I don’t listen to music much but every few years a voice or a group will catch me. I was spoiled by the 60’s and 70’s when every week another great band was breaking musical barriers. I grew up on the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Who, Guess Who, Eagles, Country Joe and the Fish, Dylan, Cohen, Hendrix, Santana, Van Morrison, Carly Simon, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Joni Mitchell, Bowie....the list goes on. After that rush of adolescent and young man feast of musical genius I was carried along by the BeeGees, Beach Boys, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd and the whole disco era.
All these groups kept churning out music too. Bachman Turner Overdrive peeled off from Burton Cummings with a heavier sound...and I got older. Who needs new music when the great old guys are still producing , like Simon’s Graceland. Then there was Steve Matthews Band and John Maylor. And Archive 5. Bryan Adams and Sarah McLaughlin and KD Laing were enough. Then there was Walk off the Earth.
But I’d moved on to classical, The Vancouver Symphony and Early Music Society has seen more of me than rock bands these last few years. I.ve loved Bach and Handel as long as I can remember. . I got a little turned off the lyrics of drinking , drugging and porn fucking AM/FM radio so turned to gospel for a more uplifting purer sound. Less propaganda too. Gospel music like Hillsong is unsurpassed. The greats like Elvis started in church. The lyrical depths and music of Third Day and Newsboys is as meaningful to me as the acoustic sound of Steve Bell..
I figure with all these tunes in my head and my past, all this exposure to unsurpassed greatness, a band has to be something special to catch my declining ears. I’ve going deaf and have begun wearing hearing aids thanks to “Guns, Rock and Roll, Age and ex wife’s!” I heard the Trews on the radio. They caught my attention.
Colin Macdonald’s voice remind me of Burton Cummings and Murray McLaughlin at times but mostly Mac Powell. There’s John Kay of Steppenwolf in that voice too. It’s that good. He has that edge, raw power with his unique signature. I don’t know how he had a voice at the end of the concert. Laura was deaf. Even though he blew out two microphones at the end his voice was still pure and strong. What a maste! There was even a bit of Willie Nelson Gordon Lightfoot Anne Murray James Taylor vocal workhorse about that voice. True artist and true professional. It was old Canadian. A truly great voice that just got better with hard use. Like the famed Canadian soldiers of yore. Or maybe a Duracell Rabbit Wookie.
I’d not been in the Commodore in decades. I really think I was last there to dance jive and disco to some now forgotten band with some forever young and outrageously sexy gorgeous woman, probably a nurse. Nurses are always outrageously sexy and gorgeous. In those days there was always a contest between whether we could dance hard enough to dance off the booze and keep enough ahead to stay vertical till we got home horizontal. . Then we’d dance horizontally till dawn to hard rock headboard music These days I insist that those latter memories were planted in my brain by some later CIA experiment. I was tired waiting in the line. It was long past my bed time when the opening guest band Chase the Bear came on. Lanky laughing delightful Bowie like entertainers. Having such fun.
Laura and I loved them but thought ‘these can’t be the Trews’. At the U2 concert Laura had thought Mumford and Sons were U2 because they sounded so good and she couldn’t see the stage. Altameda followed Chase the Bear and that tricked me. We could accept one opening band but not two. Antemida were really good. I go to a night of them alone. But when the Trews came on there was no doubt who they were. They exploded into the room.
I’d not seen the Trews but registered the group when I first heard “Tired of Waiting” years back. Then I was driving down the Highway of Hero’s and the Trews “Highway of Heros” song came on. I almost had to pull off the highway and cry. it was so moving and made me feel so good. Patriotic songs haven’t been the stuff of Canada lately. The PM denounces the nation. Guns and military and men aren’t in favour. Even the police are banned from gay pride. To hear the young thanking and remembering hit me.Our men and women were still in Afghanistan dying.
I thought of Old Blind Dog and the songs of men lost through the centuries. I grew up during the Vietnam war to Pete Seegers, Where Have All the Flowers Gone and Kenny Rogers Ruby. Here was a group that wasn’t another shallow Kardashian’s frivolity. They had history. They were original and deep.
My father was RCAF. We’d walk through the Canadian War Museum and he’d talk of the men he’d known and friends he’d lost. Huffington Post decries everything about him as ‘toxic masculinity’. I miss his strength and protection and sense of humor. Dad would have liked the Trews. Mom would have thought the boys in the band handsome, at least the ones with hair cuts. When I was honoured to work with Veterans Affairs I was moved by the survivors and their pain old and young men, and now women too. It’s hip to deny them now. I liked the Trews even more then.
I heard some love song of theirs played on the radio. Lyrics with twist like Downey’s songs. Last year I saw on Facebook that the Trews were coming to Vancouver’s Commodore. I immediately ordered on line.
“I”ve got us tickets to the Trews”, I said to Laura.
“That’s great. I love the Trews.” She said.
Laura amazes me. I’m in dusty old books or reading religion and neurochemistry texts while she seems to know everything going on that’s good in todays world. She and her family, friends and sister talk about art and contemporary culture. I’m mostly talking politics and religion. She loved the concert. She beamed throughout the show and was on her feet dancing when the Trews came on.
I loved guitarist John Angus MacDonalds too. He and the bassist Jack Syperek were a pair on stage clearly having fun with harmonies and playing side by side. Jack Sperek has the funkiest base and seemed to be having the most fun on stage. At times John though would move over to playing guitar beside and with Colin. The crowd went wild then. Some hundred or so had screamed when the band said they were from Nova Scotia. Everyone around us sang along with major favourites knowing all the words, clearly loyal fans. I think John and Colin must be brothers. Not just the last name but they look alike. They’ve both got that powerful compact body build common to the east coast fisherman where strength and agility were necessary to match the sea and haul in the catch. John is a great performer. In the middle of the show he took his lead guitar number and roamed around the audience as crazy as Keith Richards. I hope he lives as long. The going joke among environmentalists is that they want to leave a better world when they go for Keith Richards. Science tells us that music promotes longevity. Heavy rock is what makes plants grow best. While Ravi Shankar, Yehuddi Menuhin and Bach may soothe the soul it’s heavy rock that makes cells grow..
Chris Gormley is the drummer. I never appreciated the drummer so much when I was a roadie and envied the limelight of the front men. As teens we loved Iron Butterfly . As boys we did endless drum solos with pencils on our desks despite discouragement from Phillistine teachers. Keith Moon, Ringo and Bonham had nothing on us. It wasn’t till much later though I really appreciated the drum’s centrality. My friends Ganesh and Anil have shared their love of Indian Tabl helping me appreciate the sophistication, subtlety and complexity of tabla. I loved Fleetwood Mack’s drummer. Carolynn who has been drumming with local Dirty White Collar band told me she finds drumming spiritual. . Rev. Vivian Seegers of Urban Aboriginal Ministry loves having native drummers at her services for the same reason. I can see the harp and violin and cello, strings and flute as spiritual but drums?
This night Jan. 25, was Robbie Burns Day. Each year, Laura and our friend Lorne and I attend the Simon Frazer Pipe Band Dinner. The pipes are so glorious and unforgettable. Truly as spiritual an experience as eating haggis. I’d thought the incredible drummers more martial than spiritual especially played by strong little lassies.
Chris Gormley is a consummate drummer. He made me want to dance all night long. To the band hee’s like the Canucks goalie the amazing Roberto (Lou) Luongo. He really holds up the team. The band’s sound and timing was magical. I even loved the loud cow bell sound in one number, It positively reminded me of the SNL skit ‘more cowbells’ , Chris Gormley played every drum just right with emphasis on loud and fast.
I really liked the keyboardist in a group, Jeff Heisholt I loved Canada’s Robert Goulay so I’m clearly I’m biased to keyboard.. The great organist at Christ Church Cathedral was Mike Gormley so maybe keyboard music is a Gormley thing. Jeff really enriched the overall sound, the music of the group, that U2 ‘wall of sound’ Edge and Mullen thing behind the Bono vocals. This was so very very good with the Trews.
I loved “Sing Your Heart Out” and “Tired of Waiting.” Of course the acoustic Trews version of a Drunk Sailor song was a gift to the maritimes. I cried when Colin sang “Highway of Heroes” then danced standing discretely like no one was watching, to Vintage Love. Vintage Love in on their latest album Civilinaires. I’m looking forward to playing it loud wheeling down the highway on my Harley. Their acoustic sounds might be easy listening music but the rest of their music is hopping dancing Harley driving heavy rock. We loved it. Everyone did. Great band. Great performance. Now lets just hope none of the band falls to Japanese female sirens.
Leaving the Commodore everyone looked so fine. Normally a curmudgeon past my bed time with an intellectual critics surperior demeanour I loved seeing the girls with a skip in their step and the guys following along hoping to get lucky. Granville street with the Roxy and other nightclubs still had lines ups. It’s was 1 am. I’ve never up at 1 am let alone down town so I didn’t know how busy it gets. Police cars blocked off the streets.
I was glad to get to my Mini drive Laura home then drive to my home, walk my dog, before falling into bed still vibrating just a little. Falling asleep I remembered everyone singing and shouting “Sing Your Heart Out”. Thank you Trews. We all certainly did that for sure!
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