Overrated Disco

By ben

Friday January 28, 2005

Ten years-old in a tuxedo t-shirt

Big kudos to all those from Vancouver who braved the rain and took the bus out to Seylynn Hall in North Vancouver last Saturday for the Pet Sounds show. People were telling me their horror stories about how long that transit ride took and it sounded almost as enjoyable as chewing on a urinal puck. I was lucky and got a ride out there in style in the Rice Rocket courtesy of Black Rice. Not much drama worth mentioning during the trip though, as a writer you are always half hoping for an incident, but we didn’t hit any squirrels or get pulled over by cops, and we all arrived in North Van in one piece (except for the Rice Rocket’s door handle, which broke due to a Chinese food takeout mishap).

This was my first time at Seylynn Hall and the place is almost exactly the way I envisioned, which is to say that it looks and smells like a high school gymnasium. The scheduling order of the bands was a bit weird with Black Rice being the opener, followed by the Nasty On, The Doers, Vancougar and then ending with the Evaporators. Being an all-ages venue the crowd that showed up consisted mostly of teenagers. A good 300 heads were there I figured. I’ve praised these bands enough over the last couple of months, so I’m just going to summarize all the performances by saying the entire show was fabulously rockin’ and the crowd loved it. I was very impressed by the fact that the kids actually knew all the words to the songs and were singing along. Most noticeable was this boy about 10 years old in a tuxedo T-shirt moshing wildly at the front. He got pushed down a couple times and got right back up. That’s one tough kid.

If you really want to hear some overrated disco you can always dust off your parent’s Bee Gees album collection, so no need freaking out if you didn’t get tickets to the sold out Scissor Sisters show this Friday. May I suggest instead the Railway Club for what is sure to be a fine show. Over there you have the Mohawk Lodge and Regional Hats which are pretty swell, and you also get The Quiet Numbers featuring Ben Labelle with Shawn Mrazek from the Notes from Underground, Jen Deon who was with the Cinch and our very own John Cow. And did I mention that Shammy Doer is the opening act? Or you can also go check out The Winks at the Marine Club, because the Marine Club is nothing more than a stinky dive if no one shows up. Not to be overlooked is the Oh Susanna, Po’ Girl, Rae Spoon and Buttless Chaps show at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, part of Rock For Choice. Hearing Oh Susanna in a theatre setting will be a treat.

Saturday night the Butchershop Gallery is throwing a huge fundraiser party and it’ll feature a great night of music with Raised by Wolves, Dandi Wind, My Project: Blue and Cameron Latimer. Do note however that it’s being held at Pat’s Pub and not at the old ‘shop. If you fancy something more chaotic, Dayglo Abortions, Cum Soc and The Neo Nasties are at the Asbalt. Or if you just want to go nuts there’s the Buffalo Club — they are having a big 80’s costume party and it features Automatic Fancy playing hits from the 80’s and Channels 3 & 4 not playing hits from the 80’s. Sunday night doesn’t let up either with a show at the Media Club with Joel and the Last of the Neighbours, Billy the Kid, and Malcolm Bauld. And at the Railway there’ll be a pretty good gig featuring Kate Maki, Ruth Minnikin, Dale Murray, and Nathan Lawr, who are all out-of-town singer-songwriters. You might recognize Lawr as the drummer for King Cobb Steelie, and both Murray and Minnikin are in the pop-roots band The Guthries. Minnikin is marvellous; I think she has one of the most wonderfully unique voices around. And what do you do on Thursday night? Do you go see the Hidden Cameras with The Blow at Richard’s or support Rock for Choice at the Railway with The Doers, Ladyhawk and Foster Kare? I really don’t know.