A veteran of the Canadian music scene (Junkhouse, Blackie & the Rodeo Kings), Tom Wilson (pictured) played two gigs last week-end at the cosy Elmdale Tavern. I attended the Friday night set. Wilson gave a great show, backed by a tight, accomplished three-man band; the drummer had played with him in Junkhouse and the bassist in Blackie. The other guy was very skillfully playing pedal steel guitar, which is always awfully cool. Given how familiar they were with each other, all pretenses of a set list was abandoned, as Wilson entertained requests, and seemed to start a number of songs randomly muttering the title of the song to the other band-members to get them to follow along. Wilson also has a relaxed, comfortable stage presence and truly seems to enjoy bantering with the crowd. The best example happened when someone requested one of Junkhouse's major hits. Before accommodating it, he blurted out that he had made a lot of money off the song, but spent it all on drugs, which is why he still played small venues like the Elmdale. I am pretty glad that he does.
Of note, Wilson never seems to leave his guitar out of his sight, possibly because it is autographed by over 10 (I have to assume) guitar players. The only one I could make out was Robbie Robertson--not a bad one to have in an autograph collection.
The gig did feature one moment of sheer fright: Wilson turned in my direction and offered his guitar as an invitation to come up on stage. Thank the powers that be that this was aimed at an acquaintance of him who was standing next to me. Nothing good would have come out of the first scenario.
I am told that I have previously seen Tom Wilson perform at Tiger-Cat House during the Montréal Grey Cup in, let's say, 2008. I have absolutely no reason to doubt that assertion.
March 31: Glorybound and Bright Lights Social Hour, Zaphod's.
(See next post.)
March 31: Harlan Pepper and Deep Dark Woods, The Lounge, as part of JunoFest.
This is the only JunoFest concert I was able to attend at Fanny's... I mean The Lounge, on York Street. I caught most of Harlan Pepper's set. Almost three weeks later, I remember them as a three-man (I use that term loosely) roots band, although their disc lists four members, headlined, coincidentally by Tom Wilson's son. Let's get the first part out of the way: these kids are, well, kids, at most in their (very) early twenties. I have socks..., well, you know the rest. (Quite ironically, the doorman was quite insistent that I needed to have picture ID on me to get into the club. It did not seem to stop them from serving the band.)
It turns out that the band is a solid roots band. This is really an amazing time for Canadian roots-infused music: the Sadies, Whitehorse, RJ Arbuckle, Elliott Brood, Deep Dark Woods, Harlan Pepper, etc. These are all musically-solid acts, who perform carefully crafted songs.
Deep Dark Woods followed Harlan Pepper on stage, roughly at 1:30 AM. Basically, the sound was awful both for the crowd and the band, which kept requesting adjustments to their monitors. This is no fault of the band, as it should be the perils of booking an all-night, multi-band gig at a club, which is not used to holding such performances.
And this is certainly not meant to disparage JunoFest, which was evidently well-attended in the ten or so venues that participated over the Friday and/or Saturday that week-end. It gave the downtown core a music festival feel. Hopefully Bluesfest organisers were paying notice and will consider branching out into late club or bar performances, as was the case two years ago. It would re-introduce a dynamic element to a festival whose core, at Lebreton Flats' multiple stages, has felt bloated and unimaginative over the past two years.
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