Live Reviews
The Horseshoe's New Music Tuesday -- June 25
- by Dan
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Add to del.ico.us.(2008-06-25)
Last night I found myself at the Horseshoe Tavern for New Music Tuesday. I really didn’t have any intentions of going out for music on Tuesday night, but those of you who go to a lot of shows or work in the music industry know how it works. You wake up with no intention of going out…in the afternoon you check some concert listings, eat dinner and are faced with a decision between staying home and perhaps being bored, or going to hear potentially great music. The decision sort of makes itself.
I went for two reasons in particular: the first being that I missed both opportunities to see Black Diamond Bay (formerly Krief) during NXNE, and the second to see what ex-Rheostatic Dave Bidini’s new project was all about. The openers were Parlour Steps and Jason Bajada. I decided to go for all four acts.
It is very rare that I see an entire set without being accompanied by any friends or having any conversations, but that is what happened for Parlour Steps. The Horseshoe was completely empty but a rowdy, juiced up group of fans who knew a lot more about Parlour Steps than I did made it feel more alive for them than at any other point of the show.
During the set, I overheard Craig Laskey say “This night is off to a fairly good start” and thought to myself, are you insane? This is perhaps the biggest flopping Tuesday at the Shoe I’ve ever experienced; it’s funny how enthusiasm can make you feel that way, though. I’ve felt like that at my own shows, where you don’t realize a flop is going down because you are having so much fun.
Musically, Parlour Steps don’t have a sound that is obviously their own, but very bands few do. They play with vigour and a sense of playfulness that their fans definitely pick up on, and it’s hard to not want to jump around while listening to them. After playing a particularly morose song, lead singer Caleb made a comment about just how happy the song sounds, and I had been thinking the same thing watching people dance so hard to a song so melancholy in lyrics. The band went on first, but in all honesty I think they had the performance of the night. I’d book them in a flash.
Next up was Jason Bejada, who is billed by his name despite having four accompanying musicians at minimum on stage throughout his set. It’s quite the motley crew of musicians as well; they had me wondering if he just hires musicians to play with him or if that was in fact his regular band, because they just have nothing tying them together.
Jason has a pretty voice. Not even some serious microphone mishaps could hide that. But a New Music Tuesday tends to have really short sets when four bands are on the bill, and I still found myself growing very tired of the predictability of where these songs were going in the latter half of what was probably about a 35-minute set. That’s not a great sign, but I am really not the target market for Jason Bejada so maybe it’s irrelevant.
Then it was time for Black Diamond Bay -- not Black Diamond Boys, which they’ve somehow been called all around town leading into this show. Before the name change, Krief headlined at my birthday show last year at the Rancho Relaxo, and it was one of the craziest shows I’ve ever been a part of.
Lead singer/guitarist Patrick Krief does not have nearly as pretty a voice as Jason Bejada, but I’ll give up a saccharine voice any day of the week for the energy that Black Diamond Bay put into their performance. The man full on abuses his guitar while his bandmates smile and watch to see just what he might do next. Some of the newer songs seem to be cognisant of Patrick Krief’s not having the greatest voice and have instead gone into a harder, almost stoner rock territory, which really allows the band to flourish.
This is the third time I’ve seen Black Diamond Bay and the first time at the Rivoli was still their best set; however, a lot of that can be attributed to an absolutely muddled sound provided by the Horseshoe Tavern during the entire night on Tuesday.
Finally, it was time for Dave Bidini Band. I have this theory that it was Dave Bidini’s success in other parts of his life that led to the Rheostatics’ eventual demise, but that theory sort of doesn’t hold water when Dave is back out playing music while Martin Tielli has fallen off the face of the earth.
I don’t know what I was expecting. I do think that Bidini has a seriously near-impossible task on his hands, trying to play music for mainly Rheostatics fans and make them happy while not ripping off his previous, more famous band.
In my opinion, he didn’t fail but he didn’t pass with flying colours either. It wasn’t different enough from the Rheos -- but then again, you know, how was it ever going to be? They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, and Bidini is a pretty old dog. The new material is fun, clever and catchy; expecting anything more on my end was probably ridiculous.