April 13 re-cap

The last couple of times Jacqui Brown played the Super Robertson Supper Show she brought the rock, but this time she has teamed up with John Burton to develop a different angle. John is one King hell musician and seems to be able to translate Jacqui Brown's songs into structures that allow her vocals to soar.



Good stuff for sure.

The Vancouver Canucks opened their playoff series vs Chicago, and all went well. John Burton was kind enough to allow Jason Jones to play his keyboard for a short set with the time remaining... a set in which we were "Fire-Maned".

"Fire-Maned"... a friend coined the term a long time ago... it happened that another friend was doing a set of some DJ music and i asked how it went and i was told... "oh he got Fire-Maned". I knew immediately what that meant... it means you are joined on stage by an surprise guest who feels it necessary to play a hand carved horn over whatever your artistic creation may be... and will not stop no matter how insane it gets. I remember the New Years Party where he grabbed a horn and inched towards the Jazz band and everybody took their spots with big goofy smiles waiting to see all hell break loose on the unsuspecting.

Basically I shouldn't have played that night, and I sort of felt that before the show... there was too much uncertainty, Jacqui wanted to play long so I should have just let them roll... but my neighbours were there and they wanted to hear a few of my songs. Also the SRSS and sporting events have a history of collision, and I'm fine with that. You never want to be a musician in the way of a sports fan... At least i don't want to be.  Remember the Olympics... 2nd supper show was a disaster as we pulled the screen up and angered a pack of Germans who wanted to see the biathlon highlights, but the week before a table of Slovaks came up huge during poem moment, and the last week was the night Canada eliminated Russia from hockey and Canada won a couple of bobsled medals and the town was on fire... we could do no wrong. The plan was to play behind the big screen so people could hear the music and see the highlights, but the crowd wanted to celebrate, and they would have none of that.

So i didn't know what to expect so I brought a Children's story to read over some piano improv:



Around the 2 minute mark we got "Fire-Maned" which worked out OK, but of course he doesn't leave the stage like a normal person might once the story is done... you are now a trio for good or ill. This is where i really played it wrong... I had it in my head that there were a few songs i wanted to try... But knowing that Fire-man is in full Fire-Man mode i should have aborted and tried something really experimental, or better yet just left the stage and let piano and horn jam out the rest of the show. I stayed hard on my course and buried us.



The strangest thing is that after the show when we are all sitting at the back of the bar hanging out all the talk was about how good the horn sounded... WHAT FUCKING PLANET ARE WE ON! I'm sorry... Please tell me how? Now i know that there is being positive and all and i get that, but if there was ever a person who doesn't need to be encouraged to storm other peoples art and impose his shit on it this is the one time... he sure as hell wouldn't tolerate that on his art. But yet we are there at the table, not talking about how good the piano was... even though the guy playing it had to transpose keys on the fly and did so expertly, but we are talking about how good the horn was... absolutely incredible!  It will be a good episode for the SRSS sitcom.  I want to be a nice guy and embrace the unknown more than anybody but this road is getting a little tired.  I meet professional musicians in town and they say.. "oh your the guy that plays the crazy horns"... i like the crazy horns, just not when I'm trying to deliver a pop or folk song.

For the record I don't hate Fire-Man, he is actually a very good friend and I have plans to live on a farm with him one day... and on that farm we will have separate music rooms e-i-e-i-o.

See the Legion of Flying Monkeys Horn Orchestra for the horns in their spectacular environment... it's great.  I'm more like the guy in that story "the cat came back"... only the cat is a horn.

Next week we have cake and Baboon Torture division, DJ Hixon and SR Jones, and  a screening of The Land of Deborah video "Pocket of Heaven".