Funny how things go. The idea of having a show in downtown Vancouver in the middle of the Olympic party might seem like a grand opportunity. So much so that i have received a lot of inquiries from people to play the Supper Show on these weeks. I even considered doing a "medal ceremony" of my own... see the Super Robertson supper show Anniversary show clips on You tube for reference. Basically the idea was that you would make up a category and give out a "gold medal" for it... great idea on paper. But there was this thing in the back of my mind that sort of said "OK Robertson how does this golden opportunity blow up in your face"... so i laid back called out my crew of ace friends and musicians and said "lets see what happens". I can't begin to put into words how happy i was that i didn't have a Gung-ho band on my hands thinking that their big break was upon them when i walked into the room... one can only imagine the conversation one might have to have... overzealous band member complaining to me over the fact that they might have to compete with a TV. Remember that time i tried to insist that we have a TV on stage for the Canuck playoff run... people weren't to keen on that one
Bar packed full of patrons, big screen on the stage with CTV projected... a Canadian soon to be presented with a Gold Medal... we rallied at the back still unaware we were without a bass guitar instrument about what we were going to do.
I made the announcement that the Supper Show would go on and the TV would be on in the back room.
Our real problem then became the break to get the drum kit all ready and then to realize that no we did not have a bass guitar, which caused an unfortunate delay giving people an opportunity to re-locate and wonder what the hell was going on.
Given that the sound on the TV wasn't really on, we could have played the whole thing better, and once we got going we had excellent versions of Bob Style, Everything, and Mr. Greenie (with a complete set of push-ups and sit-ups) and we had a special guest (Cameron Dilworth) who played a fine number. We had a few tables of our own "regulars" who came and had dinner, or supper for that matter and they quite enjoyed the snowboard crashes that projected on the back curtain behind us. We pulled the screen up but left the projection on... could be that Pink Floyd moment the SRSS has been waiting for.
Tomorrow Feb 24 should be an interesting night... you see Canada Plays Russia in a quarterfinal elimination game just down the street from the Railway Club 3 hours before the SRSS and myself and another member of "21 tandem Repeats" (may as well work the band name in) will be at that game, so by the time the SRSS starts the City will either be in an insane frenzy or struck down with an new all time low... what to do? time will tell. we have some stuff lined up and i hope to use some sporting visuals as part of the show.
time will tell, and i get nervous just thinking about it.
OK on that note i should mention that the Railway Club is an excellent venue to watch Olympic sports.... good big hi def screen, beer and good pub food... and perhaps the comedy of sports fans being subjected to independent local art.
OK
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
the poem and what it tells
the following is the poem written by the audience at the SRSS on Feb 10 2010:
Yellow banana on a banana stand
Airplane flies... where it will land
I don't know where it will go,
I just know where i will go
As time goes slippin' through my hands
the Guitar falls and crashed to the floor
the girls come running through the door
And she has way too many Cats!
The dogs are running wild,
who let them out.
And life will open up again
All i thought I wish I had,
I lost it all today
Amongst the glitter glare
of the lights in Robson square
I searched under the patio lanterns
Wrestlested 2 men 1 bobsled
who ever is left in the sled at the end of the run wins
And now we are drinking beer at the Railway
And doing cartwheels
And we came over the long way Just to see
*** GO SLOVAKIA GO***
Haiku's are easy
But sometimes they don't make sense
Refrigerator
We should just sing covers
then we don't have to write songs...
read into it what you like and know that of course i started the bastard with the banana talk. The first table was hesitant to the point that i had to make like a school teacher and stand over them but slowly things built. The Slovaks were into it for sure and you know things are pro when you have a few ladies who had read the poem and realized that the ending that sat should stay so they were looking for a line to insert somewhere in the middle of the poem.
No that's the kind of commitment i like to see at the SRSS, so you can imagine my dismay when the lead singer of the rock band that was playing (for a full hour) tried to get out of doing the whole poem. Totally unacceptable and defies logic when you think about it... the same guy who was there at the first Supper Show back when it was called the Super Robertson King Show... this man came in a different disguise every week to change up the hosting pattern. This man enrolled in a dance class and wrote a column about it when i was publishing my newspaper "the Lynx Paw Courier".
In some ways I'm at a loss for words to why he tried to say "OK that's enough of that... lets get back to something else", but at the same time i know why.
He lacks poem moment experience... and i as the leader I failed him with lack of direction.
The big problem was that he started trying to sing the poem... I have done that myself and it always leads to confusion and despair. The dead give away was he got about 7 lines in said OK lets start from the top again (the logic in the mind at the time, i would guess, was, now I'll really nail it thinking it was going sub par).... So he started again and gave up around the same point trying to slide the poem backstage.
Might have worked except for the fact that i was at the back with the Slovaks, and they felt, quite fairly, that they had paid there dues... So i had to commandeer the stage and finish the damn poem.
Trick to poem moment : Speak the poem clearly so that people can hear their creation... hit the throttle when you are riding easy.
Later on i ended up in a dart game... 501 i think it was called i was getting tarred and feathered people were trying to "double out" while i was still in the 200's... i kept telling them i was a "third period player" and i was just a few good tosses away, and quite remarkably i was right i spanked a few money shots and a double three and crossed the line like a dark hoarse out of nowhere.
anyhoo this is Connoisseur Casino from last week:
Tomorrow February 17 we have the reunion of the Super Robertson Supper Show Stalwarts Willingdon Black, Great White Shark, Simian Special, Super Robertson and some more great folks to play under the all inclusive 21 Tandem Repeats Banner.
Yellow banana on a banana stand
Airplane flies... where it will land
I don't know where it will go,
I just know where i will go
As time goes slippin' through my hands
the Guitar falls and crashed to the floor
the girls come running through the door
And she has way too many Cats!
The dogs are running wild,
who let them out.
And life will open up again
All i thought I wish I had,
I lost it all today
Amongst the glitter glare
of the lights in Robson square
I searched under the patio lanterns
Wrestlested 2 men 1 bobsled
who ever is left in the sled at the end of the run wins
And now we are drinking beer at the Railway
And doing cartwheels
And we came over the long way Just to see
*** GO SLOVAKIA GO***
Haiku's are easy
But sometimes they don't make sense
Refrigerator
We should just sing covers
then we don't have to write songs...
read into it what you like and know that of course i started the bastard with the banana talk. The first table was hesitant to the point that i had to make like a school teacher and stand over them but slowly things built. The Slovaks were into it for sure and you know things are pro when you have a few ladies who had read the poem and realized that the ending that sat should stay so they were looking for a line to insert somewhere in the middle of the poem.
No that's the kind of commitment i like to see at the SRSS, so you can imagine my dismay when the lead singer of the rock band that was playing (for a full hour) tried to get out of doing the whole poem. Totally unacceptable and defies logic when you think about it... the same guy who was there at the first Supper Show back when it was called the Super Robertson King Show... this man came in a different disguise every week to change up the hosting pattern. This man enrolled in a dance class and wrote a column about it when i was publishing my newspaper "the Lynx Paw Courier".
In some ways I'm at a loss for words to why he tried to say "OK that's enough of that... lets get back to something else", but at the same time i know why.
He lacks poem moment experience... and i as the leader I failed him with lack of direction.
The big problem was that he started trying to sing the poem... I have done that myself and it always leads to confusion and despair. The dead give away was he got about 7 lines in said OK lets start from the top again (the logic in the mind at the time, i would guess, was, now I'll really nail it thinking it was going sub par).... So he started again and gave up around the same point trying to slide the poem backstage.
Might have worked except for the fact that i was at the back with the Slovaks, and they felt, quite fairly, that they had paid there dues... So i had to commandeer the stage and finish the damn poem.
Trick to poem moment : Speak the poem clearly so that people can hear their creation... hit the throttle when you are riding easy.
Later on i ended up in a dart game... 501 i think it was called i was getting tarred and feathered people were trying to "double out" while i was still in the 200's... i kept telling them i was a "third period player" and i was just a few good tosses away, and quite remarkably i was right i spanked a few money shots and a double three and crossed the line like a dark hoarse out of nowhere.
anyhoo this is Connoisseur Casino from last week:
Tomorrow February 17 we have the reunion of the Super Robertson Supper Show Stalwarts Willingdon Black, Great White Shark, Simian Special, Super Robertson and some more great folks to play under the all inclusive 21 Tandem Repeats Banner.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
FEB 3 re-Cap... and other notes
One of the finer moments of the Super Robertson Supper Show occurred last week at the Cam and Jesse Supper Show, if that makes sense, and it does. Super Robertson was in attendance, there to enjoy the free show and suck back a few ice cold beers, and he was called up to the stage. Andrea SUPERstein, a Jazz singer, and female Super was in the house as well, and she was called up at the same time. The two "Supers" met for the first time on stage and were challenged to define chemistry with respect to the art of musical collaboration. Cam was the man that made it happen, and this is precisley the kind of thing that one had hoped would happen with the genesis of the Super Robertson Supper Show all those years ago.
They stayed smart, had a curtain pull and a quick huddle. Shawn Killaly was there and ready to groove so they picked a few chords ( i believe it was Am C and G) went with a picking pattern and made a song up on the spot called "we are the SUPERS" that took off like a spark in a powder keg. They even managed to work in a few lines about "poetry that you grandfather composed", which was one of the themes of the evening.... what the hell was the other theme? Shit i can't remember, i guess that's why you have 2 themes, one might be remembered. Cam and Jesse called up a number of guests and proceeded to mis-pronounce all of their last names properly, some things never change. That's one of the great things about Nick-names... easy handles.
Tomorrow, which is almost today the SRSS presents "Connoisseur Casino", or i guess i should say Connoisseur Casino presents themselves at the railway club for a full hour show... no cover. Minor details... Shockk tells me that they can rip the "blues" pretty hard... perhaps the audience should rise up and challenge the band to do something that they weren't expecting... it's good for the live "chops". I'm just saying... i mean they are a great band with a lot of things going for them, but can they manage "Poem Moment", or something of equal derangement? Time is the hunter... it's all love, just how you see it.
signed
Earl Parrish
They stayed smart, had a curtain pull and a quick huddle. Shawn Killaly was there and ready to groove so they picked a few chords ( i believe it was Am C and G) went with a picking pattern and made a song up on the spot called "we are the SUPERS" that took off like a spark in a powder keg. They even managed to work in a few lines about "poetry that you grandfather composed", which was one of the themes of the evening.... what the hell was the other theme? Shit i can't remember, i guess that's why you have 2 themes, one might be remembered. Cam and Jesse called up a number of guests and proceeded to mis-pronounce all of their last names properly, some things never change. That's one of the great things about Nick-names... easy handles.
Tomorrow, which is almost today the SRSS presents "Connoisseur Casino", or i guess i should say Connoisseur Casino presents themselves at the railway club for a full hour show... no cover. Minor details... Shockk tells me that they can rip the "blues" pretty hard... perhaps the audience should rise up and challenge the band to do something that they weren't expecting... it's good for the live "chops". I'm just saying... i mean they are a great band with a lot of things going for them, but can they manage "Poem Moment", or something of equal derangement? Time is the hunter... it's all love, just how you see it.
signed
Earl Parrish
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Jan 27 Re-Cap
Last weeks SR Supper Show was about as perfect as a SR Supper Show could get in terms of the fine mechanics and diversity of entertainment. I was also up too late sipping beers until a Raven Bird that serves as a Tap head gave me a good peck to let me know that my time was up.
To start the show Shawn Killaly, Willingdon Black and Super Robertson (21 tandem repeats) played a pretty neat little set of tunes... tight quiet and fluid. There was no bass due to a scheduling error on behalf of our fearless leader, but i personally didn't mind it. On paper and with regards to the low end it's good to have bass, but i have to recall the first band i was ever in... it was guitar guitar and drums... we had excellent rhythm good melodies and smart words... we were also naive, and suffered from that fool affliction where you end up listening to chumps who think they know everything. A bunch of experts told us that we needed bass if we were going to make it "big", and the result was that we shut down a very functional, highly creative unit to try and write bass into the equation. We spent a year trying to find bass players and in the end the two of us (who played guitar) ended up both making "custom" double neck guitars with "bass" and "Guitar". My man put a raven bass neck on a Jimmy Page double neck, and i screwed a Horner headless guitar on the bottom of a "mockingbird" bass.
We ended up making one more record which could go down as one of the more purely insane recordings ever made and it took us the rest of our "chemistry" "Money" and "time" that was left on that particular band and when we were done we failed to record all of our finest material. Was it the quest to sound "full", and be like the rest, to run with the best? Fuck that shit i say. If you are playing songs play them.
The second half of the evening had the Legion of Flying Monkies Horn Orchestra who were also down a man... A bass horn for that matter, but they were awesome. The Drummer really holds that shit together, not that there are any flies on the rest of the crew... just saying. Of course the songwriting is the other thing that the LFM have over your average bar band... it's like the leader (Fire-Man) is in front of a camp fire at a summer camp leading a sing along, but yet the lyrics deal with the here and now of our society. It's hilarious, refreshing, smart and insane... did i mention ridiculous? After seeing like a million fucking bands try to imitate some fucking sound, the LFM is a breath of fresh air... or at least a change for a bit... i wouldn't listen to it at home on my stereo but 1/2 hour show in a bar made my day that's for sure.
Tomorrow its Cam and Jesse.
world class baby.
I pulled this photo from facebook... i believe snapshot took it
speaking of facebook somebody who is a "friend" of mine sent somebody else to the Supper Show and they had a "GREAT TIME", which i guess is good... should i sent them an email asking them if they want to be a FAN of the SRSS on facebook?
What has this world come to? Now the artist makes "friends" with people and then suggests that they should become fans of their product. doesn't seem right... i mean i have never really been much of a "fan" kind of person... i appreciate shit and i get excited about things but being a "fan" is something i don't really understand. I never wanted to be anyone, just want to be like myself.
To start the show Shawn Killaly, Willingdon Black and Super Robertson (21 tandem repeats) played a pretty neat little set of tunes... tight quiet and fluid. There was no bass due to a scheduling error on behalf of our fearless leader, but i personally didn't mind it. On paper and with regards to the low end it's good to have bass, but i have to recall the first band i was ever in... it was guitar guitar and drums... we had excellent rhythm good melodies and smart words... we were also naive, and suffered from that fool affliction where you end up listening to chumps who think they know everything. A bunch of experts told us that we needed bass if we were going to make it "big", and the result was that we shut down a very functional, highly creative unit to try and write bass into the equation. We spent a year trying to find bass players and in the end the two of us (who played guitar) ended up both making "custom" double neck guitars with "bass" and "Guitar". My man put a raven bass neck on a Jimmy Page double neck, and i screwed a Horner headless guitar on the bottom of a "mockingbird" bass.
We ended up making one more record which could go down as one of the more purely insane recordings ever made and it took us the rest of our "chemistry" "Money" and "time" that was left on that particular band and when we were done we failed to record all of our finest material. Was it the quest to sound "full", and be like the rest, to run with the best? Fuck that shit i say. If you are playing songs play them.
The second half of the evening had the Legion of Flying Monkies Horn Orchestra who were also down a man... A bass horn for that matter, but they were awesome. The Drummer really holds that shit together, not that there are any flies on the rest of the crew... just saying. Of course the songwriting is the other thing that the LFM have over your average bar band... it's like the leader (Fire-Man) is in front of a camp fire at a summer camp leading a sing along, but yet the lyrics deal with the here and now of our society. It's hilarious, refreshing, smart and insane... did i mention ridiculous? After seeing like a million fucking bands try to imitate some fucking sound, the LFM is a breath of fresh air... or at least a change for a bit... i wouldn't listen to it at home on my stereo but 1/2 hour show in a bar made my day that's for sure.
Tomorrow its Cam and Jesse.
world class baby.
I pulled this photo from facebook... i believe snapshot took it
speaking of facebook somebody who is a "friend" of mine sent somebody else to the Supper Show and they had a "GREAT TIME", which i guess is good... should i sent them an email asking them if they want to be a FAN of the SRSS on facebook?
What has this world come to? Now the artist makes "friends" with people and then suggests that they should become fans of their product. doesn't seem right... i mean i have never really been much of a "fan" kind of person... i appreciate shit and i get excited about things but being a "fan" is something i don't really understand. I never wanted to be anyone, just want to be like myself.
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