Vancouver Metal Cruise 5: notes and photes

My first Metal Cruise last night. A fun experience! Wrote an advance article about it here, focusing on Egregore, the middle band of the night, who will soon be playing the Covenant festival at the Rickshaw. 

It was a very chill, pro-social event. I was mildly jealous of how many people I saw running into friends and how warmly and sincerely they hugged each other. Everyone knew everyone, it seemed, except me: I knew only Sonny Dean and Mayo and the members of the bands I'd interviewed (I'd also spoken to Space Queen a few months previous, which they did remember). None of the dozen familiar faces at the Invasives gig the night before, mentioned in my previous post, were present on board the Abitibi last night -- it's a different scene from the one I travel in, for the most part. But the social element of the experience was obviously a huge part of the draw for those that came. Metalheads are very welcoming and tolerant of each other; I felt a bit like a spy from the punk clubhouse next door, peeking through the slats, taking notes.

There are differences in style, demeanour and attitude from one subculture to the next, but not all of them were significant. In terms of fashion, there was everything from fishnet stockings with pentagrams sewn into them to metal-studded spiky dog collars to both homemade and storebought vests and jackets with dozens, maybe even hundreds of band names represented in some manner or other. A friend of Sonny's did a "you're never gonna guess where I got this" with me when I complimented his shirt, which was one such multi-band extravaganza: turns out he was given it free by a guy at a show when he remarked in passing, "Nice shirt". The person wearing it stopped and said, "You like it, I'll give it to you, my girlfriend can't stand it." The guy then took the shirt off his back and handed it over! 

Indeed, I would not have guessed that. 

The T-shirts ranged from newly-minted AC/DC shirts to a somewhat puzzling Lynyrd Skynyrd shirt to many Christophe Szpajdel-style black metal designs, mostly unreadable to me. There were plenty of familiar names represented, though: Sepultura, Cannibal Corpse, Bolt Thrower, System of a Down; almost everyone had a metal shirt on, making me regret that I hadn't taken the time to dig out my Auroch t-shirt. (I actually reviewed their debut in the Straight back in 2012). 

There was a sole girl sporting punk patches, including one for Clit .45, who I looked up later; I was disappointed to learn were not all women, as well as a t-shirt for Cheap Sex (also unknown to me). She definitely stood out as being someone I might have seen once at Funkys. 

It is hard to put one's finger on exactly where the boundaries between fashion choices lie, but I don't think many women on the punk scene would sport a hat as confrontational as one that read Black Out With Your Rack Out, for example. Eek! 

Another significant difference: there was a guy -- dude maybe a couple years older than I am, with long grey hair and a Bat Child t-shirt, and pretty drunk -- who had a very unusual moshing style, which was essentially careening backwards around the pit, colliding into people, trusting that they would break his fall or propel him forward. It was kinda like that "I trust you" bonding exercise you see in team-building contexts, where you fall backwards into people's arms, except he was falling backwards into whatever unexpecting part of their body was in his path, and doing it multiple times per minute, with the aim not of being caught but of being bounced back forward so he could continue (and not crack his head on the deck). It was clear from the odd grimace he received that not everyone wanted to play that game, but most people still just smiled indulgently and pushed him back into the pit, and a couple of other people actively moshed theatrically back into him. He also clapped along to some songs, slightly outa synch with the band: what can ya do about a guy like that?

I think at a punk show the guy's behaviour would have drawn commentary from the others, some stiff-necked "cool it" or worse, but if that happened last night, I did not see it.  You could see that the guy was having the time of his life. So no one played cop; and if he ever actually fell on his ass, it didn't happen while I was looking. 

I got to dance right up front for Space Queen, though, which, as Mayo noted in the Straight piece, was kind of the high point of the show, as we were departing Vancouver by daylight and spirits were highest. Shot some video, though didn't get the name of the track and can't find it on their bandcamp. They're more polished and confident since I first saw them a couple of years ago at Green Auto and the bassist now does a better job of keeping her parts in her clothes (she was a bit tumbly-outy that first gig!). They ended their set with a folky tune involving pirates that had a sea-shanty-like chorus, which they dedicated to Mayo, who was right up front in an Anciients shirt; he'd recently celebrated his birthday.  

At one point later on, negotiating the various narrow passages around the ship, I had to pass between two of the members of the band, and quipped, "Out of the way, you space queens", reflecting on an alternate meaning of their name, but as they told me in that Straight piece, I believe, they're actually named for a strain of weed. 

As the sun started to set, things got darker musically, too, with Egregore leading us deeper into the serious "cult" of metal. I actually missed much of both of Egregore's and Mvlgrave's sets, as I had grown tired of being jostled, no longer had a good view, and had gotten peckish. Contrary to reports, there was food: mediocre Jamaican patties and superb potato salad (the guy thought it might have come from Cotsco), which together were $8 a plate. I hung out in the green room, which was the ship's dining area, also being used for gear storage and merch tables; I could still close my eyes and listen to Egregore, as the music was being piped in on speakers. 

It was interesting how lax people were, how chill. Apparently at a past cruise, maybe the one where the Dayglo Abortions headlined, things got a bit too rowdy and the captain made the decision to turn back early ("I don't blame him, people were acting like idiots" the woman in the black-out-with-your-rack-out hat commented). But unlike what you'd get at most venues, I never had anyone tell me "you can't do that here." Someone who had had a drink too much, maybe, took a nap on one of the dining area benches; if that had happened at an actual venue, there would have been three security people telling her she couldn't sleep, but no one disturbed her (though her friends hung out with her to make sure all was well). When a random moshpit incident led to someone's phone going flying during Mvlgrave, it was promptly retrieved and returned to the owner. There were security people present, but had clearly been directed to stand down unless there was an actual problem. 

Speaking of phones, I had forgotten to charge mine at work, so my battery died before I could shoot photos of anyone. I also missed out on the amazing, apocalyptic red sun that we could see after Space Queen finished. Due to forest fire smoke, sure, but still amazing to see in the sky, and, y'know, metal as fuck. 

Invasives Against the Odds: Live at the Cobalt Last Night

Invasives by Allan MacInnis, Aug. 14, 2026

Invasives nearly prevented me from seeing Invasives tonight. 

I mean, it is not that I wasn't welcome. Hell, Byron gave me a free surveillance-themed tie-dyed t-shirt as thanks for my Straight piece (which you see here -- the piece that is, not the shirt, but see the last photo in this post. Apparently the child or children of Hans Anus made these. I wonder if his kids know his stage name?). 

No, Invasives were happy to see me. The problem is, the writing of the article very nearly sapped my will go out. I very nearly made excuses and begged off, because, y'see, at midnight last night, I discovered something I did not realize about Gmail drafts. 

I need a minute to lay this out:

1. Because Word is due for an update, it does not make sense for me to pay for Office (which I intend to do at some point) and buy a soon-to-be-obsolete version that I will need to upgrade anyhow, somewhere down the line. Nor do I care about using a free trial version. I can find other ways of getting by until the update is out; it's not like I'm Word-dependent or anything. 

2. So because most of my writing these days is done for articles that I've been emailing to my editors, and because Google docs never "took" for me, I've just been using Gmail, storing works in development in my "drafts" folder. I mean, why not? Whatever I do with a piece when it is done, odds are good that it will involve emailing it to someone, so all I have to do with a draft is add an address and subject line. Easy! 

3. However, there is no "save draft" button that I can see on the Gmail page, and what I discovered last night (which is not the big discovery; that one is yet pending) things getting saved in the drafts folder is not in fact a sure bet. About two hours of work I'd put in on my Invasives feature in the morning had not gotten saved to the draft folder, I discovered in sitting down last night. There were big chunks of transcription missing. Stuff I was going to have to re-do, which is annoying, because I'm a bit behind in general and... there were other things I wanted to do with my day. 

Maybe I'd left the draft open and the cat had walked across the keyboard or such and hit the "back" button or something. Multiple times? Or maybe the draft I was working on on my computer got synched to an earlier version on my Gmail phone app, instead of the other way round. No idea, just definitely there was material that got lost.  

4. So I had tthe bright idea that it would be wise to try to trigger a save by closing the file. 

5. But as I was tinkering with the draft at midnight, and moved to close it, I accidentally hit the "delete" button. The trash can, like. Oops!

6. Whereby (because I missed any brief Undo option that might have flickered), I discovered that Gmail DOES NOT PUT DELETED DRAFTS into the trash folder. It just scraps them, pretty much irreversably, especially if you are not immediately aware of what you've done (I honestly just went over to the Trash folder, expecting to find it, but by that point, the damage had been done). THIS is the big discovery. It gets described online as a known bug of Gmail's, but it was news to me. Delete a draft, however accidentally, and it takes the big sleep. 

Which means that because I'd lost two hours of work the night before, and made a mistake as to which key I hit, I lost all six hours I'd put in on the article thus far. I was back to square nearly-zero. 

Yes, folks, that Invasives feature you see is a REBUILD. Bits got lost, forgotten, or in some cases, deliberately left out, as I rewrote the ENTIRE FUCKING ARTICLE AGAIN, some of it from scratch and some from dim memories of how I'd put it together the first time, how I'd arranged Byron's quotes, etc, which I did from midnight to 4:30 AM. I was finally in bed by 4:40. Then I was up by nine, to get ready for work. Four hours sleep if I was lucky? Probably less, because Erika woke me to kiss me goodbye -- she was off on a jaunt (I have been flying solo). 

I worked a full shift, even did some heavy lifting sorting boxes, and as I told Byron's bandmate Ford, whose paths I crossed at Red Cat, I was very close to bailing on the show tonight, despite a guestlisting (thanks, Byron, for that and the shirt!). But when I saw Ford was clearly beginning to doubt my commitment to Sparkle Motion, I came upon a solution: I would come home after work, feed the cat, hang out with him a little, and take an hour long power nap before heading back out to the Cobalt.

Which is what I did. I also microdosed with some cubensis to help my brain along to a functional place (not enough to get high, that I noticed, though it was enough that Hans Anus' drumsticks had streamers the whole time. Or were other people seeing that, too?). It wasn't quite strong enough, in fact, hence the cannabis root beer (from just across the street!) that I added to the mix (and the Saturday morning dope hangover I now edit this in). But it probably helped me to get into dancing, too. 'Shrooms are good that way. Amusingly, my camera seemed to capture the streamer effect, but I was seeing this with my naked eye, too:

In any case: Invasives was/ were terrific. They played pert near every one of my favourite Invasives songs: "Living Your Life Like It's Somebody Else'", "Stop and Breathe," "Abstract World" "Just Another Under the Sun". I am also really fond of "Borderline Music", which they did not do, but they played what could become my next-favourite Invasives song, "Help Is On the Way", which is a song off Feel Good Live Forever that I kinda didn't remember but sure should (I have to listen to side two of that again a few more times, clearly). They're actually an odd band for me: their catalogue is evenly divided between songs I love and songs I find are a bit too Spartan and angular to properly grab onto, and I had a bad habit of putting the songs of theirs that I really like -- basically all the ones I mentioned -- onto mixed playlists, kinda greatest-hitsing them. Or else, like, opening Robot Stink on my phone and then going right to my two faves on it. Trivially, I do this with Ford Pier, too; like, I enjoy Huzzah! but 85% of the time I listen to anything off it, it's "Lions and Tigers and Bears", because it's just so fucking great, a song that totally belongs on a playlist adjacent to Nomeansno's "Victory".

Anyhow, because of my nap I missed Kettle Black, and because I am trying not to invest too much in new musics, lest I feel the need to nuy records, I kinda tried *not* to get into Wax Mannequin, though a couple of songs near the end made headway into me, regardless. It was a pretty good crowd, hip and sizeable, and I knew a half-dozen people to say hi to. Hamm, Russian Tim, Kristy-Lee, Ford, Mark Bignell, Noelle Chaos. I'm pretty sure Jodie Ponto was there, too! There was a guy in a cat/ pyramid/ UFO-themed t-shirt that I took to coveting, and many balloons bouncing around the dance area. Had my article helped get a few people out? Again, we think: maybe! 

I was reminded that live, one of my favourite things about an Invasives show is watching how happy Hans is to drum; I like an expressive drummer and he just has a very sincere smile while he's pounding away -- not in any deranged way, though; he's not Animal, he's not even Matt Wood, he's clearly just enjoying playing his instrument! 

I really enjoyed both of the Slacks' playing, too -- some killer basslines in there from Adam!

I shot two videos but am only posting one: "Abstract World". And I briefly got confused, thinking "Just Another Under the Sun", which Byron said made him always think of Ford Pier, was surely a Dead Bob cover... no? Nope, it's just an Invasives song I love from seeing live, but on a CD of theirs I barely know. 

I may have to do something about that. I have been too selective in my Invasives listening. I need to delve into the depths a bit; I am sure I will pull out a fish or two. Or possibly a geoduck. 

Obscure Nomeansno reference, there, for those who get it (actually, Hansons, but...). 

All told, a great set, and people who read my article seemed to enjoy it. I stole a setlist but not for a souvenir: I had to figure out a song title and it was easier than asking anybody! 

Ford tells me Byron had a whole bunch of moustache one liners he would resort to on the road, not just the ones he offered me. It was nice to see Ford having fun, dancing as much as anyone, but not quite as enthusiastically as he does onstage with Dead Bob, thank god! 

Me, I danced only to the songs I loved, and mostly just stood there watching and listening for the ones I don't know so well. So about 50/50 on the dancin'. I got my shroom caplet's worth out of it, anyhow. 

Great night! (And a cool shirt).

Deep Purple: What They Will Probably Play in Abbotsford ...and what they (most likely) won't

News flash: huge and unexpected breaking news, encountered AFTER I posted this: Ritchie Blackmore has joined Deep Purple onstage for the first time in decades!!! The following piece does not reflect that. Footage here:

https://www.facebook.com/share/1UXzjDQNUF/

I've been perusing the Deep Purple setlists for 2026 in advance of their September Abbotsford show. Spoiler alert for this post -- I'm going to spill some possible secrets; but I needed to know what new songs I need to know before I see them, to get maximum effect of the live performance (and to not spend the whole set hoping they'll do this-or-that song; best work my way through any disappointments before the concert even begins. Of course, things change, so we cannot set any expectations in stone, so disappointments might change into pleasant surprises if the band actually decides to do a hoped-for song). Anyhow, reader beware: If you don't want to know what they (probably) will or won't be playing, that's your perogative, but I personally like going to big shows having done a little homework.

Needless to say, most of the expected must-plays are all there ("Highway Star" trumps "Smoke on the Water" for me, but I grew up with all those songs and am very excited to see them played live; and "Space Truckin'" will be a hoot to see. "Lazy" is being played often of late, too!). My history with this stuff dates back to a legendary find in the dumpster of the Maple Ridge condo that I grew up in, of about fifty LPs, including Deep Purple's Made in Japan; I was maybe nine or ten years old, and it was my first exposure not just to Deep Purple, but also Aerosmith, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, and Nazareth, as I recall. One of my most formative musical experiences began in a dumpster!!! Delighted that I'm going to hear four songs off that album played live.

However, in terms of classic live Purple cuts, there's no "Child in Time", and it sure looks like they've dropped "Black Night" off recent setlists -- it does pop up at the very end of a few shows of late, but only a few, so we will be lucky to get it. Have grown very fond of that song -- even bought a greatest hits comp because that's the only way to get the studio version, since it was released as a non-album single; but it's on every live Purple album I've heard, so I'm mildly surprised it's not gettin' the love.

And they likely won't be doing my favourite deep cut, "Pictures of Home", off Machine Head, on this tour, which is no big surprise, because they seldom do it; ditto my second-favourite Deep Purple deep cut, "Mary Long", which is hands-down the funniest song inspired in part by Mary Whitehouse (whose name is cross-cut with that of another moral crusader of yore, Lord Longford). Whitehouse is also one of the pigs in Pink Floyd's "Pigs (Three Different Kinds)" -- the "house proud town mouse" -- and the subject of the Adicts' delightful "Mary Whitehouse". But the line in "Mary Long" directed at Whitehouse about how the band "never knew you had it in you" is a kind of genius-level bit of rude wordplay. If I got to chat with Gillan (fat chance), that's what I'd ask him about: did she ever respond to that lyric?

There's an interesting article about that song here, but again, we won't be hearing it, so don't pay it any mind if prep is what you are after.

But "Into the Fire", the sole song off Deep Purple In Rock, will be VERY fun to see live -- that is a link to superb footage of the band playing that from TWO YEARS BEFORE ERIKA WAS BORN (!). (The band actually formed in March of 1968, which was my birth month; she came along in August of 1973). I'm still working with "When a Blind Man Cries," another tune on recent setlists and a b-side deep cut from the Machine Head sessions that, like "Pictures of Home", never got played back in the day because Richie Blackmore disliked it, apparently. It's the perfect example of why I like to do some homework, so I can work my way around to grokking the tune before I'm seeing it played live; not quite sure it has sunk its hook yet.

In terms of stuff NOT being played: there's nothing off the Steve Morse studio albums, which spanned a very long time in the band's career; he joined in 1995 and recorded his last album with them in 2021. I only know a few songs from that span anyhow -- mostly I know Morse from live recordings -- though I do quite like Whoosh! (which dovetails with SPLAT! as an onomatopoetic album title). So we won't get "Nothing At All," say -- my favourite of the Morse studio output -- but we didn't expect that one so whatevs. Ditto "Vincent Price", which is the Purple song that most reminds me of the Blue Oyster Cult (specifically "Joan Crawford", for obvious reasons). It's kind of a shame the band has just dropped all that material off their setlists, since they've been on a very productive streak since they started working with Bob Ezrin in 2012 (not all of which do I know, but everything I've heard is totally solid and worthy of their legacy). But there's basically a black hole in their live setlist from 1972 (after Machine Head) to 2024 (with another weirdly-titled but solid album, =1, which was their first with current guitarist Stuart McBride).

But =1 is great! "Lazy Sod" dovetails with "Lazy" and touches on global warming. "A Bit on the Side" is another good one that has followed "Highway Star" on recent sets. My own favourite on =1 is "Portable Door", which I don't think they'll do, but I like both those songs just fine. (Fun intro to the song from Gillan in that linked clip, though the audience is pretty shouty).

Then there's SPLAT!, which, again, I need to spend more time with, though I like it just fine. They have three songs on recent setlists off that,"Arrogant Boy", "Diablo", and "Scriblin Gib'rish". There is also one instrumental outtake from the album that they've been using live with a portmanteau title between "Guinness" and "Genesis", "Guinnesis".

I assume Gillan is the band's resident punster and the man who comes up with titles like Whoosh! and SPLAT! My own creativity has never been much stoked by Guinness, if that' what I presume "Guinesis" is referring to, but it's one of those few alcoholic beverages that I still allow myself, occasionally, post-tongue cancer. (It does seem to be a great digestive aid but I don't think that's the kind of creativity the band is thinking of!).

I'm pretty excited about this show, really. I've seen very few of the BIG rockers of the 60s: Neil Young, Black Sabbath, and now Deep Purple. Their live stuff has been in heavy rotation with me for a few months now and my respect for them has grown immeasurably -- one realizes that for an epochal band, they're kind of under-rated, and have a catalogue of really cool material behind them -- it's not all "Smoke". 

Still seem to be plenty of tickets, too. 

As for the openers, Jefferson Starship only includes one member of Jefferson Airplane, David Freiberg, who joined the band in 1974, which is after the period of the band that I have paid mind to previously. Donny Baldwin goes back to an early incarnation of Starship, having started in 1982, though he had time away from the band in-between. There will definitely be some Jefferson Airplane material, as well as Starship material, in their set. It is hard to imagine songs like "White Rabbit", "Volunteers" and "Somebody to Love" (all enduring rock classics, if not particular favourites of mine) alongside 80s cheese like "We Built This City", shoehorned into the same setlist, but that does seem to be what we will be hearing, plus maybe a new song (nothing off 2020's Mother of the Sun, though, their most recent studio venture). I think that's all I'm going to say there -- I do not want to pre-judge them, will go with an open mind (can one have both an open mind and low expectations?). "We Built This City" was a song I remember finding incredibly annoying when it was on the radio, back when it first came out, but maybe a warm glow of nostalgia will surround it now?

On the other hand, I might pick up a Best of Kansas LP (or a copy of Leftoverture?) if one can be had cheaply. Of course, I know "Dust in the Wind" and "Carry on Wayward Son" from classic rock radio, and neither embrace them nor reject them: they aren't favourites, have never prompted me to buy a Kansas record, but nor do I switch stations if they come on in the car (or ask Erika to... it's her car!). I think of them as good songs in a genre ("mildy proggy 70s soft rock") that I tend to ignore. In fact, other songs like "Miracles Out of Nowhere" that I'm hearing now for the first time, based on my setlist peek, are kinda appealing: check out the instrumental break mid-way through that song! I hadn't realized until just now that they'd carried on (heh) to record cheesy 80s anthems like "Fight Fire With Fire," and tend to spend even less time on that sort of mass-appeal arena rock, but maybe it will be fun live?

As for the band's roster, while 70s drummer Phil Ehart and guitarist Rich Williams are still listed as members, they apparently either don't tour or tour infrequently, both having had health issues. The longest-lasting member in the band we'll be seeing seems to be Ronnie Platt, who has been keyboardist and vocalist since 2014. I don't know. Again, I will set my expectations to the none-to-slight range and hope to be pleasantly surprised.

Given both those bands multiple member-replacements, it makes it all the more impressive that 3/5ths of the lineup of Deep Purple that we'll be seeing goes back to the Mach II days, with Gillan, Glover, and Paice all on board (drummer Paice is from the first version of the band, founded in 1968, while Gillan and Glover go back to 1969). Jon Lord has a great excuse for missing this show; his replacement, keyboardist Don Airey, goes back to 2002 and is very able. The only LIVING-but-missing member from the classic Mach II lineup is, of course, Ritchie Blackmore, but he's been on the outs with the band since 1993, and, I mean, you need say no more than that the hated "Pictures of Home" and refused to do it live to convince me that the dude is difficult to work with. When a certain nameless punk of repute in Vancouver has griped to me about the daft, juvenile aspect of Deep Purple's lyrics ("Highway Star", "Space Truckin'" -- like rock lyrics aren't ever allowed to be daft or juvenile!), "Pictures of Home" has been my retort. It's the most Nietzschean rock song ever written: we Hyperboreans understand!

Tickets to the show here. Gonna see Deep Purple! Whee!

Quick roundup of fun stuff goin' on

Joe was soliciting campaign contributions and I had no money for him but offered to do another article, and so I did!

I am saddened to learn (from my article with Clay, but now reaffirmed by other peeps) that the Cobalt remains controversial as a venue among old Cobes loyalists; I thought the karma was cleansed? But I'm probably going back for Invasives this Friday, and am working on something about that show. Will investigate. I wish there were a way to heal some of these old wounds -- the new space is superb. 

Gonna check out the Metal Cruise this weekend, too -- Space Queen, Egregore, and Mvlgrave. Feature pending. 

Sunday there's a Rob Frith thing (I have lotsa writing to do today! Feature coming on that as well) at Neptoon if you are following the History of Vancouver Rock 'n Roll series. There's a 5th volume! Side one is a bit light/ commercial but other side has the Hydroelectric Streetcar, unheard Collectors, and other cool (but more obscure) stuff. Volume 5 doesn't appear to be online but Volume 4 is! 

Also, I won't be doin' it myself, but didja realize that Guns 'n Roses now also includes Slash and Duff, back in the band? That actually makes it kinda interesting. They're playing Vancouver at the end of August. I would go just to see Duff! 

Actually, Duff comes up in that D.O.A/ Joe thing previously linked. His tracks on that D.O.A. tribute are the best ones, kinda! Especially "The Prisoner."

Have a good weekend, folks. 

Scars of Dracula: Fear and Cleavage (and that godawful bat)

Admittedly, Scars of Dracula is not a very good Hammer Dracula film. It's hampered by a repetitive plot structure, for one thing: different groups of people go back and forth from the tavern to the church to the castle until you start to realize that these are the only sets the filmmakers had and they're trying to maximize them. There's also a horrible bat puppet which, in fact, one grows rather fond of, particularly given that -- while it never seems convincing -- it still is used to kill a priest (!) and to steal a crucifix from around Jenny Hanley's neck, leaving her heaving cleavage smeared with blood. However terrible the effect is, they are committed to it, and make the utmost of it, so you start to be impressed by the things they do make it do convincingly, like when it flies almost in a realistic circle, even as you guffaw at the glowing red eyes, gigantic size, or ability to hover in midair by slowly, stiffly flapping. It is maybe the worst bat effect of its kind ever witnessed in a vampire movie, but it is also somehow the best bad bat effect of its kind that I've seen; if it had just appeared in the first few minutes of the film, it would have been risible, but once you understand that the bat is kind of a main character (at least as important as the dingo in The Road Warrior) and that they are doing the best they can to realize it and make it look cool (and I mean what else were they going to do, train an attack bat?), you sort of come to terms with it as a viewer, and end up cheering for it and chuckling at it in equal measure: Go, fake bat, go! 

Then there's Klove. Nevermind Renfield, I would love to see a contemporary remake of this film written entirely around the character of Klove. It is a different Klove than one gets in Dracula: Prince of Darkness, played here by onetime Dr. Who Patrick Troughton (I think fans of Dr. Who would very much enjoy Scars of Dracula). And it doesn't hurt that with his bushy facial hair, he reminds one rather of Derek Smalls. 

Klove is by far the most interesting character here. He is immensely conflicted: he's groveling and servile to his master, but betrays him more than once, possibly because he gets masochistic pleasure out of being punished (which he is shown rather graphically receiving). He appears to flagellate himself, as well. He fixates on a small image of Jenny Hanley, the innocent (but cleavagey) heroine of the film, but it's not clear if he's transfixed by her innocent beauty and inspired by it to seek redemption, or masturbating frenetically while looking at it; perhaps both (Klove contains multitudes). He is the same man who provides one of the protagonists a rope to Dracula's secret lair, enabling him to scale the walls of the castle, as the one who then cuts the rope, a few minutes later (doing late enough in the climb that our hero makes it to the window ledge nonetheless. Maybe Klove just wanted to make sure he couldn't climb back up? There's no way of knowing. Klove himself may not know!).  

But the other nice thing about the film is that Christopher Lee is given a fair bit to do, compared, to, say, Dracula: Prince of Darkness where his only dialogue takes the form of hissing. Not only does Lee punish Klove, he scales walls, directs bat attacks, and plays welcoming host to visitors to his castle. His grin during the transaction with Klove, as he burns the open flagellation wounds on his back with a heated sword, was another laugh-aloud moment for me, as it's maybe the single most sadistic image of Lee I've seen? This is some kinky shit: 

There is also a rather startling knife murder that takes place where my wife Erika noted that you could see the rubber blade bending (but I was too busy being startled by the violence of it and suspending what disbelief I had, but I could detect a certain floppiness. Never really explained why, given his usual penchant for biting, he chooses a knife for this kill, but Lee convincingly conveys that Dracula is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore). 

And there's a very, very satisfying and surprising "death" for Dracula, one I did not at all see coming. I'll say no more about it but where almost every death for Dracula in other Hammer films involves some careful set up (lure him out to the Hawthorne bushes, stuff like that), here, it isn't even intentional: the film's protagonist throws a metal pipe at him, which pierces him but doesn't harm him; Dracula removes it, and you figure he will throw it back and the struggle will go on for another five minutes at least, but... no.

And then there's the cleavage. The chests of both Hanley's virtuous protagonist and the innkeeper's sultry daughter (Wendy Hamilton) are displayed consistently and unsubtly, which is interesting, since the films never tip to Russ Meyer breast fetishism; plausible deniability is maintained. Hammer horror films simply do cleavage better than any other studio has ever done or will ever do again. To pander to the desires of 14 year old boys and yet still do so in a kind of sweetly innocent way... it's a good trick. Fun that there are no good screengrabs online of Dracula plunging a dagger into someone, for instance, but there are definitely shots like this: 

Incidentally, see also Anouska Hempel (the knife-victim) and Delia Lindsay (whose scenes I forgot to note, above; I guess there were actually four sets used for the film, not three! She's two images below and the nakedest of the women in the film). 

All the other hallmarks of Hammer are present, from superb set-decoration to Hammer regular Michael Ripper (whom Sir Christopher describes in the commentary as the soul of Hammer, even more than himself or Peter Cushing) and semi-regular Michael Gwynn (the one being eaten by a bat puppet, above).

The real charm of the film, however, lies in its storytelling. Precisely because it strains a bit, compared to more inspired Hammer fare like Taste the Blood of Dracula, to pull everything together, and doesn't entirely work, you can kind of see the craft of the storytelling laid bare, like the strings on a mediocre puppet (you never do see the strings on the bat, note; cheesy as it is, I'm not entirely sure how they did it!). You can imagine a clutch of people in pre-production, discussing what should happen next, throwing out ideas in a roundtable, and trying to make whatever choices they opt for entertaining ones. In that, in its overt determination to tell you a story, it actually resembles a vintage Dr. Who episode; it has a similar innocent charm, even if there's no Tardis (and no Peter Cushing) in sight. 

It's not a very good Hammer film, but it was very entertaining no less. Beats watching Lee hiss his way through Dracula: Prince of Darkness. He complains on the commentary about how he wishes the film had been made around Stoker's character, not a plot involving other characters that Dracula is then wedged into, and one can see his point, but this is still a very entertaining role for him, compared to some. Incidentally, in the same commentary -- recorded in 1999, I believe -- while he complains about all the unsubtle, no-imagination-required gore of contemporary horror, he gives props to Alien and John Hurt's big death scene, as being very effective and startling. This is somehow very nice to hear).  

And credit where it's due, Erika was the one who came up with the phrase "Fear and Cleavage." 

Kim Gordon Vancouver review, plus Steve Shelley's new album(s) and a nearby show

UPDATE: Dammit, Steve Shelley just pointed out that the gig I mention below is in Portland, MAINE. Nowhere near here!! Oops! 

Holy heck, did people pack the Hollywood for the Kim Gordon show last night. Was very impressed with the turnout, but especially after hearing of people saying things like, "I only know her new stuff--what's Sonic Youth like?", I wanted to run around surveying the audience: "Did you come here because of her new album, or because of her past in Sonic Youth, or...?" (I also heard of people saying things like, "Do you think she'll play any Sonic Youth?" clearly from the latter camp, so I think there were people coming at her music from both directions). Lots of people in Sonic Youth shirts in the audience, too, which personally, I wouldn't have done, even if I had one (there is a precis of her book, focused on the demise of that band, on the Guardian website, if you're not sure why I say this)... 

 

The thing that really stood out for me last night was that this could be the start of a viable, post-Sonic Youth touring unit for Gordon. I hadn't been at the Commodore for The Collective show, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. The last three albums are very "home-studio sounding", could be the type of project an artist, relying on samplers and synths, played all their own instruments on (not the case, note); the last artist I interviewed about that sort of project (Butthole Surfers guitarist Paul Leary, about his album Born Stupid, conceived entirely in his home studio) had done no live shows in support of it at all, and had more or less played everything himself. 

Turns out last night's band (drummer Madi Vogt, bassist Emily Retsas, and guitarist Sarah Register) was really a BAND. None of them appear to be on the new album (and all of them appear to be closer to Coco than Kim in age; there was actually mention of Black Flag in this regard, but in the sense of it being a shrewd move). But they sure gelled, playing something far closer to a Sonic Youth-style rock show than I expected; since the records don't sound much like Sonic Youth, I figured she was practicing distanciation from that aspect of her past, and had expected her to play up the trip-hop elements of the sound. Nope!  The encore, an unreleased song called "Cigarette" was maybe the most Sonic Youth-like item in the evening, seeing Kim venturing very much into what one might think of as "Lee and Thurston territory" on guitar: textural noise jams with Register that were trance-inducing but not at all trip-hoppy. Mostly Kim was off guitar, in fact, but she was very much on it for "Busy Bee", "Bye Bye" (and perhaps some of the other later songs?), and during those moments, there was no confusing which band she had spent the majority of her career in. 

Setlist here, no Sonic Youth on it. The night didn't need it! Visuals, some very entertaining, swirled behind the stage throughout (yes, I shot some vid). 

Another thing that came clear is, I'm going to have to sit down with Kim's lyric sheets at some point, because, as my wife Erika observed, the show was very obviously an "art piece" and Play Me has some thematic depth, which I have simply not done justice to. (Something also true of The Collective and No Home Record, which also got repped near the end of the set. Like, what do industrial metal supplies have to do with cookie butter? No idea!)

 But there is obviously enough of a future in what Kim is doing -- I wouldn't be surprised if we get to see her again in the next couple of years, perhaps with this very unit-- that it looks to be worth the investment of effort. I had picked up the album unconvinced of that, to be totally honest. I'm trying to cut down!

But last night convinced me. 

As for my autograph whoring, Kim did not come out into the venue after the show, and we were told she likely wouldn't, so Bob and I joined a small cluster of people haunting her tour bus, including local artist Michelle Sound, second from the right (ask her about her David Byrne stories; she'd also been on hand when Gordon received an honorary PhD from Emily Carr University back in 2018, as part of a group that included another artist I'd met, Pierre Hebert). We didn't end up exchanging emails or such, but if you stand around on the sidewalk with a cluster of strangers for long enough, you'll start talking to each other. Weirdly, at some point I looked down and saw that a download card for (Inuk artist) Elisapie's Ballad of the Runaway Girl was lying on the sidewalk, which absolutely positively must have been mine, tucked by mistake into a Kim Gordon album cover. Both Michelle and her friend Meghan were Indigenous and, by odd coincidence, had been at Elisapie's Vogue show last year, which I'd interviewed Elisapie about. So I gave them the download card! I mean, I've already got the album on my phone, as part of having done press. 

(Trivially, Homer Flynn of the Cryptic Corporation dug Elisapie when I pointed her out to him, apropos of a conversation we had about the Residents' Eskimo tour, but the band won't be coming to Vancouver now that it's been rescheduled. The closest show, for those of you still willing to cross the border, will be in Tacoma in November). 

For a long time, that's all that seemed would transpire: "Indigenous girl gets free Inuk artist download". We got bored enough we took a selfie. The tour bus got packed and pizzas (from La Pache) were delivered and loaded inside and we waited, telling each other stories. Sound asked one of the roadies if he was wearing bowling shoes, but it just looked like that from the back. When Sarah Register, recognizable for the large shock of blonde hair, came out, I asked (since nothing else was goin' on) if she was on Play Me, proferring a Sharpie at her, and it turns out she wasn't, though, shit Sarah, ya coulda told me you were on The Collective; I had that in my stack too!

Kim finally came out. Maybe I'm projecting, but it felt like I could see her shudder ("oh fuck, it's fans!") and steel herself to apologize and head straight for the bus. It kinda looked like the inner tension you feel, seeing someone at a party that you have history with, but that you don't necessarily want to talk to, and you visibly sort of hover between heading to the appies table and going over and saying hello: pretty touch-and-go for a second there. Maybe I'm just projecting, but in my fantasy, the element that won her over was that, besides Play Me and a fistful of Sharpies, I had SYR 5 in my hand, which I figured was the album that she would most be won over to see, since it was a fairly significant step outside the usual parameters of Sonic Youth for her, featuring DNA's Ikue Mori and DJ Honda and Kim very much front-and-centre, but is not something that everyone will own (it's actually the only SYR release in my collection!). 

In fact, I had brought the album covers for my entire Sonic Youth collection to the venue, but I didn't necessarily think seeing someone holding Goo in their hand would have the same effect (just too obvious). That was the theory, anyway. But underneath Play Me and SYR 5, I did have one Sonic Youth record I had prioritized getting signed: Evol. Because if you're going to get ONLY ONE Sonic Youth record signed by Kim...

Note: those of you who do know Kim from her current material and not the Sonic Youth back catalogue, go here. (That's a link to the "Shadow of a Doubt" vid, on Evol, and the first thing I heard of Kim's that blew me away. Great video, too). That album seemed too varied when I first had it, but has grown in my estimation and I think is probably the best place for a Sonic Youth noob to start, and maybe their masterpiece; on bandcamp here. 

Kim politely posed for a few selfies for the other lurkers (I do not ask for selfies, generally; I do not understand them, especially if the entirety of the interaction you've had with the artist is to ask for said selfie; what does that even mean?). She signed a book for Bob that I didn't even know existed, Is It My Body?, named for an Alice Cooper song that Sonic Youth covered, illustrating it with a quick cross that I think was a riff on the old Sonic Life design. Which is actually pretty piquant, given that that design is tattooed onto her ex-; I guess he doesn't get exclusive claim! 

I also mentioned, in the one minute in which I pestered her, that Steve Shelley had signed my Evol, and that I'd done some press for him, and while I may have misread it, I thought I saw a flicker of interest there: "Oh really?" (Kim, if you're interested, I'll happily pitch my editors about a story with you; Steve has my contact deets). I didn't press it, even though I had a whole stack of other records that I could have led her over to; she had given her all onstage, and I had my Evol scribbled upon, so I thanked her and stood down. 

(by Allan MacInnis, last year at the Rickshaw)

Speaking of Steve Shelley, though: he is the only member of Sonic Youth who I HAVE seen cover a Sonic Youth song, doing "Starpower" at the Rickshaw with Shelley Orcutt Miller. Steve is playing (as part of Winged Wheel) in Portland on August 20th (and maybe other shows TBA?), and has just released a new album on his Vampire Blues label, Veld by Sick Gazelle, with another album coming up in August with Riviera Gaz (first single here).  

Steve Shelly with Riviera Gaz, by Lucca Miranda

None of these bands -- the live one, Sick Gazelle, and Riviera Gaz are the same people, Steve aside. (He may be in other bands, too?). The other members of the band playing in August, Winged Wheel, are Tyvek's Fred Thomas and Spray Paint's Cory Plump, with tickets here and bandcamp here. Riviera Gaz, meanwhile, is with guitarist/ vocalist Gustavo Riviera (Forgotten Boys) and bassist/ keyboardist Paulo Kishimoto (also of Forgotten Boys and a band called Pitty). And Sick Gazelle, whose music takes form, sayeth the press release, "somewhere between free-rock confusion and deep space tranquility" offers:

layered saxophone and processed vocalizations from Bruce Lamont (Yakuza), submerged textures and heavy guitar zones from Eric Block (Veloce), with eternally outstretching drums from Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), steering the band’s improvised pieces through stretches of formlessness and meaning. Their 2019 debut album Odum captured the spontaneity and excitement of the trio’s group chemistry, but with their second LP Veld, they expand on the charge of their debut by bringing Douglas McCombs (Tortoise) into the fold on bass, finding new levels of clarity and structure without ever losing the spark of the jam.

I have no idea what Thurston or Lee or up to this year, but Steve's certainly keeping busy. Portland is too far away for me, though. Anyone want to bring him back to Vancouver? 

NO TIME TO REWRITE BUT ONCE AGAIN, THE STEVE GIG IS IN MAINE, NOT OREGON!!! Screwed up, my bad, but you weren't gonna drive to Oregon either, were you?

Alabama Shakes: Freedom Mobile Arch review -- tips and notes for first-timers

Note: this is less a review of Alabama Shakes than it is a helpful explainer for people seeing shows at the new Freedom Mobile Arch! Heck, that's not even Alabama Shakes on the stage, but Billy Allen + the Pollies. All photos by me!

Erika and I saw Alabama Shakes last year in Seattle, but we didn't REALLY see them; the Climate Pledge Arena was enormous and the band were tiny flecks a seeming kilometer away, in an arena holding maybe 18,300 people, compared to last night's venue, Freedom Mobile Arch, which accommodates about 10,000 people, assuming, I would guess, that you include the grassy hill in back, where the cheap seats are as cheap as they are because, well, there are no seats at all. 

(Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle: this is NOT Freedom Mobile Arch)

Don't get me wrong, the trip to Seattle was wonderful, overall (photos and notes here, and also, if you're curious about the conversation with Vic Bondi, go here)... but the itch to see Alabama Shakes was not well scratched last time out. So a few months ago, when my buyout had me feeling like I could afford it, I kind of insisted we buy tickets for the band's Vancouver concert (which took place yesterday night as I write this). I'm very very glad we did. We splurged on good seats, too -- not the best in the house, necessarily, and not the SRO pit in front, but only 17 rows back, section 202 (right in the middle of the aisle). It was a much, much better experience than Seattle, though it didn't lend to particularly good photographs! This is about what a row-17 distance looks like, from a slightly zoomed-in cell phone, if you're wondering. Beats the heck out of the Climate Pledge experience! 

When it turned out that the t-shirt I bought for Erika in Seattle was now too big, I inherited it and insisted on buying her a new one. That also, I think, proved a good idea!

The show was wonderful. The projections on either side of the screen allowed us to see Brittany's guitar playing up close, which was a treat (I hadn't actually realized that many of the solos are hers!). The sound was a little bit echoey for Muscle-Shoals-influenced Billy Allen & the Pollies (from Howard's own stomping grounds in Alabma; Billy invited us to cheer her choice to hire locals to support her), but it was marvelous for Alabama Shakes (I was not impeded in getting to the bottom of the stairs to take one reasonably close-up photo of Billy but imagine the stairs would have been much more crowded for Alabama Shakes. I did not try!). This is more or less what you're going to be seeing if you are seated in the front rows of the 200s: 

The show was remarkably without incident, considering the scale. Security was fast and efficient -- we had to put our stuff in little baskets and get wanded, and there were NO BAG CHECKS available, so if you brought something you weren't allowed to bring, you would have been sent back out to either throw it away or stash it somewhere. Whatever you bring has to fit in an 8X11 bag. But we had followed those rules, so it wasn't at all an issue. And once we were in, there were no further hassles with security at all. There were plentiful guards at work but they all seemed polite and friendly and helpful and I didn't see them intrude needlessly in anyone's evening. 

Ditto the actual concert experience -- it was pretty darn smooth and seamless. You know those minor annoyances that happen at every concert you go to where the artist is obliged to spend time asking for more of instrument X in monitor Y, or asking for the lights to be adjusted, or tuning their instruments, or...? Maybe that's more a feature of the smaller shows I favour, but it was still kind of amazing that there was utterly none of that last night. Everything was perfectly set, perfectly executed, one of the most flawless deliveries of a concert experience I've encountered.

But there were some (very minor) nuisances no less, not with the show per se, which I'm going to enumerate as a way of helping folks plan for future concerts there, since there are many coming up (hell, there's even one I'm going to!). It was entirely a new space for me, so it was pretty interesting to explore and catalogue the pros and cons, the highs and lows and a few of the eccentricities. 

The most significant of these is just the logistics of getting there: turns out Freedom Mobile Arch is new enough as a venue--having just opened in June--that it is still not on the signs that stand at the corner of Renfrew and Hastings, which is where you have to enter. And we could have used a bit more "prep" in the online information about getting to the show. For one thing, the venue is accessed, at least later in the day, via the PNE entrances off Renfrew, not the Playland ones down Hastings; arriving when the 4:PM soundcheck was underway (we could hear it going on). We made a foolish mistake of paying a substantial amount for parking near Playland, because we could see the arch nearby, and thought it would be convenient (in the lot just off Windermere, across Hastings)... but then we were denied entry, since they were closing soon and had cut off ticket sales at 4 (a ticket to the show did NOT get you access to Playland). Even though we just wanted to cut through (and/ or maybe grab a bite from one of the Playland vendors, who had better food options than inside the Arch grounds), we had to walk a few blocks down to Renfrew, then walk the same length back towards Playland (following very limited signage; I noticed exactly one directional signboard, but I'm familiar with the area, which I've been coming to since I was a child; we could see a first timer getting pretty confused), then stand outside the gates to the concert area for an hour, waiting to be admitted, wondering if we'd be able to get a decent meal inside.

At least there was a merch table to keep us a bit entertained, and a VIP booth that, while ultimately not useful to us in any way, did have Alabama Shakes playing over the speakers (Also, pleasantly, we were at least allowed to walk back OUT through Playland, once the show was over). 

One nice thing was that PNE staff came out at one point to offer seated, ticketed upgrades to people who had bought grassy knoll "seats." This is probably no more reliable than getting an upgrade on a flight, so I wouldn't bank on that offer being made for every show, but I know at least one person (Gerald, in fact) who benefited from this, which is a good thing, because the grassy area (while it would be just fine for a cheap seat if the weather was nice) looked like you see below (actual photo: I jogged up to the top to snap it). I don't think I'd want to see a show with my ass in two inches of cold water! Erika says that the "know before you go" email specifically said no chairs, no blankets, etc., so even if you have a folding chair that fits in an 8X11 bag, you wouldn't have been allowed, it seems, to use it. So caveat emptor, grass sitters!

It's a fair distance away from the stage, too. Below is the view from the SRO area (the highest-price tier for tickets, so I wasn't able to access it, but could stand to the side of the stage to snap this, which I believe is showing you the "202 area" -- the best space to sit in. We were 17 rows back from here). You can see the structure above the grass in the back: 

There are lots of food options but some things could use some ironing out. Like, there were no sweet treats of any sort: no cookies, chocolate bars, candy bars, ice cream, etc., which is tiny, but Erika felt like something sweet, and I circled every stand to no avail; it seems a weird oversight (people on diabetes meds sometimes will get low blood sugar, which they can address with a sugary snack, so it's more than just an issue of catering to audiences). There WERE choices of common street-fair food: poutine, pizza, hot dogs, etc. There was even a healthy option, a chicken Caesar salad with croutons which Erika seemed to enjoy. I opted for pizza, and didn't care for the texture of the cheese, which had a sort of "foamy" quality that I find often comes with a reheated pizza; I suspect all their pizzas are pre-cooked and refrigerated, then heated when you order it (because it only took about five minutes to get). Maybe I'm wrong. Suffice to say, I'm fussy about cheese, and did not like the texture (or the pools of grease that I dabbed off with a napkin). Erika had a few bites and liked it well enough, so maybe it's just me? She likes a reheat just fine with her pizza, though. (I either have it freshly made or cold).  

Mostly, though, the food was plentiful, had more options than we expected, was not super-expensive (I think a bottle of pop was $4?), and there were vendors in a few spaces, so there was no issue of long lineups. We didn't explore the alcohol options, but there seemed to be plenty of choices there, too.  

One interesting thing I noted: there was absolutely NO trace of cannabis in the air. Maybe it's down to the option of legal edibles, or general prohibitions against smoking, but the only thing I smelled anywhere on the grounds last night was one puff from was someone's fruity tobacco vape. (I here mean "fruity" in the more literal sense, note, as in, it smelled like fruit). Given that there are people who CAN consume cannabis products but CANNOT (or at least SHOULD not) consume alcohol -- people, like me, who have had tongue cancer, say -- and given that you can now buy cannabis beverages, gummies, and so forth basically in every city in Canada, it sure would be nice if the powers that be extended cannabis liberalization to concert venues, too, eh? I could someone successfully pursuing this as an issue of accessibility: why should alcohol drinkers be allowed access to intoxication at concerts, while those who cannot imbibe it be forbidden? 

As for the washrooms, there are plenty of stalls. It's interesting: they use the standard, old fashioned men and women iconography to let people know where the toilets are, but once you actually GET to the toilet area, the iconography changes to wheelchairs and toilets, so I spent a few clueless minutes LOOKING for a men's room while being totally surrounded by gender-neutral stalls. So the bathroom area is kind of post-binary-gender/ post-toilet-segregation, but the long distance signage isn't; I'm not complaining, just noting an eccentricity (is there a name for archaic iconography that survives past its best-by? For instance, the little floppy disc you click on to save a document, when no one has used a floppy disc in fifteen or more years?). 

Mostly the washroom area was just another cool aspect of the space as a whole: The sinks, in particular, were weirdly futuristic and trippy to behold...  though oddly, the soap dispensers didn't work, so we were provided little pump bottles (visible if you look closely; that was liquid soap, not sanitzer. You can also see me in the mirror, snapping this photo): 

What else? There wasn't anything in the way of heating and the whole area is open-air, so if you're prone to being cold, or if, as last night, it is breezy, wear a few layers? But that's a gentle tip, not a complaint -- I was, myself, very comfortable just in my t-shirt and shirt combo. Compared to the traumatizing shitshow that was the first night of the Neil Young concerts at Deer Lake last year, last night at Freedom Mobile Arch was a nearly perfect concert experience, really. Where your biggest quibble is, you couldn't buy your wife a cookie, you really have no quibble at all; I would not hesitate on shelling out money for another show there, should one strike my fancy (note, by the by, in fairness: the second night of Neil Young was much much better but the first night was such a fuckup, organizationally, that I will evermore think twice about going to Deer Lake for a show. I won't hesitate on Freedom Mobile Arch shows, though). 

As for the concert itself, Brittany was, of course, charming and sincere and a powerhouse performer, as ever. She, Heath and Zac remain the core of the band, and it is unclear to me if the two keyboardists, drummers, and female backup singers we saw are just touring support or full on members now, but everything sounded great. I haven't lived with the new songs much ("Time", "I Feel Hope Coming", "American Dream" and "Garden," according what was played in Tacoma the other week; there is a setlist online for Vancouver, but it's missing at least two songs, maybe more).  At one point, in acknowledging the challenges of our times, Brittany explained that she wasn't the religious type so wasn't going to offer us prayers, but instead wish us good tidings, whereupon she ran through a list of her wishes for everyone, starting with "I hope the price of housing goes down." Everyone cheered, whereupon she said something like, "Oh, you have that problem up here, too, huh?" At various points the whole section we were in -- maybe the whole venue? -- stood up to applaud or to dance, and we happily had a real good dancer in front of us -- an older Asian lady in a white T who totally got into it and thereby vicariously transmuted some of her pleasure to us. The biggest challenge of the evening (besides putting up with the various folks talking during concerts, but there seems to be no helping that in this city) proved to be the choice between watching the band on the screens (which feels like "more TV" but which had great detail, especially during guitar solos, which merited closeups) or watching them on the stage (you can't see it but it's first-gen, so to speak). But at various points ("Sound and Colour", say, which I am starting to think is my favourite song of theirs), I could solve that problem just by closing my eyes and listening. 

All told a great night. Thanks to the bands and to everyone who designed the space, set up the show, and manned the evening. You done good!