Stop #1 : The Cellar for Aeroplane.









Let me first say it’s really bizarre to be running around to rock shows in pretty much broad daylight. I am glad I came out early today however, unlike the day before. Aeroplane was on, a band from Nanaimo I had no previous experience with. Even an online hunt turned up a few websites but no song clips. Sheesh! But off they went, playing pure, unapologetic pop music. And entertaining fellows to boot! I love this. I witnessed one of the most fantastic drummer fuckups I have ever seen, when Aeroplane’s skinsman lost his grip on one stick and butterfingered it a few times as it jumped about just out of his reach before flinging wildly off to the side somewhere. The bewildered look on the guy’s face was priceless as he swiftly reached for a new stick. Between songs, the lead singer noted, “My shoelace is untied, but I’m just gonna work through it.” The band had an astoundingly large Nanaimo contingent out to support them. Now that’s dedication! More hilarious banter between the band’s solid rock pop tunes, “This next song is called ‘Love Song’ and it’s not a cover.” To end the set, “This song is called ‘Photograph’ and it’s also not a cover. We’re just really bad at naming songs. We also have a song called ‘I Am The Walrus’ and one called ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’” Suddenly from the back, the rest of the band notices their drummer has removed a cymbal and is fiddling with the nut on it. “Oh wait a minute, our drummer is rebuilding his kit. Now is not the time! I apologize to the Cellar for breaking our drum kit.” “Photograph” is a really amazing song though, definitely the top of the set. I think it reminds me a bit of Mellowdrone, or maybe it’s Wintersleep. Whatever, it’s great in its own right. Take this as a band to keep an eye out for.

Stop #2 : The Cellar for DeHaviland.





Okay, so I didn’t go anywhere, I just stood around for fifteen minutes while DeHaviland set up. A much different band in terms of looks from the last, these fellows set up quick and got started right after one of the guys finished apparently taking photos of the setup on his camera phone. These guys have a neat sound, if a bit stunted. What an odd description - but yeah, everything was kind of blunt. With a little oomph though, the sound has a swift groovy jazzy bluesy feel, mostly courtesy of the snazzy piano work. And nice Kenny Rogers shirt! “We’re from the not so nice United States of America. Don’t hold it against us. We didn’t vote for him. We voted for Kenny Rogers but then he got all that plastic surgery and now we’re sorry we voted for him too.” Some guy in the audience piped up about seeing Rogers on American Idol or something then and how weird he looked. What an odd set. Anyhow, these guys are from Portland. It seems so weird to me that anyone would travel to come to New Music West of all things, but hey, exposure is exposure I guess, so good for them for making the trek.

Stop # 3 : Richards for Jonathan Inc.







Gorgeous and swimmy, gentle and shoegazery. Jonathan Inc. has a classic sweet sound. The room was sadly empty this early, but that prompted Jonathan himself to glance about the room and say, “You’re all at the back… except you…” he looks down at me, now standing alone at the foot of the stage, camera in hand. “Hi, I’m Jonathan,” he welcomes. “Thanks for coming up to the front.” Aw, I feel so appreciated. Lovely drifting music continues from them. Mmm I am instantly relaxed and in dreamland and temporarily forget that I’m about to run around and deal with crappy non-schedules again shortly. It feels very earthen and real, and of-the-country. If I am a fool, would you be my foolishness? You’re my broken record.

Stop #4 : The Buffalo Club for Lillix.











These girls have what can only be described as a Shitty Time Slot. Is their time in the limelight over? Who knows, but they’re still really adorable, and their set time is running late dammit. Get on with it! Good crowd for sure though, so it really doesn’t matter that their time slot is kind of a lame one. Another band that’s undergone some changes, they have a new drummer chick who was pretty flipping awesome. Really quick and intense drummer. I love seeing girl drummers who can really kick it instead of just sitting there boringly tapping away at stuff. I’d kind of be surprised if they don’t make a comeback now. Not that I pay much attention to this sort of pop rock, but I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed the sliver of Lillix’s set that I saw. Cute, real girls - think Kelly Clarkson - and all girls which is a huge selling point. They dress well, they sing well. The songs are simple but punchy. And the gal who seems to have taken over lead vocals (at least she sang the majority of the songs I was there for) has an amazing warbly Belinda Carlisle thing going on with her voice. The new Go-Gos? Maybe!

Stop #5 : The Penthouse for Exit This Side.







So much is running late! So much for scheduling. My attempt at seeing Bradley play at Crush is seriously hampered and I decide to basically not bother after overhearing someone on the phone say she was pushing the show back significantly because there was no one in the room. No Faber either, as the line outside the Roxy made me think I didn’t even want to try to get in, and the silence inside made me realize the schedule was running late there as well. So, on to Exit This Side. I haven’t seen these guys play in years, and they too have gone through serious member changes. The energy however hasn’t changed. Ben Wootton is an evil looking son of a bitch with so much energy one can barely keep up. His secret? I believe he was lip syncing. Either that or he had a brief backing harmony accompanying him because he actually stopped moving his mouth and directly pointed out that his voice was still issuing from the speakers. Weird. Well I caught only the tail of their last song, and the drummer was so far back on the stage I could barely see him, but this provided a runway for Wootton to run back and forth on wildly. Psycho!

Stop # 6 : Richards for Storyboard.







I love Storyboard’s drummer. I love her. She’s awesome. Swift and just solid. She looks up at me quizzically as I appear above her on the balcony to try and snag some photos. Why is Richards so dark lately? It used to be a great place to shoot. Anyhow, the rest of Storyboard is wonderful. Delightfully nerdy ambient indie rock, with astounding vocals.

Stop #7 : Thwarted!
I don’t even know what’s going on with scheduling anymore at this point. All I’m doing is running around and hitting set changeovers, and I have no idea who would be next anyhow. The Roxy is still too busy to infiltrate. The Cellar band is still changing over (or perhaps they played and are changing to something else again…? Otherwise that would be one hell of a record-long set change). Crush still has nothing going on. Well bands, I am sorry. I must miss you.

Stop #8 : The Penthouse for Sweetheart.











This show is also running a bit late and after standing through their lengthy one-by-one band member entrance intro, I can only stay for about a song before I have to take off. But it’s the same old Sweetheart - jumpy and energetic, truly a solid trendy rock band. Well-dressed and rife with synchronized jumping. Drummer Matt Kittle looks like he could fall off his stool any second with his odd jittery drumming style. Great band to watch. Totally snazztastic.

Stop #9 : Richards for Paper Moon.









This band is just as beautiful and delicate as their feathery name. Fronted by some stylish ladies, the songs are sweet and pure, and yeeha, two keyboards! Oddly enough the only show that seems to be running on time tonight is the only show that doesn’t really need to be. The premium show here is going on like clockwork.

Stop #10 : The Morrissey for Andy Collins.





Some of you may have noticed Collins’ show posters on Cord in the past. He’s basically one of our own by now, and was a pleasant reprieve in the midst of this haywire evening. Awkwardly set up at the back of the room where servers are constantly running back and forth with hot plates of food, Collins and his band performed under red lights to an attentive seated crowd. The set was casual, with a gentle, rootsy feeling, coming across as acoustic even though it really wasn’t. As I arrive and Collins finishes a song, he glances down and greets me with a, “Well hello MasterAndy.” Everyone’s so friendly tonight.

Stop # 11 : Richards for the Meligrove Band.





Well fuck everything. I’ve had it with the screwball scheduling. Still nothing going on at the silent rooms I pass on my way back towards Richards, and I even go by a crew of folks who are pissed about the stupid crowd at the Roxy that was preventing them from getting in there.





The Meligrove Band was running a tiny bit late now but they had nothing else to wait for so that’s okay. The room was nowhere near full, but the people who were there clustered up to the front of the stage closely to happily watch the Meligroves. Besides their impossibly fun and energetic music and the stage presence to match, the guys are a bunch of veritable cut-ups. Between songs they humorously entertained us without end, and evidently entertained themselves as well. The first thing I recall is something about Torontonians believing they are the centre of the universe but it’s only because they don’t want to admit it’s actually Mississauga.





Just a couple songs in, guitarist Andrew Scott broke a string on his guitar. As soon as that song ended he bolted off stage with a fire under his butt, prompting confused looks from the rest of the band, who evidently hadn’t noticed he’d broken a string. “I think we just lost a band member,” points out singer Jason Nunes. A few moments later, Scott returns. “Did you pee? Did I just see you pull up your zipper?” Scott holds up the new guitar string and proceeds to try and fix his instrument. In the meantime, the rest of the band attempts to urge Scott along (oh the pressure!) and entertain the audience with some string breaking music. Drummer Darcy Rego instructs the rest of the band to just “throw something” at him and he’ll go with it. This prompts bassist Mike Small to start up with Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean,” which the rest of the band happily goes along with, and the audience whoops and dances along to. Chaos then ensues. Nunes exclaims to Scott, “Did you just throw your guitar? Dude we’ve got like 30 shows left!”





“I just broke another string,” Scott says, explaining why he threw his guitar in frustration. “I probably shouldn’t have had all those shots of Jag earlier.” He picks up another guitar from a stand behind him and tells the audience, “This is the piece of shit guitar I bring along when security seems off. Like, if you’ve gotta steal something, steal this.” As he tunes the piece-of-shit guitar, the audience starts to yell out suggestions for more string-breaking music to play. “69! Freebird! Throw something else!” Suddenly, one of the guys from Paper Moon appears with the original guitar freshly strung. Scott takes it and says, “Rob from Paper Moon just restrung my guitar. I thank him for that. But besides that, we were there the first time he barfed in a shitty hotel room sink. And it was kind of our fault.” While the guys continue to banter about how they made Paper Moon drink too much, Small points out, “Ten minutes between songs. This is how we roll. Get used to it.”





I’m not sure why this came up - maybe something to do with the suggestion of excessive drinking, but someone in the crowd yelled “Spring break!” and then another voice yelled “Show us yer tits!” While this was going on, Nunes was busy seating himself behind his keyboard and trying to regain control of the room. “I love how there’s just like 4 drunk guys in the room yelling all this shit out. So, who likes Myspace? We’re gonna host Saturday Night Live next week.” Someone at the front of the stage incredulously asks, “really??!” Nunes chuckles and states, “no, of course we’re not!” The guys then set into a pile of songs featuring the piano. I took the opportunity to head upstairs to catch a bird’s eye view of the stage and in particular, Rego.





My timing was awesome, because suddenly a couple guys decided it would be a good idea to slam dance and take their clothes off and shuffle monitors about and generally cause a ruckus. The rest of the crowd around them were clearly annoyed and some of them attempted in vain to calm the guys down a bit. Bleh. Back to Rego - Holy shit what a drummer he is! Just limbs flying all over the place. Drummers amaze me, and he’s a really awesome one, filled with intensity and drive. He’s also a totally comedian, as he starts up with “I swear Chad Kroger [of Nickelback] is in the room.” He then growls out some Nickelback lyrics in his best Kroger impression. This leads to a story about the Meligroves driving through the pretty little town of Hanna, Alberta, which features a sign at city limits proclaiming “Welcome to Hanna - Home of Nickelback.” The band could barely believe it and stopped at the sign on the other side of town for a photo opp. Oh and did I mention Rego was also sporting a nifty neon New Kids On The Block tshirt? I’m so jealous.





Scott was alternating through all these songs (many of which kept Nunes on the keys and Small perching on the stageside speakers) on guitar and trumpet and tambourine, and then began climbing to the back and hugging the brick wall behind Rego, then launching off the bass drum onto Rego … whoa this is getting racy. The band left the stage to monumental cheers from the crowd. Nunes came back within seconds and explained, “We’re not Aerosmith or anything, we won’t leave you waiting long. We’ll do an encore.” Small was carrying Scott hoisted over his shoulder to his spot on the stage where he was heavily dropped. The chaos continued! Manic dancing onstage and off, poppy and fun songs from across their career. And now Scott was climbing the back of the stage again, up to the railing where he walked across the outside of the balcony until he got to where I was standing, text messaging someone to tell him what a great show he was missing and asking how his hockey game had gone. Bear in mind, Scott was actually playing his guitar at the time. He just stood there leaning on the outside of the railing and playing the song and carrying on a conversation with me about text messaging for a good thirty seconds. Then he jumped back down and kept up his crazy head-flinging playing.

Well, that was that! Exhausted tired and sweaty… and happy!… the crowd filed out and jammed up at the merch booth, where Small was already selling mountains of shirts and CDs to pleased fans. I acquired a Paper Moon pin, conversed with some folks who had been at the previous Meligrove Band show in town, and waited to see where the party would head. We reitred to the sidewalk shortly, where there was much dry humping courtesy of Rego, demonstrations of martial arts moves that turn into molestations (also courtesy of Rego), quadruple humps courtesy of everyone, and culminating in Scott doing backwards somersaults down the street. What in the hell! Eventually we all managed to get ourselves together enough to head over to the XM Sound Lounge.





Stop #12 : The XM Sound Lounge.
The Sound Lounge is actually the New Music West offices. It’s too brightly lit, there weren’t many people there, and at $4 a can, even the beer wasn’t any sort of deal. But the free Clodhoppers and condoms sort of made up for that. And Chart Magazines! And you can listen to XM Radio and surf the internet! Well, I left shortly after that, but not before getting a big hug from Rego, which attracted Scott, who latched on from behind. So there I was, squashed and sandwiched between two Meligroves and darn well near assaulted. Scott scooted off to have a seat on the pool table, Rego proclaimed Scott was all turned on (hah!), and we inspected the light bulb-butt image on the condom packages before I left them to their devices, and I went home to type this all up! Whew, and it’s only like half over! Aiiieee!

Day 3 Band Count : 10

On To Day 4!

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