Corsage: Phil Smith to play Khats today! (with added post-script!).

People are asking: is that the old Corsage, playing Khats today - the band that is occupying what David M. quips is the "Vancouver Classic 70's punk rock legacy spot" this year? Y'know, the band fronted by Phil Smith, of Wasted Lives (best remembered for their song on the Vancouver Complication, "Wirehead") and Jimbo and the Lizard Kings (whose most-documented song, "Coming For You, Little Girl," which was on a Bud Luxford comp, hearable at that link, is oddly not on the version of The Phil Smith Album which is findable on Bandcamp; it IS on the vinyl release of that record, which was the first album put out on Zulu Records back in 1983, when I guess they were still called Zulubird). Corsage, of course, did "The Shame I Feel," which has one of the best-ever videos from vintage Vancouver, and members of the Dishrags (in girl group mode, as the Raisinettes, or in this case, the Raison D'Etres) on backing vocals... Could that be the SAME CORSAGE, playing Khats today?

Well, it may not be a stupid question - Is that really the same Corsage? - but the answer is pretty straightforward: yes, yes it is THAT Corsage. 

I had my own stupid question, mind you. I wrote Bev Davies to ask her if she had a photo I could use of Phil Smith. I linked the Phil Smith Album on Discogs to point out the bands he'd been in - did she have any of any of them? And thus did I discover that Bev shot the cover of the Phil Smith Album, back at Budstock 81.

Jimbo and the Lizard Kings, 1981, by bev davies, not to be reused without permission

Bev did not use the word "duh" in her reply, but I believe it would have been the appropriate response. 

The funny thing is, Corsage is one of the few vintage Vancouver punk bands I saw live in their initial incarnation, because they opened for the Mick-Jones-less, Topper-Headon-less version of The Clash that played the Coliseum on May 31st 1984. When I spoke to Jade Blade about the Dishrags' Supreme Echo release, a few years ago, she remembered that “people didn’t like us very much. People booed and threw things, but we were used to that!” 

Unlike the cool kids down on the floor, most of whom ended up dancing around onstage with Joe and Paul and the three other guys in that version of the Clash, I was sitting up in the rafters of the Coliseum. Joe occasionally took the mike to taunt us to come down from our position of spectatorship, and the friend I was with actually wanted to go, but I was protecting a copy of Triumph of the Ignoroids, scored earlier that day at D&G Collectors Records; I had been in a mosh pit at that point - at a Dead Kennedys show at the York Theatre, where I had lost one of my shoes and had to retrieve it - and was not about to risk having my Valuable Rare Punk Rock Record damaged in the pit! But if the kids who were there to see the Clash were not cool enough to check out a local band, I enjoyed Corsage, especially, "Grecian Formula," and soon acquired The Phil Smith Album at Collector's RPM; I later talked to Phil Smith about that night, and more, in my Montecristo feature, "The Time the Clash Played Soccer with a Bunch of Vancouver Punks."  

Phil tells me in a quick email that the Dishrags will likely not be at this show, because of scheduling matters, but Bill Hemy of the Pointed Sticks will be there (and Ron Allan, apparently who I think of as having replaced Gerry Hannah in the Subhumans for No Wishes No Prayers, but who may identify more as a member of Shanghai Dog; drummer John Cody I do not know. By the way, Red Cat had a No Wishes No Prayers on the wall for a couple hundred bucks the other week. It's really appreciated - I paid $75 for mine, some years ago, and felt like I was getting ripped off. Fantastic album, actually). 

Anyhow, he setlist was not quite determined when we interacted, but Smith says it will include "a mix of songs from the first album to the latest one." There may be special guests appearing, too!

An alternate view: Budstock 81 by Gordon McCaw - Dimwit on Drums and Art Bergmann on guitar! Not to be re-used without permission

Wait, wait - Corsage have a new album? (I had not realized when I wrote Phil that this was so, but in fact they have two EPs on bandcamp, Ancient Songs 1 and Ancient Songs 2.) 

There wasn't much else to the interaction - I mean, do you really need to be convinced to come see Corsage at 3pm at the McDonald Stage today? How could you possibly miss it? I'm all about those 70's punk rock legacy spots, and, like, the last time I saw this band, THEY WERE OPENING FOR THE CLASH, fer chrissake, just over 39 years ago. What more motivation do I need? 

Post-script: That was great! It proved an enormous hassle to get to, because of how my day shaped up, but I caught 95% of the set, arriving mid-way through the first song. I could hear the emcee (Grant) talking about the bands that the band members had been in, the points of connection, from the Scramblers to the Subhumans, from the Pointed Sticks to Jimbo and the Lizard Kings. Phil was an affable and able frontman, introducing each song with a bit of backstory (I put "Grecian Formula" on Youtube); I had never heard Bill Napier-Hemy in such a muscular guitar mode; I had been unaware that Gord Nicholl would be on keyboards or that Rong/ Dead Bob member Kristy-Lee Audette would be providing a horn section for "The Shame I Feel"; and I had never, ever seen Ron Allan play live, despite loving the Subhumans album he was on (I gather he lives out of town now and had to fly in from Nevada or Arizona or some crazy far away place to play the show). In pestering him for an autograph, I asked him about Brian "Wimpy Roy" Goble's assertion that No Wishes No Prayers had been sped up - roughly quoting, Brian had said to me, "No way were we playing that fast!" But Ron - acknowledging how startling it is to hear - said that yes, they really, really were. I got my copy of the Phil Smith album signed too! 

Then I fled - I had things to do. But it was a great set, and really nice to say hi to a few people, and to scratch the itch: stranded in the suburbs, with no car or music geek car-driving friends, I saw maybe ten Vancouver bands play back in the 1980s, so Corsage joins a very short list (along with I Braineater, Death Sentence, Slow and NO FUN) of bands I saw back then that I got to see 40-odd years later. Hope y'all were there!