Jason Collett's Basement Revue (feat. Jason Collett / David O'Meara (poetry) / Jessy Bell Smith / Pasha Malla (story) / Julie Fader / Ken Babstock (poetry) / Jim Bryson / Peter Elkas)
The Dakota Tavern, Tuesday, December 7, 2010.
Jason Collett's Basement Revue, now in its fourth year, has become a bit of an institution, taking over the cozy basement space of the Dakota on Tuesdays throughout December. It's a pricey ticket, by my standards, but it's a full night's worth of entertainment — and I do like the intimate vibe and who-knows-what-you'll-get element of surprise.
On the year's first instalment, the place filled in pretty early, and though a sign on the door said the show would start at ten, 'round 9:30 without any announcement Collett took the stage and launched straight into "Not Over You" before chatting with the crowd about what the night would hold. Amongst the innovations on this night, "in the very far back corner... is a poetry vending machine," dispensing poetic snacks for a toonie.
And then paying tribute to the city's new mayor on the day of his surreal swearing-in, Collett debuted a new song called "Cassandra", dedicated to Rob Ford and Don Cherry, whom he passingly referred to as "Doom and Doomer". It was more of an attack generally on populists and demagogues, but there was no small force in the refrain of "go back to from where you came".
Listen to a song from this set here.
After that, Collett slipped into MC mode,1 introducing "the first poet of the night" — and the word "first" might have caused a raised eyebrow or two, though on the whole, Collett's affection for that element of the Revue was pretty plain to see. And overall, the concept worked very well, with the audience keeping pretty quiet for Ottawa's David O'Meara, reading lyric poetry mostly about daily life. The best of the bunch might have been one reflecting on William Safire's dilemma in having to write a speech in case the Apollo mission went wrong.
The night's first musical guest was Guelph's Jessy Bell Smith, who looked a little nervous on taking the stage. She steadied herself by starting off with a cover of Nina Simone's "I Love My Baby" with a voice that wouldn't sound out of place on a crackly 78. That kind of soulful blues-y vibe carried forward into her own songs, which had a measured resonance that was odds with her stage persona. She came off a little antsy and playing a bit at being a rube, proclaiming "it's fun to play in the big city!" Still, her performance was enjoyable for the honest goodness of her complete earnestness.
Listen to a song from this set here.
Keeping up with the variety format, writer Pasha Malla took the stage to tell a friend's story about encountering Michael Jackson before reading a satirical piece about his sex tape — and why no one was downloading it from the internet.
And then, closing out the first half of the night was Julie Fader playing solo. She performed some songs from her top-notch Outside In album, including "Flights", and tried out a new one (maybe called "I'm An Island") before bringing up Jim Bryson to add some backing vocals on "723". Jason Collett, as is usually the case, stood by the bar to watch her play, giving the impression that he picks the guests based on what he'd like to hear more than anything else. Meanwhile, Fader invited the crowd to song along on the chorus while covering Yazoo's "Only You" to close things out. One measure of the demographic at these shows was that most on hand knew the song well enough to join in.
After the short grab a drink/smoke break, Ken Babstock did a slightly longer poetry set, starting off with "Tarentella" and a couple others from Airstream Land Yacht. There was also a taste of his then-forthcoming Methodist Hatchet collection. The short poems bristled with a flood of energy, with topics that were specific, but also specifically obscure, perhaps well-captured by the title-explains-it-all "As Effected By Klaus Berger's Haircut, Whose Brainwaves His Father Recorded Inventing the EEG". Babstock's work is widely acclaimed, but I must admit it all kinda slid past me.
Though I've tangentially come across Jim Bryson's work, I hadn't listened to much. His solo set here might not have entirely spoken to what his albums sound like, but I was won over by his engaging and slightly goofy presence. He was not beyond veering off into tangents — describing, during "Wild Folk", where the solo could go, where the horns should be and so on. And then, taking advantage of the other artists on hand for some collaborations, he brought up Julie Fader to add some vocals and flute to the delicate "Freeways in the Frontyard". Even more intriguing was "Fire Watch", a song he wrote based on a poem by Ken Babstock, which he'd changed around some. Reuniting "the shoplifter and the thief", Babstock came up to read the poem in the middle of the song, a collaboration that worked tremendously well, creating a real highlight and showing off the sort of cross-pollination that Collett is trying to encourage at these shows.
Listen to a song from this set here.
And then, in a regular Basement Revue treat, as Peter Elkas and his band got set up for the night's closing set, they were first joined by David O'Meara, creating improvised backing music as he read a couple more poems. "Background Noise" was interesting, but it really clicked on "Powerboat", the band catching the poem's increasing velocity and sudden crash. And showing how closely he was listening to the band listen to him, O'Meara was willing to lay back and let the band work up to the energy he was looking for.
Check out one of these poems here.
That led right into the set proper from Peter Elkas and band. Elkas, on guitar throughout, was backed by bass (Doug Friesen), drums (Gavin McGuire) and keyb (Jeff Haysall), plus Joseph Shabason on sax.2 Following from his work in Local Rabbits, Elkas' solo work has burrowed even deeper down a retro, soul-inflected path. The pejorative here would be to label this as "dad rock", which is to say it's well-crafted stuff, the rough edges smoothed down a little. Well-suited for, say, people who appreciate Elkas' frequent tour-mate Joel Plaskett. I found it all a little too pleasant to really grab me, but as he led off with a couple from his '07 album Wall of Fire (including "Sweet Nancy" and the title track) it looked like this was right in the sweet spot of most people on hand.
By this point of the night, there was a more pronounced divide between the "rather sit quietly" and "drinkin' and dancin'" crowds, each of which were casting glares at each other for spoiling their fun. By about a half-past midnight, the people thinking ahead to Wednesday morning started trickling out as one lone live-in-the-moment enthusiast was shouting, "let's move the tables!". By the later part of the set, it was cleared out enough that he could move them out of his dancing way. Meanwhile, Elkas was trying out some newer material, working the kinks from some of the songs on his now-released "Repeat Offender", including "Blue of You", "Anticipation", and "Misery".3 "Cruel Thing to Do" was probably the best of the bunch here. After a string of new material, he snapped back to his 2003 solo debut Party of One for "Build a Harmony". All told, the band played an eleven-song set, closing with the thematically-appropriate "Turn Out The Lights", and it was about ten past one when the night ended.
Listen to a song from this set here.
Thanks to K. for letting me use her camera for some of the less blurry pictures here.
1 Being taller than everyone he introduced, the first thing every artist would do on taking the stage would invariably be to adjust the microphone down to their level.
2 Interestingly, I had seen Shabason playing with Elkas' ex-bandmate Ben Gunning just a couple weeks previously.
3 Elkas made the ecologically laudable but tactically awkward mistake of putting his setlist on his phone, meaning he'd have to pull it out and fiddle with the screen a bit between songs. Sometimes the old ways just work best.
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