Historical detail: the Bernard Kliban drawing from which one of the bands tonight took their name
Tonight was Dead Bob!
I wore a mask most of the night, because I have a wee cold. I felt somewhat foolish, the only man in the mosh pit with a mask on...
I told almost everyone who complimented my Mama shirt -- there were many -- that it was the result of a trade with Ty Stranglehold. Someone else told me in turn a story of trading his own tattered Mama shirt for a better-quality Butthole Surfers one (but not from Ty). Responding to one of many compliments, I quipped, "Yeah, I brought my Mama to the show."
Also, later in the night, when it came time to pester people to sign things, I told everyone who asked where I got my Victims Family reissue that I got it off Phil Saintsbury; I told everyone who asked (mostly members of Invasives, though Larry Boothroyd found the album cover quite compelling) that I got my Desk Job at Castle Dracula off Phil Saintsbury, too. Hi, Phil!
I chatted with Jorje of the former Nomeanswhatever forum about Už jsme doma, a Czech band that John Wright himself once recommended to me, whom Jorje had seen recently (they're touring!). I have a CD of theirs that I found thrifting, but I haven't heard it yet. Jorje explained that when they started, under a communist Czech government, they were flat-out illegal.
I did not run into Michelle Strangey, also of that forum, but she was there somewhere (I was Pemmican on that forum). She's going to the island shows tonight, ferries permitting...
I said hi to a guy named Eric who had seen video I shot of Dead Bob (I shot more tonight, but it's going to take awhile to deal with it). I said hi to Emilor of Night Court and Pet Blessings (pictured below with Kristy-Lee; Emilor had been in Rong for awhile); Dave Bowes; Brock Pytel of the SLIP~ons, and a long time ago, the Doughboys; and Jim Nasium from House of Commons, but I did not say hi to Syd Savage of Death Sentence (I don't know him) or Sandy Beach (Spores/ Aging Youth Gang, who only knows me as a Spores fan). Both were in the audience, Syd in a vintage Death Sentence leather jacket.
I did say hi to the only photographer in the pit, Gord McCaw. You may yet see photos of me in the audience -- I saw him snap some. Gord seemed to be having a good time.
I spent some time chatting with Larry Boothroyd, of Victims Family; I am a new fan of that band, who apparently have not played here for 30 years or more. Crazy tight, complex, funky, woth witty lyrics and lots of energy. Lots of songs I didn't know, but a few I did ("My Evil Twin," say, or "Supermarket Nightmare"), and I'm really curious to hear one of their newer ones, "First Person Shooter," again (off a split LP with a band called Nasalrod). Amazing that it's all three original guys (Ralph Spight, Larry Boothroyd, and Tim Solyan).
They did not do "Anti-Satan Song for Mom," their funniest tune (that I know).
The first opener, meanwhile, Invasives, did "Living Your Life Like It's Somebody Else's," a favourite which I have not heard from them for awhile, plus other great tunes like "Abstract World" and "Borderline Music." Hans in particular sure looked like he was enjoying himself while playing (and exhausted when not!).
Byron seems exceptionally fit, but he's no match for energetically expressive dance when compared to Ford, who, beautiful though he is, somehow manages to not seem exceptionally fit (I asked him how he keeps his figure -- does he eat four pizzas a day? He expends so much energy in a single song that I'd just collapse if I tried to keep up; by any normal biological logic, he should be all muscle mass and sinew, Iggy-style, but he is not. I do hope he was not offended by this observation!).
In any case, I have never seen anyone jump around as enthusiastically onstage as Ford, in any band, ever, which seems somehow incongruous. And he somehow seems tireless about it, even though, we gather, he was himself fighting off illness.
I told Byron that I was glad he didn't try to leap the barricades this time to solo in the pit. I had visualized spinal trauma.
At one point, I mis-read Ford's t-shirt as saying, "Rub out the cum." I mean, if you insist...
Ford's "Maybe It Came at the Wrong Time" remains a high point of Dead Bob's set, the funkiest number they do. I owe him a great debt, insofar as he was the first person to actually play me Victims Family one day at Red Cat -- he threw on White Bread Blues, which is a fine place to start; it was recorded in Vancouver at Profile and produced by John Wright (who also did The Germ). (Which, I learned during chatting with Jorje, was his introduction to the band, but considerably earlier than mine, and not facilitated by a Dead Bob member).
I told Larry Boothroyd at one point that Ford had tried to sell me a Specimen Jar album he's on, but, as some of you may have just realized, I fucked that gesture up: Boothroyd's project is called Specimen Box. Apparently Ford shares a track with Jello Biafra, whom Boothroyd and Spight play with. I doubt it's still at Red Cat though.
Dead Bob did most of what are becoming their standards, with Kristy-Lee pulling maniacal faces and occasionally turning her back on us to play a back-of-stage synth of some sort. She played "Take the A-Train" on trumpet, as ever, inserting it through another song -- she seems to be the person most tasked with discordancy -- and I believe played the most variety of instruments in the night, also taking up the guitar.
I am not positive, but I'm pretty sure the name of Wright's previous band never got said once this evening (by anyone on the stage, that is). They were only "that other band I used to be in." There were teenagers there (I chatted with them) who had never seen said band, who were there for their first Dead Bob show. I felt happy for them.
One worry hung over the performance: ferries are being cancelled due to extreme weather. John Wright led us in a chant to not cancel the 1:00 sailing (there's a show tomorrow in Victoria, and another the day after that, I guess, in Nanaimo) -- they'd done a whole US tour just narrowly staying ahead of winter, he explained, to return to ferry cancellations. Welcome home (and good luck!). (Update: the one was cancelled, but they have not pulled the 3 or 5 yet. The woman at the Tsawwassen ticket booth said they were very likely going to... but Dead Bob does have a reservation, so their chances are still okay...).
Most unlikely-ly (unlikelily?), I moshed a bit, just past the midway point of the main set, during "The Fall." I think the last time I moshed a bit was at the Circle Jerks at the Commodore in 2008 ("Coup D'Etat" moved me). Cf. "Too Old to Mosh," in the appendices to my post about going to Ontario to see Nomeansno on three separate dates, back in 2006 (that's the Mama shirt Ty got).
The encore was "Slowly Melting" and "Metronome." I like these mid-tempo songs. "White Stone Eyes" had heavier keyboards than I think I had heard before. They did not do "We Are the Chopped," though that's been on some songs on this tour. The other mid-tempo one, "No Tomorrows," was my favourite Dead Bob song when the album came out, but now I dunno, I think I might go for "One of You," which saw Byron take the snare again.
Byron took some ribbing from John about having to -- does one "tune" a snare? Adjust it, in any case.
Colin was the least attention-grabbing of the members but damn I love his bass playing. There were murmurs about Pigment Vehicle merch (sometime soon!). My post about Pigment Vehicle in the Nomeansno fan page I belong to on Facebook has generated a ton of likes and comments; lots of people saw them back in the day. I missed out, myself. My wife went to high school with Colin (and Jason Flower and Rob Nesbitt, but they weren't in Pigment Vehicle).
I stayed so late chatting and getting records signed that I had to exit out the alley in the back, crossing the stage to get there. That was a first!
The alley in back was not as bad as I'd imagined it might be. But it was cold and damp.
I don't have much else to say, but it was great. See Dead Bob (and Victim's Family and Invasives!) -- tomorrow in Victoria and the next night, I guess, in Nanaimo, if the wind gods and BC ferries consult and decide to permit it. Bob Hanham got me to get him a Victims Family shirt just in case.
There does not seem to actually be an apostrophe in Victims Family's name, but the temptation to include one is strong. They talk about that a bit here.
Here are some photos! Have a good night (I sure did).
VIDEO EVIDENCE:
Invasives: "Just Another Under the Sun"
Invasives: "Living Your Life Like It's Somebody Else's" (missed the first few notes!)
Victims Family: "Asshole with a Microphone" plus...
Victims Family: "My Evil Twin"
Victims Family: "Supermarket Nightmare" plus...
Dead Bob's first three songs: "Some Bodies," "Just Breathe," "Party of One" (in my notes, this is identified as "breathe some bacteria")
Dead Bob's last two songs, shot from the balcony: "Slowly Melting" and "Metronome"
Note: my phone has a hair trigger on switching to selfie mode so occasionally you get clips of the inside of my hands or my COVID mask... sorry about that...!
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