Ferdy Belland on the Furies, the Dishrags, and so forth

Chris Arnett of the Furies, by Femke Van Delft


Hey, y'all - Allan here. Thought this might be of interest - Nerve photographer Femke van Delft and I were at the under-attended, under-hyped Dishrags/Furies "30th anniversary of Vancouver punk" show; my piece on the night is in the current issue of the Nerve Magazine. Turns out that Nerve writer Ferdy Belland was also there, and submitted his own review, unsolicited. In many ways, his is a better piece - he was there for the whole show, for one, and knows way more background about some of the bands than I do. It deserved publication! So here's Ferdy's review of the night, and a couple of Femke's photos.


The Furies / The Dishrags / Duvallstar / Bug Nasties / Search Parties
Richard's on Richards, Vancouver BC
Saturday August 18th, 2007

This JEM Productions event was hailed by many as the 30th Anniversary of Vancouver's 'Summer of Punk,' and although the surviving attendees of that long-ago concert at the Japanese Hall were somewhat thin on the ground at Dick's that night, it was amazing that no less than two of Western Canada's earliest punk units were reformed in fine form for the show.

Search Parties almost severed the show's jugular before the show's heart could really get pumping, if only because they were so teeth-grittingly lousy. Granted, there was about 30 seconds’ worth of smirked amusement in watching a barefoot, howling young man in a hospital gown, jerking and spazzing about onstage like an electroshocked asylum inmate, slashing half-tuned un-chords from his acoustic guitar while the touchingly cute girls in the band bing-ed and ting-ed along with him on melodicas and Casio organs...all to the Maureen-Tucker-sitting-in-with-the-Shaggs beat of the drummer...but all in all, this is yet another pointless 'art' band you could have seen at Hoko's a few months back. I'm sure they're all nice kids and all, and were on the bill since one of the bandmembers was the daughter of a local punk luminary, but there needed to be an ex-Only staffer onsite to do them any critical justice. I needed a beer, with more to follow.

The electrifying appearance of Seattle's Bug Nasties woke everyone up from their post-Search Parties doze with a galvanizing set of soul-drenched rock and roll that evoked the OD'ed ghost of Johnny Thunders out of an overdriven halfstack. Leading the power trio, vocalist-guitarist Brother James Burdyshaw gets oldschool Sub Pop props from having once fronted Cat Butt, but here he seemed like Malcolm McLaren fronting the Commitments, counterpointed by the endearingly geeky Scott LaRose on bass and drummer Vic “the Stick” Hart (half Al Pacino, half Sonny Bono). Honest-to-Baal groovy rocknroll which would scorch Bryce Dunn’s moptop with their winning combination of garage-mod rave-ups; people began filing out onto the dance floor and frugging, for frug’s sake. The Bug Nasties have no choice now but to return across the border tout-suite, if only so we all can dress up sharp and shake our asses like there’s no more GST returns.

Vancouver’s punk princess Siobhan Duvall strode onstage, celebrating her 40th birthday in glamourous style (looking absolutely sleek and stunning in her high heels and a glittering, skintight crimson dress cut up to here) and chopping out her familiar set of garagey pop-punk tunes, fleshing out her unapologetic Debbie Harry worship with yet another pair of young black-clad journeymen on bass and drums. Although new songs don’t seem to come quickly for Duvall, the personable ex-Bombshells guitarist has been truly immersed in the city’s punk culture for over twenty years, as she happily remarked between mid-set shots of (pink?) liquor. Duvallstar’s set climaxed with a truly killer version of the Dead Boys’ “Sonic Reducer,” with the Furies’ Chris Arnett sitting in on lead guitar (more on him later).

Jade Blade of the Dishrags - Photo by Femke van Delft

This writer used to bitterly wonder where the hell inept sloppy-pop (cuddle-core) bands like Cub and Celestial Magenta came from, and to finally see the legendary Dishrags in action is to finally understand – and to accept with an open, warmer heart. Every time Carmen “Scout” Michaud missed a beat, it truly touched me. I didn’t feel cheated, and neither did the milling dozens who began filing out of the darkness and up to the stage to catch the love up close. You could see Scout leaning down low over the snare drum, peeking out with a sheepish grin at guitarist Jill “Jade Blade” Bain, but the mood onstage was too lighthearted for any return-snarls of offended professionalism…this was the Dishrags! Only smiles were sent back to the drum riser. Bassist Chris “Dale Powers” Lalonde’s elfin china-doll looks caught a lot of admiring looks from the nose-ringed hardcore boys in the crowd, but punk keeps everyone ageless, as it should. I’ll take the Dishrags over Shonen Knife any day.

The Furies are hailed as Vancouver’s very first punk rock band, even predating DOA, and holy shit - were they a treat to behold. Chris Arnett is one of the very few local frontmen who can honestly swagger cockily onstage without looking like an asshole, even if he’s wearing shades and a sleeveless T-shirt…that ensemble, completed with his dark curls and his overdriven Gibson, made it seem as if Lou Reed was re-writing Bruce Springsteen. The big bad bald bassist bulged his shirtseams with his biceps, and the drummer hacked and pounded the beat until everyone’s head was happily nodding along. Very much a sight to behold as Arnett kept stepping atop the front-end speaker riser to rip through frenetic guitar solos which were almost in key and always on top. The Furies gave one a glimpse into times when ‘punk’ was more about attitude than codified sound, and one hopes that we won’t have to wait until August 2037 for their next set. Calling Wendy Thirteen!

The only real beef I had with the show was Dick’s being half-full, but like the early punk shows that first lit up this rain-sodden burg, it’s always a case of quality versus quantity. We were there, and the coked-out meatheads at Skybar weren’t.

-Ferdy Belland


Chris Arnett of the Furies, photo by Femke van Delft

Zombie solidarity, Zoo, Paul Rutherford obit, Furies, Rebel Spell

I am informed that there will be another Zombiewalk, the third, on August 25 starting at 3pm from the VAG. Alas, I am far too preoccupied to make time to lurch around downtown this year - I feel enough like a zombie in my freetime that I scarcely need to pretend I am one. However, as an act of solidarity, I thought I would show a picture I found in a shoebox at my parents, of me dressed as a zombie for a Grade Two Hallowe'en event, I think. I'm pretty sure that's me. I do not believe, at that point, I had seen Dawn of the Dead - my father once took me to a double bill of that film, and Phantasm, in Mission, and I LOVED them, and was warped for life - but I may have seen images of zombies in Famous Monsters of Filmland, which I was very likely reading at that point.

Some stuff:

1. The Georgia Straight on Thursday will be running a feature of mine on Zoo, the film about the Enumclaw horsefucking case. I interviewed Charles Mudede, the author of the article previously linked. Not sure what this will look like in print, but it's my first piece in the Straight, so I'm quite happy. Mudede will be in attendance at the Friday screening at the Vancity Theatre.

2. Jazz fans will be saddened to note that avant-garde trombonist Paul Rutherford, who, if memory serves, performed here a few years ago when the Dedication Orchestra came to the jazz festival, has died.

3. Anyone planning on seeing the Furies and the Dishrags live this Saturday - a show I highly recommend - might be interested in revisiting my interview with Furies frontman/guitarist Chris Arnett. The new CD is great, in a trog-rock kinda way.

4. The next Nerve will be chock-full of me: a Meat Puppets review, a Furies review, a People Like Us review (if Adrian uses it), a writeup on Under the Volcano - which will also get some space here, if I can just make it through a few more things I gotta do. There will also be part two of my Mike Watt interview; part one, dealing with his involvement in the Unknown Instructors, is here, if you are reading this currently; if it ain't August 2007 as you scan these words, you'll have to root through the Nerve's archives to find it, if you care - look at the bottom of their Contents menu. By the way, yes, I realize I have not yet posted the transcript of my Dan McGuire interview here, but no one has complained or indicated interest, so maybe I can just shelve that for now and move on to transcribing tape for this lingering Rebel Spell thing I'm working on, which has only been on the back burner for about five months. Their newest four songs will be appearing online on August 28th at www.g7welcomingcommittee.com, their new label, so it seems like a good time to get off my ass.

Not that I am spending that much time on my ass these days.

Hey, I really need to get laid, if there are any takers.

Dishrags? ...ah, at last...

So y'all know the Pointed Sticks play the Red Room August 25th, and some of you mighta heard about the Furies CD release party Saturday night at the Jem Gallery. The news, though - the news! - is that the Dishrags are going to perform onstage with the Furies at Richards on Richards, Saturday August 18th. The lineup, I'm told, is:

The Furies
The Dishrags - the original
Duvallstar
The Bug Nasties - from Seattle
The Search Parties
Tkts. $15.00. Also available @ Bonerattle Music,
Highlife, Noize to Go, Red Cat, Scratch and Zulu.

The Dishrags were really, really cool to see at the Vancouver Complication gig - fast, tight, and very, very fun. Anyone with a concern for Vancouver punk should BE THERE; unfortunately, I didn't find out about it in time to get a feature in any of our local papers, but here's hopin' someone did - this shit is NEWS!

Upcoming gigs and articles: the Furies, DOA, Terry Chikowski, Nels Cline

I'm excited: Chris Arnett of the Furies, one of Vancouver's first and most energetic punk bands, will be putting the group back together for a Vancouver show, opening for DOA on February 10th. Anyone who saw Arnett with his second group, the Shades, at the Vancouver Complication gig knows that this is one not to be missed. I'll have an interview with Arnett up in the next little while, to correspond with something on the Furies/DOA show I've done for Discorder. Meantime, next month, make sure to check out the Terry Chikowski interview in Nerve Magazine - he was the security guard injured in the Litton Industries blast, back in the days of the so-called Squamish Five. There'll also be a brief piece on Nels Cline (in town Feb. 22, at a gig relocated from the Red Room to Richards on Richards).

Meantime, transcribing my Joey Shithead interview for the above article (and also for a longer piece I'm doin' for Razorcake), I made a fascinating discovery. To capture the flavours of Joe's speech - rich and earthy and charming - I was writing fuckin', as an adjective - not fucking, but fuckin' - and my spellcheck wasn't recognizing it. Not surprising - anytime you drop the "g" to give a more "spoken" feeling to an -ing word, the spellcheck balks and underlines it in red. The thing was, in the list of "alternatives" they suggested - I checked, for the hell of it - "fucking" was not among them! SPELLCHECKS DO NOT OFFER PROFANE SUGGESTIONS! I guess they don't want to scare old grannies who disapprove of such language by it popping up on a list of options. The discovery has prompted whole minutes of fun. If you render "asshole" as "ashole," it also does not suggest "asshole" as a possible spelling (even though it recognizes "asshole" as a word). "Ashore," yes, but not "asshole!" Next I tried writing, "I like your titts," with two T's, and got as a list of suggestions "tats, tilts, tints, tots" and "twits" - NO TITS!!!! There's a George Carlin routine in this somewhere...