Space Queen by me. Don't re-use any of this unless you check, okay? (Unless you're in the bands).
So: see my Space Queen interview about tonight here. Otherwise, random observations about the first Ozzy's Birthday Bash ever, earlier tonight at the Rickshaw.
1. It is hard to shoot a good video when there is a very active moshpit, so I did not get all of Bloodrhine's "Into the Void." I tried real hard but I nearly got knocked over a couiple of times! Eventually my phone shut off as I escaped the pit.
But Bloodrhine won the night, overall. Fucking amazing! I think they must have attracted the Black Wizard pack (were there TWO members of Black Wizard in the band? Three? I shoulda mentioned that in the Straight article).
I sure hope their debut album is on vinyl. I didn't see it at the merch table, but money is tight so I stayed far from that location. Great cover!
2. I did get all of Space Queen's "Children of the Grave." If there was moshing for that, it did not affect me. Sadly, Karli's got a bad case of cymbal-face in that clip. My best photo of a single member of Space Queen was bassist Seah (pronounced like Leah, but with an -S, or "Seeya," but with no "y.")
3. But damn it was good to see Matt Wood drum again. I haven't seen him do that since the Lovelessness days, those huge expressive swings he takes at the kit, the way he's lifted off his stool... no one drums so vividly. Wasn't just a Bison thing, it's how he does it. And his band Worse favourited that swingin' bluesy Sabbath I am partial to, like, say, "Lord of This World," so they were also great.
I got no vid of Worse, sorry to say-- I tried, but it was too dark, my angle was wrong. I'll see them again, though! I want to see them doing originals (Bloodrhine too).
4. Some guy who liked my Dead Bob shirt and saw them open for FEAR told me about buying acid off Darby Crash of the Germs back in the early 80s. It was his second ever acid trip. We went from Dead Bob to buying acid off Darby very quickly. I wonder who he was? Seemed a true enthuasiast.
He was not the only person to compliment my Dead Bob shirt, there was some guy in the line for the washroom. Survival tip: if you gotta pee and you're a dude in this sort of audience, do not wait to do it between songs. The lineup went down the stairs...
5. Karli of Space Queen had a real cool dress on, but drummed barefoot. Second time I have seen them, and she was drumming barefoot the first time, too. Some kinda signature? I like it. I shoulda asked about it. That would be a good title for a memoir: Drumming Barefoot. But she came out from behind the kit for "Planet Caravan," which I think was actually the high point of their set. I saw her later in the pit, too. I like it when bandmembers show up in the pit for the subsequent acts...
6. Was that Amber of Black Mountain who was singing with Dagger? Was that announced? She was real good! They just said "Amber" and I was in the balcony, and she wasn't singing like Amber Webber (I thought she was a dude at first), but... how many Ambers are there on the scene who do not require a last name when you introduce them? It musta been.
There was a guitar part that sounded just flat-out wrong on "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"... or was that just me?
7. Bend Sinister deserve special mention not just for playing with a keyboard but doing Sabbath's "Changes," the least-expected song of the night. They sang it real well, too.
Bend Sinister
8. Bend Sinister's opening song, "Mr. Crowley," aside, there was almost no 80s hairmetal Ozzy. Unless it was the first or last song of the night, both of which I missed, no one even touched "Crazy Train." There was also no "Bark at the Moon." What does it say about our scene that these songs could be missed, that there is no one "fun" enough on our scene to touch those songs? They're actually also not my favourite window into Ozzy's world but I did expect to hear them. And now I'm trying to imagine who here could play that stuff and pull it off, or at least make them sound appropriate.
I hereby nominate Cousin Harley to interpret these songs next year.
9. Actually, the whole night consisted pretty much of deep cuts. If someone did "War Pigs" or "Black Sabbath" or "Sweet Leaf" or any of the really OBVIOUS Sabbath songs, I did not hear them. A couple songs by Bloodrhine and Worse, I could not even tell you what they were. Meantime, the most obvious songs in the Sabbath repertoire that DID get covered, the songs you'd expect to get saved, "Iron Man" and "Paranoid," were both given to Michael Slumber, the opener. I wasn't expecting that! Generally I approve of deep cuts but I was a bit surprised, especially since everyone seemed to really dig the night. The audience seemed as "deep cut"-oriented as the bands. How 'bout that!
"N.I.B.," that's another one I didn't hear and would have liked to have heard. I love that first Sabbath album.
Michael Slumber
10. Might be controversial, but I really want a gay band next year to rewrite and do a campy fashion-show cover of "Fairies Wear Boots," while wearing boots. Maybe that's not actually funny on paper, or, like. on your computer screen or such... but it could be funny onstage, if done right? Maybe the new lyrics could be written about a guy who covets Fluevogs or something because of peer pressure from his cool queer friends, or, like, a dude getting makeover advice or somehting? The song is too good for it to be disappeared forever and too politically unpleasant to be played straight without some mandatory subverting of it.
Just a thought!
Overall, I do have to confess here that it annoys me that a show consisting entirely of cover songs had more people in it, overall, I think, than the last four shows I have seen at the Rickshaw combined (Stick Men, Dream Syndicate, Lene Lovich/ Royal Strays, and Shelly Orcutt Miller). I might be exagerrating there, but not by much, and it shouldn't oughta be that way. It was as packed as I've seen the Rickshaw this year, in fact. The balcony was open, too!
But, as the Japanese would say, sho ga nai, ne? And apparently (saith Matt) over $11,000 was raised for Parkinson's research. Even I can't complain about that!
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