For so long I've been adamant that
nothing's going on. Every five minutes seem to bring some new Next Big Thing in music and then everyone jumps all over it and it's over before it started. And it's tiring and I stopped caring so long ago because it all feels so empty and superficial and pointless.
At one point I had to make a conscious effort to solely focus on music and culture that genuinely excite instead of having to rely on hype to do it. But after having separated the hype from reality and come to the conclusion that nothing's really happening, it's all an illusion, I was struck by something on the afternoon of December 1. There was a definite vibe going around that day. I remember talking to my friend Mindi Saint that day and she was going on about the energy that buzzing through the city.
For me, I was already feeling pretty good about how the day was shaping up. The previous afternoon had brought the arrival of
Gary Pig's edited version of the Treat Me Like Dirt manuscript. Since first handing it over to Gary in the summer I had really removed myself from the book, partly by choice and partly by circumstance. But of course I missed it very much and so getting it back was like seeing a friend who had just returned from a long trip: It had lost a bit of weight and sharpened its perspective, but was still holding on to all the same history and anecdotes as always.
And just like she'd been right about how the day would go, Whatever was going on that night, she was sure, would be very, very good.
Mindi ended up being very, very right. When I got to the Horseshoe that night for the 29th anniversary of the
Last Pogo, it didn't take long before I found
Barrie "Bear" Farrell of the Existers who was doing some last minute mingling on the floor before getting up on stage to start the night off. A couple weeks earlier,
George Higton had emailed to ask if I would introduce the Existers. Even though I had no idea what I would say, my answer was a solid yes. So the first task at hand that night at the 'Shoe was to figure out when to start talking and what exactly would come out when I did. Of course there were plenty of things that could have been said, and that I probably will say in other ways at later dates, but I figured that everyone just really wanted to get into the music as soon as possible so I kept it brief.
There was a line in there that described the Existers as "fucking amazing," and they definitelly made sure that statement held true. Their set was a tight blast that gave the right amount of electroshock energy to start the night off right.
The room was steadily filling up and it didn't take long before there were Raymi Mulroney of the Ugly, Zero, Patzy Poison, and other familiar faces huddling near the front of the stage. When the Scewed were blasting away up there I looked beside me and there was this guy there who I'd first met on the 501 streetcar back in the summer. That day I was sitting the back, like usual, and I was actually wearing a Last Pogo t-shirt. I remember because he walked right down the aisle of the streetcar, sat right beside me, and said he liked my t-shirt. Then he asked, "The Last Pogo, that was a band, wasn't it?" He ended up having a lot of stories, like about how a crazy blond girl had pretended to shoot him in the head, and then Kurt Cobain went and killed himself not long after that. He sees a connection between the two. So anyway, I turn around at the Horseshoe and this guy's right there. He seemed to know Zero and put his arm around me and pulled me with him closer to the stage. It seemed a lot of people had their arms around each other all night. Lots of hugging and lots of community happening.
Another random run-in I had was when I was being introduced to this guy named Lawrence. He was with this girl (his girlfriend?) who looked so familiar that it was driving me crazy. So we were talking and I kept looking at her and looking at her and then I remembered where I knew her from: Back when
Ari Up played Sneaky Dee's a couple years ago, I'd interviewed Ari (the entirety of which I really should post somewhere sometime, come to think of it) and she was so into the interview that she said I had to come up and sing with her on stage. On the night of the show, she had no idea of knowing who I was and I really can't sing so I wasnt' really all that interested in getting up there, but coincidentally I ended up being plucked from the crowd anyhow. This other girl was, too, so we just started dancing all over the place. I was so drunk that I kept missing my cue - it was one of those moments where you don't realize how drunk you really are until you have to do something...Anyway, this girl I was talking at the Horseshoe was indeed my dancing partner at Sneaky Dee's some long lost summer. Of course, the night wasn't without people I was looking to avoid, either. A couple of them will go unnamed. Another was this guy Andrew who was a writer at this raggedy music magazine I was working at early on when I first started writing about bands. He had asked me out a few times but on yet another night of crazy drinking we were out with my friend Jess and things got a bit out of control when Jess and I started a dancefloor that didn't exist and probably did a bit of groping or something with each other. It was all a bit too wild and crazy for the former straight edge kid.
So anyway...Sam Ferrara ( who is of no relation to this
Screamin' Sam )and Tony Vincent and Raymi get on stage and then Greg Dick gets up there with them and they do a short Ugly set and it massive. Greg was vicious and taut, full of unhewn conviction. He really pulled those songs off with fury. And how often do you get to see Sam, Tony, and Raymi together on a stage? Not enough.
The crowd was getting rowdier with every round of beer, as can be expected. At one point during the Mods' set the heat was unbearable and I slunk away to lean against the wall beside some guy in a Handsome Ned t-shirt and cowboy hat. He was pretty young and as I looked around more and more I could see that the audience that night was really a cross section of generations. Very cool: It truly was a sense of coming together and I started to realize, and here's where things are finally starting to tie in, that this is what's going on. This whole revival that's been happening is what's going on. But sometimes when you're caught up in the happenings you're not always putting it into context. Not that I was entirely unaware, but I don't think the significance of it had truly caught up with me until December 1.
The Mods' encore didn't come off for reasons not really made clear by the venue at the time, which was an unfortunate little fiasco. But by the end the room was packed, despite the big chunks of snow that were falling from the sky. My ears were ringing when I got outside. I walked up Spadina to Dundas with Daibhid James who kept me entertained with stories about running into a former Viletone, among other things that all add up to experiences that are entirely unique to Toronto.
It's been feeling like six months have gone by since September. Only a month ago I was getting ready to spend Friday night at the Greyhound station, waiting for a bus to take me over the border. I was heading down to Philadelphia to meet up with Freddy Pompeii and Margarita Passion to interview them for the
Last Pogo. The trip down took about 20 hours after all the transfers I had to make, but I got some of the best sleep I've had all year on those rides. When I finally got to the Philly bus terminal Freddy and Margaret were waiting right there, with open arms - seriously. I felt like I'd found a home away from home. We piled into Margaret's car and headed to her beautiful house, where we ate Chinese food, watched the Last Pogo and Afternoon At New Rose, and looked through a bunch of old photos.
The next day we had to get to work on interviews because Freddy and Margaret had work on Monday, so we only had a day to get everything done. For Freddy's interview we went to a bar that was full of rowdies but the bartender let us use the back room where things were a bit quieter. After covering Freddy's punk history we headed over to Crash Bang Boom to get Margaret's interview done. Thanks to Rob at Crash Bang Boom for being so cool (and pretty cute, too) and letting us use his store. And thanks to Margaret and her wonderful husband Tom for making me feel so welcome in their home when I was there. And thanks to nobody for robbing me along the way so that I could make it back to Toronto with my dad's handicam. And thanks dad for letting me borrow it in the first place. Can I keep it?
Last weekend I did an interview with Ken Badger and Andy Meyers of the Scenics for a fanzine piece that I'll give more details on as they come in.
In the meantime, the reading continues as do the final tweaks.
