Gig: Jason Collett's Annual Basement Review (week four)

Jason Collett's Annual Basement Review (feat. Sina Queyras, Alex Lukashevsky, Sheila Heti, Laura Barrett, Grant Lawrence, Gentleman Reg, Taylor Knox and The Ishmaels)

The Dakota Tavern. Tuesday, December 22, 2009.

Back to the Dakota for another dose of Jason Collett's mystery train. Heading in, I can't pretend that I wasn't eager for some figures — oh, say, BSS related — that you'd normally never see in a room of this size. Or, for that matter, something as memorably offbeat as a Michael P. Clive cooking segment. It turned out, as I looked at the merch table and evaluated the artistes milling around the back of the room it looked more like we'd be seeing some of the people I tend to see in rooms like this on a more regular basis. But that's no problem — by luck I got to see a couple of my local faves. It was also more of a story-based kind of night, where there might have been almost as much talking on the stage as music. The format was slightly tweaked from my previous outing, with the musicians earlier on playing slightly longer sets (usually meaning four songs instead of three), with a shorter "long" set at the end balancing things out.

Kicking things off as usual with a stern reminder about cellphone usage and a short set, Jason Collett began by recounting a BSS touring story of a journey home above the Great Lakes, involving a police shakedown and a Sheryl Crow tape. This was the entry into "Lake Superior", which led into the same border crossing tune I'd heard at the previous visit, and then "Vanderpool Vanderpool", about the goings-on at a Chicago brothel at the turn of the last century — the banter stringing his songs into a loosely-connected suite. With Collett's Rat A Tat Tat scheduled for an early March release, I think I'd wager we'll have several chances to hear the new material over the spring and summer.

Up on stage while the audience was still quiet and attentive, the night's poet was Sina Queyras, who read from her "Expressway", with some subtly post-apocalyptic imagery, in a quiet, unforced voice. That stuck a bit more than a couple more domestic ones that followed, but enjoyable in a low-key kind of way.

Alex Lukashevsky was up next, with a solo set with his acoustic guitar. As always, his weirdly dazzling playing was filled with slightly off-kilter runs of notes, well-matched with his slightly skewed lyrics ("I'm too old to be a human / but could I be Canadian?", say, or "without grief there's no gravy"), played with his characteristic casualness, as if playing a gig were slightly less interesting than his previous night's karaoke. The set included a take of Deep Dark United's "Downhill is Downtown" and a couple of his other songs were familiar to me, but I can't place them as DDU songs or tracks from his solo Connexions. As with every time I hear Lukashevsky's music I was a bit delighted, a bit perplexed, and a bit wishful for a few more hooks, but it was, overall, a pleasing re-acquaintance with his tunes.¹

Listen to a track from this set here.

The story theme was picked up with novelist and Trampoline Hall founder Sheila Heti, reading with an appealingly bright voice that fit the tone of two short pieces from her collection The Middle Stories. "The Giant" was a little preciously allegorical, but was redeemed some by her explanation afterward, including a sweet sentiment about Toronto — despite the occasional desire to get away, "it's just an impossible place not to want to live in", she explained. She also read "The Poet and the Novelist as Roommates", which had a bit more bite and specificity to it ("one was so gruff and silent and thick – like a real man; and the other was disinterested and distracted and edgy – like a real man.") and spoke more to her talent.

Speaking of sweet preciousness (and, I suppose, of how the line between what what you find delightful and what you roll your eyes at is so precariously subjective) Laura Barrett emerged for the next set. Playing standing up, Barrett started solo with "Senior & the Blob" before bringing out Ajay Mehra and Dana Snell for a couple songs. Showing her characteristic total and earnest commitment to any idea, no matter how goofy, the trio covered Alvin & The Chipmunks' "Christmas Don't Be Late", chipmunk banter and all. The set closed out with "Robot Ponies", which was also, come to think of it, a seasonal choice. Always a thrill to hear Laura Barrett, all the more so when it was quite unexpected like this.

Listen to a track from this set here.

The second half of the night opened with a tale from ex-Smuggler and current CBC3 host Grant Lawrence, who told the next closest thing to the proverbial big fish story, involving an unusual incident with a giant octopus while gathering prawns. "It held up the crescent wrench with one tentacle," was just the beginning of the incredible-but-true tale — soon it had a knife, too, and six more limbs to grab weapons with. Lawrence even had some CBC swag to pass out.

And then, also in the "always a delight" category, Gentleman Reg brought the most rockin' set of the night so far.² Replicating the opening moves of their recent Opera House show, the band opened with "For Trust", their lovely contribution to this year's Friends in Bellwoods 2 comp — a nice mellow groove that wore well in the room. And then built up from there. The band were joined by Lief Mosbaugh (who was once, alongside Reg, in The Hidden Cameras, apparently now with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra) for some extra vox on "Wild Heart". Obviously, I've seen Reg enough times this year that this wasn't essential, but it sounded fantastic. Hopefully someone in the audience — and my impression is that there were no few folks out for these shows with open ears but less likely to go to frequent gigs — was impressed by this and left wanting more.

While picking out musicians from the room to act as the night's poet-backing-band³, Jason Collett was inspired to tell a threat-of-nature story of his own, before Sina Queyras returned. This time reading from her Virginia Woolf deconstruction "The Waves, an unmaking". Interestingly, this one worked a bit in the opposite direction to the usual of the poet-plus-band experiments. Here, the band had already established a groove before she stepped on the stage, and Queyras fit her rhythms into that rather than the reverse. She eased back in her spoken tempo, filling more space with less syllables, sometimes even holding back her words to land on the beat. The slightly tense music from the band (including plucked piano wires and guitar strings scraped against a microphone) suited it well.

Listen to a part of this reading here.

The final act of the night was Taylor Knox and The Ishmaels. In a shorter long-set-to-end-the-night than last time I was around, the band played six songs in about twenty-five minutes. Fronted by Knox, drummer for The Golden Dogs, here playing 12-string electric guit. The band's album was composed of songs inspired by Moby Dick (thus contributing the band's name), and their sound takes some 12-string folk rock jangle, electrified by the power-pop chops that some of the members employ in their day jobs, notably the two-men-one-name rhythm section of bassist Andrew Scott (ex-Bicycles, recently spotted in Germans and Steamboat) and drummer Andrew Scott (Sloan).⁴ Muscular, slightly retro-minded power pop with, natch, a bit of literary flair. Given the subject matter, maybe they should have gotten Grant Lawrence up and backed him while telling another tale from the briney deep, but as it was, a satisfactory introduction.

Listen to a song from this set here.

And that was that for me at this year's Basement Ruvues. Having gone to my share of gigs, they might have been a bit less musically revelatory for me, and at twenty bones a night an expensive show by my standards. But it's becoming a great tradition, and Collett has put a lot of work into thoughtfully curating these nights, which is something that really sets them apart from just a bill of three of four bands taking turns on stage. Plus, the intimacy of the venue — with an audience that is generally willing to stay quiet and attentive — also help to make these special. It's nice to have some traditions and special events to look forward to in December.

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¹ During the break between sets, J. voiced his approval, commenting, "I liked that old alcoholic guy."

² Didactic Reg-trackers — and by this point you should be introducing yourselves to me if I don't already know you — should note that Dave Meslin was handling the bass this time round.

³ This time out including Mike O’Brien and Neil Quinn, though I didn't catch who the drummer was.

⁴ Or, at least, the rather scanty amount of info online implies that Scott is the regular drummer for this unit — I didn't mark him and can't positively say he was behind the kit for this set.