Punkstravaganza at the Rickshaw!

Bison at the Astoria (photo Allan MacInnis)

Anyone else going to the Rickshaw tonight?

The Dreadnoughts are a great band - and a great live band, especially. I have a few of their albums, a book about them, have interviewed them and have seen them live more than once. I am looking forward to catching them tonight for the first time in years. If you miss seeing anything with a Celtic flavour yesterday, if you like the idea of polka punk, if you just want to get loose and bounce around to high-energy, catchy music played on accordions, fiddles and mandolins (and more traditional rock instruments) - they're well-deserving of their local legend status... 

...But to be clear, personally, I am just as much going to the Punkstravaganza Night One tonight for Bison and the SLIP~ons, and am even excited to see ATD for the first (?) time - and I totally love having bands as diverse as these four on a bill together. In fact, more than any combination of acts, all four bands are the draw, for me - and how often has it been since you've been at a show where that was the case? (Brock Pytel opined, when he first told me about the shows, "I love the idea of disparate bands - sort of like a Cheap Trick album cover," and while the last part of that comment went completely over my head, I place it here in case someone else might understand it.).

SLIP~ons with Tony Lee, covering "All the Young Dudes" at the 2020 Bowie Ball

If Brock's comparing tonight's bill to a Cheap Trick cover is deeply gnomic, there is no question that tonight's lineup - moreso than tomorrow's, in fact - sure is disparate. In ATD we have lean-and-mean, catchy hardcore with songs that seem to be more about human experience than politics; in the SLIP~ons, we have a loose-limbed, Dollsy rock band (see here for my interview with their leader, former Doughboys drummer/ vocalist Brock Pytel); Bison, meanwhile, is a sludgy metal band that taps as deeply and profoundly into human melancholy and pain as I've heard a metal band go, to the point that their music is both ugly and beautiful at the same time time (and who I have interviewed more times than I can easily count, but try here for the most recent); and headlining, the band who recorded Victory Square,  which, apologies to the Dreadnoughts because it's pretty early and raw, is still my favourite album of theirs...

Anyhow, I've talked to Brock pretty recently, but I interact with Dan and James of Bison fairly regularly on Facebook, and hadn't bugged them lately, so I shot them a message - Dan, specifically, because I almost always talk to James. He tells me that band is "really excited to be playing again but it’s really more the Dreadnoughts’ show than ours. It’s sort of a 'co-headline' deal where we’re still going to playing for an hour but we’re on second to last. We’re kind of anticipating the crowd will be more their fan base though I could be completely wrong." As for the post(?)-COVID circumstances of the show, "It’s gonna be my first time out anywhere near a crowd this size so I’ll see how my anxiety is. Might see you there but might end up hiding the whole time!" 

Dan And of Bison by Allan MacInnis

With Dan potentially in hiding, I am kinda sad to read that a Facebook buddy and fellow Bison fan will be dodging the show entirely tonight (he tells me he's not ready for "a big room full of maskless folks"). We met by amusing circumstances, on the bus up Main to the the Skytrain, the second-to-last time I saw Bison back at the Astoria in 2018 (where I shot this video.) One of us - I guess me - speculated, "I wonder what happened to ____" (former band member who I miss), and the other said, "I read in an interview James said he was on a 'personal journey.'" And before we got to unpacking that, I grinned and replied, "Oh. Heh. I did that interview." Which was kind of a fun way to start a conversation.  We haven't had a chance to actually hang out at a Bison show since, but people's reasons are people's reasons - people have to feel safe. Personally, I do; I am now guessing, not having gotten sick yet, that in fact a long illness I had before the lockdowns even started - in December of 2019 - must have been COVID, which is entirely possible, as I was working with lots of students from China at that point, including recent arrivals. In any event, my COVID precautions since that time have been mediocre at best - despite masks and vaccinations, I've been plentifully active over the last two years, thrifting, eating in restaurants, going to movies, and going to every show I could - including THIS potential superspreader; I feel like I can safely conclude my total "illness-less" through this whole time (except for, um, cancer) means I am not gonna get sick now (someone knock wood for me, my wrists are still sore from clapping at the Sparks show). 

But like I say, people gotta feel safe. 

...for those who DO feel safe, and who are hankering for a show, who are not able to go tonight, do note: the lineup for Punkstravaganza Night Two is completely different, with only the Dreadnoughts repeating; support acts include the Still Spirits, who do a delightfully high-energy oldtimey perfect for drinking and dancing, with Jonny Bones of Maple Ridge ska punks the Bone Daddies fronting; I interviewed them here. Then there's Balkan Shmalkan, whose "funky brass dance beats are rooted in the aural traditions of the Roma and Klezmorim of Eastern Europe and blended with a mixture of pop and jazz," according to their website. They also apparently also can get a pretty fun dance floor going. Finally, there's The Corps - the night's punkiest band. [Note - no idea who is going on first!]. There's maybe a bit less variety in tomorrow's show - with three out of four bands playing folk-based musics primarily on traditional, non-rock acoustic instruments - but if that's what you're craving, tomorrow might be the better night for you! 

POST SCRIPT - Dan just announced on Facebook that this is an early show - doors at 7, first band is at 7:30, and the curfew is midnight. Bison is on at 9:30. Good to know!