GoGo Bonkers, not Gongo Bonkers opened up the night... I hate it when i get a name wrong... such a simple thing to check and get right... but i failed.
GoGo Bonkers was set to play in November but there was a conflict where they received a paying gig so i threw them into this night... unfortunately there were many things set to happen so they only played for 13.5 minutes... but they took it like pros did their thing, and what a good thing it was. I was delivering mail the next day singing "green slime", although i didn't have the harmonies down like they did:
Next up was Chris Rzepa, a Vancouver cellist and scene builder herself. She had a looping pedal and set up some loops and played to them and then sang over them... very delicate and brilliant. I was sitting in the back with Rob from "Devilsplender" trying to enjoy the show while a couple of dudes were talking loudly over the show... i felt conflict. I believe i was barking on about stage volume and audience respect last week, and truth be told i have seen this shit for a long fucking time and in my heart i was just like... "enough is enough"... so panicked, nervous and conflicted i went up to the table and in my most polite manor asked the gentlemen if they would mind moving to the back room where their conversation would be less disturbing to the performance that was happening. they looked at me incredulously and suggested i move closer to the stage so they wouldn't be between myself and this apparent performer that it seemed so fucking important for me to be able to hear... i tried to re-explain but there was nothing... apparently they were done anyway and they left but they made sure to let me know that i was way out of line.
Oddly enough a few weeks ago... after the 30th show there was improv acting crew and i was at the back and king Dinosaur was telling stories and a lady came up and told king Dino that his voice was a very dominant presence in the room so we immediately moved to the back... it is what it is. You know people do things, and it's one thing to not listen but it is another thing to put up competition for sound waves... and believe it or not i think most people might want to catch the performance than rather hear about what happened between you and your co-worker and why you feel crossed by their actions.
After they left some patrons thanked me saying "I didn't realize how much that was annoying me"... It is an unfortunate part of the Vancouver Music scene... almost like an irremovable culture... one that i will not miss.
Chris Rzepa was was solid on the loops, killer on the melody, and sang like an angle... and then Shawn Killaly joined her and put on a clinic himself:
Next up it was the 21 Tandem Repeats collective marked by the return of Alvaro Rojas on bass... forgot what a treat that is! He really is a Bobby Orr type player... solid defensively on the bass but yet easily able to shift into offence with a quick bass run and then back patrolling the blue line holding it all together. Shawn Killaly on drums never hurts of course, neither does Sandra Bouza singing, finding spots and harmonies like she has heard the songs a hundred times. First time 21 tandem repeats had Cello, and Chris Rzepa was totally solid... did i mention Johnny Wildkat and Willingdon Black on twin guitars. Kind of going out with a line of Division 1 hockey players for a division 8 game... total control, good passing collecting your own rebounds.
We had decided to play "Hey Rock's Living room" before the show and Super Steve and Willingdon Black were going over some old western Hockey league trivia book... there was mention that it might be a good idea for anybody answering and questions to know some Portland Buckaroos trivia... i snatched the book out of Super Steve's hands and tried to remember that "In 1960, Portland was granted a franchise in the minor league Western Hockey League (WHL) for its newly-built 10,500 seat Memorial Coliseum, and the Buckaroos name was reincarnated. The new Buckaroos were composed mostly of players and coaches from the New Westminster Royals, including its head coach Hal Laycoe. The Buckaroos went on to beat the Seattle Totems in the league championship and win the Lester Patrick Cup in its first season of existence.That 1960–61 Buckaroos team was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.
But that proved to much so i made sure that WB was too far away from a mic and that he would have to shout questions to Sandra who had never heard the song before and in the chaos i would slip the noose of being embarrassed by those who carry themselves as Western hockey trivia elitists. I wonder if Harper would know this stuff? The press releases say he has an encyclopedic knowledge of hockey, but the press release might just say that to make him feel Canadian to the average consumer... i mean voter. Hard to know for sure but you know it's bad when you are doing a song and wondering if Harper could help you:
We also did that hockey song written by that nobody:
King Hell thanks to GoGo Bonkers for letting us use their bass amp and guitar rig and Rob for doing sound when Johnny was pulled from the soundboard and on to Ian's guitar rig.
Tomorrow is the last Super Robertson Supper show for sure... I know there has been some confusion... i kind of did the last "big one", on November 30 cause i knew we had a good band and i also knew that December is a very busy month haunted with all kinds of sickness, obligations and debauchery... so i didn't want to try to rally the troops at such a time, but it appears that the troops have rallied themselves and we have a good crew coming out to play tomorrow... Oh yea i was going to give a seminar on how to run a SRSS... i do have some notes... and at a supper show you can always improvise something over improvised music... as the sound man from the old Malcolm Lowery room use to say... "It doesn't matter nobody is listening anyways."
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