The Cynics, The Ugly Beats and The Squids in Hamilton

Hit the road right after the radio show with Alicks (Music Director at CHRW) and Kellen (Bandaloop Radio, 6 to 8 on fridays on CHRW) to go to Lou's brand new club in Hamilton. It's called This Ain't Hollywood (you know, The Forgotten Rebels LP?) and it's in the north end of Hamilton on James St...easy to spot, look for all of the bright white neon tubes glowing in the darkness...sign is coming shortly says Lou. Found the front of the club, lots of locked doors, then I spotted an Ugly Beat who pointed us to the side of the club...ya, we'll know for next time!
We didn't even get to the door before Brantford Frankie yelled out 'where's my shirt' as he desperatly had to cop a fix with a brand new What Wave tee, only the stylishly cool need apply for these shirts and Brantford Frankie certainly fits the bill! As does his equally cool brother!
Forked over a meagre 10 spot to doorperson Lindsay who just happens to be an X-Londoner and has obviously moved up in the world, working at this fine establishment. And hey, there's Rob Frankenstein 5 lurking in the shadows of the club, he always seems to be at all of the Hamilton shows that I make it to! And right in front of the soundbooth is none other than Rick Chessmen and his wife Ada who conveniently happens to be celebrating a birthday with her fave band, The Cynics! Coincidence or what?
Anyways, The Squids finally hit the stage just before 11 and put on a pretty decent set. This duo has a 2 string guitar and a full drum kit....kinda like Deja Voodoo meets The Ramones meets The Dik Van Dykes and this is the result. Totally enjoyable rock'n'roll that I would certainly go see again.
Next up, The Ugly Beats from Austin Texas, 5 piece mid 60's style garage combo that certainly had the crowd up and dancing. Dual guitars, keys and lots of harmony vocals from this band, that i'd LOVE to see again. Only complaint, the bass was way too loud, no fault of the band...Here's a pic of Jeanine on the keyboards that had all of the guys in the club drooling....

Total non-stop dancing and smiling as she pounded that Farfisa for all it was worth! And she was real friendly too, as all of The Ugly Beats were. It was their first time to Canada, so i sure hope we made a good impression on them...and thanx for playing 'I'm The One', my fave song from the 'Bring On The Beats' CD...only on Get Hip Records. Below is a pic of an Ugly Beat invading the crowd...ya, it's hard to tell but he's dancing and playing that 12 stringer! That geek in the blue shirt with the tambourine is Kellen from Bandaloop Radio making another attempt to join a band.

Next up, the band we've all been waiting for, Pittsburgh's Cynics....now with an Ugly Beat on the bass and a drummer that someone said was an X-Untamed Youth. Instantly recognizable guitar tone from Gregg as they got ready to blast us with an assortment of classic and new Cynics material..everything from 'Blue Train Station' to 'What She Said' from the latest LP! All I can say is WOW! This is probably the best Cynics show I've seen since the first time we saw them back on Aug 1, 1988 at the Gown and Gavel in Hamilton! Michael was in prime form, posing for the cameras and dancing up a storm, jumping off the kick drum and just having a great time on stage! Where this guy gets his energy from is beyond me, I was sweating up a storm watching him! The high point for me was a stretched out version of The Unrelated Segments 'Cry Cry Cry' that had Gregg constantly changing amp settings, getting the maximum noise and fuzz outta that old Fender setup! Wotta way to end the show!! No encore, everyone was completely drained out and it was well after 2 in the morning on a work night! Here's a picture of Gregg on the guitar...

And finally an out of focus Cynics sandwich with Ugly Beat bread....this is a hot, sweaty and nasty combo, only served at the finest diners and certainly not for the faint of heart...

Wotta blast! We need to get more shows like this happening, big thanx to Lou Molinaro for putting on this show in his brand new club....lots of other cool stuff is coming to this club and it's only a little more than an hour from London...well worth the trip!

A Trip To The Brunswick......

Told a couple of people that we were gonna go to the Brunswick Hotel and see The Pack AD and the usual reaction was...you're going to a burnt down bar?!? NOPE! The Brunswick on Talbot St in St Thomas Ontario, the Railway Capital of Canada and home of Jumbo The Elephant. Yep, only 20 minutes or so south of London, clear roads all the way...just keep an eye out for the wildlife.
Arrived at the place, nice spacious parking lot, fairly large looking building at a corner on the main drag. Went inside, old style tavern with multiple entrances, lots of pool tables, tables and a stage on the main drag side of the building. But...it looks kinda scarey as the stage has this HUGE backdrop that covered the entire rear of the stage and there's lots of skulls, skeletons and other halloweenish type things on it. Gravestones and loads of skulls on the stage and LOUD heavy metalish type music screaming in the background...as Ben Vaughn said 'Oh oh, wrong haircut'. Ya, I always stand out in a crowd as it is, but even moreso in a place like this...LOL. We had seen The Pack AD's van in the parking lot and lots of posters for them around the bar, so we knew we were at least in the proper place.
The first band came on, was expecting to be completely blown away by the magnitude of the volume, but no, they played quite well and the sound was REALLY good for what they were doing. Silver Screams was the name of the band and they brought a lot of semi punk/headbangers into the joint which was great for a wednesday nite.
Next up, this amazing 2 piece band outta Orangeville Ontario called The Dark Richard Show. 2 guys, one playing bass through numerous pedals and 2 huge amps and doing the singing and one guy drumming like his life depended on it. Way cool bass sounds, almost guitar like as these guys blew me away they were so good! It's such a pleasure and rarity to see a band you've never heard of and they turn out to be this good. They even did a version of The Velvets 'All Tomorrow's Parties' so obviously they've got good taste...see below for a picture.

No idea what the black tape for the sideburns and eyebrows is for, guess it's part of the gimmick. And the flowers, who knows, but they did give them to The Pack AD at the end of the nite. Nice guys and great band, hopefully we'll get them into London sometime soon.
Up next after a short break was The Pack AD...opened up with a brand new song and the remaining crowd was in the palm of the Pack AD's hand for the next 45 minutes or so. Stompin' and bashin' and trashin' their way through a high energy blues infused set of songs that I've seen and heard many times and never tire of. Becky was just on fire, jumpin all across the stage and screaming her lungs out, and the crowd ate it all up. And Maya hit those drums so hard, splinters were flying as the odd drum stick piece came flying off the stage. Man, they were SO GOOD!! And of course it ended all too soon as it was getting real late for a wednesday nite. The Pack AD certainly won over another town, as this was their first visit to St Thomas and most in the crowd had never seen the band before. A great show for sure and I'm certainly glad we came down for the show! Below is a pic of The Pack AD in action in St Thomas.

We got to meet lots of the locals at the show, who'd a thunk there'd be lots of Radio What Wave fans in St Thomas!! A big HEY to Mike the promoter for putting on this show and for getting a scene happening in St Thomas. Hey to the guy who's name i can't remember right now, who played in Hell's Half Acre, a band we saw many, many years ago at The Key West Cafe and were on one of the It Came From Canada comps...a real blast from the past! And HEY to the Dark Richard Show for blowing us away!!

Blog Number 2

OK, so the show at The Victoria Tavern went off amazingly well. Was a little apprehensive at first, as Londoners seem to like to go to things late. The Greasemarks started off around 10 or so, and man can those cats ever rock. Nervous twitchy high energy that kinda reminded me of seeing Ray Condo and His Hardrock Goners back in their prime in the mid 80's. They used to call Ray Canada's skinniest cowboy!
But getting back to The Greasemarks, man are they ever a HOT band! If you ever get a chance to see these guys don't miss them as they won't disappoint!

Above is The Greasemarks and in no way does this picture do them justice. Next up was London's premier rockabilly combo, Duke Sedan and the Hi-Tones. As always, they delivered the goods and more as they always put on their best shows opening up for Bloodshot Bill. By this time the joint was packed and people were really getting into it. Where do these people come from? You only see them at the Vic, but then maybe that's a good thing...below is a pic from behind...

Duke Sedan and The Hi-Tones even pulled out a cover of The Cramps 'Naked Girl Falling Down The Stairs' which I'd only heard them do once before, at their Lux Interior trib a few months ago.
And next up, the man that everyone has been waiting for, the one and only Bloodshot Bill!! A slightly different setup this time due to only 2 working mics, but Bill can work with whatever he gets handed and rock out! The crowd surrounded Bill, sorta like gawkers at an accident, but after a song or 2, Bill had the packed joint in the palm of his hands and he didn't let them go for at least an hour! All kindsa faves got played, everything from 300 More Miles (ya, I yelled for this one) and even a short Hasil Adkins combo of She Said and No More Hot Dogs to a rousing rendition of 5 10 15 20....ya, we all know the words to that one! Should quickly mention that Bill was supposed to go on a tour with Hasil Adkins until Hasil's untimely death put an end to those plans...Ya Bill was really wired up during this show and for several hours afterwards as London finally appreciates Bill and his primal rock'n'roll!! Man what a show!! Seemed like everyone at the show had a big smile on their face and the drinks and drunks were flying and everyone had a great time! Like to thank all of the bands for being so hot that nite, all of the people that came out and The Victoria for putting up with all of this insanity that we bring with every Rockabilly Massacre!!! Below is Bloodshot Bill relaxing with Rory after the show, they're about to fight over some ravioli that hit the floor....LOL....

And finally a picture of Bloodshot Bill in action at The Victoria Tavern, 7/10/2009 below... which for some odd reason it won't let me add...maybe you can only have 3 ictures per blog...
OK, on to other stuff...the same nite as above, The Pack AD, Legendary Dirt Bikers and The Standstills had their show at Call The Office. We're huge Pack AD fans and unfortunately we couldn't do anything about the timing of the 2 shows. BUT, The Pack AD are playing this coming wed nite, 7?15/2009 at the Brunswick Tavern in St Thomas, only about 20m or so outside of London and well worth the drive. So we'll be heading down there on wed nite, hopefully there'll be at least a few people out to see The Pack AD as they ALWAYS put on a great garage/blues show! Plus there is the possibility of Lonesome Ghost opening the show. Lonesome Ghost are a brand new 2 piece outta Aylmer Ontario (just outside London, near St Thomas oddly enough) that play fucked up blues a bit like The Speaking Tongues. These kids are well worth checking out if you ever get a chance. They will be playing at our Back To School Blooze Bash Part 2 on Aug 28th with a couple of bands that you don't wanna miss, more details soon.
Also, a big thanx goes out to The Evil Farm Children and The Speaking Tongues for both putting on excellent sets at Rena's birthday bash back on July 4th...Labatt's 50 all around...LOL...damn I wish i could add some more pictures here.

July 4/09

First Blog 7/4/09....que up The Boys singing 'First Time'....





OK, so this is the first blog from me under the Radio What Wave banner....for those that don't know, Radio What Wave is heard on CHRW 94.9 FM in London Ontario Canada, every Thursday from 7 to 8:30 PM....the shows are archived for 1 week only at:

http://chrwradio.com/archive/

Also, from the main page of the CHRW site, go to programming, click on Radio What Wave and you'll be taken to our myspace site where you can find all of the playlists. There's also a facebook page that lists upcoming events, pictures and the playlists as well and that's right here:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=21164844915&ref=mf

And then the official What Wave home page with pictures of all of the covers of WW, tape and record discographys, pictures and other stuff that really doesn't matter to anyone....and that link is:

http://ca.geocities.com/whatwave@rogers.com/index.htm

OK, so that's all of the business out of the way. Dig that nice spiffy black background? No, we haven't gone goth or anything like that, it's just one of the templates available...got a big show coming up tonite...yes tonite and this is the only advertising that there is gonna be. It's at the London Music Club on Colborne St, starts at 8:45 and is a surprise birthday party for Rena....it's one of those big birthdays in which the number is a popular brand of beer...hint, it's a Canadian beer made by Labatt's. 2 Awesome bands playing, The Speaking Tongues who are an amazing 2 piece fucked blues/rock combo outta Toronto and The Evil Farm Children, a greasy rock'n'roll trio outta Ottawa...Killer show guaranteed.

Up above is The Speaking Tongues at Club Absinthe in Hamilton Ontario, June 2008. RIght after this pic was taken, The Speaking Tongues managed to pummel The Pack AD's drum kit into smithereens....ST's being gentlemen, replaced the damaged parts.

Our next big rockabilly show is Friday July 10th, Victoria Tavern, South St, London Ontario. This is show 5 in our continuing rockabilly series, Rockabilly Massacre V. This time out it's that greasy one man band from Montreal, Bloodshot Bill who will have copies of his just released, brand new record for sale at the show. Also on the bill, London's premier rockabilly combo, Duke Sedan and the Hi-Tones, plus, from Kitchener, The Greasemarks. This show has all the markings of being a classic show that you can't miss. And not only that, but free parking, no cover, cheap beer and a whole lotta fun....you can't beat that so come on down!

Above is Bloodshot Bill playing live over the airwaves on CHRW, June 2007...right before an early show at Call The Office.