Warrior Soul The Spectrum, Toronto, Ontario: 1992? Melodic metal with a social conscience. Very odd stuff. I liked them a lot. So did a lot of other very surprising people, I saw folks at this gig that I never would have expected. Like Toronto's erstwhile Goth prince, my husbands Slayer-fan stripper ex and the former President of one of the Satan's Choice chapters. You know. People like that. I always thought thse guys should have gotten more recognition than they did. They were experimenting with a pretty conventional genre, and while not all their experiements worked, it was definitely worth listening to. If you ever happen to come across a CD, check out We Are The Government. It's a re-write of was really Joy Division's Interzone. I wish I could remember the name of the band that opened for them at this gig, because they were freakin' hilarious. The Wedgewoods The 360 Club, Toronto, Ontario: June 6 2003 I saw these guys play at NxNE on a night that had a definite ska theme. They were a 7-piece with a guitar, bass, drums, saxaphone, 2 trombones and a chick singer. I thought for a minute that one guy was just in charge in jumping up and down until I saw the trombone in his hand. Another older band. They all wore red jackets with a big "W" on the lapel. They were not strictly ska - more like the "No Doubt" school of ska. It was more commercial, faster, boppier. There was more rock-style singing and no patter from the rest of the band, just harmonized back-up vocals. The bouncy trombone guy sings some songs and the (guitar or bass - I couldn't tell) player sang one song, but in such a low voice he couldn't be heard. The woman has good voice and I heard one person in the audience complain they didn't use her more often. They had good energy and got a good response from the crowd. They tried to talk to the audience but did not get a lot of response. That might be because they had kind of an odd sense of humour - making jokes that I thought were just not funny. They did manage to get people to jump around for an offer of free merch, and they got people to sing along with the chorus of one song, "Jesus Was a Pirate" ("Everybody go AARRRRRRRGGGGHHH!") which ws pretty funny. They were doing a lot of bouncing on stage and talking to each other, so they were certainly engaging to watch. I really preferred JFK and the Conspirators from the same night, but something tells me these guys would be a lot more commercially successful. The White The Gasworks, Toronto Ontario: 1980+ I seem to see a lot of bands because of people I'm dating. The White were a cover band that used to do nothing but Led Zepellin schtick - you know they type, they imitate the hair and clothes as well as the songs. I was sleeping with a guy who loved Zepellin, so there were a bunch of times that we ended up at the Gasworks while this band were playing. The same Gasworks of Wayne's World fame. I don't remember much about them. I was drunk. And there always seemed to be fights when I was there. White Zombie Opera House, Toronto Ontario: 1992 Warehouse, Toronto Ontario: 1993 Palladium, Toronto Ontario: 1993-94 Phoenix, Toronto Ontario: 1994 The dates are approximations. I don't actually remember when I saw them, but I know they were on tour for two and a half years for Sexorcisto, and I caught all their Toronto dates. When people used to ask me to name the best shows I've ever seen, White Zombie would be somewhere in the top five. I had never heard of them, but Robin (my partner at the time) I heard some good things through the guitar-player grapevine, so when they came to the Opera House we drove to Toronto to catch the gig. The Opera House holds about 650 people. There were maybe 100 people in the room. The stage was decorated with gigantic cardboard cartoon illustrations and flashing lights. There were a pair of flashing cop-car lights mounted on top of the marshall stacks. And my absolute favourite, a BUBBLE machine. Fuck the fake smoke, that's cool. In spite of the small crowd, the show was incredibly energetic and they have everybody in the place bouncing up and down like mad things. For the last song, Rob Zombie yelled at everybody to get up on the stage. "Don't worry about the bouncers, they look big, but they're slow!" A few months after that, the band started getting heavy rotation on MTV and they simply continued the tour. The showed up back in Toronto playing a mini-metal fest at the Warehouse, with Anthrax and Voivod. Voivod were OK, but I really like Anthrax so I was all happy about it. And it was a good gig. But not a fantastic one. The bubble machine was gone and they had a lot less crap on stage, which is fair enough, it's a lot of shit to haul around adn it was pretty cheesy looking. Rob Zombie confessed he was sick at some point during the show so I definitely give him points for sticking it out anyway. The third time they played the Phoenix. I forget who opened for them. And they were exhausted. At this point they had been on constant tour for two years, and it really really showed. Again, a good show, but nothing like the first one I had seen. Edit: My ex informs me that Monster Magnet opened for them at the Phoenix. He also reminded me that we saw them at the Palladium, a short-lived venue where Prong opened for them. I didn't go to see them when they played at Varsity Stadium, mostly because I think it's a crap venue. And I'd probably go catch Rob Zombie again given the chance, because I think he's a fantastic showman. And I'm really glad I got the chance to see him when he was at the absolute peak of his game. The Who Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario: December 17 1982 CNE Stadium, Toronto, Ontario: June 23 1989 I saw these guys perform twice, both times in huge fuck-off stadium venues. The 1982 gig was on what was advertised to be their last ever tour. A friend and I lined up overnight in the pissing rain to buy tickets, drank too much, did too many drugs, stayed up all night, got covered in mud and hung out with a bunch of other drugged, drunk, wired and mud-covered people. Concert ticket line-ups used to be half the reason for going to concerts. And of course as everybody knows it wasn't their last tour. Seven years later they were back, this time with a huge theatrical backing band. I tell this story to Axel and it absolutely flumoxes him. The Who are very much a chav band in North America. For the CNE show Joe Jackson was the opening act. He ended up getting booed through his entire set, eventually being chased off the stage by a thrown bottle. I don't go to stadium shows any more, but as far as I was concerned the gig was pretty much a nostalgia trip anyway. Wig Rivoli, Toronto Ontario: 199? Wig were an incredibly under-rated band. I'd really like to know what happened to them. I saw this show in Toronto with a friend with whom I was prone to drink way too much. (And from me this is really saying something.) I think it was at the Rivoli, but it's also possible it was at the Horseshoe. Somewhere on Queen St W for sure. Anyway, fucking amazing live. I got stupid trashed and danced like a thing possessed and spilled a lot of beer. We ran into the singer standing outside having a smoke and said a lot of really embarrassing things to him. 'Nuff said about that. Then we stood in the middle of the street and hollered at the taxis until one stopped for us. Wild Things Quoc Té's, Toronto Ontario: 1982? I'm kinda fuzzy on the dates around this, but I do remember that it was before I left town to go to University. Quoc Té's was one of the three-or-four punk bars in Toronto that operated in the early 80's. For some reason my experience of punk bars is that they were often run by elderly oriental people who figured out that letting loud obnoxious bands play was a good way to get white kids to hang around and drink a buttload of beer, and they weren't the slightest bit intimidated by your mohawked, leather-jacket wearing ass thank you very much. I never went to Quoc Té's often enough to figure out who actually owned it, but it was situated in Kensington Market in Chinatown and served Vietnamese food during the day. In fact even at night you could get a bowl of steamed rice for a dollar to help pad the impact of the endless supply of cheap beer. So I kinda suspected my theory might be holding true. Wild Things were the house band. They were typical of first-gen punk in that they were energetic, brash, rude, fun, loud, drunk and could sorta play. I liked them a whole bunch. One day when I retire I'm going to get a basement bar, paint the walls black and sell lots of beer and bowls of steamed rice to kids with too many tattoos. And I'll be looking for a band just like Wild Things. Last Updated March 02 2006.
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