Gig: Sheezer

Sheezer (Sister)

The Garrison. Friday, October 29, 2010.

With Hallowe'en falling on the Sunday, those who planned all week, those who planned all month, those who planned all year had a whole weekend to be in costume. So unsurprisingly on what could be foreseen as a goofy fun-fun sort of night, there were no few people dressed up. Openers Sister got in on the act, the trio all wearing costume ball-style bird masks.

"I think already have feathers in my mouth," announced Carla Gillis after the first song. Gillis, known to local music fans as a writer at Now magazine was joined by her sister Lynette. The pair have played together in bands for a good stretch, all the way back to Halifax Explosion-era band Plumtree.¹ Joined here by Pete Johnston on bass, this was pretty appealing from the get go — power-pop with no lack of crunch but leavened with sweetness. At a theoretical level, this is the sort of thing I dig (and certainly used to dig a lot).

The set started with "Wishbone", a super-catchy tune that might be a cousin to Veruca Salt's "Forsythia", though it leans a bit too heavily on minimal lyrical repetition ("Crack it half / wait / gotta make a wish first"). Though it's easy to pigeonhole the band into that narrow terrain, the songs owe something more to a classic rock sensibility, generally allowing themselves to stretch out. These are more like four-five minute songs than two-three minute bashers — there's a confident, arranged sense of maturity at play. On "Orion", probably the most striking of the band's compositions, the trio was joined by Geoff Miller (bandmate to the Gillises in their synth-heavy post-Plumtree project Bontempi) on keyboards.

With only a five-song EP to their credit, it's not surprising that there was some other material than that filling out the set. Carla moved from guitar to keyb for one of the unreleased ones with Lynette sharing the lead vox. That one felt a little spare, but better was "Feather on the Ocean Floor", which won with a combination of bouncy bass and cold-shoulder keyb tones. The set ended with Carla back on the guitar for "Showed Up on the Beach", as she announced, "in honour of the Weezer songs, this is totally going to rock." Seven songs all told, and it was pretty tasty stuff. The band don't look to be playing a whole lot right now, but do check 'em out if you get a chance.

Listen to a song from this set here.

Between sets, the crowd was getting thicker. It was interesting to note a sort of divide in the crowd, between people who remember when the first couple Weezer albums came out and the younger crowd for whom this was something more like "classic rock" than "90's nostalgia". Unsurprisingly, that younger cohort were louder and more inclined to dress up — including a crew of women dressed as angels that ended up in front of me. Young and drunk, they didn't quite have their fingers on the notion that giant wings on one's back is an impractical accessory in a crowded bar, and during the headliner's set one of them kept lurching backwards into the woman standing next to me. For a moment, I thought the angel was going to get socked in the jaw, based on the glares that were being issued. "It's like they've never been in a bar before," commented K., shaking her head at them after getting bumped into a couple times herself. But, when Sheezer plays, you're going to get people who are drunk and or/celebrating.

In a nod to both Hallowe'en and their own teamwork, the band emerged in full Sailor Moon regalia.² They started the set with a Blue Album one-two of "My Name Is Jonas" and "No One Else" and kept going song-for-song from there — and it might indicate the level of my Weezer fandom that I only figured that out after the fact. The sound was a little muddled to start, but after a pause to tweak a few details, it came together.

Once the sound was tied down, the set really took off, with little flourishes that gave the music some zing — like Alysha Haugen and Laura Barrett tossing in a coordinated twirl move on "The World Has Turned And Left Me Here". Magali Meagher sang the lead on that one, but over the course of the set, all of the members except Haugen would get a turn on lead vocals.

I enjoyed how the band isn't reluctant to juice things up by rushing the tempos a little — driving the song from behind the drum kit and providing vocals, Dana Snell gave "Buddy Holly" an amusingly zooming ride. Compared to the last time I saw 'em, the band was handling the material more smoothly, but without losing that appealing rough edge.

"Undone - The Sweater Song" involved inviting an audience member dressed as Hurley³ up on stage to act as an as interlocutor with Tuxedo Mask during one of the song's spoken segments. Hurley wanted to sing the lyrics, natch, just as pretty much everyone on hand was doing to some extent. That made it hard for even the likes of me not to crack a smile.

The band had also added "In the Garage" to their repertoire since the last time 'round, with some harmonica from Robin Hatch. The band made one slight alteration to end the set, subbing in "The Good Life" to give the main set a rousing conclusion.

They returned for a three-song encore, now dipping into Pinkerton for the popular sing-along "El Scorcho", which seemed to make people in the crowd very happy, and the band just as much — they were grinning at each other and laughing as they played. Then they went back to finish off the Blue Album with the extended, heartfelt "Only In Dreams". Barrett shouted a Sailor Moon-ish "arigato!" as they left the stage.

It arguably says something about how much I respect the members of this band that I've broken my "no cover bands" rule to see them not once, but twice. Especially for a bunch of songs by a band that I'm neither here nor there about. Which isn't to say that this was some sort of grim experience for me — drunk, bumping angels notwithstanding it was a fun time, but my un-devotedness probably made me a bit more of a scoreboard-watcher than usual, so to speak, keeping an eye out on the division of labour and who took the vox on which song etc. We should all take our fun as we can find it, I guess.

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¹ Plumtree have had a bit of a post-career boost lately with last year's ubiquitous Scott Pilgrim film adaptation, the books having taken their name from one of their songs. For those catching up with Plumtree, there a new best-of album available, which is well-worth snapping up.

² I think Laura Barrett was the titular leader of the pack, but's probably for the best that I can't remember which member of the Sailor Moon crew is which. Though perhaps that implies that I used to be able to, which is perhaps something I oughtn't to brag about.

³ Inviting him up was pushing the limits of the band's self-imposed first-two-albums-only Weezer enthusiasm, no?

Gig: "Heavy Head Residency", Week 3

"Heavy Head Residency", Week 3. (Gentleman Reg / Sheezer / Dance Yourself to Death)

Drake Underground. Wednesday, February 17, 2010.

You can't keep me away, I guess. Despite having hit the first instalment of Gentleman Reg's Wednesday night "Regidency" at The Drake, here I was again, just a couple weeks on. It turned out to be quite a study in contrasts with that first go-round, ending up with an altogether different crowd and ambiance.

Leading off the night was Dance Yourself to Death. They were unknown to me, but the band brought along a large contingent of friends and admirers who filled up the area in front of the stage, dancing energetically throughout. With this enthusiastic (and slightly chatty) crowd in place right from the get-go, I knew this was going to have a different vibe than it was a couple weeks previous. The first song was a tight rocker, with "Can't Explain" power chords, the second a bit more of a dreamy, mid-tempo could-have-been John Hughes soundtrack number with Johnny Ryan's Korg set to Fairlight-styled sounds. Strong lead vox from bassist Jen Markowitz, showing off a warm contralto voice, up in front of the propulsive Maya Postepski on drums. Clearly a unit with a well-defined, well-thought-out aesthetic — one that would encompass a very 80's sound.¹ Undoubtedly a talented band — just not entirely my thing. I wish 'em well and certainly wouldn't be surprised if they found themselves an even larger audience.

Having missed them on New Year's Eve, I was glad to have a chance to catch the second show of Sheezer, the local all-star "all-girl Weezer cover band"² — sticking (with rigourous revisionism) to the first two albums. Starting off with Laura Barrett testing out a vetoed inspirational chant ("Weezer, theyzer, heezer, sheezer!") the band kicked off with "Tired of Sex", Robin Hatch (ex-Sports: The Band) handling the vox. Throughout the show there was a pass-the-mic approach to lead vocals, which worked to generally good effect³ Part of the fun of the "everybody knows these songs" element is that it's like a big singalong, which worked out well on "Undone - The Sweater Song" (which was presented complete with onstage party banter) and had pretty much everyone in the room joining in on the choruses. There was a pleasantly rough-around-the-edges feel to the whole thing, as if the band members were all at a party, and someone had dared them to jump up and bash out a few of these songs.

With pros like Dana Snell and Magali Meagher on hand, there were pop smarts aplenty on hand to know how to navigate this stuff. With the other members being known qualities, the real surprise here was Alysha Haugen, doing a fab job on lead guitar — anyone know where we can catch more from her? Rocking out in their uniform jeans and black shirts, the band was having a great time, laughing on stage, giddily thrilled that they had buttons to sell.

For me, I guess I had slightly mixed feelings about the whole affair. Fun, yes, but it just kinda felt like a lark. Frankly, I'd be ten times more excited to see these same five musicians playing some power pop confections of their own creation. Although, to be sure, when I related this concept to A. after the set, he gave me a look like I had the crazy plague, so it's clear that they're reaching some people with this that would otherwise probably not pay such close attention to them.

By now, the room was pretty much full and worked up into some excitement by the opening bands. As with the first of the Regidency shows, Reg emerged on his own to lead off with a solo track, which was buried a bit in the chatter. Things were on a more solid footing when the band came out and ripped into "Coastline", which did more to get the crowd's attention, including some loud hoots of approval from entertainer/man-about-town/mayoral candidate Keith Cole, who was on hand for the show — definitely someone who makes his boisterous presence felt when he's enjoying something. In tribute, Reg dedicated "Wild Heart" to him.

Meanwhile, a chance to see how the new material is developing and growing. "Make It Better" had certainly come along from a couple weeks previous and was sounding like a crackerjack. Another — called "Driving Truth"? — was sharp, too, with new wave-y keyboards from Kelly McMichael. After the new material, the band was joined again by Jess Tollefsen on some extra keybs, for the hits, including a driving "How We Exit" and the always-fabulous "We're in a Thunderstorm" to close out the main set.

More new material in the encore, including yet one more getting its debut. How exciting is it to see this rush of new material — and good new material at that — right up close like this? For me, that was even more of a thrill than "The Boyfriend Song" — the one that the crowd was waiting for. That one was good fun, too, of course, especially seeing the band throw themselves into it, especially during the Hidden Cameras-inspired "bring it down" section, everyone crouching right down to the floor as the song got quieter. Tollefson and Dave Meslin, on stage playing tambourine and throwing in their voices, ended up right on their backs before the song picked up again. A good end to the night, sending me away from the Regidency with a smile. Let's hope Reg does it all again next year.

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¹ They closed with a revealing cover of Londonbeat's "I've Been Thinking About You".

² This is the band's own self-description from their myspace page. Under normal circumstances (unless looking at things on a macro level), I wouldn't think to comment on the gender make-up of a band, because how good/interesting an artist is doesn't depend on that. But given that we are all resolving to be thoughtful about how we are using language, I'm somewhat curious. Does the fact that the band is bringing it up — is making it fundamental to their shtick, in fact — put it "on the table"? Am I still better off to avoid the topic? It would seem to be the height of assumption for me to presume I know something that these smart, talented women don't — wouldn't me trying to hold them to a standard that they're eschewing be tantamount to accusing them of the crassest sort of false consciousness? Discussion, please.

³ Barrett, widely known as a helluva singer, came off a bit below her peak form in this setting. Maybe a touch less confident on bass than her usual instruments, she had to lean back a lot to keep an eye on her hands, which pulled her off the mic while singing. This should be self-correcting in time, though.