Recording: The Hold Steady

Artist: The Hold Steady

Song: Charlemagne in Sweatpants

Recorded at Lee's Palace, September 27, 2009.

The Hold Steady - Charlemagne in Sweatpants

My notes for this show can be found here.

Recording: The Hold Steady

Artist: The Hold Steady

Song: We Can Get Together

Recorded at Lee's Palace, September 27, 2009.

The Hold Steady - We Can Get Together

Afterthought: I had this previously listed as "Heaven is Whenever", which was the assumed title before it was formalized on the album — it was even introduced as such at the time.

My notes for this show can be found here.

Gig: The Hold Steady

The Hold Steady / Still Life Still

Lee's Palace. Sunday, September 27, 2009.

Making good time over to Lee's, had a few minutes to check out the merch table, grab a drink and rest for a moment, looking over the early-arriving types grabbing seated spots along the walls. Looked like a bit of an older crowd, folks who didn't come out to as many shows as they used to, but were making an exception for The Hold Steady. Once J. — the one who's like the drums on "Lust for Life" — made an appearance, we grabbed some spots in the middle of the dance floor, figuring it'd be harder to claim 'em later on.

Openers on the night were Still Life Still, not exactly an intuitive stylistic match, so perhaps more a sign they know people who know people in order to get them some primo exposure like this. Say what you will about the lads, they are certainly working it hard — this was the fourth time I'd seen them this year, and that was with me hardly going out of my way to do so. Their total number of local gigs over the past year must be pretty impressive. None of the previous shows had totally won me over, though I'd found their album to be okay. My ultimate conclusion is that I find them to be kinda enjoyable for three or four songs, then their lack of variety leads to diminishing returns.

On this night, it certainly felt like the band was cramming in as many songs as possible into their set, rather than letting some of the songs breathe and stretch out some. They played the entirety of their Girls Come Too album, though substituting the non-album cut "Keep Your Gun" — which isn't working a radically different sound — for "Wild Bees". The mid-tempo-y¹ "Kid" and "Planets" might have worked the best, the latter with a crowd sing along for "it's a family of wolves out there, they bury their young". It seems remarkable that despite the fact that this was a very sold out show for The Hold Steady that SLS still had a large, vocal coterie of fans right up front. After the set, I looked over at J. to gauge his reaction, and he sorta shrugged and shook his head — not a strong endorsement. The overall crowd reaction was pretty similar — warm approval from those up front, not particularly overwhelming from the HS crowd they were trying to win over.

Taking the stage to the strains of The Eagles' "In The City", one could immediately see and hear who the crowd were there for. Singer/guitarist Craig Finn was immediately handed a hand-made sign reading "THERE IS SO MUCH JOY IN WHAT WE DO" — a frequent pronouncement from the stage — that was received with a smile. That's a line that encapsulates The Hold Steady pretty well: you could come to love them either because of their classic rock riffs or their literate lyrics, but when it all comes together live, it's always an explosion of joyous energy. As always, Finn was an irresistible focal point, spitting out his sung/spoken words, and always having more to say than there are lyrics in the songs, his lips moving to a never-ending off-mic stream of consciousness between lines.²

The show's very existence was an unexpected delight. I got into THS one tour too late to see them in a club, and never thought I'd have a shot at seeing them in such intimate quarters. This cross-Canada jaunt seemed to be "one for the fans", and the band, no longer really touring behind '08's Stay Positive was choosing freely from all of their albums. We got a half-dozen from '05's Separation Sunday and a trio from Almost Killed Me (2004), not to mention a handful of new tracks, including the Hüsker Dü-referencing "Heaven is Whenever". Nice to hear some stuff that isn't normally pulled out, including an extended "bar band" version of "Charlemagne in Sweatpants" climaxing with a lead guitar face-off between Finn and Tad Kubler³

I suppose I don't have a lot more objective stuff to say — this was simply a rather fantastic show. A pretty good crowd, too, well into it and with plenty hoots of joy to be heard. The band played seventy-five minutes plus a four-song encore, starting with another new one and ending with "How a Resurrection Really Feels", with the penultimate track a run through "Most People Are DJs", including an extended mid-song get-those-hands-clapping monologue talking about how the experience of listening to music at home or at a party or wherever isn't like being at a show, crowded in among people. "This is rock and roll!" shouted Finn. Precisely.

Listen to a track from this set here. Aw hell, one's just not enough. Let's go with another one here, too.

---

¹ Well, everything the band does is kinda kid-tempo-y. The main rhythmic difference, I guess, is how busy drummer Aaron Romaniuk gets on the high-hats.

² I've always imagined that Finn's additional unheard interjections would add up to a sort of Talmudic commentary on his own lyrics.

³ Or, "My good friend, Mr. Brett Favre", as Finn called him. Indeed, after a tour-cancelling bout of pancreatitis last year, Kubler is looking hale and hearty and leaner than previously.

Recording: Bruce Peninsula

Artist: Bruce Peninsula

Song: Steamroller

Recorded at the eye Weekly Music Tent, Word on the Street Festival, September 27, 2009.

Bruce Peninsula - Steamroller

My notes for this show can be found here.

Word on the Street

Word on the Street. Queen's Park, Sunday, September 27, 2009.

Well, I'm not the world's most literate guy, but I do feel a warm burst of affection in the old whatzit at the idea of Word on the Street. Sprawling in and around Queen's Park, there's a wide variety of booths for book-related organizations¹ and publishers and magazines and what have you, all in a massive arc around Queen's Park Circle and running up almost to Bloor. And the park's greenspace itself, colonized by a variety of stages catering to various tastes — the biggest one a CBC stage presided over by Start McLean, indicative of the sort of scrubbed-clean middlebrow sentiment that is WOTS' sweet spot. But there's plenty more inneresting stuff around the edges.

Arriving at noon, I had to pick between a couple options: Sandro Perri on the eye-sponsored music stage, or a reading from Ray Robertson. Figuring that, given my habits, I'd have more chances at hand to revisit the former, I went with local writer Robertson, someone who works I've followed pretty much since Home Movies, his first novel. Starting from there and through four subsequent novels, Robertson has written with a certain kind of attitude — rock'n'roll as opposed to folk, we might say, to pull out a music metaphor — avoiding our national literary tradition of fusty frontierism, that whole garrison mentality thing.² So it was with some surprise to me that Robertson introduced his new novel David, set in Chatham in the late nineteenth century. Ah, ye olde historical novel, that CanLit staple. Pretty aware of the sort of thing he could be lumped in with, Robertson cracked some jokes about how he left enough sex and drugs and general bad behaviour in the novel that he wouldn't have to worry about renting a tux for the Giller celebrations. He read some from the book and chatted with the crowd and left a pretty positive impression.

After that, wandering across the park, I did manage to catch the last couple songs of Sandro Perri's set, including a new song written from the werewolf's point of view. And then I had a few minutes to wander round and decide my next move. Tho I was tempted to check out Masaisai at the world music stage, I decided again to go with books over music. Or at least panels about books about music. Formally a discussion of Stuart Berman's BSS biography This Book is Broken, ("Dave Morris from EYE WEEKLY will be leading an onstage interview with Stuart and members of Broken Social Scene," crowed the event website, which turned out to be somewhat overstated) the panel turned out to be Jonny Dovercourt, Dalton Higgins and Sarah Liss.³ More of a chummy retrospective chat about the history of the local indie rock scene than anything too hard-hitting, the conversation mostly played out between Berman and Dovercourt, with Higgins and Liss dropping in from time to time like kooky sitcom neighbours. In fact Higgins⁴, as someone coming into this discussion at more of a tangent, scored the most stinging point by noting that for all of the complaints the indie rockers had about the difficulty in building up their scene, they had, in fact, all kinds of infrastructures and supports that weren't available to, say, reggae or hip-hop groups, who are no less "independent" in its most basic sense. I perhaps didn't learn much that I hadn't read about in Berman's book or otherwise experienced on my own, but there is a kind of basic thrill in seeing something you can relate to as real, actual history.

Stuck around to check out Bruce Peninsula. Although highly-praised by many music authorities around town, I was more reserved in my appreciation after the last time I'd saw them. Playing as a relatively compact seven-piece (still enough of a crowd that drummer Steve McKay was consigned to a spot on the ground to the left of the stage) the band managed to fill the tent with sound quite nicely, despite the fact that other stages on both sides were also blasting competing music. One of the "hooks" of the music stage at a literary festival is a mandate for the artists to talk about their writing process, and although Matt Cully and crew seemed a little shy and reluctant, their banter did a nice job of unpacking how they use old ways of singing to explore the world around them, and to find their voices in a community of song. Cully and Misha Bower also talked about the yin and yang of their music, how it can be effective as either a raucous shout directed outwards or a quiet, self-directed lament — which they then put into practice with the juxtaposition of "Weave Myself a Dress" and "Crabapples". Enjoyed the thirty-five minutes with the band on this occasion more than I had previously.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Went for a walk after that, both to poke around in the stalls some and to keep an eye out for some friends I knew'd be wandering the area, and indeed came across them and that turned into a pleasantly strolling visit.⁵ And after, J. stuck around as we headed back to the eye tent to catch Joe Pernice, reading from It Feels So Good When I Stop, his first novel. A noted musician for his work both under under his own name as well as with the Pernice Brothers and the Scud Mountain Boys, Pernice has turned the narrative and observational gifts apparent in his songcraft to the page. He read a selection from the novel that was fairly satisfying, but commented after that it wasn't so much the passage he'd most liked to have read as much as the one passage he could find with the least amount of blue language to read at a family-friendly event. Still, it was filled with grim humour and sounds like a book I will get my hands on. It was followed by an interview distinguished by lengthy, detailed questions from the interviewer that set up short, curt responses from the author — about the exact opposite ratio one'd like to see in a situation such as this. But good fun, all the same.

Coulda stuck around the music tent to catch Ghost Bees, but not only was I worried that the noise from the surrounding stages would overwhelm their delicate songcraft, I'd also told A. that I'd meet up with him. Found him in the Proud Voices tent catching a poetry reading by Billeh Nickerson. The bit I caught sounded fairly amusing. We walked over to the author signing tent after so A. could get Nickerson to sign his book, and spotted Margret Atwood down at the other end of the tent, looking bright and friendly as ever at the end of what must have been a long line of enthusiasts queueing up to meet her.

All told, a pretty solid afternoon. Another one of those events that make me feel like a citizen, and glad that I live in this city.

---

¹ Everyone is pro-literacy, it seems — who's taking up the opposing viewpoint on that?

² This about exhausts my theoretical wellspring of literary knowledge.

³ As it turned out, everyone on stage was wearing sneakers. Utter coincidence? Trenchant meta-commentary? You decide!

⁴ Higgins had his own appearance on the same stage following this panel, bringing up some rappers & DJ's for something more involving than a mere discussion on his book Hip Hop World. Based on his engaging personality, were I not called elsewhere, it'd have been inneresting to stick around and hear more from him.

⁵ Celebrity sighting: Bob Rae, taking a break from the machinations of power politics (and possible internecine scuffles) and relaxing with some street food, leaning against the concrete entrance to Museum Station.

Recording: Kids on TV

Artist: Kids on TV

Song: Dazzler

Recorded at the Gladstone Melody Bar, September 24, 2009.

Kids on TV - Dazzler

My notes from this gig can be found here.

Recording: Diamond Rings

Artist: Diamond Rings

Song: On Our Own^*

Recorded at the Gladstone Melody Bar, September 24, 2009.

Diamond Rings - On Our Own

My notes from this gig can be found here.

^* Thanks to Colin for confirming the title on this one.

Gig: Kids on TV

Kids on TV / Diamond Rings

The Gladstone Hotel (Melody Bar). Thursday, September 24, 2009.

Celebrity encounter! Rolled into the Gladstone just before the show's starting time, looking around for A. Found him near the back of the room, flipping through a magazine, and we headed back up towards the front, figuring to nab something near the stage before the place filled in too much. The table up front that we decided to crash was being held down by none other than Lauren Schreiber, mastermind of the No Shame independent music series, now a hundred shows deep and beyond. She kindly offered us a spot and we chatted a bit about the awesomeness of Kids on TV as the early part of the show began, a retrospective of KoTV's short films and music videos. Though I'd seen them all at various times in the past, it was interesting to see them all back-to-back, plotting a trajectory from KoTV's more overtly experimental/explicit early works to the more subtle current stuff that still manages to convey the same themes. We were joined by some familiar faces, including Ms. Singing Lamb and young D., who remains unconvincable about KoTV's merits. In a pleasant turn, K., in need of some cheap entertainment, also dropped by.

In fact, there was a rather healthy crowd out, and the room was pleasantly filled as Diamond Rings took the stage. In a similar get-up to his appearance at Owen Pallet's birthday bash¹ John O'Regan filled his half-hour set with seven songs of new-romantic yearning; slow jamz and upbeat ones, split between guit and keyb. He managed to shill for his vinyl single in a most self-depreciating manner: "You should probably be buying things from Kids on TV tonight. If, after buying everything from Kids on TV, and having five beers, you still have seven dollars, then buy my record." As he noted, most in the crowd were familiar with "All Yr Songs", given the cheer it got, but several of the other tunes on offer were at least as good as that one, showing this is no one trick pony. An amusing sort of environment to have a show in, with the stage abutting the bay window overlooking Queen Street, giving the audience a view of some of reactions from passers-by outside, including one guy, who looked like he should have been wearing a soiled mackintosh, who strolled by to examine John O. several times. Good fun.²

Listen to a track from this set here.

After the fabulous roll they've been on all summer, it was sweet to see Kids on TV cap it off with a crowded show in front of an enthusiastic crowd. And for me, seeing them at the Gladstone was a nice bit of things going full circle, as it was here that I first encountered them.³ During Blocks Recording Club's monthly night at the Gladstone, the band were celebrating their new Shape Shifting Mutants digital EP, playing a full, hour-long set, mixing together old and new material. Opening with "Breakdance Hunx", we got to hear some Mixing Business With Pleasure tracks like "Jeremy, Mon Ami" and "Hanky Code" that haven't gotten an airing for a while. It was more pleasing, though to hear how well the newer material holds up beside the classics, making the anticipation for the next release even greater. In fact, the band announced from the stage that the next album, Pantheon, should be out March '10, so some of the new songs not on the EP (like "Dazzler" and "Liberace's Lover") will find a proper home. The band even debuted a new song, "City of Night", named after the John Rechy novel. So there's a lot to look forward to from the band.

Sadly, though, this fabulous show might have to tide us over for a spell, as after this the band is "going into hibernation for a few months," according to John Caffery. Still, glad they went out on a high like this — as A. commented on the way out, their best show of the summer.⁴

Listen to a track from this set here.

---

¹ Though lacking the deluxe "Diamond Rings" t-shirt he was wearing last time out, John O. was wearing a fetchingly teal Florida Marlins jacket.

² And the good times continue: Diamond Rings has another show coming up and the newly-opened Garrison, October 15th, with his split-single flipside mates P.S. I Love You plus Katie Stelmanis.

³ It was, in fact, way back at the end of '05, when they played at the This is Not a Reading Series launch party for Maggie MacDonald's Kill the Robot. Having never heard of them, I remember being blown away, and after the show J. and I were tossing the verses of "Breakdance Hunx" back and forth while waiting for the Queen car in the December night's chill.

⁴ I didn't pull out my camera for this one, but Ivy L. has some good shots at her Blog T.O. review.

Recording: Wavves

Artist: Wavves

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at El Mocambo, September 22, 2009.

Wavves - unknown

My notes for this set can be found here.

^* Do you know the title of this one? Leave a comment!

Recording: Ganglians

Artist: Ganglians

Song: Hair^*

Recorded at El Mocambo, September 22, 2009.

Ganglians - Hair

My notes for this set can be found here.

^* Thanks to a commenter for passing along a title for this one.

Recording: The Bitters

Artist: The Bitters

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at El Mocambo, September 22, 2009.

The Bitters - unknown

My notes for this set can be found here.

^* Do you know the title of this one? Leave a comment!

Gig: Wavves

Wavves / Ganglians / The Bitters

El Mocambo. Tuesday, September 22, 2009.

Not a gig that I was overpoweringly anticipating, but I had enough curiosity dispersed among the three acts to overcome my Tuesday night get-to-bed wishes. I was hoping that this'd at least be a relatively early night. Alas, the listed nine o'clock start time turned out to mean ten, giving some extra time to kill beforehand as the crowd in the El Mo built up.

With about four times as much stage space to spread out in compared to the last time I'd seen 'em, The Bitters sounded tighter and looked more professional.¹ The band hit the ground running playing three songs in a non-stop burst before having to stop for a tuning break and banter with the healthy-sized crowd, with plenty friends and music-scene peers right up front. The band sounded more rehearsed, and Fogel roamed the stage with a leonine swagger. Once again, I was impressed by the band's old-school rock'n'roll virtues: lean songs, harmonies, snarling guitars. And a sense that the band is having fun — at one point Ben Cook started to make fun of Wavves-man Nathan Williams' baseball cap, and Fogel snatched it off his head to wear during the next song. The tightest set of the night.

Listen to a track from this set here.

If Sacramento's Ganglians had a motto, it might be "more reverb!". I'd picked up their album, out on Woodsist, and was struck by how it had reminded me of their labelmates Woods, both bands purveying a woozy, decentred kind of psychedelia featuring a tremulous, trebly vox and plenty — plenty — reverb. Real turn off your mind, relax and float downstream stuff. I wasn't fully satisfied with the album, but it did leave me with the sense that this band had something going for it. And, indeed, experienced live, the band proved themselves to be an interesting proposition. Although the elements of their sound — esp. those keening, warbling vox — remained constant, the band managed to show a range of ideas that kept things entertaining throughout the half-hour set. Credit the drummer, whose jaunty backbeat did the most from transforming these songs from the folksy meadow rambles on the album to the full-blooded lurches on the stage. It even managed to make me feel mildly woozy and fuzzy-headed — in a rather pleasant way — with the songs getting better as the set progressed,² and I don't think that was just the beer poured into a skipped-supper empty stomach. A strong live showing.

Listen to a track from this set here.

I must confess I came in never having heard anything from Wavves³, knowing Nathan Williams mostly by reputation for the wave of tabloid-y headlines he'd coasted to town on — and, indeed was, on this night, cruising towards. Still wearing a cast from a wrist broken in a skateboarding accident and with a tour-ravaged voice, the youthful singer was showing the effects of fast livin', but still able to put on a show. Playing as a duo, with Williams on guit and vox, accompanied by Zach Hill on pummelling drumage. The latter added most of the show's visual flair, playing with a frenetic, heavy metal intensity, hair flying and sticks a blur. The music was basic rudimentary noisy punk, tho not without some melodic smarts — enough, perhaps, that some of the songs would have stood on their own, without his guit being sheathed in layers of distortion and his vox swathed in reverb — but such was is chosen m.o. Which isn't totally anything to complain about — I do likes me noisy little pop nuggets when they're done well, and Williams had a respectable batting average.

Not bad for a youngster (a fresh-faced 22) still learning his craft. Watching the show, I was thinking some about the weird times of instant hype we live in, and how a guy like this can rise out of obscurity pretty quickly. Would his work be better if he had some more time to refine it in the minors, as it were, before getting called up to the bigs? And the flipside of the coin is the sheer randomness of this sort of hype. The young man is not untalented, sure, but there's no shortage of acts in this city (or in a bunch of other cities, I'd guess) that are at the same level and mining the same vein. Which is to say, if this was a local act that you saw in your local dive, it'd feel kinda cool and special; as an international touring sensation it feels mildly like a backlash-inviting put-on. A matter of perspective, I suppose, and maybe it just exposes me, in this internet age, as a sort of fuddy-duddy with a parochial bent for thinking that, these days, geography matters.

Ah well. It was an okay set, and there were a reasonable number of young folks there who well into it. If this is their gateway into a love affair with noisy little pop nuggets, then ought I complain?⁴ A short-ish, half hour set, plus one song encore and then the night was done. Overall, a decent night, if not revelatory.

Listen to a track from this set here.

---

¹ How professional? "Since the last show, we did a Nike commercial, and then Ben and Jonah won the Polaris award," vocalist Aerin Fogel casually tossed off between songs. In the ensuing collective discussion of how the Polaris is not such a big deal, the words "Nike commercial" were otherwise ignored. Whether this was a true fact or a jape, it's eyebrow-raising, in a way — in the past, a band like this would have said something of this sort to get a rise out a crowd, to act as if they'd sold out. Or, I suppose, to indicate that they had, in fact, sold out. But now, it's just another bit of info, and was received by the audience without comment. This is how the culture has shifted.

² Including one song that borrowed quite liberally from The Clash's "Car Jamming", of all things.

³ Pronounced like waves.

⁴ Though, speaking about the kids and me as an old fuddy-duddy, I was less than impressed with some of the crowd's concert decorum. By the end of the night, the floor was covered with no small amount of broken glass from people having finished their beers and whatnot and just setting them down on the floor for other people to kick about — a potentially dangerous situation when a lot of these same people are semi-moshing around and bouncing off each other. Is it so difficult for people to get that when you buy a drink, you're responsible for the container? If people lack a sense of how their actions impact on others and can't keep up with this minor sort of social obligation, what hope do we have for dealing with some of the big problems that we collectively face? I despair, some times, I tells you.

Photo: Random tree art

Better than throwing your gum and bottle caps on the ground, I guess.

Recording: Japandroids

Artist: Japandroids

Song: Crazy/Forever + Sovereignty

Recorded at the Horseshoe Tavern, September 19, 2009.

Japandroids - Crazy/Forever + Sovereignty

These songs just flowed together so nicely, I decided to just leave them together here as one long track. Enjoy!

My notes for this gig can be found here.

Gig: Japandroids

Japandroids / Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band

The Horseshoe Tavern. Saturday, September 19, 2009.

Leaving the Music Gallery and the Woodchoppers gig, took the walk over to the 'Shoe at a brisk pace. Sadly, I'd missed Brides who were first up on the bill,¹ but it looked like I'd be able to get there just in time to see Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band.

In fact, I made my way in and walked up to the stage with moments to spare before the five-piece from Seattle took the stage. Had zero knowledge of the band going on, so I was able to take it with a blank slate. Shades of Modest Mouse, inasmuch as the band featured sorta yelpy vox and a sorta spastic take on guitar rock. Two guits, occasional chirruping keyb, extra drums brought up to the front of the stage for extra percussion, and Traci Eggleston's backing vox. Towards the end of the set, Eggleston employed a pair of cymbals taped to the end of two broom -handle-like sticks for floor-banging rattlin'. Nothing at all wrong with what they were doing, but it didn't grab me all that much, not even the last song, which dared to ask that burning musical question: "What's in his souvlaki?" They were entertaining in their presentation, otherwise, no long-lasting impression.

"In case you didn't know, it's fuckin' on tonight," guitarist Brian King announced, wind blowing his hair, as Japandroids took the stage. Leading from a position of strength, the Vancouver duo launched straight into the dance frenzy of "Heart Sweats", which segued into a low-slung run through "Darkness on the Edge of Gastown". Two thirds of the way through the crowd started to applaud, and Brian said, "Hold it! We haven't done anything to deserve applause yet!" as they leaned into the ending of the song.

It turned out we got the extended Saturday Night set, with the band pulling out some songs that were outside their regular setlist, including a new (?) song — another one with pick-it-up-quickly lyrics: "Here's your body back / here's your punk rock back" — and also "Couture Suicide" from the group's first EP. The pair were clearly having a ball, and ingratiating themselves with the crowd with that age-old trick of denegrating the other cities they're playing: "They're sure not getting that fucking song in Columbus!" Not that such ego-stroking was required, as the crowd was pretty rabidly into it.

And then "Young Hearts Spark Fire", the hit, was like gasoline on flames, giving a whole whack of dudes a prime opportunity to push their way up to the stage, scream along and generally push people around. Suddenly there were bodies bouncing off me; I moved back some. After a ripping cover of Big Black's "Racer X" with Dave on vox, the band played "Crazy/Forever" for the women in room, inviting any who wanted to to come up stage to dance "without getting a fucking elbow in your face", leading to a suddenly full stage. That careened into the stellar "Sovereignty", probably the high point of the set. Definitely much more than I was expecting, the band played seventy minutes before encoring with "I Quit Girls".

A pretty good show. The band have a winning attitude, a democratic "fuck yeah" aimed back at every drunked-up partier raising a beer to them, tempered with an aw-shucks vulnerability where they seem moved by the crowd's support, impressed that people are paying and shouting for songs that they would be playing to each other in a room anyway.²

Listen to a track from this set here.

---

¹ Though I did spot them, sprawled out en masse in one of the Queen St. doorways beside the 'Shoe, supine in the post-gig comedown.

² There's also some signs of some rigorous aesthetic smarts somewhere in their camp, with a snappy and varied assortment of t-shirts on offer at the merch table.