Jewel In The Mire Kathedral, Toronto Ontario, June 7 2003 This was another band that I reviewed for NxNE. Apparently they were from Amsterdam. My first impression of these guys is that they wanted to be Motley Crüe without the makeup. (That's what the vocals reminded me of.) The singer/guitar player was wearing a butter-coloured fringe leather jacket, and they all had hair down to their ass. The second song surprised me by being quite catchy and sung in a completely different style. The third song was again very different in tempo and style. By this point I was beginning to pay serious attention. The rest of the show was like that. Everything they played was fast and hard (NO BALLADS!) with the typical metal powerchords and screeching guitar. The guitarists did all the classic metal god poses and there was much tossing of hair and big flailing playing. But the music was surprisingly good - the songs showed lots of character and individuality, they were technically excellent and really tight performers. The venue was maybe one-quarter to one-third full, but the audience was reacting with enthusiasm. It probably didn't hurt that they were all very young and attractive. I was wishing when I saw them that it was 1986 - they could have been millionaires. As it is, if they can get their CDs to the right DJs they could get a lot of play time at some of the blue-collar shit-kicker bars (like the one where I used to work) where Bon Jovi still reigns supreme. The best thing they could do is get an opening slot at a Poison reunion tour - they'd blow the headliners off the stage. JFK and the Conspirators The 360 Club, Toronto Ontario: June 6 2003 I saw these guys as part of the NxNE. They played with a number of other bands that were either ska or could be argued to have been influenced by ska. A number of these bands were from Winnipeg. Winnipeg is a hotbed of Jamaican music. Go figure. Ska bands are always huge. This one is comparitively conservative - a 6 piece with a guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and 2 trombones. When I was watching one of the earlier bands, I saw a guy wandering around in a suit all night and dubbed him "Caliban" in my head. He was cadaverously thin and bald. Turns out he was the trombone player for this band. There was also a woman on trombone. Both wore suits and were referred to as the "CIA" at various points during the set. The rest of the band looked like a bunch of Paddy's - most in jeans, some wearing caps (old-fashioned tweed caps, not baseball) and suspenders. The drummer sings. This is definitely a ska band and they play it in the traditional way, with lots of patter coming from the other players. A lot of the lyrics are traditional style as well, they started off with a song about the band, and some of the songs are used to introduce the members. Everything the horns played sounded like it was stolen from something else - I'm almost sure I heard the theme from Dragnet. They also had one or two songs that proved that they can do harmonies when they want to. It was catchy, it was eminently skankable, it was great. There were tons of hooks. The music was faster than traditional ska, but slower than the later punk-influenced stuff. The venue was half to a third full, at the beginning of the set there was dancing down at the front. By the end the whole place was bouncing. They were obviously having an absolute blast, and so was the crowd. They were able to get the crowd yelling along in response to some of the songs. Very good at what they do and a lot of fun. Johnny Winter Lulus, Kitchener Ontario: March 5 1993 I went to this gig solely because the spouse was a huge fan. I can't say it was a bad show. However, I can say that the venue sucked. Lulus was a huge meat market and although the room was actually well laid-out, they had this thing where they would sell balloons to the punters - they were colour-coded so red meant you were looking to pick-up, white meant you were taken, pink meant you were looking for a boyfriend, crap like that. Is that lame or what? And of course that meant there was always a fucking balloon right in the sightline to the stage. It was also during the period where I was working two jobs and getting about four hours of sleep every night. The husband wouldn't let me bow out of going to the gig and I ended up falling asleep during the show. Standing up. No shit. John Otway Albion Hotel, Guelph Ontario, 198? I saw John Otway and Atilla The Stockbroker performing together upstairs in a little pub in a University town. It was a great gig. The room was packed and the two of them looked like they were enjoying the hell out of themselves. I was there with a bunch of friends and drinking like a walrus. So was everybody else. There was a northerner's rendition of Bowie's Major Tom that had me just pissing myself. Last Updated June 26 2005.
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