Get It On: A Benefit for Ukrainian Refugees in Poland

I'll never understand it: who the hell wants to pay $1000+ for tickets to some aging American multi-millionaire singing songs about the working class when you have a chance to see seventeen great local bands, many actually from the working class, for a worthy charity, for under $50? I've seen half the bands on this bill, have always enjoyed them, and in many cases have interviewed or reviewed them, including Invasives (interview/ review), Daddy Issues (Betty Bathory interview/ Daddy Issues review), Bad Beats, Vanrays, NO FUN, and China Syndrome (one of many interviews here). Plus you have a chance to help out Ukrainian refugees in Poland, via a charity organized...uh... wait, what does Turbonegro have to do with anything?

This ain't your grandad's NGO folks, this is a Turbojugend charity: What? 

I thought some background on this weekend's coolest gig might be in order. But before we get to people's stories, local Turbonegro fans might enjoy the clips I shot of former (and now departed) Turbonegro vocalist Hank von Hell the last time he played Vancouver, in 2019, of "Bombwalk Chic," "Wild Boy Blues," and that Turbonegro classic, "I Got Erection." It's truly delightful that a loose organization of fans of a band - started practically as a gag by the band, in homage to the KISS Army - should come together to make a meaningful difference in the world and help people in need... and that we Vancouver music fans have a chance to participate!

Commence backstory! 

From the Facebook Event Page:

Turbojugend Rescukraine is the brainchild of Wiktor Marszalek. It brings a worldwide network of 700 superfans of the Norwegian punk band Turbonegro to bear on providing rescue and relief to Ukrainian refugees in and around the Polish city of Poznan. Since the outbreak of war, the group has already helped with the evacuation of over three hundred refugees, resettling and offering ongoing support for forty-six of them including many children. They are determined to do more and can with our help. 

          All proceeds from both nights go directly to Wiktor and Turbojugend RescUkraine.

Friday

Doors at 7pm

Advance tickets $15 + s/c available here:

https://orangetickets.ca/detalles_evento.php...

At the door: $20

Line-up:

Invasives

Daddy Issues

AK-747s

Austringer

Saturday

Doors at 2pm

Advance tickets $25 + s/c available here:

https://orangetickets.ca/detalles_evento.php...

At the door: $30

Line-up:

Gnar Gnars

Gung-Hos

Bad beats

Rebel's Rebels

Rebel Priest

Van Rays

Ophelia Falling

The Furniture

Danny Echo

David M. of No Fun

China Syndrome

Barbarians

If you like the work RescUkraine is doing and want to support it beyond the price of admission, you can make a Paypal donation (in USD and marked as a gift for family/friends, please) to: turbojugendpoznan@gmail.com

Sometimes they will take specific actions as a result of requests they receive, so feel free to ask!

The following sections give background on the event, then we check in with some of the musicians...

Dave Bowes, promoter, sometimes musician, and bon vivant about town, on the germ of the event: 

Like a lot of people, I felt the urge to help the Ukrainians early on in the invasion. All the destruction and suffering we witnessed secondhand, your heart would have to be stone not to feel something for them. But I made no concrete efforts in that direction until Chris Thompson (Corporal Ninny), one of my former drummers with Fucking Unicorns came to me with the seeds of this benefit. He'd already tried to mount it at the Bullet Farm but it hadn't worked out. The Turbojugend connection is his. He is in fact a member. I liked that they were grassroots, had some connection to cool music and were on the front lines of the refugee crisis. Better than giving your hard earned to maintain a gaggle of pencil pushers in a major NGO head office somewhere. Granted, it's an offbeat charity but to my mind that makes it more attractive.

SNFU, photographer unknown, L to R Rob Johnson, Corporal Ninny, Marc "Muc" Belke, Mr. Chi Pig, taken at the Irish Heather, Gastown, 1999; courtesy Corporal Ninny

Austringer bassist (and former SNFU/ Fucking Unicorns/ Red Hot Lovers drummer) Corporal Ninny on the connection to Turbojugend RescUkraine: 

I have a Turbojugend chapter here in Point Roberts; I simply messaged [Turbojugend RescUkraine founder] Wiktor and told him last year I was going to put on a show to raise money for TJ RescUkraine. Part of the inspirations for the show comes from my time as a UN Peacekeeper during the war in the former Yugoslavia. The images hit home for sure. 

(The border between Poland, left, and Ukraine, right)

Wiktor Marszalek, Polish Turbojugend RescUkraine founder on the function of the organization and its accomplishments: 

The idea itself was born in the first days of the war when we found out that our friends from the Ukrainian Turbojugend needed help. 

Who are we? We bring together people we know or have met around Turbojugend chapters. We are based on the values that Sailorettes and Sailormen (all Demin Demons) know. We have added just one element to all of these - selfless help and solidarity. At present, our group has more than 700 people from all parts of the world. Almost every continent has own representation in this crew. 

(a rescued dog)

How do we work? We operate from the grass-roots network, without any state support. Sometimes we use formal channels through friendly people or NGOs. We do the whole thing free of charge in our private time. We act on three levels: 

1. Local in our village and in Poznan. We help Ukrainian families from official matters to finding their way in a new situation. We take care over 20 Ukrainian kids in our area, and five families. 

2. We operate on a national level based on our network of contacts. We act as administrators on the aid forum supporting initiatives, but also reacting to critical situations that refugees unfortunately face. We support children in various initiatives by giving them opportunities to develop. 

3. On an international level helping people from Ukraine with the most necessary items. From evacuating people from places of danger to taking care of them in their new safe place. Preparing parcels or taking part in organizing humanitarian aid convoys. We try to make each of our actions as transparent as possible, which we have proven many times. We describe all our actions in a group on FB. Unfortunately we don't go beyond fb and insta because we don't have the strength or time for that anymore . 

Our achievements (short list of most important actions): 

1. Creating an amazing network of mutual help 

2. Participation of people connected with Turbojugend in the evacuation of civilians over 300 people 

3. Direct involvement in dozens of evacuations from individuals to families. 

4. Support and accommodation of 46 people (Poznan, Warsaw and others) and 43 animals (cats, dogs, snake and horse) 

5. Possibility to provide 5 additional places for refugees. 

6. Volunteers in Kutte at the border or train station giving direct help 

7.Support in critical moments - helping to raise money for a generator for the hospital shortly after the bombing 

8. Delivering 50 tons of donations directly to the border. 

9. Preparing over 2000 different meals / welcome packs at the railway station in Poznan 

10. Providing food to animals in Ukraine - over 1000 kg of food 

11. Providing over 400 kg of food to rescued animals that are already in Poland 

12. Delivering parcels with clothes and cleaning products to humanitarian points and refugees places 

13. Medical examinations and visits to doctors: paediatrician, gynaecologist, psychologist, dentist and ophthalmologist. 

14. Delivery of dozens of packages to Ukraine 

15. Purchase of food, cleaning supplies, underwear and clothing, containers for belongings, and help in finding oneself in a new situation. 

16. Organising Easter and Children's Day and Christmass for refugees 

17. 3 scooters, 5 notebooks 2 tablets for kids 

18. School trips for the kids to the mountains and to Torun and half-day camps. 

19. Assistance in finding a jobs, flats also to gather stuff in new places like used washing machines, furniture etc 

20. Support friends who are on the first line of duty eg. combat medic or people who risk own lives to evacuate people or deliver help as far as possible. 

And many more... What can you do ? You can prepare packages, which we will give either directly to the needy or locally, we support kids who have found themselves in a new place. We happen to send parcels to our friends in 4 different locations as well as we happen to send parcels close to the front line to liberated areas - in the case of parcels we always ask for direct contact.

Wiktor on connections with Dave, Corporal Ninny, and Vancouver

A year ago we founded this Turbojugend RescUkraine team which brings together fans of the Turbonegro group from all over the world. Many people started to get involved in various forms. Among these people was Corporal Ninny from Vancouver. This acquaintance began to gain momentum, all the more so as a number of common themes emerged, unfortunately concerning conflict and relief. We have nothing in common with Vancouver except the dream of one day visiting Canada. We have a Polish friend in Vancouver, but she is not involved with the aid group. We receive a lot of support from all over the world, there have been benefit events in Hamburg, Germany and Helsinki, Finland, and there are plans for one in Warsaw, Poland, and one in Vancouver, which is actually the biggest event in the history of the group. For the future we also will send parcels with food to Zaporoze region and medical supplies to Hulajpole...

The musicians speak!

I asked a fairly generic set of questions to the musicians performing who I had email contacts close at hand for. There are lots of stories not represented here!

Orchard Pinkish and Betty Bathory of Daddy Issues courtesy of Betty (is it a Dave Jacklin pic? Bob Hanham? Dunno).

1. Betty Bathory (Daddy Issues)

Allan: Will you be doing anything special for the Ukrainian benefit, related to the situation there?

Betty: Everything we do onstage is "special" but yes Rich will likely be wearing his helmet this time.

Do you have any ties to Ukraine, Ukrainian refugees, or Russia?

I'm half Ukrainian. I think its the bottom half, my dad always tells me i have my mothers vagina.

It's cool and slightly weird that a Polish Turbojugend chapter is involved. Do you ever cover Turbonegro? (It would be pretty funny to hear you do "I Get Erection," I guess).

We do not. There's MORE than enough Turbonegro covers going around these days. We prefer to twist the content of songs you didn' t know were about your dads cock ("Love Gun" by Kiss) or Ted Bundy ("Be My Baby" by the Ronettes), so you are haunted by the visuals of what we portray onstage everytime they come on the radio. Or somethin'.

2. David M. of NO FUN

Allan: What will you be doing for the show?

Pete (Campbell), Dave (Dedrick) and I will be presenting as a trio for a 15 minute set worked up specially for this show. We will be playing four NO FUN classics and adaptations and one new cover version. I will make one amusing comment, and Dave and I may sing an impromptu Russian Army song that we wrote with S. Prokofiev.

Tell us about your ties to the Ukraine?

I have many distant relatives in Ukraine I'm sure, but my grandparents left Ukraine, via Austria, around the turn of the previous century with the intention of never going back there and they never did. My parents were born in 1920 and 1922 in Saskatchewan. I alone of my family was born in B.C..

Any connections with Turbonegro or Turbojugends?

I know almost nothing about Turbojugend, but bless them for wanting to help victims of war.

I see that The Night Smells Like a Dog is the most recent NO FUN release to appear on CD through Atomic Werewolf. What's next?

I do not know what is next from Atomic Werewolf, but Kent was asking about expanding “The Beatles of Surrey”, so I pulled out the various planned versions from my archives.

3. Cam Alexander, the Bad Beats

Allan: Very cool to see the Bad Beats again - this will be the first time I've seen you since the last hiatus. 

Cam: Yeah, so the Bad Beats have been back together for probably a year and a half now. Adam and I had been back to writing songs for awhile, so when things started opening up again we started to book some shows. We've been relatively quiet lately. Just working on a new record.

Anything special for the occasion, re: the situation in Ukraine?

We are just gonna stick to the usual plan, do our thing. We're going to kick ass as hard as we can and make some bucks for some people that really need it. We don't have any ties to Ukraine, no, but of course we feel terrible about their situation. I don't think you need to actually have Ukrainian ties to feel empathy for them, the horror of this war.

Any comments on Turbonegro or the Turbojugend connection? Will you be covering any of their songs? Any fave songs of theirs?

We won't be playing any Turbonegro songs... That said, and I can't speak for the rest of the band, but I am definitely a big Turbonegro fan. I was never a Jugend member, but I think what Wiktor is doing is really commendable. He's trying to do his part to make the world a kinder place, and that's beautiful.

Favourite song is a tough one. I'll go with "Good Head."

4. Tim Chan, China Syndrome

China Syndrome with guests, Bowie Ball 2020, by David Jacklin

What will you be doing at the show? Are any songs being chosen especially for the event?

We will be playing a half hour set of songs from our most recent album, Hide in Plain Sight, and a couple of new ones. We haven't chosen anything specific for the event, just want to pack in as many songs as possible into our short time slot. This will be our second 'official' gig with our new keyboard player Greg Kelly, who also plays in Coach StrobCam -- it's been absolutely fantastic having Greg in the band, he's the new secret ingredient in our sound!

Do you have any ties to the Ukraine I should mention, or are you impacted by the situation there?

Our drummer, Kevin, and his wife Erian have assisted in housing and helping many Ukrainian refugees and immigrants get settled in Metro Vancouver. In doing so, their Ukrainian friends have become very supportive of our band and we've had some great audiences at our recent gigs thanks to them. Some of them will be coming to this gig. Such nice people!

5. Rob JL/ the AK-747s  

Brief introductory sentence: I've actually never seen the AK-747s, but I have a few of their songs on old Not Yer Buddy comps. I was still surprised at how good their last album, released during COVID was - they seemed to really up their game, musically. "OK Boomer," in particular, is a great tune. Take a minute, if you don't know them, and check that out... there will be vinyl at the show! 

Allan: What will you be doing at the show? Are any songs being chosen especially for the event?

We are gonna play songs about the futility of war, the absurdity of the human condition, and the inevitable destruction of regular people at the fringes of empires. So, 'movies'.

Do you have any ties to the Ukraine I should mention, or are you impacted by the situation there?

Nope.

It is something that Wiktor's organization is a Turbojugend. Will you be doing anything related to Turbonegro's music for the benefit? (Any stories or opinions about Turbonegro...? Favourite songs by them? I saw Hank last time he was in Vancouver...).

I am glad that Turbonegro brings happiness to people. I used to wear a lot of denim too to the point that one of our bass players called me Dr. Denim once and I laughed very hard at the Bob the Angry Flower comic about Denim Man, so I feel that we have that in common. However I no longer wear lots of denim, with the exception of jeans.

That part of my life is over.

5. The Vanrays 

I asked the band all the same questions, and got a quick reply from Eric. If you haven't seen them lately, the Vanrays new album is great, as is the live show! Bandcamp here... 

Eric Lowe (drummer, impossible to photograph live behind a band that large): The Vanrays aren't planning anything special for the show, and none of us have a direct connection to Ukraine. But we jumped at the chance to be on this bill and do what we can to help people affected by this war.

ALLAN'S ADDENDUM: As an added way of supporting the cause, I've rooted through a closetful of t-shirts that I no longer wear, either because I don't fit into them (some are only XL and too small, while others are XXXL and too loose) or because they're for bands I don't listen to much or because they just don't fit my aesthetic these days. In one case (Russian folk metal band Arkona), I'm selling the shirt because there is an icon on the back - a sunwheel - that is sometimes given political meaning (it's a proto-swastika, in fact, though more associated with paganism than anything political); without understanding more about it, I just don't feel comfortable wearing it (and I have another Arkona shirt anyhow). There's even a Bison shirt (top left!). A couple of them are rather rare; the Winks shirt was handmade for me, in fact (but I've gotten a ton of use of it). I'll have a merch table and will be selling them, with 100% of the proceeds going to Turbojugend RescUkraine. If you want to donate cool, clean t-shirts (most of mine are rock or horror themed), you're welcome to bring them to my table and I'll flog them for you! (Dave Bowes will be bringing some vintage Iron Road t-shirts, as well).

Prices for the lot vary - mostly I'm asking $20 each, a couple of the more worn out or rough-looking ones (like that Redbubble Phase IV t-shirt, the art for which is falling apart, or that homemade Winks shirt, which is 20 years old) you can have for $10. The Nomeansno Kill Everyone Now shirt I'd like $60 for - though again, all of the money is going straight to the cause. Note that the Fuck You Pigs t-shirt - which I like, but just don't have the jam to wear in public - was actually smeared with Betty Bathory's fake GG Allin poop at the BB Allin show I wrote about!  

All shirts have been laundered, though some are a bit wrinkly in the photo!  I'm re-laundering a couple of the wrinklier ones as I write! Bring your used (clean) rock tees and a very simple price list and I'll sell them for you!

See you at the East Side Boxing Club!

Wiktor's announcement for the show is here; Facebook page here; tickets for Friday here; tickets for Saturday (starts at 2pm!) here. Note that to the best of my knowledge the lineup on this blogpost is accurate; a few initially-scheduled bands that have since dropped out, like Spidercracker, are still on the website, but will not be playing. Also, a big thanks to the Invisible Orange and Mayo for donating the use of their ticket site for this occasion! Dave says thanks!

Enter

W

Just the Tip: The Lou Reed Iceberg and the Surprising Conviviality of Meat Draws NOW WITH ADDED VIDEO CLIP!

On Songs for Drella - that Lou-dominated tribute to Andy Warhol, featuring his former VU alum John Cale - Lou observes, singing of Andy, that "if art is the tip of the iceberg, I'm the part sinking below." 

I had cause to compare Lou Reed to an iceberg last night, at the (packed) Lou Reed tribute at the Princeton. It seemed to come naturally: a friend of a friend confessed that she didn't know Lou Reed very well, and I replied that most people don't, never having been exposed to his most interesting work. The popular side of Lou Reed is basically the albums Transformer and New York, a couple of songs off Loaded, a couple of songs off the first VU album, and maybe one or two songs off New Sensations. Probably what Lou she knew came from those records, because even given the very limited media exposure granted Lou's music, those are the records that one is led to again and again, the records that have by far the most visibility of Lou's large and varied catalogue. Not to denigrate those discs - I have and love all of them - but they really are just the tip. The "part sinking below" is where, for me, the meat of Lou's work is found.    

Of the people who DO know Lou Reed's work, there is also more than one way to enter it. You have the people who, for example - the 70's Lou fans - figure because they like Transformer, they will check out the albums adjacent to it, like Berlin and Sally Can't Dance. There are the people - the Furies' Chris Arnett, for instance - who gravitate towards Street Hassle (those of you who love that album, who saw Lou touring Rock'n Roll Heart here in Vancouver, at the Queen E. or wherever that was, can thank Chris for shouting a request for "I Wanna Be Black," which the band played, much to Chris' delight), or avant-gardists like Nathan Holiday who are primarily interested in Metal Machine Music. Contrarians sometimes cleave to Lulu, his last offering, done with Metallica backing him. It is a weirdly reviled album, by no means his least interesting (I'll give that honour to Mistrial), but I don't know what to make of people (I know two or three) who think it's the best thing he's done. I suspect them of being hyperbolic, perhaps so as to compensate for the critical and public injustice done to that record. It's a good record, unfairly dismissed, but his masterpiece? 

(Digressively, I got the Facebook equivalent of a happy chuckle out of one of those Lulu people by posting that, even as a fan of that album, "you gotta wonder what Hetfield was thinking, asked to repeatedly declaim that he was the table." I've read someone observe that the whole album should be read as a meta-level sendup of Metallica, with Lou deliberately making them look like assclowns, essentially pranking them. I don't think that's true, either). 

But there's no wrong way to do Lou Reed. For me, besides the obvious tip - where I love most New York and the first and, tho' it is below the waterline, the third Velvets albums (and the "VU" material, beloved to Brent Kane, who joined us at the table last night), my own favourite periods of Lou's are between 1979 and 1983 (The Bells, Growing Up in Public, The Blue Mask and Legendary Hearts - a very fine run of albums indeed) and 1992 and 2000 (Magic and Loss, Set the Twilight Reeling, and Ecstasy; I group New York with these albums, as well, actually, but it is separated from them by Songs for Drella, which I only like a couple songs from).  Call me a heretic, but I can mostly live without the early 70's Lou - I don't even own Sally Can't Dance, Coney Island Baby, or Rock 'n Roll Heart at the moment. I was very pleased when, seeing Lou in Tokyo, touring Ecstasy, he seemed to also share this evaluation of his work, confining the three 70's songs he played to a hurried, forced-march encore, spending most of the main set jamming out variations on songs off Ecstasy, with occasional dips into Songs for Drella, New York, New Sensations, and Set the Twilight Reeling. I would have liked to hear anything off The Blue Mask, especially the title track, which people who caught the same tour in Germany - captured on a great live CD - were treated to (Discogs identifies that as a bootleg, but you could get it at Sunrise Records; WTF?). It apparently got played in Vancouver on that tour, too! But maybe he just wanted to make sure we could all get the last train back to the suburbs? 

Anyhow, if anyone got below the tip of Lou Reed at last night's tribute to him, it did not happen while I was there. Closest we got was David M. doing one of Lou's most depressing songs, "The Bed," off Berlin. But even though I left early - without even apologizing to Gnick Gnash or Ani Kyd or anyone else whose sets I missed entirely - armed with only the excuse of having had dental work done earlier that day (the anaesthetic had worn off and I wanted to get home and take a painkiller!) - I had a fine, fine time, beginning with my first ever MEAT DRAW! 

My impressions of gambling have much to do with childhood experiences of bingo and casinos (on my Mom's side of things) and the racetrack and assorted keno tables (on my father's). With the possible exception of keno, none of these forms of gambling seem exactly pro-social. The bingo hall is a place of growling tension, where everyone gets more and more focused on getting that last number, the B-15 you've been waiting for that will win you the big prize, and they keep calling N's and O's and I's, and with each ball that pops up that is NOT B-15, you are getting angrier and angrier, dabbing more and more forcefully, until finally the caller says, "Under the N, 32" and someone four tables over shouts "Bingo" and EVERYONE IN THE ROOM gives a little growl of resentment and defeat; only the winner is happy. Ditto the vibe at Exhibition Park when my Dad would take me there as a kid, where the tension would ratchet up in a very short time as the horses rounded the Clubhouse stretch, people clutching their tickets and straining to see until, GAAHHH, they lost, and they tore up their tickets in disgust, a growl of resentment and despair rising up from their throats... Gamblers are not happy people, it seems. Even casinos, for all the friendly bleeps and bloops of the slot machines, lock the players in one-on-one relationships with the game in front of them, focused only on their own winnings. Little socializing occurs. Before he died in 2009, when my father sat at the keno tables at Nooksack, sick with cancer but still determined to have fun, he would sip a beer and sometimes socialize with fellow keno players, leaving the ladies to enjoy the slots on their own, but that was about my only experience of "friendly," pro-social gambling, and I was too busy losing money of my own (actually of my father's, usually!) at the slot machines myself to participate. 

The keno tables at Nooksack, April 2009; RIP Lawrence and Helen MacInnis
  

The meat draw blew the slightly more social vibe of keno tables away, though. The Lion's Club guys set out their bags of meat and a big tumbler for the tickets on a folding table at the front of the room, and one of them went out into the crowd to sell tickets. Having had a bit of edible cannabis earlier in the evening - since I can't drink alcohol, it's become my occasional intoxicant of choice - I was feeling mellow and happy and inclined to support whatever the hell the guy was doing, but - with sports on the TV and bar chatter all around me - it was only after I'd bought 20 tickets off him that I asked, "What did I just buy into, anyhow?" (A bar patron would later tell me how amused he was to hear me ask this). Thus did I find out that I was entered in a meat draw. It's been decades since I had a row of tickets to check for anything, and it took me a minute, once the draw commenced, to understand how to lay them out so I could compare the numbers they called to my own. What was remarkable was that when someone won one of the draws, everyone cheered for them. Sometimes people even knew the names of regulars: "Good on ya, Bill," and an old guy in a baseball cap with a goofy grin on his face shuffles up to the front with his ticket held proudly ahead of him in his hand to claim his meat. He raises the bag to the crowd and everyone cheers. There's a slightly besotted sense of irony to this, you feel - people are conscious of the absurdity of the whole thing, and taking pleasure in that too - "Look, Bill won meat!" - but it's still a pretty friendly vibe, and when I won a draw - the only winner to emerge without meat, as my prize was merely tickets to the NEXT meat draw - it did feel truly fun to make my way up to the front to the whoops and applause of the crowd. 

Just as well I didn't win; I would have had to leave even earlier than I did to get the meat home. 

If I only won tickets, which in turn proved losers, I had actual meat to console me: I'd arrived early to get a good seat and have dinner, and so I settled into the Friday special of steak and French fries. The steak, to be honest, was a bit tough - there was a vein of gristle that was hard for me to negotiate, given my weakened, rebuilt tongue - and had me thinking that I should have gone with the beef dip - and the fries were only average; but gravy helped; and best of all, I discovered a de-alcoholized beer I like. I had joked with the waitress - her fashion sense put her somewhere on a gradient between Ghost World and Tank Girl - about my being a recovering cancer patient, forbidden any alcohol: "But I really want a beer; do you have a de-alcoholized beer that doesn't taste like it has been peed through a skunk?" She recommended Phillips, and I went with the Pilsner, and go'r blimey, friends, it tasted just like a real beer. It had a Corona-like vibe, so I asked for lime, and felt, gulping it thirstily, a comfort and familiarity that no previous de-alcoholized beer has brought me. It is entirely possible that it has simply been too long (fall of 2021?) since I've had a real beer, and have lost perspective, but I was definitely having a few "Are you sure this is de-alcoholized" moments, so yummy was it. I made it through four of them in the evening, though, and did not have my intoxication increase, which it would have, had they been real. Shockk of the SLIP~ons, the Spitfires, and Mongoose would later comment on Facebook that he had had a dry February and sampled a few de-alked beers and "Phillips was the best one."

And Eddy D. clearly is no stranger to meat draws; when the Lulus, scheduled to open at 8:30, rolled in around 9:15, the first thing Eddy declaimed to the room, before even getting onstage, was "Did I miss the meat draw?" Ha, ha. That late roll in of the Lulus, also involving Ed Hurrell, Tony Lee and Lisafurr Lloyd, forced a last minute re-arrangement of performers (David M., who was supposed to do "Sweet Jane" with Finn Leahy, had to go on first so he could get to his nightshift job, meaning that we got to hear both David and Finn, also perhaps absent when festivities commenced, do that song separately).

Eddy D. chats with Seana Gnaw (say it) formerly of Pocket Caligula

I have little to say about the actual music. David did a fine cover of "Sweet Jane," modelling it on the Mott the Hoople version, he explained to me - the best version there is, he thinks; and enjoyed the perversity of playing "The Bed," which he chose specifically because of how wrong it was for a night such as this. People mostly talked through it; even I was distracted by trying to get photographs. But there were people who knew who he was - his old friend Brent was pleasantly surprised to learn David was playing, and David was amused to have a fan ask him to autograph a coaster after his short set.

The second band, Rose Asleep, seemed young enough that they probably got ID'd on the way in. They did songs from Loaded and the first VU album, announcing that they didn't really know Lou Reed's work well, but were very happy to be exposed to it for the purposes of playing the show ("They should have more young people on the bill," David observed of them; a fine sentiment). One of the songs they did off Loaded - "Cool It Down" - was a bit of a deep dive, I suppose; at least it wasn't "Sweet Jane" or "Rock 'n Roll."

The Lulus actually went on third and proved themselves, somewhat unsurprisingly, to be 70's guys, taking on bangin' crowd-pleasers like "I'm So Free," "Hangin' Round," and "Vicious," with the high point for me being Ed's background vocals on the first of those songs. These are, as you might gather, not my favourite Lou Reed songs, but they were definitely the Lou songs most likely to find an appreciative audience in the Princeton. They were energetically (if somewhat loosely) delivered, punctuated with Eddy's urging to donate to the SPCA ("for the puppies!") and indeed, fit the vibe of the Lulu's quite well, in a way that few of those later Lou songs might not do (tho' I'd be charmed to hear Eddy D's take on "Sex with Your Parents," say, or perhaps "Average Guy")

Update: In a previous version of this blogpost, I had observed that I thought Eddy had incorrectly rendered "you must think I'm some kind of gay blade" as "gay parade." But in fact, he informs me now on Facebook, he had deliberately changed the lyric (which is fair enough, I guess, since I don't even know what a gay blade is!). He also gave his blessing to me to post this video of the song in question. "Why not? That's what Lou would do." 

I had previously stayed away from past Lou Reed tributes out of distaste for some of the past actions of organizer and emcee Scott Beadle - a fine graphic designer, a workable drummer, and clearly a man of taste, musically speaking, but given in the name of political righteousness to occasionally turning against members of the Vancouver music scene, whether campaigning on social media against burlesque performers playing the first Bowie Ball (not that burlesque actually happened that night, as I recall - it's just that Betty Bathory was involved, I think) or dragging rather old dirt on members of Slow into the light on Facebook, probably hastening the demise of that reunion, if not directly causing it, and unfairly stressing out members of the band. My own feeling is that you don't publicly crucify others for stuff you have no direct involvement in, you don't hold grudges against people for things that happened years ago, and you generally try to support fellow musicians on the scene, especially (re: the Bowie Ball) if it is an event that you are involved in. Plus who the hell identifies as a Communist these days? In the long run, I'd rather see Slow or any of Betty's bands (Daddy Issues plays March 10th) than Pill Squad, so I have stayed away for the last few years from anything Scott has had a hand in; he'd drawn his own lines in the sand and I've been happy these last few years not to cross them.  

...But there's no denying that Scott made a fine, dapper host, and that overall, the Lou Reed tribute night was a roaring success; I gathered from stuff I overheard that the 2022 edition was the fullest the Princeton had ever been, but I wouldn't be surprised if 2023 outstripped that. I was glad to have a friendly moment with Scott, because my own principles (not getting too upset about things that don't directly effect me, not holding on to old grudges, and supporting the music scene wherever possible) made it uncomfortable to hold a grudge. Still, I left early - knowing I was freeing a seat for someone made it easier to leave, as did the beardo hipster kid discreetly vaping in the seat beside me (I fucking hate this, as a cancer survivor, but what can you do, it seems to be pretty commonplace now to take a discreet puff). Mostly I just wanted my pain meds and my bed. I left two songs into Finn Leahy's performance, and thus missed out on hearing whoever might have delved deeper than the tip of Lou Reed's catalogue (I gather Sparky Spurr did a bluegrass reading of "Waves of Fear," which would have been great... maybe next year?). 

My last stop on the way out was the merch table, where I bought the most, uh, "homemade-looking" t-shirt I have ever bought. But I've wanted a Lou Reed t-shirt for awhile (but not a Transformer one); proceeds were going to the SPCA (and I had not donated anything yet, having no idea where the container for doing so was); and most importantly, it was my size (and only $15). So why not?

The highlights of the night, to be honest, were the meat draw, finding a near beer I like, and the convivial, community vibe of the Princeton; it was a very pleasant Friday evening. Chatting with my friends between songs was pretty great, too. 

Next time I'm gonna get the beef dip.