Dead Bob, Nomeansno, the Devonian Fool, Matteo Farinella, and a Tarot Rabbithole (or two)

"Live" Bob Hanham's favourite shot from the Rickshaw, May 23, 2026. 

Note: all photos of the band in this post are by Bob, as is the band shot in the insert of Nothing Changes Everything. The very last shots are by me, though. And various other images (Tarot ones, say) are just from the internet! None of it is to be reused without permission, dig?

Note: Bob Hanham's images here are not to be reused without permission! 

The new Dead Bob album is great. In particular, "Hard is Hard" and "No Fun" (which I shot a clip of) are two of the tightest, catchiest, most creative local punk tunes in recent memory, even though my friend David M., of No Fun, may someday have to retort to the latter and write a song about not needing Dead Bob, either. My comment to John Wright when I interviewed him for the Straight is that Nothing Changes Everything is the single greatest album he's been involved in since The Worldhood of the World (As Such), and in fact, my original proposed title for the article (which I knew Mike wouldn't go for, but I gotta try) was "The Bobness of Dead Bob (As Such)", because, y'know, fuck'em if they can't take an in-joke. Considering one of the "new" Nomeansno covers that got played (blowing both me and longtime Nomeansno supporter/ podcaster Michelle Strangey away), in fact that title would have seemed quite a prescient reference (but I only plan to spoil one of the surprises in the setlist, and it ain't that one. They did do a song off Worldhood tho!).

The article is still something I'm really happy to have put into the world: in it, among other things, John clarifies the origins of the figure of Dead Bob, from the cover of You Kill Me to now, which is a topic that needed to be addressed. The album cover (by John, who doesn't get enough credit as a visual artist) predated the song by a year or two, and was the egg from which the Dead Bob chicken eventually hatched, if you see what I mean.   

One thing I didn't think to ask about is the little cat in the You Kill Me cover -- one of my favourite elements -- and whether his presence on the new LP cover was meant to reinforce an apparent reference to the Fool card in the Rider-Waite Tarot; while merely an onlooker on the earlier Nomeansno EP, the cat serves as the equivalent of the dog on that card, but that might just have been a happy accident. The Fool is the equivalent of the Joker in a conventional playing card deck, but in cartomancy, symbolizes youth, heedlessness, innocence, and being unwittingly on the cusp of receiving one hell of a life-lesson. Some people have described the Major Arcana as charting "the Fool's journey", by which reading the dog is egging the Fool on, since he knows what richness of experience amd learning a good plunge into the abyss can bring. Thanks, there, doggie!

There are also elements of the earlier Marseilles Tarot in the cover for Nothing Changes Everything, too, however, including a similar animal, though this one actually looks more like a cat. Said kitty, as you will see in the video I linked above for "No Fun", got an expanded role in the Dead Bob onscreen animations, which, as Ford Pier observed at some point, did indeed run the whole time the band was playing (which I quite liked, but it was fun that he only seemed to realize this 2/3rds of the way through the set). Some people have remarked that the animal in this card is chasing the fool away, rather than egging him on; also, there is no indication of an abyss ahead (so I prefer the Rider-Waite, designed by Pamela Colman Smith, and think it more germane). 

People wanting to delve deeper into the Fool in Tarot should go here for Marseilles and here for Rider-Waite...  

But do note that Ford Pier of Dead Bob thinks I'm reading too much into the cover art, suggesting that it's more influenced by Warner Brothers cartoons than the Fool. I wonder, though: which Tarot card would best represent Ford Pier?

All Dead Bob shots by Bob Hanham, not to be reused without permission

Ford also adds "Red Devil" to my list of Tarot references in Nomeansno lyrics, re: the Prince of Cups. (I believe it's the Crowley Thoth Tarot that calls them Princes; they're Knights in most other decks. So there's a hint at Rob's own preferred deck, maybe? Was Rob ever into Crowleyanity?). 

By the way, speaking of Thoth... the Fool in the deck also has a cat... and some sort of reptile? The abyss here becomes an alligator, or something, and... is the Fool about to fall backwards onto it? 

Given all this, if I'd thought more  carefully about my t-shirt choice before dressing for the show, I would have worn my Devonian Fool shirt to the Rickshaw, which shows a prehistoric fish crawling onto dry land, but I was in a rush and blanked on the reference to the Fool. 

Note that I bought this shirt from GeoCuriosity, but discovered shortly thereafter (thanks to the interventions of anti-AI scold and Accordion Noir honcho Rowan Lipkovits) that, while their shirts are high quality and came in good time with correct sizing, the company has been criticized for plagiarisms in their designs. It took about a half-hour poking through the variants of the shirt (which you can find on Etsy and Redbubble and many other sources) to discover the artist; the original (might we say primordial?) design is from the Women of Science Tarot, which seems like an awesome undertaking, and the artist behind the deck is Matteo Farinella.  

This has been confirmed, by the way; I reached out to Matteo to check my supposition, and he wrote back: 

Hi Allan,

Congratulations on your research skills - that is indeed my work!

I mean, I can't rule out that someone else independently came up with the same idea, but I definitely had never seen it back when I created the Tarot back in 2018.

I did notice the image became a meme around 2021-2022 but since the t-shirts use a different design they don't have to pay me any royalties of course (although it's pretty crazy to see them sell for $30+ each!). I just surrendered to the fact that the internet is a wild and weird place, and it's a fun anecdote to tell people.

Anyway, thank you for reaching out, it's good to get some recognition

Matteo

Incidentally, for you Tarot enthusiasts, below is Matteo's Women in Science Tower, apropos of Nomeansno's "The Tower"--the other significant Tarot reference in their catalogue. "The Tower" is one of my very favourite Nomeansno songs, but I believe I only ever heard Nomeansno do it live once, when I followed them (with the help of fellow fans from the now-retired Nomeanswhatever discussion forum) through three gigs in Ontario, in Hamilton, Waterloo, and Toronto (the same week I saw Jandek for the first time AND Tony Conrad, the only time ever!). 

Tarot enthusiasts and Nomeansno geeks will also want to find a more literal interpretation of the Tower behind that song discussed here. I'm getting a whole new angle for a Nomeansno interview.

But let's get on with the show, shall we? 

Again, Bob Hanham, not to be reused, etc.

The gig this past Saturday was remarkable for a host of reasons:

1. Colin MacRae, who is hard at work on a reissue of a Pigment Vehicle's Murder's Only Foreplay When You're Hot for Revenge,  sang a song off that album, "I Compare You", which was dynamite. I am not sure if it was for that song or the next one, but if I'm not deeply confused, I believe it was also Colin who offered a verse or two from the Residents' "The Making of a Soul" ("the achin' and the breakin' are the making of a soul"). I don't know that Residents album as well as I'd like, however, so it took me a chance encounter with the song a couple of days later to realize what he'd done (thanks, shuffleplay!) and I cannot tell you if he delivered more than that line from it. In fact, I misheard the lyric originally and thought that Colin initially sang "the bacon of the soul". Which makes no fuckin' sense, of course, though the soul munching happily on crispy, tasty, maple-flavoured suffering, served with your breakfast, was a pleasing thing to contemplate.

Colin also played a drum pad on "Centre of the Universe", as John mentioned in the artice, but we don't have photos of that! Read more about Colin's history with Pigment Vehicle, and their history with Nomeansno, here. Some of their songs appear to be on Spotify! 

2. John offered what I presume was an obscure bit of theatre at one point, getting up from his drumkit to take a phonecall, which he then talked about with his band  This seemed to set up more than was ultimately delivered; I wondered when he first took the call if perhaps there would be a mystery guest unveiled at some point, who had called in, or perhaps a delivery to the stage, or...? He discussed the call with Colin and Byron (if I recall correctly), and did so a bit too expressively for it not to have been theatre, but what did that all mean? I am in no way clear. Bruce Stayloose, also in the audience, has suggested to me lateer that it was a reference to the song "Five Sacks of Phones", the B-side to the "No Fun" single (which they did play; the 7" still hasn't made it over here, I don't think) -- I actually forgot about that one! John also did speak from the stage about our phones later on, inviting us to wave them in the air with our flashlights on, prefacing the song "Just Breathe", connecting it with the idea of seizing momentary respite from our technological shackles. And Bruce is no doubt correct about the connection to "Five Sacks of Phones". I felt like there was still more of a payoff due than we got, but maybe I was just thick!  

In any case, I don't think I've ever seen a musician take a call from the stage before! (There was the whole "cell phone crowd-surf" perpetuated by Gustaf, though -- that was fun). If someone wanted to get John in the right pose with the drumsticks, he would obviously be "The Magician" in the Major Arcana. He was, as ever, tireless and precise, but he did not stand up from the kit to take a lead vocal. Unless I was totally on drugs and missed it...

I actually think I was sober for this show. Having used various substances to loosen me up to dance at gigs, I seem now to have permanently got the knack of it; it's the best exercise I get. 

About the symbol's on John's shirt: null-delta-translingual = Nothing Changes Everything

All photos still by Bob Hanham, not to be reused without permission

3. As I say, there were three songs (I think three) from the Nomeansno catalogue that I had never heard done live by the band, but I only want to spoil one of them, because it connects very intimately with the first album I bought by Nomeansno, back in 1982 (!). I was very early in my "discovery" of punk, which I didn't even know about until I was age 14, it was so invisible to me growing up in Maple Ridge. I had only just begun seeking punk records, figuring out that I could catch a bus into Vancouver and hit shops like Collector's RPM or Zulu Records or DG Collectibles (or whatever it was called) out by the Kootenay Loop and actually find things that I could not out in the suburbs. Many of the first-gen Vancouver punk classics were out of print at that point, and information about what to get was hard to come by, but I looked to papers like Discorder and Seattle's The Rocket for ideas -- it used to be available up here! 

It was in Discorder that I read my first interview with Nomeansno, talking about Mama. I liked what they had to say and immediately started seeking out their music, which meant, of course, a long busride into Vancouver. Even though this was still in the year of its release, RPM and Zulu were out of the album, by that point, but I found a used copy for $10 in the "misc N" bin at a shop on Granville Street incongruously called Main Street Records. The first song that I fell in love with on it was the fastest tune on the album, "No Rest for the Wicked." It is probably also the first song I fell in love with for its bassline; and is a song I never heard Nomeansno do, any of the dozen-or-so times I saw them.

Dead Bob played it last night, Kristy-Lee on vocals. Again we might ask her Tarot equivalent? 

Kristy's exuberant contortions now equal Ford's; she somewhat supplanted him as the scene stealer. You can read my recent interview with her here; it informed my having a happy little chat, myself, with Rob Wright, when he turned up at a Green Auto Dead Bob show (he really does love The Godfather soundtrack).  

Again, all live Dead Bob shots by Bob Hanham, not to be reused without permission! 

Back to "No Rest for the Wicked": I have never danced so enthuasiastically to a song. It surpassed even dancing to "Self Pity" at that bloody Indian banquet hall Dave Bowes rented out for a Nomeansno gig, back in April of 2009 (reviewed here, but not by me!). Those two moments both make my top-five ever dancing-to-live-music concert experiences, along with a Cousin Harley show where I really got the spirit, or, like, dancing to "Rock'n Roll Pest Control" a couple months ago at the Young Fresh Fellows show, or... 

Loved Kristy's vocal, too. (She also closed out the night with "Dead Souls" and gave it killer voicing, but it's a song I love less; though -- if you're curious -- my least favourite Nomeansno cover in Dead Bob's repertoire, a song I have never gotten, is "Some Bodies", which also got played. My wife Erika had come down to the pit with me at that point; she's met John (and all the other bandmates), even facilitated my interviewing John at his homebase in Lund, but this was her first-ever Dead Bob show! 

4. Byron was slightly less front-and-centre as a lead this time. He did sing lead on an Invasives song, but I don't think it was one of the "Epic Suite" ones. The band did not do "Dead Bob", so he didn't have to risk leaping the barrier to solo in the pit, as he sometimes does for that song. But he gave some impressive high kicks! 

 5. And finally, Ford did the same thing he did last time Dead Bob played the Rickshaw: he climbed up onto the side-stage architecture and leapt from it. You can also see another angle of this, in my own photos for the night, where Ford is just a vague blur ("Let's hear it for the vague blur!"). Bob's photos are much clearer than mine, capturing Ford in the fall. Into the abyss. Yes, I think we know what Ford's Tarot equivalent has to be, eh? He just needs a small animal yapping at him from behind. 

I don't think Ford sang lead on anything the other night. There certainly was no "You're Paying for Your Body Now", for instance, which I had quite come to enjoy. I guess I have to buy D.O.A's The Black Spot, eh? I didn't remember loving that album -- save for Brian's tune about big guys loving D.O.A. -- but Pier enthusiastically endorsed it when it got reissued on vinyl, said he was as proud of it as anything he's done. Really, it's only Dead Bob's inclusion of that song in their sets that reawakened my interest in that album! Sold out at Red Cat, though, or it was last I checked, and obviously that's the place to buy that, especially if Ford is on shift...

Here's two of Bob's photos of everyone holding up their cellphones at John's request. Note the presence of Aging Youth Gang/ Spores guitarist Sandy Beach on the right! 

There is probably stuff I should be mentioning that I am not. Nod to the Residents aside, were there other covers, from outside from songs in the Dead Bob combined repertoire? I don't recall, if so. "White Stone Eyes" did not get played, off the first album, but much else did, including "Life Like". Most of Nothing Changes Everything got played, but not "The Present" and not the Selina Martin song, "Save Me From Myself," which was a song that she began working on, John had explained to me, when the first Dead Bob album was being assembled. Aside from "Some Bodies" and "Dead Souls", most of the Nomeansno covers from their previous Rickshaw show got changed up: no "Metronome", no "Long Days". It's wonderful that they have such a breadth of work to choose from, in selecting songs...! 

This photo is by me, and the next ones, too!

One cool deet is that, as I say above, I finally met Nomeansno podcaster and former Nomeanswhatever forum poster Michelle Strangey, who was as blown away as I was to be seeing the Vancouver debuts of the three Nomeansno songs we hadn't heard Dead Bob do before. Strangey and I have been interacting in some respect online for almost 20 years! She was brash and boisterous and totally enjoying herself. So there's that! 

Also, Aversions and Yep, the openers, were both fun. Aversions was like "Joy Division meets Magazine to cover a Mission of Burma song" and Yep were kinda goofy prog, almost Zappalike in their playfulness. I shot clips of them here and here, if you're curious! Had not paid either band mind before, had that blase "wait-through-the-opener" attitude and was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying them. 

So it was a great night: if you get a chance to see Dead Bob... do!