Meeting your idols is always a tricky proposition. What if they turn out to be dicks? What if they're completely uninterested in their craft, their work that you've invested so much emotional time into? What if...? What if, indeed. Sometimes I think up fantastic scenarios at shows while waiting for bands to start: the abovementionned center of my emotional attention will pull up the urinal next to me and I'll stop and pause, and reflect upon my options. Is there a proper protocol for this? After quickly Googling some key search terms ("heroes", "urinals", "chance encounters") and finding some rather strange adult websites, my somewhat ramshackle research leads me to believe that I don't think so, and so it begs many questions. Options: I can shake hands with said person right there and then at the urinal, making myself out to seem like a weirdo. I can politely wait until the object of my mental affection finishes up then mumble my gratefulness as we both wipe our hands, or I could wait outside and seem like a stalker, wringing my hands and air high-fiving myself in terse anticipation.
All this to say that.. I don't really have any real heroes. I thought long and hard tonight, as I stood waiting around for the first part of my evening to start up. There are facets of people that I admire, sure, but there is no one figure whose very being I admire. Keeping that in mind, I do enjoy a lot of things about CBC Radio 2 host Richard Terfry, aka the very groovy Buck 65.
Beginning my evening over at the Rivoli, I was able to catch some of the CBC Radio 2 showcase, which included the aforementioned Terfry as well as Zeus and Grand Analog. The incompetent sound set-up definitely put a dent in the overall fun of the evening, but it was hard to keep a good Canadian rapper down. Zeus' set was 40 minutes of great Canadian roots rock, heavy on the harmonized vocals and stop-start rhythms known to many a kid in skinny jeans. They finished off strong, jamming to their full potential. One of the members even looked like CJLO's very own Gareth Sloan. The semblance was uncanny. Gareth, if you're reading this, we know you can shred at the guitar.... Why didn't you ever bring that up? Shame on you.
With Zeus' set out of the way, it was time for my personal main attraction. A man like Buck 65 can be characterized as fearless: I've seen him more than a handful of times and it's always been an intriguing proposition. Sometimes he utilizes a turntable, sometimes he lets someone else handle it. Once in a while he'll tinkle the ivories or entertain others with chance duets. Whatever the occasion, Richard Terfry's brand of folk-fried rap tunes is certainly original... The downside with being fearless in a lot of aspects of the live show can be that while you may wanna take the trip, your audience certainly does not. Nerves were frayed as Buck tore through his set heavy on new material, including most of the tracks off of his just-released Avant EP. Some of the songs were so fresh that Terfry had hand-written lyrics hanging out around him. It is this allure that draws people to Terfry, this trange mystique that allows him to do things that other artists would be mocked for. As CBC Radio 2's Bob Mackowycz said when introducing him, "it's almost as if he leads a double life." It is this life that we pay to see, the ticket to this strange land of mystical creatures, lonely souls and sideshows, of desolate fishing villages and broken dreams. Also, apparently, Terfry's new rap about the zombie apocalypse certainly means things are looking up.
He didn't totally alienate his audience, though, as he brought out "Dang" off of Situation and "Bandits", as well as "All There Is To Say About Love" from last year's Bike For Three! project's first album, peppering the set in order to placate the masses. Assisted by a lovely girl named Nathalie (who's last name I did not catch, due to the very shitty sound that plagued the set), Terfry's 45 minutes certainly did not rank as my favourite time seeing him, but at least I didn't know what to expect, and that made it all that much more better in the end.
I stuck around to catch some Grand Analog action, which was exactly what I expected it to be: live hiphop with a reggae tinge, a formidable backing band and some decent rhymes. I started getting restless and bolted for the door halfway through Grand Analog's set... Not because they were bad, but because I was in the mood for something else.
My decision to go see the 222s at the Bovine Sex Club proved to be a great one. I wasn't sure on the band, having never heard any of their material, but their '77-style antics quickly won me over. Buzzsaw guitars, manic snaredrum-pounding and songs that sounded as if the lyrics were scrawled in the margins of high school text books made the sickly-sweet 35-minute set enjoyable, if somewhat predictable. It was nice to see all of the band members enjoying themselves, minus singer Chris Barry's... little vomitting episode. Well, at least it looked kinda punk. Having nerves is punk-ish, right? I don't know. Still, great times were had by all and they knew that their time was up, finishing things up with a sprinty flurry of notes and quick thanks to everyone involved in putting the show together.
After that the audience got a very nice treat. Songsmith and wunder-producer Walter Schreifels made every post-hardcore kid's dreams come alive with his 65-minute set, culling cuts from his new solo album An Open Letter To The Scene as well as covering a variety of artists from multiple genres (Agnostic Front, the Gershwin Brothers, Sick Of It All, The Smiths... The motherfuckin' Partridge Family too) as well as playing something Rival Schools ("Used For Glue"! "Good Things"!) Gorilla Biscuits and Quicksand ("Thorn In My Side!"), the always-entertaining Schreifels spent every minute of his set connecting with everyone in the club, doing his best to be energetic and upbeat. He played songs he wrote while he was in Toronto (namedropping streets and landmarks), he played a song he wrote in Russia recently while being stranded there... He played it by ear, fast and loose, at one point playing the aforementioned Partridge Family cover as he bantered with the audience about the big acts of 1993 ("Helmet? Tool! Rage Against The Machine!") Almost nothing was off-limits during the set, and the feel-good vibe gave me the mental boost needed to sustain myself until Walter brought his set to a close just short of 3:30. We then cornered him to ask him all of the tough questions.
Mini-interview with Walter Schreifels of Gorilla Biscuits/Quicksand/Rival Schools fame:
What's the strangest song request you've gotten, and do you honour it?
I love the weird ones, and I always try to. I wasn't too prepared setlist-wise tonight, so that was nice.
How often do you do minimal setlist prep before a show?
I'd say about 20, 25% of the time. I sometimes dislike doing it because I get caught up thinking about the next song to play.
Do you know that Fuel song, "Shimmer"?
I know OF Fuel, but no, I don't know that song.
When's the new Rival Schools album coming out?
This fall, on Atlantic overseas and I think Warners here in North America.
You're really popular in Europe, compared to here.
Yeah, they really love us.
A while back there were demos that were leaked onto the internet. Was that the entirety of an album?
I do believe that 2 or 3 of those songs were reworked and they'll be on the album. The situation is that they were demos and they somehow ended up on the internet, but yes. There will be a few songs.
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Stay tuned for day 3 as I attempt to fistfight a band.
PS. Omar and Abby loved HEALTH. And you should too.
PPS. Tonight the MMVAs stage had fully-functional lasers which look FUCKING AMAZING at 4 am. Seriously. There's nothing like a private laser show to cap off a nice evening.
PPPS. Turns out the Misfits weren't a tribute band. It was the real deal. I still skipped them. u mad?
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