Okay, so a bunch of us got together last night for the battle of the bands at the Moustache. I got together with Jeff and Tammy and a few of their friends for dinner at a Japanese place in our neighbourhood, and then most of us piled into Silver and went downtown. We met my brother there, although when we got to the Moustache we doubted our ability to find anybody at all--the place was so crowded I wondered what the fire marshall would have to say about it. Denise, one of Jeff and Tammy's friends, describes herself as a "table vulture"--great at finding tables whose owners are just about to vacate them, but even she was stymied. She did, however, find us a sort of an eddy a little out of the main traffic pattern where we could stand and watch the action. When we looked around we found ourselves pretty much right next to the table Gloryhound was sitting at with a bunch of their friends and family so, as Jeff remarked, "at least they'll believe us when we tell them we showed up!" And then Tammy spotted my brother and we waved him over, so the gang was all there.
As I mentioned in the previous post, we walked in halfway through Ryan Macgrath & thewoodenhouse's set. I think Jeff and Tammy's friends actually knew the bass player and keyboard player of that band, which was kind of cool. The sound appeared to be a little better than last time, or possibly the problems were just different this week, it's hard to say.
I didn't take notes or anything and I don't think I even recall the order of go. As nearly as I can recall it was:
I'm positive about the first two and the last two. Everybody else was definitely there, just maybe not in that order!
The second band up was Andrew Hunter & the Gatherers, possibly not as great a name as Al Tuck and No Action, but you know, it's still pretty good. The lead singer remarked that they haven't been a band all that long and they seemed really excited to be there. It was fun to watch and their jams seemed like the kind of stuff I could listen to a lot, under less crowded and perhaps clearer circumstances.
As I said in the previous post, I arrived at the show kind of wanting to like The Sorrys better this time and was pleased to find that I did. The sound guy seemed to have gotten over his hatred of guitar players, at least for the moment, because the lead guitarist was perfectly audible and the whole band sounded more all of a piece than they did last time. They seemed a little more comfortable, although that may have been an illusion created by the fact the sound mix wasn't pulling them off in all sorts of different directions. As noted in the other post, I especially liked the second and fourth songs. (And also, the lead singer reminded Tammy of Eddie Izzard, which considering how Tammy feels about Eddie Izzard was a high compliment!)
Eventual winners Mike Trask & Mudhill had a heavy bass-and-guitars groove that made the serious metalheads in our group extremely happy. They played really well together and also featured a variety of snazzy hats. Also, as Jeff noted, they had a moral. I just wonder how many times you would have to wash out an antifreeze jug before you would consider it safe to drink from. And also which band member they used as a guinea pig.
I think they were my second-favourite act of the night. And note, again, the utter randomness of the band's name. There is definitely a theme here.
Dirty Poets were the victims of the first really serious sound glitch I noticed. I mean, it wasn't perfect by any means up to this point, and the vocals were rougher for everyone than I would have preferred, but the woman playing what I at first took for a large fiddle completely vanished from the mix for the first song, only to come back strong on the second and continue to be audible for the rest of the set. Perhaps someone had a word with the sound guy ("Turn her back up!" "No, I'm sick of fiddle players!" "That's not a fiddle, that's a viola!" "Oh--sorry!") Their last song was really great, and caused our group to coin the phrase gypsy metal to describe it. I suspect we're not the first people who have done so.
Stray Satellite were another pretty heavy band, and brought their own collection of head-banging fans. My brother and I agreed that we appreciated them but would have been more into them about ten years ago. Even though I thought they played well I found some of their songs had maybe a single dynamic that I didn't like quite as much as I might have in my more metal days. I don't know that you'd describe them as metal, however. Still, they crunched through the sound system with considerable authority and you have to respect that.
The seventh band of the night, who need no introduction in this blog, were Gloryhound & the Skyhawks. Last time there was a keyboard issue during the first part of the set, which may have been just more of the same for the night or may have been the actual keyboard giving up the ghost. Once Adam got set up (new keyboard, cozy and all) I was sort of holding my breath when there came a great wash of keys that made it sound for a second like they maybe planned to try and sneak "Chest Fever" into the set, so that was one concern addressed right off the bat. As already noted, the set consisted of:
Although the sound was definitely better this time than last it seemed to come and go a little, and all the bands had better luck on some songs than others. I thought "Free Of You" sounded the best of the bunch, particularly Dave's solo which was really impressive and quite clear--he got eaten up in the mix on one or two of the others but he sounded really good on that one and judging by the noise from the audience after his solo I wasn't the only one who thought so.
I was also glad to hear "Long Arm" again, which has been missing from the Tribeca shows lately. I like the song and as a big fan of Blue Rodeo I also like the idea of a couple of good singers in a band. I think that's a definite strength of this group and was glad they highlighted it.
Overall I thought they represented themselves really well and, ridiculously, I was really pretty proud of them. You know how I get.
The final band of the night was Faded Blue, who I'm aware of mostly because
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tigereyed24 mentioned going to see them and liking them. Evan described them to me once as sort of on the pop end of the spectrum and a really tight band. They did a great job getting their fan base out, there were people in shirts with their "fb" logo all over the place. Also, their lead guitarist played a guitar that was about the same scarab-blue as my first car, a 1980 Accord hatchback. (I loved that car.) Their lead singer was one of those tall characters you seem to see a lot in Halifax rock (I bet when they tour folks who have encountered Joel Plaskett and Matt Mays and John Mullane from In-Flight Safety look at him and immediately know the band is from Halifax!) Their sound was a little sparser than I seem to be into right now (everything goes better with keyboards) and there were a few moments when it seemed like there were gaps in the sound or something--like what might ordinarily be spaces where something was resonating got emptied out in the mix and the individual instruments sounded farther apart than they should. The band worked their way through those spots and their fans were numerous and enthusiastic, and I remember really liking the final solo on the final song.
After Faded Blue cleared their gear the emcee from Q-104 came on and vamped around a bit while the judges tabulated their scores or whatever. Molson and Gibson collaborated on a guitar giveaway--I understand there were ballots circulating for a draw, the prize being an Epiphone guitar with a big Molson Canadian Rocks decal on the front, which sort of reminded me of that trophy saddle I tried on Mitzi back when I was looking for a saddle. I didn't plan to take her off the property wearing a saddle with "Old Man's Roping" burned onto the fenders, and I sort of wondered whether the person who won the guitar would ever play it in public.
The lucky winner was Jeremy from Gloryhound, which was great, and given that he's a left-handed bass player he thought it was hilarious (and that may answer my question right there, actually.)
And then the results were ready and the emcee vamped around still more until I wanted to smack him with Jeremy's nice new guitar, and then Mike Trask and Mudhill were announced as the winners. I admit I was disappointed, but I also admit I would not have been a bit surprised to hear any of at least five names announced, and any of the other three probably wouldn't have shocked me. It was a really strong competition and I don't think anybody had any reason to walk offstage wishing for a do-over.
It was about two by that time so my brother wished us a good night and vanished, and then we got ourselves together to go. It was still noisy and crowded when Gloryhound and their folks left so we didn't speak to them, so I guess I'll have to congratulate them on Tuesday night--results apart, they did a great job. Jeff's question was "so when can we look for the record?" I told him I didn't know but recording was ongoing, which he was pleased to hear. I'm sure he hopes they move faster on that than Carmen Townsend!
Dunno if this is something we'll be doing again next year, but it was pretty exciting and a lot of fun to follow.
- Mood:
happy
Comments
Yeah, it was a lot of fun!