A Car Factory?: Ep. 9: Industrial-Psyche-Dirt Mall Rock

It is rare when a Ford Plant show has no merit, but it is rare when a show has such a diverse and interesting range of sets. Last Friday left me buzzing and exhausted, but in a different way than the crazy show with the Torcus and Born Ruffians. Each band was fulfilling in their own strange ways, I mean strange.

Get in car, drive down to downtown Paris, go to Steve's, eat, eat, eat, get back in car, drive to Brantford...BANG! Ford Plant! The show did not show until much later than expected, something like 20 to 10:00, but no matter, some serious rockin' was to ensue.

Vincat was the first band to play. This band is from far away. As in Victoria, BC, so I feel that we're pretty lucky to see this band. Anyways, they took some time to set up, they had lights and things to get ready. Finally, when the stage was ready, some green pinpoints of light were projected over the three members of Vincat. It looked as if they were three galactic beings traversing through the infinite depths of space. They sounded like it too. Vincat was like a dream come true for me, I've always wanted to see a really psychedelic band at the Ford Plant. Vocals with delay, crashing cymbals, and phased-out guitars washed over us as Vincat showed us what the future is going to be like.

Apart from the sheer epicness of their music, the stage show was impressive itself. The lead singer, and the guitarist both wore shiny clothing. The lead singer also had these thick white glasses on, which surprisingly, turned out to be fake and had flashing lights on them. Awesome. And, the drummer occasionally fired off some confetti guns. Nothing quite like something a bit different to spice up the night, but different was just getting started.

I was standing by the window of the FP when I looked inside and saw a man with an electric guitar messing around with some drum machines. I inquired of my friends "who this fellow be?" Responeth they: "Wax Mannequin". I darted inside.

There were some problems with the sound of his equipment, but he fixed it quickly. I'd like to get a simple description of Wax Mannequin's sound in, it is so hard. He was like this cross between industrial music and folk. But the folk parts were played with a very distorted guitar. And his drum machine that added the industrial feel also sounded slightly humourous, in an ominous way. I don't think that there is an easy way to describe the aural pounding we received.

Wax Mannequin's songs were dark and brooding, he had this depressed sad quality to his music. At least until he went all rock with "Tell The Doctor". His stage presence was manic, as he stood with his head thrust high and his arm attacking the strings on his dark guitar. Tendons protruded from his neck as he sang with the utmost passion. Needless to say, it was an exhausting set.

His music may have seemed serious, frightening even, but his relation to the crowd was nothing but bizarre. With each introduction to the song, he built up this character. He mentioned how he likes the Ford Plant because everything fucks up. "Just like my life," he added. Is he depressed, or being ironically funny. Or am I just over-analyzing it? He told us how one song is about inviting friends over to see the news, and then the news makes you kill your friends. When he was done his set, he threw down his guitar and walked out into the middle of the crowd. He stopped for a second and walked back to turn off his amp. Was this all just show, or was Wax Mannequin angry at the electricity that he had seen in his equipment, and how a person had stepped on his stuff. Whatever the answer, I have been left with a show that I shall not forget easily. The music was engrossing and the man was even more so.

Mitch had told me about BA Johnston. I must say, I had high expectations. Of what, I did not know, but I had expectations. I expected to see something crazy, exciting, and hilarious. Did Mr. Johnston deliver? Yes, he certainly did, dear readers.

I think that describing BA's music is futile, telling people how he used a CD player for some songs, keyboard presets for some, and a shitty acoustic guitar for others would just make him seem pointless. Honestly, who cares about an attention hog with a pit bull sweater singing over top of a CD? What if he's really god damn funny, and puts across a great show? Well then, you've got yourself a kick-ass time.

He came into the room with sparklers in his hands, running to the Rocky theme. Throughout the show he did songs about shitty malls, guys who won't leave so you can make out, and pirates. While singing these songs, he ran, leapt, danced through the audience. Matt almost got kicked in the face by BA. Awesome! Some guy got taken out by BA Johnston's knee slide right in front of me. Kick-ass! Racoon Wedding's keyboardist, Scott, climbed on some guy, and then fell a good five feet to floor on his side! Rumptastic! It was like a party that everyone was invited to, and the host was this chubby bearded man, who had recently exploded a beer bottle onto the crowd.

"Would you guys like me to play my last song outside?" he asked us. We responded with a unanimous "yes". "Meet me at my station-wagon," he informed us. I ran outside, followed by the rest of the crowd, and looked for a station-wagon. Trevor Tupple was standing in the middle of the road pointing at a rusted old vehicle across the street. The crowd gathered around, and BA sang us one last song. Cole's cousin was banging on the hood of his car, and most of the crowd was singing along with the song, as loud as they could.

Off into the night we trudged, with the sound of drum machines, CD player track skip beeps, and outer space ringing in our ears.

-Lucas Thurston

BONUS DRUNK VIDEO

BA Johnston @ the fp from Tricowinc on Vimeo.

May 2 4 Stories

As all of you know, its May 2 4 weekend, so you know what that means, drinking if you drink, and partying if you party. Post all your crazy stories here, at the official May 2 4 Story post.

Weezer: Red Album Preview

Right, so as everyone knows, the first 8 tracks have now leaked from Weezer's latest release, the Red Album. Ever since Make Believe, my faith in Weezer has been waining. Seriously, "We Are All On Drugs" is not a intelligent social commentary, it sucks. So, when I heard of the leak, I was worried. What if it sucks, could this mean the utter destruction of a great rock band? Bands have come back from slumps. I mean, Weezer has been saying how excited they are about it, but bands always say that.
So, I get myself a torrent and take a listen. Okay, first off, no, it's not Blue Album or Pinkerton, but can we expect a band to try to constantly replicate what they did back in the 90's? Well, I like to.
Only half of the songs actually caught my interest. The leading single "Pork And Beans" is okay I guess, but it just seems shallow. It is just Rivers saying how different he is and how no one can tell him what to do...as he makes his record label tonnes of cash. "Troublemaker" has a nice bounciness to it that is reminiscent of their older material, but something seemed wrong, I'll touch on it in a bit.
The two most interesting tracks were "Dreamin'" and "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived". "Dreamin'" had some interesting changes and bits in the music. It had a nice rock and roll feel to it. "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" is strange to say the least. It seems to be a rock epic about how great Rivers is, maybe not, but he pretty much sang about how awesome he is. Jerkiness aside, it is one of the most interesting songs that Weezer has done in years. The beginning is the quiet piano riff, followed by Rivers rapping. It was kind of disconcerting, but at least it sounded gritty. Then it took off. It was epic with deep heavy guitars and some overdubbed choruses.
As I stated previously, something seemed wrong with the songs. Looking at their older material we hear feedback and the sound of fingers moving on strings. The first track on Pinkerton starts off with feedback! Nowadays, Weezer is perfectly produced with no feedback and no finger noises, no sing of a fucking human. What proof is there that the studio just made the songs in Fruity Loops and then had them sing over top? I miss the days when Weezer sounded real. The reason why I started listening to Weezer was the sheer noise of their songs, not the sleek production values. So at least what I've heard isn't absolutely atrocious, it certainly does not recall the days when our speakers wailed with feedback and Rivers' voice actually sounded full of emotion instead of lame attempts at social commentary.
-Lucas Thurston

Grease

Early last Monday morning I was sitting in my first period math class. Its a grade 11 class so I dont really know anyone in it, when all of a sudden Scott Farley approached me. “Would you be interested in doing lights for the Grease production?”. I dont know whether it was the T3’s from getting my wisdom teeth pulled, or the fact that it was a Monday morning, or maybe some unseen factor that I still cant comprehend;

But I said yes.

He informed me that I would have to be willing to give up most of the next week of my life to this thing. I agreed, thinking he was exaggerating. So later that day during design, Marc informed me that he was approached to be the sound technician for the event, and that we had quite a practice schedule. I never got a schedule so he showed me his, and that was when I realized what exactly I had gotten myself into.

Thurs. May 1 1 3:30 - 8
Sun. May 4 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Mon. May 5 6 - 10
Tues. May 6 6 - 10
Wed. May 7 Performances the entire day
Thurs. May 8 6 - 10 Performance
Fri. May 9 6 - 10 Performance
Sat. May 10 6 - 10 Performance
Sun. May 11 1 - 5 Performance

Now those dont sound so terrible, but I was one of the tech guys so I was required to come early to help set up the sound equipment with Marc Schubert, which was a massive undertaking. And we were never ever on time. Most of the nights I was there 5 - 12, and needless to say I was very sleep deprived most of the week.

So Wednesday rolled around and it was time for the first performance, there was alot of anticipation in the cast and crew. I mean, it was only a bunch of little elementary school kids and everybody knows they aren’t actual people yet, so it was like a practice with little people. But regardless it was considered a performance and that made the actors pretty nervous, seeing as it was their first time doing the play infront of a crowd. It started off a little shaky, mostly because everyone was reading their lines ridiculously fast and you weren't able to understand them, and the mics were a little sketchy. But Marc quickly got those to work, so it was just the actors. It went off pretty well, a definite improvement over the practices.

So we got Wednesday over with, it was more of a tech practice if anything. Then Thursday came, opening night. I was sitting up on my balcony with my spartan laser waiting for the crowds to come in. All of a sudden it got really loud and people just began pouring into the gym. It was pretty intimidating. Im not gona lie. This was the worst performance of them all. The singing was all off, the lines were fragmented and not fluid at all, and there was no drummer! It was just overall disappointing, but I wrote it off as nervousness. But of course the lighting was spot-on.

Friday came and I was ready for another train wreck. Fortunately for everyone involved it went off surprisingly well. There was a few issues with mics being turned off during scenes, but that was a pretty minor issue. Other then that it was pretty good. Especially the lights.

I slept in like a motherfucker on Saturday, getting up at about 2. I was kind of late showing up for the performance, and whilst warming up my spotlight catastrophe struck! The spotlight wouldn't change sizes. All I heard was a small jingling noise, like a coin falling on the ground or something, come from inside of the light. The light was fucked. It was at the max size it could go, and it being so soon to the start of the show there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. I decided I should just go with it, and work the focus as hard as possibly to change the size as much as it would let me. This show was soooooo much better then the Thursday one, the singing was almost spot on and the lines were much much much better. I was pretty impressed at the amount they improved. And just like that it was over for the first cast. As usual the lighting was stellar, even with the broken spotlight.

I woke up in my bed, which was strange because I thought I was spending the night at Danielle’s house. I laid there for awhile trying to figure out what exactly happened the night before. All I knew is I had a ridiculous hangover, and it was noon, so I got up, got ready, took some Advil, and was on my way to the last performance. This was by far the best performance of them all, the cast seemed very comfortable with the audience and their lines, sometimes improvising which I was impressed by because it actually seemed to fit the context of the play. The singing was awesome, except the last song which was never good, but it wasn't nearly as bad as before. We even got a special guest appearance by Mr.North, who took on the role of Johnny Casino, complete with curly-haired wig. And then, it was over. I invited everyone to come to Kels to have a celebratory dinner, but it was mothers day and everyone was busy. So it ended up just being my and my awesome lighting double Ellen, who was working the stage lights.

All in all I would say it was an amazing bunch of performances, and the work they put in defiantly showed, except for the Thursday show.

Share what you thought of it in the comments.