Bev Davies, Brian Goble... and another Subhumans show

Brian Goble acoustic, by Allan MacInnis

The opening party is over, but Bev Davies' new show of photography continues at Chapel Arts - a converted funeral home - until August 16th; gallery hours are Wed - Sat 12-6pm and Sun 1-4pm, or by appointment. The opening was fun indeed - with various figures from the history of Vancouver punk in attendance, including Danny Nowak of The Spores and Hard Core Logo fame (who can shed no light on what the hell he's doing in Bev's photo - he looks like he's about to spew beer all over the audience), Heather Haley (of The Zellots and the .45's), Jim Cummins (I, Braineater), Ron Reyes (Chavo) of Black Flag (the Wikipedia page says he's now a Born Again Christian... what?). There were a few Vancouver transplants, too, like Jon Card, and various media people in attendance - Dave and Tanya of The Skinny, Janelle and Bob of Mongrel Zine (who will soon be publishing that Nardwuar interview that flickered and disappeared here), and Scott Beadle, who is his own media affiliation these days, but used to be the man behind Skitzoid. (Scott and I chatted at some length about how we're both REALLY keen to interview former Subhumans drummer, Koichi "Jim" Imagawa - if he happens to see this, he should get in touch! I might even be able to get a Japanese magazine interested...). Oh, and Bev and Carola were on hand, too, and Subhumans singer Brian Goble...

...who performed a rather odd-duck set, truth be known. I enjoy seeing Brian play acoustically because it's the only way that he currently can present some of my favourites of his songs - like "One Thing To Fear" off the under-appreciated Garnet Sweatshirt album, Curse Of The Canadian Rock Star (with Card, Randy Bachman, Chris Houston, Herald Nix and others); it wouldn't work for the Subhumans, but it's perfect for the acoustic-folk-protest song format that Goble plies when alone onstage. A song in his solo set that would work, and indeed has worked for past versions of the Subhumans is his acidly funny "For The Common Good." Recorded on the lost-to-history No Wishes, No Prayers LP, it hasn't yet been performed by the current lineup of the band (tho' I would love it if they practiced it up... it's a great song!). Goble's voice works very well in the folk-protest format, which allows you to hear more nuance and character than can normally be discerned at a punk show, and his bass playing with DOA was top-notch, but his acoustic guitar playing is, he admits, imperfect - he occasionally will fudge a chord or go off the beat, which his fans will happily overlook... though loud teasing whoops erupted at one point when his guitar came unplugged midsong. I'm not sure if that's why he cut his set short; people were enjoying it - certainly I was, and other people were dancing and clapping along. It was a pretty serious set that he was playing, tho' - songs about poverty, ecological damage, media illusion, including many I have not heard before, whose titles I can only guess at ("The Phantom Zone?" "Runaway World?" "Time of Illusion?") - making one suspect that Goble may have been in too serious a mood for the lighter spirit that prevailed in the crowd. I tried to sway him to bring out a bit of his humour (I shouted a request for "Green Acres," because it seemed more within the realm of possibility that he would play that, rather than "Tits On The Beach," which, actually, I'd like to hear more); but Brian was done for the night, inviting anyone who wanted to to pick up his guitar and continue...

Bev and I had talked about Brian a little bit before the show. "I call him Wimpy," she told me. "I'm allowed to - he gave me permission to call him Wimpy for as long as I needed to - that was the expression he used," Bev laughed. "A friend of mine emailed me and said, 'Brian Goble's playing acoustic - how Wimpy!'" Speaking of Goble's past monikers, Bev was able to fill in a blank for me about the reasons why Brian briefly was known as "Sunny Boy Roy," when playing with DOA. It happened during a UK tour (though not the UK DOA tour that Bev was on, she explains; Randy Rampage was still in the band at that point, with Chuck and Dave Gregg). "But the next trip they went over, Wimpy was in the band, and they came back and they were calling him Sunny Boy - because he looked like the Sunny Boy drawing on the breakfast cereal over there! It must have spoke about his sunny disposition - because there's some people they wouldn't call 'Sunny Boy.'"

Fans can next see Sunny Boy perform with the Subhumans at The Cobalt at the October 2nd booklaunch for Punch The Boss, Chris Walter's upcoming Factotum-like memoir of jobs he has endured. The current issue of The Skinny also has a great shot of a young Brian/Wimpy/Sunny Boy Roy on the cover (and news about the contest for the upcoming New Model Army show in Vancouver, more on which later). Meantime, go check out Bev's show. There's some great moments captured! The Art Bergmann shot and the .45's shot are particularly cool; the shot of Rampage jumping that graces the Triumph Of The Ignoroids EP is there, and there are inclusions of bands both recently resuscitated (like Tunnel Canary) and artists now departed (Joe Strummer, Michael Jackson). Oh: and Bev's banner, of Anton of Brian Jonestown Massacre "saluting" the crowd at a Vancouver gig while swearing off playing in Canada - has some fun stories behind it... if you happen to see Bev at the show, ask her to tell you about it...

Carola and Bev, photo by Allan MacInnis