Tenacious D @ the PNE Amphitheatre in Vancouver May 27th 2012

Tenacious D on an outdoor stage is hardly underground, but how could I miss this? Seeing Jack Black serenade us under a blue sky and enough cloud cover to put a cool breeze through the place was a beautiful scene. The D had not played Vancouver in many moons, and it was nice to see the fans turned out in droves. The stands were packed and the spot in front of the stage was getting squishy and sweaty I'm sure.

They opened up with six consecutive songs from the new album. I would have been yawning by the sixth, but the crowd was hella into it. Pumping fists and singing along with every word, makes me think I better go back to that album for a third listen. Rize of the Fenix! Not that it was the worst, but upon my first two listens I was leaning towards it not quite being up to par with their first two albums, but live it played out nicely.

After two songs the band stopped playing and Jack Black addressed the crowd. "I don't really follow this stuff, but I've been told we are number 1 on the hard rock charts in Canada." The crowd cheers loudly. "Not to toot my own horn, but numero uno bitch!" The crowd cheers again. "This week we've sold more albums than the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones combined mutha fucka!" At this point the crowd is going ape shit. "Should we even do more rock? I feel like we should just leave...cause we're the best." Most of the crowd stopped cheering at that point and the D decided to press on.

At one point during the Death Star song a mean looking alien came out, but Jack didn't bat an eye lash, he just took it out with his dart gun and the thing took off. After the battle Jack Black asked for some room temperature water, it seemed a funny demand while outside, but he got it. Then he had a roadie wipe the sweat from his brow with a towel. Then he had another roadie come out and pour some of his drink into his mouth. Life was good.

Finally it was time to dig a little deeper into the bag of tricks and rock a few loud metal songs, 'Kickapoo' and 'The Final Showdown' were amongst them, and they dug even deeper to pull out a 'Kielbasa', 'Wonderboy' and The Greatest Song in the World otherwise known as 'Tribute'. Kyle quit the band at one point, but it wasn't uncalled for, Jables was being pretty mean and giving him shit for supposedly butchering a song. Kyle took off, flipped him the bird and mooned him before leaving the stage. Yeah that happened. Rage Kage's butt was seen by thousands, but meant mainly for Jack. Luckily he came back, they played the Kyle quit the band song and then they hugged for an awkwardly long time.

A sasquatch sighting was made at one point during the show and the hairy creature and KG started ripping it up duet style on their guitars. Yes, believe it or not, but sasquatch can shred a mean guitar solo. Jack wasn't having it though. He brought out a roadie to take the beast down with a dart gun, and rightfully so, it was trying to steal the show and you know that wasn't happening on JB's watch.

Rage Kage had a serious gut, more of him to love I suppose and Vancouver seemed to really love KG. Jack Black had to call off a Kyle chant and get a Jables chant going from the other side of the crowd. Then he told the two sides to fight! "No wait, don't do that," he quickly called out. That man has to truly be one of the funniest people on the planet.

However the funniest part of the show didn't even come via Jack Black but from the band's guitarist. Towards the end of the show they did introductions and solos for each member of the band, and when they called out the guitarist he came forward to shred a giant solo. Just as he finished, while looking real proud of himself, he walked backwards and toppled over a monitor taking out his mic and mic stand in the process. From my angle it looked like a pretty hard fall and was definitely not part of the show, just an added bonus for us all. He couldn't keep it together and the song had to go on without him, everyone was having a chuckle and eventually he had to retune his guitar, yeah it was that big of a fall. Jables assured everyone that this was an even rarer sight than the Sasquatch from earlier. And then Rage Kage went over and laughed at him for the entire drum solo. He probably said things like, "Dude you're totally gonna be on youtube." I hope he's right. "How was the view from down there?" and, "have a nice trip? See you next fall." Christ he should have just pants'd him and got it over with. Anyway it was classic, classico if you will.

After the obligatory leaving of the stage they popped up at the back of the stage and got set up with their guitars once more and played a two song encore starting with 'Dio' and ending with 'Fuck Her Gently', and that was that. Darkness had fallen and the crowd scattered off onto the grounds of the PNE and went home to watch The Pick of Destiny.

Trash Talk & Depressing @ The Waldorf May 26th, 2012

Color Magazine had sponsored a party at the Waldorf featuring none other than LA's Trash Talk, and that's a band I definitely couldn't miss because they shred. Showed up late, same old story, missed the first band, they were called Needs. They were in needs of a later time slot.

Depressing was number two on the bill and they threw down so hard. I talked to my friend about them afterwards and he said something along the lines of it sounding like Nirvana driving down the street drinking whiskey and listening to Motorhead. That made me laugh. There is definitely some tone comparisons that could be made to those bands, as it seems Depressing like it dirty, but they are angrier than the former and darker than the latter. Depressing features the singer of Baptists, but here he is rocking a guitar and doing a nice job of it. Depressing also features the singer of Burning Ghats, but here he is rocking a bass and supplying the bulk of vocals. Andrew is no slouch in that department as we all know from his work in Baptists and the trade off between the two of them is nice.

You can tell these dudes grew up in the 90s based on their sound, which I can't even peg for you. It's grungy punk stuff. Some of the newer songs even have a bit of a stoner groove that is a good switch up from the meaner hardcore stuff that they are beyond capable of pulling off if their first album is any point of reference. And it is. Plus it was one of my more favourite things I heard last year, so type depressing into bandcamp and get yourself some free music.

There was a big ramp set up outside and they had been having a ramp party all day. In other words the bar stank like skateboarders.

I've never had the pleasure of seeing Trash Talk before but they claimed to have played in Vancouver 5 years ago and spent 3 hours here. The singers claims of it being weird were pretty funny. When he asked if anyone was at that show all of 2 people cheered, and nobody even believed that they were actually there.

Physically the singer was amazing. He'd call for circle pits and jump right down there with everyone to be in the thick of the action, stirring it up. At one point in between songs I think the bouncer told him to calm it down and he proceeded to do a front flip into the audience. First of many. All long hair flailing and chuck taylors flying, this guy was an animal. I'm not quite sure if the Waldorf was used to shows like this. Pretty sure they aren't actually. The next time the singer and the bouncer interacted the singer was shaking his fist at him and making angry ape noises, then he called for another circle pit, and the bouncer couldn't help but smile. He must have realized he'd probably only made things worse.

Both the bassist and guitarist are big black dudes with big black beards. It's safe to say the guitarist was one bad ass looking dude, it didn't even matter that he had on a Boyz II Men t-shirt that was loose around the neck, nobody was trying to mess with that guy. Not to mention he had his little buddy the flying monkey who was busy picking on bouncers and whipping up the crowd into a frenzy.

Between songs the singer told the audience that they had done a Nardwuar interview and he had blown their mind with his research. "How does he know I do pottery?" The singer asked to no one in particular.

They played all the songs from their latest EP 'Awake' that I wanted to hear and everything off 'Eyes and Nines' too. Those songs especially stood out as being particularly killer. I'd definitely recommend getting that album if this kind of music is your bag. Hardcore thrash. During the last song the guitarist climbed up on the speaker stack and sat down to rock. Next thing you know the singer was up there beside him hanging from the ceiling. Yeah, Trash Talk had arrived. A seriously crazy energy like no other. Shit got wild.

Photos courtesy of my own damn self! 

Real Problems - Everyone's got 'em.

In my quest for an interview with the band Real Problems I found myself embarking on a journey to East Vancouver, leading me to a three level house that would be hosting a keg party with bands playing on the bottom level. When I talked to the band it happened on the top level, and at one point during the evening, when the party was in full swing, I followed a hot girl into the middle level. She turned around and told me to stop following her but that is neither here nor there.

Real Problems have been around for 2 solid years, and when asked how the band began Den-M (bass) told me, “I had been singing in Jones Bones forever and they were getting super flakey and not fulfilling any of my musical needs, so I said; fuck it I’m going to teach myself how to play the bass and start my own band. I was real shit at first, with the only lesson under my belt being a couple games of guitar hero, but I rounded up Cam (guitar/vocals) and he was real patient with me. I didn’t think that it was going to come together so quickly, but we were gigging within 3 months and recording our first EP within 6.” Then Cam piped up, “We didn’t have Jonny Two Sticks at that point and didn’t truly hit full stride until he joined the band.” Jonny Two Sticks was also in the room, but had yet to say anything. He was a big dude, hiding behind hair and sunglasses, and donning a t-shirt that said ‘I’d Rather Be Hammered.’

I asked them how they would describe their sound and after some humming and hawing Den-M spoke up. “That’s the funny part about our band, Jon and I bring in a hardcore influence because we love to rock out, but it’s layered underneath Cam’s garage rock n roll influences. It’s a strange fit, but these days if you’re not doing something original, or have a female singer in a leopard print one piece spandex suit, then no one will care. Not to say that we’re doing anything ground breaking, but Cam’s love of soul music and Jon’s love of metal brings some interesting song writing about.”

The band is set to release their first full-length album this year. “It’s a loose concept album called ‘Welcome To Scum City’. All the songs are about pimps, pushers & prostitutes, crackheads, shifty cops, bums, alleys and street life. It’s still good partying music, but the lyrical content is a bit dark.” Cam explained. “Yeah, our songs are kind of like a piñata full of broken glass in that respect.” Den-M told me with a grin. “Plus I went out one night and got audio recordings of Hastings at 2 in the morning so we could tie all the songs together with some real street noise. I saw an OD, a crackhead fight, two arrests, and talked to a couple prostitutes. Usually I’m the type of person that puts his head down and walks, so it was real strange to be in Canada’s poorest postal code looking for trouble to go stand beside.”

  

When it came time for the party to start the basement packed out and people were falling all over the place, not caring, while the walls glistened with beer and condensation. Jonny Two Sticks was an absolute monster on the drums and Den-M yelled obscenities at the sweaty crowd, getting the drunks even more riled up than they were before. Cam was coming just short of having to physically shove them to keep them off of his pedals all the while trying to sing and play, it was a wild scene. I even saw Chi Pig there. I was going to ask him if he was a fan of Real Problems but he was in a bit of a mood because he had tripped on a hose in the laundry room and planted his face into the furnace. It looked quite painful, but I’m sure he bounced back. “That’s nothing,” Den-M told me, “at the last party someone fell off the balcony. He was running down the stairs, tripped, and started doing somersaults. He plowed his way through the 2x4 below the banister and flipped through the air before landing on a group of people below.” He pointed out where it had happened and it was a good 15 feet up. I asked if he survived. “Oh yeah he was fine. He actually landed on Cam and put a nice boot mark on his face that was still there the next day. Cam’s first reaction was to put a boot mark on that guy’s face as well, but then came to his senses and realized he’d been through enough. I didn’t actually see it, but apparently he was a big bearded dude who was compared to a Klondike man diving into the gold rush. No gold down here man!”

The last thing I saw at the party was Jonny Two Sticks wearing a toilet seat around his neck and his ‘I’d Rather Be Hammered’ t-shirt was nowhere to be seen. There were beer cans and plastic cups strewn all over the property, and some girl was holding court and drunkenly slurring to a small crowd about her STDs or something of the sort. Maybe I heard her wrong, but I decided it was high time to stumble home. Considering my night was full of Real Problems, it couldn’t have gone any better.

Real Problems hits the stage this Saturday Feb 4th @ The Railway Club where they will be joined by some rock n roll heavyweights The Jolts, Green Back High and Crystal Swells.

And be sure to check out the brand new album 'Welcome to Scum City' at: http://realproblems.bandcamp.com

PUNK NEWS! Jan 16th-22nd 2012

Punk News #2

Van Halen released their first new single in years onto the internet to the opposite of rave reviews. The song's unfavourable reviews came on because the bulk of their fanbase is unable to work the internet. Another source has said that the negative feedback was mainly due to the song sucking.

Mtl's Tightrope and Ont's Brutal Youth have released a 10" split, and I've already listened to it. Why? Because it is posted right here, and it rocks. http://myfingersmybrainrecords.bandcamp.com/album/tightrope-brutal-youth-split

In other news apparently emo kids are still crying about Thursday's break up back in November. Some one told them to shut up because The Suicide Machines were booking gigs again. Somehow I doubt they'll head west, but man do I ever love The Suicide Machines.

VANCOUVER NEWS AND UPCOMING GIGS

Vancouver indie punk act Carpenter have announced that they are writing a new album. And to this I say announce when it is done. Or quit your band and become a real carpenter, I heard there's good money in that.

If ska is your bag then get your butt out to The Fairview on Friday the 20th to see The Bone Daddies last show for 6 months. Billy Butcher headlines with a show that boasts; "Who likes midgets, monkeys, clowns, conjoined twins and loud rock n roll?" They've got my vote.

Also on Friday The Authorities are down from LA and playing at the Princeton Pub alongside Vancouver's very own Strugglers. They've billed it as some sort of boxing match which is retarded because a fight would be the last thing I'd want to see there. Then again both bands are full of old men, so maybe if they started swinging their canes around the "no holds barred punk rock battle royale" might get interesting. Anyway, my money's on that it'll be a good show regardless of it being at The Princeton Pub. This show has also been voted show most likely to have a skinhead punch someone's lights out at.

It's a big weekend of punk and all around craziness at Funky Winkerbeans. What else is new? On Friday the 20th there is a benefit for the lovely Mya Mayhem, and how could you say no to that face? Just when you thought she couldn't do any more for the community she ups and leaves to Africa, my guess is that her mission will have something to do with helping animals or feeding the needy. And you got enough to eat right? Well then might as well get your fill of drink at Funky's and feel like you're giving back while moshing to some power violence bands.

On Sat the 21st at Funky's, Alcohol White Trash and Lesbian Fist Magnet, two of Victoria's best imports that play the mainland on the reg are coming back to shit on our stage again. If that wasn't enough you get Car 87 as well, and in my opinion they're the most exciting new punk band in the city. But who knows maybe that award can be passed down to Gnarcoleptics or Wauzted who open. There's no lack of bands at this show.

But if you prefer your punk a little less dirty, with tighter jeans and t-shirts, then the Interurban (and trust me, it's urban) Gallery has Mean Jeans from Portland who probably cite The Ramones as one of their biggest influences. You get Pangea from LA along with locals Wars, Hole in My Head and Mete Pills. That name makes no sense to me, so I hate it.

And if you don't know where the after party is, well, then you're fuckin' stupid. There's going to be a pig there. No, not a Chi Pig, a Piggy. Never one to hold back I can't help but relate such an awful band name to my least favourite and most annoying of all the muppets. When Piggy was looking for singers I couldn't believe they didn't end up with Chi, then they could have changed their name to Chi Piggy. Anyway, go to Iron Road Saturday night if you still haven't caught your fill of the punk.

Come back next week to read more bullshit.

Jan 9th-15th 2012 Punk News.

Last month I hit the most views ever on my blog, by double, and then this month I ran out of ideas.

Then I came up with the idea of bringing back the Punk News thing that I was doing for The Skinny Magazine cause it was a fun format, and kept things recent. Going weekly? That's what I've spelled out in the title, ok, let's see if I can stick to that.

#1 Punk News! An article where I spell out some good punk (and what not) type gigs in the city, along with band news and views in the world of good music. With an exclamation point on local, but sometimes stretching out into news of the more mainstream variety. Always easier to make fun of that crap.

And might as well start with that right now. The At The Drive-In reunion from this morning was upstaged by the Refused reunion from this afternoon. Looks as if someone uploaded the first look at bands playing the Coachella festival this year. Wait, did I say bands? I meant reunion acts and DJs.

First Black Sabbath announce a new album, next they announce that Tony Iommi was diagnosed with lymphoma. I'd hate to make the connection that working with Ozzy causes cancer, but someone's gonna say it eventually.

And in Vancouver music Baptists starts recording their first full length album with Stu McKillop at his newly built Rain City studio. Exciting stuff considering Baptists' 7" was one of my favourite releases of last year.

Speaking of favourite releases of last year; The Jolts' 8% released on Sudden Death records rates high on the list. They will be hitting the stage of The Astoria on Saturday Jan 14th joined by the B-Lines and there was something about a Pointed Stick. Before the show they will be playing the Bloodied but Unbowed punk rock documentary. So if you want to see some footage of the Vancouver punk scene from the 70s and 80s you better be there early.

On Friday Jan 13th Soundcity Hooligans, Scarebro, Men at Adventure and Siren Songs play at Funky Winkerbeans. From what I know Siren Songs are a cool female fronted punk type thang. I've never heard Men at Adventure but with a name like that I always seem to picture The Village People in my head. Scarebro have the guy from Bison, but they don't sound like Bison at all. He's also the guy from S.T.R.E.E.T.S. but they don't sound like them either. They sound like SHIT! Just kidding. I had the pleasure of seeing them play The Biltmore last year and they absolutely killed it. It could very well be his coolest and definitely his punkest project to date. Oh and Soundcity Hooligans are from Kamloops. Social Distortion styled three piece that bring some anthemic drunken punk songs to the table.

In breaking news the singer/bassist of The Wrecktals loves eating at Bons, but he hates smoking pot. I don't know if it's actually breaking, but throwing it out there regardless.

Blondewich put new songs up on their bandcamp site! http://blondewich.bandcamp.com/album/bleached
They seem to have matured their sound a little bit, with the lyrics revolving more around boys and less around partying. Blondewich is an all girl band so they're allowed to do that. Not that an all boy band isn't allowed to, but I just wanted to clear that up.

Black Amps hit the stage of the Media Club Friday Jan 13th with openers La Chinga, and Birds of War. I hope for their sake the name Warbirds was already taken, or else they sure don't know how to name a band.

Thanks for reading! Come back next Monday for another edition of this garbage.

B-B-B-Best of 2011

The time of year is upon us where you're supposed to look back and reflect upon the year that was. End of year, it is here, again. So I've decided to run down some of my favourite bands in this city that begin with the letter B. That makes sense right?

Baptists - Badass hardcore with a live show that's not to be fucked with.
Bison BC - Big time bangers bust out burly bovine music.
Black Wizard - More bangers bash out some sick stoner groove metal with riffs for miles.
Black Amps - Balls out and beefy rock n roll soup. Bring some bread for dipping.
Black Mountain - What would a Vancouver best of list be without Black Mountain?
Blacked Out - Originally from Banff these boozers booze it up with their brand of skate punk.
B-Lines - Bus riding, upbeat, fast tempo garage rock with a singer who does not give a flying fuck.
Burning Ghats - Brutal death metal that will beat your skull in while reaching break neck speeds.
Blondewich - Babes playing beach music.
Bone Daddies - Ska buds.
Blisterin' Barnacles - A bunch of booty searchin' punk rock playing boozehounds.
Bend Sinister - Piano man rips off Benny and The Jets, and gets away with it.  
BMNSTR - Burgeoning rock n roll.
Boogie Monster - Burning faces off. Literally.
Boogie Man Jordan Daniel - Boo, it's the Boogie Man! Bashing out some rock n roll folky tunes for the people.

That's more B's than you can shake a stick at. Also check out Black Banana Records out of Vancouver bringing you two B's for the price of one.

Sadly we lost some good B bands in the city this year, Bogus Tokus and Battle Snakes will be missed greatly. As well as Burn in Hell. It's off to the braveyard with them.

Once again I would like to point out how many talented bands this city has, and that was only ones starting with the letter B! Feel free to add to the list if I missed any. OK, maybe a real year end blog will follow.

This Blog was brought to you By the letter 'B'.

Baptists & Congress @ The Astoria, Dec 16th 2011

It had come to my attention that I hadn't posted anything in this blog for a long while. Strangely enough I've still been averaging over 200 views a month, so thank you to anyone who is reading my blog. After I realized people were still reading I decided it was high time to post some more stuff in here, and keep it recent. There are so many great and talented bands in this city that I can't even keep up. However one thing I know for sure is that Baptists and Congress are two of my favourites and this show was not to be missed.

Osk opened up the evening, and if I knew then that I was going to be blogging about the show I would have done a better job of checking them out. Instead I sat at the bar catching up with an old friend that I hadn't seen in months. We had a lot to talk about, but I'll save you the grisly details. However from what I heard of Osk they were great. Crazy, fast tempo short songs. And towards the end when they slowed it down I was banging my head on the bar. Or at the bar, yeah I hadn't quite had enough beers to be bouncing my head off the bar just yet. Osk is definitely a band I'd be interested in getting a closer look at in 2012.

After a long pause Congress took to the stage. The guitarist looked happy as a pig in shit to be up there, the bassist hid behind a head of long hair, the drummer had that crazy manic grin plastered to his face, and the singer looked like he was in the line up at the bank. It took him a couple to get his body into it, but the deathly screech of his was summoned from the bowels of hell on the first note even though at one point I noticed he had his hands in his pockets. Eventually he took off his sweater, put his beer down, took the mic out of the mic stand and cradled it while screaming to the high heavens that were The Astoria ceiling.

The drummer pounded out the beat with a ferocity that would scare off any hipsters that thought they were coming to The Astoria for a dance party. The guitarist brings the perfect mix of metal and rock n roll and the bass tone was to die for. They covered Negative Creep by Nirvana and then followed it up with a brand new song that got the crowd moving. Congress was no less than impressive, and even though I think most of the band members are busy with other projects and riding bikes I hope to see more from them in 2012.

And then came along Baptists, the headliner of the evenings festivities. Heads were banged, feet were stomped, bodies flailed, and this was only during the first song. They opened with the effervescent track 'Good Parenting' that features the lovely lyric, "you're just a shit from my womb." You could tell they had been practicing, because things were as tight as your fat uncle's ugly christmas sweater after the big turkey dinner. Baptists are gearing up to hit the studio at the start of the new year, so it was exciting to hear them at their best, with a full arsenal of new bangers.

Nobody brings more style and grace to the stage than Baptists frontman Mr. Andrew Drury. He's all mean looks and swinging arms while stomping it out like he's godzilla and the stage is Tokyo. Seriously though, he looks like an abusive psychopath that could stomp a mudhole in your ass, which is strange because off stage you'll never meet a nicer and more polite guy. But on stage he was so on point that sometimes I'd forget that there was a band behind him. They banged out 'Farmed' with sheer intensity and after playing a cover that I didn't recognize, they smoked out 'Life Poser'. During 'Bullet for your Thoughts' Andrew decided to join the crowd and sing from the sweaty mosh pit. When he jumped back on stage this was the first time he seemed out of breath, painstakingly taking his place at the top of the list of the hardest working men in showbiz.

After all was said and done they couldn't decide if they were going to give the rabid crowd one more song. The crowd wasn't taking no for an answer, so after some debate they decided to play one final song. Andrew told the crowd that this could very well be the first song on the new record, and then they blasted through a furious minute long song and left the stage. I was content. I was satisfied. And I don't think it's possible for a Baptists show to leave me anything but.

All photos: Bubba Hamilton