Clad in pure white, besides his ironic mustache, Gregory Pepper took to the stage for a hometown-supported show at the eBar with his 'Problems' decked out in black (I smell a set-up..). Once Built a Boatwas out of the way, the four-piece, including Kate and Michael on guitar, took off with their quick and quirky songs. All the tempo changes, sliding from hard-hitting to sweeping and melodic in a beat, kept you on your toes (see One Man Show). They were entertaining through and through, even playing off technical woes as just more of 'his problems'. A couple standouts, identified by their morbid lyrics, were If You Try and R3 single, Knives and Guns. Gregory Pepper and His Problems are onto something, adding yet another dynamic to the Guelph music scene.
It has been awhile since The D'urbervilles played Guelph (seemingly ever other week a couple years ago) so I was interested to see what, presumably, new material would be like. It came storming out with a rather rocking sound, less synth/keyboard than before perhaps, and they didn't let up. The set of primarily new music was fairly straight-forward, and featured a couple rather catchy tunes despite the muddy sound (and low vocals). They didn't bother much with the quickly dwindling audience, though I blame the late set-time on the opening night of the 5-day Kazoo fest for the mass exodus. Those who stuck around got a taste of an upcoming album, plus a couple familiar tidbits such as The Receiver and (Hot Hot) Hot Tips.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Pepper's Problems, New D'urbs (eBar)
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Torch Burns Bright for (and in) the Royal City
What, you may ask, are those people doing in the photograph above? The answer is simple my friends, they are paying tribute to Royal City, the band, in the Royal City, Guelph. In response to the release of a fine collection of Royal City B-sides and rarities a night was arranged to honour the indie rock band that stole many hearts (and even a Juno-nomination) during their brief existence (loosely 1999-2004). Included in the tribute evening were a laundry list of artists who knew RC, befriended RC, were influenced by RC, and were even members of RC back in the day (though as one performer pointed out, most of the band disappointingly were unable to attend).
For full disclosure I will tell you now that I was unaware of Royal City while they were still together, but have recently heard many rumblings and picked up the Royal City 1999-2004 disc. When I saw the likes of Guelph's current indie-elite honouring Guelph's past indie-elite I couldn't pass up the opportunity. And I'm glad that I didn't...
Opening with what he joked were the two shortest RC songs he could find, Gavin Gardiner of the Wooden Sky got the night rolling with a couple of simple acoustic guitar renditions.
Gavin handed over the torch, still burning, (get it?) to Magali Meagher of the Phonemes along with her accompaniment that included former Royal City member, Nathan Lawr on drums, as well as D'urb - Kyle Donnelly and a lovely singer Stephanie whose origins are unknown to me. They were the first band to imitate the 'sit down' style that RC employed by pulling out chairs for the set of a few tracks with both acoustic and electric guitar.
Nathan Lawr remained onstage but switched from drums to acoustic guitar to play one quiet, but very lovely song, after retelling stories of Vish Khanna (host, Neutron Stars) during their days of touring together. Evan Gordon contributed an excellent electric guitar solo that fit well.
Next up were the atrociously named Cry, Cry Papsmear who busted out a prerecorded electro version of I Want To Go (lazily referred to by most as Honolulu) to which they danced the robot the entire time (pictured above) and eventually got us all singing along.
The energy level which was raised by the previous performers was one-upped by the gang of Noah 23 rapping, Scott-o-bot of RaggMopp holding it down on the guitar, and a drummer whose name I didn't catch. This was a very creative performance with Noah laying down the Bad Luck lyrics in rhyme, as well as freestyling about Royal City. A highlight of the night for sure!
A highly anticipated brotherly duo of Evan and Geordie Gordon (The Magic, Barmitzvah Brothers) played a couple of Royal City songs, which Evan should have been comfortable with considering he was at one time a member of the band. He sang first with guitar in hand, while Geordie played an inherited, broken keyboard set to imitate an organ, over a drum machine track. Geordie took over vocals for the second track and they played on despite issues with said keyboard. I'm sure they made dad (James Gordon, musician), who was in attendance, very proud.
Greg Denton played a banjo and Arthur McInnes a guitar for a rendition of My Brother is a Meat Man.
Though Jenny Omnichord admitted to being too young to have been very aware of Royal City, just by being so involved in the Guelph scene she's come to know them well. Her three-song set of Royal City covers played, as always, on her trusty omnichords (she's got two now!). Since The Nations Will Sing we figured we might as well too and sang along - "Buuuurning Torch".
Drawing last, Andy Magoffin of the Two-Minute Miracles, came out alone with his guitar and his "City of Guelph" work shirt. Sticking to Royal City covers he did a total of three songs in a very soft manner and included the quaintly-titled Blood and Feces. He made a quip about RC lyrics in general, gaining the right considering they recorded much of their material in his own studio. Although his performance was quite lovely, it was definitely a quiet finale to a sporadically-explosive evening of covers and tributes to Royal City.
Vish, host and organizer, admitted it was his first tribute show which probably led to the 'random artist ordering' which seemed to be a mistake, especially in the end. As nice as the tribute was, I found myself craving closure. Sticking around after the final artist I half-expected a handful of performers to come up for one last song as an ensemble - something we could sing along to and hum "C.I.T.Y, Royal City" as we headed out into the night. Alas it was not to be, but the memories of Royal City were reignited and these performances burn on.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Thriftstock
I'm a bit late to the game.. but the family thrift store is closing down (for reasons you can easily read elsewhere on the net), however on a positive note they are throwing a 6-day shindig running right on through until Tuesday night.
Highlights:
Friday
The D'Urbervilles
The Magic
Tacoma Hellfarm Tragedy
Saturday
Richard Laviolette and His Hollow Hooves
Sunday
Sunparlour Players
Superfantastics
Monday
The Neutron Stars
Tuesday
Host: Professor Orbax
Wax Mannequin
The Burning Hell
Doors at 7:30pm each night (*All day Sunday starting at 11am)
$7/night or $25 for the whole thing.
More info on the facebook group "
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
D'urbervilles and Slow Eyed Someone
Ebar - Thurs Sept 25.
Albeit it was supposed to be a Land of Talk/D'urbervilles show, and with voice problems from Land of Talk the lineup was changed the day of the show, but who the heck are Slow Hand Totem. [Edit: I did this entire review calling them that.. the name is actually "Slow Hand Motem", how memorable *ahem] A three-piece, with a guy with some keys and a Macbook, a dude with a keytar and another other interesting looking man doing something to the mic. There was a whole whack of bass coming from the speakers and equally as much confusion from the crowd. I had to just smile and laugh since the spectacle was so bizarre. Plus trying to watch the quote-unquote singer was difficult because of his shifty eyes, that often rolled into his head as if he were on drugs - which he very well may have been and would have explained a lot. (3 for uniqueness alone)
Some explanation was given when a member from the openers stepped onstage with the D'Urbervilles. This show was a return to form for the local heroes who had been lacklustre when opening for the Born Ruffians in April. Being the headliners helps their cause and they rocked out as they have the potential to every time. Favourites like 'Dragnet' and 'Hot Tips' pleased the long-time local fans in the crowd, while a few new tracks also piqued curiousity (well at least mine) and also went over well (in my books). An odd moment occurred when the aforementioned funny-eyed lead from Slow Hand Motem appeared (uninvited?) on-stage during one of the song's breakdowns and began to freestyle overtop. From what we could gather it had something to do with the city of Guelph but not much else was intelligible (not in pronunciation, and likely not in content either). The guys from the D'Urbervilles looked on somewhat surprised and intrigued, but not angry or anything, and just took it in for what it was - same as we did in the crowd. Overall the show was solid, and though they didn't blow anyone away the few people with me who hadn't been previously exposed to their music came away having enjoyed the set, but probably not dedicated fans for life. (7)
