nov.5th]

I rushed to the V-Lounge after work hoping that I hadn't missed too much. Out of breath, and out of patience for public transit, I was informed I had arrived at the tail end of Weak Patrol's set.

Weak Patrol - Photo by Master Joda Promotions
First thing I noticed was the insane energy. The floor was absolutely packed with people dancing. Vocalist Caleb Kennedy was sweating bullets while he strummed his acoustic guitar ferociously. All the members were clad in army inspired uniforms. Carling Battistuzzi was constantly bouncing up and down, providing a sweetness to Kennedy's more punk infused vocals. It was like Jello Biafra singing for the New Pornographers, or something along those lines. Like a NME buzz band NME hasn't heard of yet. Willis Schneider kept stoic and professional on bass. On the other side of the stage Jaime Nolan, who you could mistake for John Lennon at times, was unabashed on lead guitar and really cranked the temperature for every solo. Dekan Delaney smashed his drums with authority. After they played their last song...it was decided they'd actually play a couple more. I was very thankful. They are an incredible band. Kennedy pushed so hard that he broke a string on the second to last song, then another on the very last song. Mentioning the Dead Kennedys and The New Pornographers, there are also a whole lot of different influences here. A lot going back to classic rock, pre-90's. Keep your eyes on these guys, because you don't know what brilliance they are going to come up with next. A chant brewed after their set, and I knew I needed to see this band from start to finish, but it wasn't out of tardiness by choice AKA a job.

Funk Vigilante - Photo by Master Joda Promotions
Next up was Funk Vigilante. I couldn't help but think, what the fuck is going on? I had never heard of Funk Vigilante. I assumed they were, of course, going to be a funk band of some sort. Yet, they put huge sirens on their amps. The bassist was wearing fairy wings and a light up necklace. The keyboardist was wearing a V for Vendetta mask, and I wasn't sure if he liked the movie or was a frequent user of 4chan. Where was the singer? I braced myself for something strange and weird. Upon being announced, the singer rushed the stage in a top hat. By the first note, rap rock has made a comeback with this Rage Against the Machine/Red Hot Chili Peppers hybrid. Did I complain? No, because it was good. All the songs were quite political. Vocalist Ghosty Boy definitely had the Zack de la Rocha vibe. At times, if you closed your eyes, you might actually forget what concert you were at. Bassist Matt Williams' hero would be Flea. He even had his moves. The other members were harder to pin down. The guitarists, I am unsure which was which since Funk Vigilante haven't been so vigilant to update their profiles to include their current roster. I will say Jud Makay hits his drums harder than anyone I've ever seen. I was surprised there weren't fragments of wood hitting the crowd. His drum had an interesting set up. He plays the open style, with the high hat on the same side as the ride playing the snare with his left. The keyboardist wasn't only just a keyboardist. He switched between keys, samples, drum n bass beats, hand drum and, at one point, left his station to shoot the fans with Nerf missiles. Due to the political nature of the band, the Nerf bullets even had a reason. I told my friend, this band is like every 90's hard rock band rolled into one. During Tankman, which he explained was about the man who stood up to a tank at Tianamen Square, I couldn't help but think Jane's Addiction's Mountain Song. A different song started quite a bit like Smashing Pumpkin's Quiet. All that aside, I felt like this was the band of the night, because they combined political awareness with pure fun. There was a lot of singing along. A lot of the songs would start with Ghosty Boy teaching us some lyrics. Thinking about it, there was a bit too much of that. I'm all for crowd participation, but near the end of the set, it almost seemed like every song he wanted us to sing something. It would best be used sparingly, perhaps for their strongest songs. Another highlight was a ska song, which was a break from the heavy onslaught of riffs. The keyboardist proved another one of his talents, the trumpet. Is there anything this guy can't play. By this point the mask had fallen off long ago. The band was flying around the stage, but gladly no one knocked eachother over. I was really impressed with these guys, but I hope they are as involved in their lyrics as they are to singing petitions or attending protests. If not, lyrics like "Fuck the riot police!" are nothing more than a spew of kool aid.

Black Hat Villain - Photo by Master Joda Promotions
Ghosty Boy promised us that Black Hat Villain was just as heavy or heavier than they were. Everyone was telling me these guys were really good. If their merch table was any indication, they better be. I saw several people walking around in their "Black Nation" t-shirts. The people that were coming on stage look like they could be in a metal band. Where did all the young people go? Suddenly I was stuck with a lot of people in their 30's/40's/50's. The lead singer came on stage dressed really nice with also a top hat [popular item tonight], sun glasses and a cane. Well, this is interesting so far. It is announced that Black Hat Villain was Zone's band of the month for April, in which singer Scotty Tuesday replied "Fuck the Zone! They don't play our song". Fair enough. Well, right from the get-go, this was definitely not a Zone band. More of what they would play on the Fox or the Q. Scotty Tuesday used his cane as a prop and came across as a mix of Scott Weiland and late Jim Morrison. Yet the sound of the band was more Shinedown, than anything else. Guitarists Sam Edmundson and Abe Cox traded off some hard rock riffs, often times providing harmonies to eachother's pieces. This isn't a band heavy with solos. Just straight forward rock and roll. They have an impressive fanbase. People knew the words. Women were going crazy. The thing with this group, is that they are accessible enough for the females, but also have flourishes of metal in their music to keep the men rocking. I see this band going far, just based on the fact all their songs are radio tailored to be that magic length of about 3 minutes. The vocals were great. They really complimented eachother with Edmundson going just a bit higher in tone than Tuesday. Drummer Tim Sweeting made it look easy in the back. I really liked how, even though they are highly accessible, they embraced different time signatures. The choruses were like anthems. Scotty Tuesday is the ultimate frontman. He engaged the crowd, and played it up. After their last song, it seemed pretty obvious they were going to play one more but they made it seem like they needed to think about it while they huddled at side of the stage. Upon return, they said they couldn't leave without playing their single "My Generation". No shit. Do Victoria bands really need to do fake encores? In any case, this was the last song and a lot of pushing ensued. It came apparent, this was yet another rock show where people like to be as close to the stage as possible, yet get offended with crashing bodies. Please, for the love of god, stand somewhere else. This is definitely for the woman who told a guy "No, you stay over there! What is your problem?". I'd say the same thing to you. People cried for one last song, but it was not to be.