Lots of Activities
Well I have so much to tell but my life has been one big busy muddled mess lately so I don’t know where to begin.
Stampede 2001
I was so busy with the band, Matt Master’s & The Gentlemen of the Rodeo, that I didn’t even bother going to the Stampede grounds this year. However, I always feel that the best part of the Stampede happens off the grounds. To get into the Stampede costs about $10 and that is just for the entry, then anything else you want to do costs money like ride tickets and junk food (“those little donuts”) – it is worth it if you have never been before, but as a local I am one of the thousands who worked at the Stampede as a teen and the thrill wears off when you have been standing on your feet for 10 hours a day for 10 days selling tickets or slinging hash. The one thing that I will give the Stampede credit for is that they bring in a lot of bands and they are all included with the price of admission. Usually they aren’t bands I am interested in (Collective Soul – yuck!) except for Bif Naked who has played there the last 2 years in a row; however, I missed her because I was performing at the same time.
Anyway, to get back to the band, I think we played 9 shows during a three-week period in July. However, some of those show’s consisted of 3 sets – so we were starting to feel like a lounge act. I thought that the highlight was going to be opening up for Rev. Horton Heat, but the day of that show my boss told me that he wanted me in the office for 6:30 the next morning for a meeting! So, lamely, I decided not to stick around for the Rev. because I didn’t want to face my boss with only 3 hours of sleep the next morning. I have seen the Rev. before and he does put on a good show but once was enough for me. My favourite show that we played was at the Calgary scenester pub called The Ship & Anchor. They had a night called The Hank & Patsy Dirty Country Covers Night where a few local bands get together and do old country covers – not really a big stretch for us being a country band, but it was lots of fun. They had a free pancake breakfast at midnight and burlesque dancers – who were amazing! However, getting on stage after the burlesque show when the audience is really drunk is a hard act to follow but after about the 3rd song people finally stopped shouting: “Show us your boobs!” I don’t usually wear pasties when I perform so I didn’t comply. This year was also the 6th annual Rock Central Stampede Breakfast. Rock Central is a house in the seedy neighbourhood of Victoria Park that borders the Stampede grounds and is set to be torn down any day now (the whole neighbourhood!) For the past 6 years this house has been inhabited by various friend’s and members of the Calgary rock scene and they put on a big rock show in their backyard and cook up a free pancake breakfast to anyone who shows up. And every year they get shut down by the cops for noise violations, this year being no exception, which really sucks because they don’t charge for the show and the food, they just ask that people come and have a good time! For those who don’t know Pancake Breakfasts’ are a tradition in Calgary, almost every business has one and you can go for the whole 10 days and not buy groceries if you want to just eat pancakes, sausages, and hashbrowns and drink Macdonald’s orange ‘juice’. This year the boys at Rock Central added perogies to the menu, a special treat for all of us veggies – thanks guys!
The Sadies Show
This actually happened before the Stampede and I took lots of pictures because I wanted everyone to see what these guys looked like and how rockin’ they were. For some reason I just can’t get the scanner to work, so, sorry no pics. But just imagine the children of Lurch from the Adamm’s Family because that is what these brother’s (Dallas & Travis Good) look like. The two front men for The Sadies are from a well-known Canadian family: The Good Brother’s, at least well know in Canadian folk and country circles. Their music has just the right amount of twang and rock in it to make it fit into the genre of alternative country, which I think I just made up. The thing that struck me the most is how Travis looks like he is being tortured when he sings. His mouth is wide open and in the photo, that no one will ever see, he looks like he is screaming. In addition to the guitar and mandolin he plays the fiddle and I heard a story about how he used to travel around with The Good Brother’s band when he was 13 and some lady just gave him a fiddle so he taught himself to play to drown out the noise on the bus and piss everyone off. A man after my own heart.
The Corn Sister’s
Okay, so I didn’t actually go to this show but they were in town and I got to hang out with Carolyn Marks and I just fell in love with her and the Corn Sister’s CD and am driving people nuts by constantly listening to it. The Corn Sister’s are made up of Neko Case and Carolyn Marks who are two fabulous individuals and if anyone out there has not heard of the illustrious Neko Case and her Boyfriends, or the Corn Sister’s or Carolyn Marks and her Room-mates then they are certainly missing out. (Maybe I should call this genre alternative to country?) Neko is not actually Canadian but we don’t hold that against her – she has been in so many Canadian bands than people have stopped counting. If you want more information on these very cool grrrls then go to www.mintrecs.com.
Eric’s Trip Reunion show
Frank was harassing me about being really excited to see Eric’s Trip play after all these years, he likened it to waiting for the Loverboy reunion, but I don’t think this is quite in the same league. Eric’s Trip was the fundamental rock band in Canada in the early 90’s. Even Sloan considers them one of their influences and they got together at about the same time. Hailing from Moncton, NB their sound combined Sonic Youth influences with their easygoing maritime mentality. Everyone in the band has a really soft voice, especially Julie and by harmonizing on every song and then mixing in heavy guitars and lots of re-verb they created a sound all their own that everyone wanted to copy. Here in town they played at the Night Gallery and I was surprised to see the mix of people who crammed into the bar (like the fake & baked dyed-blonde 6ft ‘dude’ who insisted on standing in front of me and who was almost reduced to tears every time Julie sang – what was up with him?) Having broken off into Elevator (Rick White, Mark Gaudet) and Broken Girl (Julie Dorion) 5 years ago, I thought I had heard the last of them so I was So Excited to hear that they were playing a reunion tour this year. I don’t think they are actually going to start recording together again, but I am going to pretend they are because it makes me happy.
The Inferno’s
Another, albeit lesser know band, that has recently reunited is Calgary’s The Inferno’s. These boys started out when we were all in high school and have played together twice this summer much to the delight of their faithful fans. They opened for Vancouver’s The Evaporator’s on Saturday but I only stuck around for The Inferno’s because I was feeling very ill and cranky and wasn’t much fun to be around. However, health problems aside, I loved the show as they played all their old songs and one new one. Rock Handsome, the lead, was wearing nothing but his green and white striped underwear and a bowtie by the 4th song. And we were treated to a solo performance of the Police’s Roxanne sung and played by the drummer, Chocolate Michael, because Rock Handsome kept breaking his strings. Yes, we are all happy to have these boys back on stage.
Well, other than that life has been quiet for me. I have missed a lot of shows because I was performing a lot in July and I think this month I have just been a little worn out. However, in a couple days I am leaving for the Burning Man festival in Nevada – and I am not ready yet! I don’t know if any explanation I could give would do this festival justice so if you want to learn more about it go to www.burningman.com and I will have a full account and (hopefully) some pictures for you when I get back.
Take care,
*melanie
cowgrrrl@coolgrrrls.com
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