Bowie Ball this Saturday: a Who's Who, with links

ARTICLE HAS BEEN FULLY UPDATED AND EXPANDED WITH BREAKING NEWS!

The Bowie Ball is this Saturday! 

This article has been updated to reflect that restrictions have apparently been lifted and MORE TICKETS GO ON SALE AT NOON TOMORROW, Feb. 16th. Apparently we can... dance again? We won't have to sit in little rickety chairs? What if I was GETTING TO LIKE those little rickety chairs? I am going to bring my own little rickety chair and sit right down in the centre of the floor and...

No, no I won't. We can dance! Yay. Hurt my back the other day, the exercise might do me good. 

Look: buy tickets for this. Come to this. This is a lovely celebration of really great music, as performed by many folks very close to the heart of the local music scene... and some others, too, whom I know very little about! But they're prolly all REALLY GOOD. An event curated by one of the people who published me a bunch, early on, in fact. 7th anniversary, proceeds to cancer research, and it's THE RICKSHAW, which feels a bit homecoming-y for a lot of folks. The energy should be very very good. Postponed but unbowed! This Saturday night.

Y'all better sell it the rest of the way out. 

The lineup is as follows:

7:40 - Coach StrobCam: I have articles on them! See here, or for even deeper background, here.  Listen here.  (You know the song "Hockey Sucks" off the Johnny Hanson Puck Rock Compilation Vol. 1? It was WRITTEN BY THE CAM IN Coach StrobCam! He was in Pink Steel, too! But he lies about his band name's origins.  

8:00 - 20 Explosive Hits! (no website? They've gigged at LanaLou's and the Princeton and such, but I don't really know who they are and could not find it in the four minutes I spent on Google, since there are tons of compilation albums with names like 20 Explosive Hits! Fun name; they could rename themselves Needle in a Haystack for Googlin' purposes...)

8:20 - The Vanrays: amazing, soulful, largeish band made of Vancouver veterans; if you know that "muscle shoals" is not the name of a medical condition, you prolly need to see these guys. I have an article on them - see here; listen here. 

8:40 - Brass Panda (see above, under 20 Explosive Hits!, but now I'm being sold Chinese figurines). 

9:00 - Asian Persuasion All Stars - another local biggish band of local (and former Victoria) veterans; see here for my feature, which also has links to some of their songs - proceeds to the anti-racism wing of the VAFF! 

9:20 - Danny Echo - website here. Seen him last time I was at the Bowie Ball and liked their smart cheat of smuggling in Who and Them covers under the pretext of the songs ("I Can't Explain" and "Here Comes the Night") having been also covered at some point by Bowie.

9:40 - Beau Wheeler - website here, describing her as a "queer artist and recent cancer survivor" (something she and I have in common, but which David Bowie does not, sadly). Interested to see what she does!

10:00 - Mel’s Rock Pile (no website discernible from many links to SCTV-related stuff, but this is Mellow Friesen, formerly the final female vocalist of the Little Guitar Army, with members of Roots Roundup (or that's what I said here). 

10:20 - Daddy Issues - read my eye-opening interview with frontperson Betty Bathory - queen of transgressive burlesque - about her GG Allin cover band, as well as drummer Michael Nathanson about his playing with Betty in Daddy Issues

10:40 - Jimmy Baldwin Band (this guy, I am guessing. Reminds me a bit of Warren Zevon on first listen. That's not a bad thing to be reminded of!).

11:00 - Cass King and the Cassettes - see here for an interview with Cass, or here for her music. Great voice, great band, very funny and smart interview. 

11:20 - Orchard Pinkish and the Old Canadians - see here and here for more on Richie's illustrious history! One of my favourite-ever Bowie Ball tributes was Cass King joining Orchard in a biggish band, for this cover of "Fame" at the end of the first Bowie Ball in 2016. And for a real fun Pinkish original...

11:40 - Jeevious Family - bandcamp here - what, they were from Roberts Creek, did I read that? Who? What, do I hafta say something about every band?

12:00 - Rebel Priest - bandcamp here. They have a song about being lost in Tokyo. I'VE BEEN LOST IN TOKYO! What are the odds?

I dunno if there will be any further changes or updates or late additions. Of course, the presence of Mellow makes me suspect she will be doing her Aladdin Sane face-paintings again. And of course, proceeds go to the BC Cancer Foundation; even if you can't get tickets, you can donate to them here. 

Seeya Saturday? Buy tickets through the Rickshaw website, starting tomorrow at noon.