CampusIntel

Here is a small list of some cool shows coming up in March or April. Check one out for something to do!

SNFU – March 19 @ Sneaky Dee’s, Toronto. SNFU started playing in the late eighties in California. Early skate-punk with fast licks and catchy lyrics.

Forgotten Rebels – March 13 @ Casbah, Hamilton AND March 20 @ Alexander’s, Brantford. The Forgotten Rebels were around during the first wave of punk in the late seventies. Heavy garage sound, basically just distorted Chuch Berry tunes if you ask me – which is a good thing. And, they have a new album coming out this spring.

The Specials – April 19 @ Sound Academy, Toronto. This show will be amazing. The Specials also started in the late seventies, playing ska in the UK. Rocksteady-reggae that heatseekingly catches the ear. If you don’t know ‘em, try ‘A Message To You, Rudy’ on Youtube.

Gogol Bordello – April 20 @ Sound Academy, Toronto. Gypsy-punks. ‘Nough Said.

Also, Germ Attack from Ottawa just released a 7-inch, and they are releasing a new LP, Cruxshadow, in March. Speed-Street Punk that has been evolving in Ottawa for almost ten years now. The thing about Germ Attak is they have really well-done recordings, and they are seasoned musicians, so they know what they are doing. I recomend, and will have to pick these up sometime soon.

Word. Thanks for reading, reply with a comment about a show I’ve missed. See you in the pit.

Baltimore hardcore band Give opened the show at the Opera House Friday night, and set somewhat of a heavy tone for the night. Sadly, I only caught the last two songs of their set, and I really wish I could have seen more. The thunderous, bass-laden drums that continuously keeps rolling on through both fast parts and slow breakdowns initially captivated me. Their uniqueness kept my attention. Give is definitely a hardcore band, complete with tell-tale aggressive heaviness. This gets mixed, though, with a lighter guitar sound. There isn’t too much distortion, making it easy to follow the rhythm. Comparing the guitar style to a similar band would not be easy.  And, when a band can heed me from b-lining to the bar as soon as I get into a show, which Give did, they usually stick around in my playlist for good.

The D’urbervilles, who took the stage after Give, are also great at keeping your attention. Their new-age brand of rock-pop beamed through the Opera House. Their sound is somewhere between Joy Division and the Weakerthans, and much in common with most dance-rock indie bands. However, they strike their own pose. They have some very technical, high-tempo, yet sometimes hard to follow, drum beats. Two synthesizers, looked after by guitarist/lead singer John O’Regan and lead guitarist Tim Bruton, work together well with the clean, palm-muted, not too overpowering guitar lines. There were highs and lows to this set – when at their best, The D’urbervilles can trigger sporadic, arm-throwing dance moves in any wallflower, like they did for O’Regan.

After the D’urbervilles, Kurt Vile played a captivating six-song set that I, once again, was very drawn into. He opened with “Overnite Religion” accompanied by a second guitarist/percussionist, who laid down the tambourine and maraca lines of the song. The trippy folk-rock made up of loop-dubs, looped drum beats, and guitar, set an intimate vibe throughout the Opera House before Fucked Up went on. At times I felt like it was just Kurt and I alone in a room, and when I would come back to my senses, I would look around and confirm that everyone else was also entranced by him. The third song was drummed by Jonah from Fucked Up, which added a refreshing crack to the low-key stoner rock. In total, the Kurt Vile set felt almost like a healing process, a cool rejuvenator before Fucked Up tore the place apart.

Tore it apart they did. Fucked Up started their set with drummer Jonah’s mother playing the flute line from “Year of the Rat,” and then dove into “Son the Father,” off their Polaris Prize winning album “The Chemistry of Common Life,” and staple opener for recent shows. They moved smoothly into “David Comes To Life,” with a tweaked breakdown in the middle, differing from the studio version of the tune. By mid-set, lead singer Damian Pink Eyes Abraham lit things up and tore his t-shirt off, as usual. For the next song, Damian sang while pulling an impressively long microphone cable around the entire Opera House floor, a perfect way to engage the crowd. Near the end of the set, while playing “Crusades,” a fan who grabbed the mic from Damian and started singing was attacked by another audience member, the attacker was swiftly removed from the event. After a quick break, the debacle was sorted out. The band just picked up where they left off, and finished the song with the final chorus. The performance was full of Fucked Up classics,  including a thrashing rendition of “Two Snakes” off the band’s debut LP, “Hidden World.” The sextet played well together, in sync at all times, while frequently switching and changing parts of many songs.  A tight set, that was undoubtedly planned and polished, from one of Toronto’s hottest bands.

I posted last month about a bunch of shows going down in the GTA in the new year, and now I have realized that an update is due.

First off, the Slayer and Megadeth “Canadian Carnage” tour that was scheduled to hit Toronto in February has been rescheduled. The tour, which was a rescheduled event from a missed show last summer, has now been set for the end of July – they hit the Molson Ampitheatre in Toronto on July 29. Check out www.slayer.net for full tour details.

As a reminder, there are two Fucked Up shows happening around the GTA in February. They are at the L3 Nightclub in St. Catherines on the 23rd with Leatherface, and are in Toronto on the 26th with Kurt Vile at The Opera House. Wallet allowing, I will be at both shows.

And, something really exciting for me, oldschool punk band The Forgotten Rebels are doing some shows in the coming weeks: On February 27 they will be playing at The Casbah in Hamilton with The Lucky Ones; and on March 20 they will be at Alexander’s Tavern in Brantford. These are two shows that any ‘77 punk lover will need to see, myself included.

Also in February, skate-punk originals The Queers will be at the Horseshoe in Toronto on the 21st; and Killing Fields will be at the Rearview Mirror Bar in Toronto on the 20th for a FREE show.

Coming up, two-tone kings The Specials at the Sound Academy in Toronto on April 19. Can’t wait to dance the night away for that.

There are battles of Alberta, Summit Series’, and “Magnificence” vs “Greatness”; but is there an NHL rivalry greater than the current individualistic battle between Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin?

The two phenoms entered the league as at least respectful rivals of each other. Prior to their simultaneous NHL arrivals, they had only ever competed against each other on the international stage, playing for Canada and Russia, respectively.  With cameras and tape recorders rolling, making campy NHL commercials and delivering birthday cakes at the NHL All-Star game together slowly morphed into on-ice physicality and off-ice verbal sparring.  Welcome to the business of “selling” the new NHL to the American market.

It’s a protagonist-antagonist scenario that seems to be inspired by Vince McMahon himself.  In one corner, you have the abrasive, exciting, inimical Ovechkin; equipped with infinite energy and a talent level he must have exchanged his soul for, hailing from Mother Russia, a country that, according to Hollywood, produces more bad guys than perogies.  His opposition, the humble, hard-working, and traditional Crosby; hailing from Canada, playing and interviewing the way the Canadian hockey heroes of the past did before him.  Of course, as the NHL panders to the North American market, it’s easy to portray Crosby as the “good guy”, though Ovechkin, Federov, and every other Russian NHL star has been adorned in their homeland.  Most Canadian fans would likely admit that there’s Russian NHL’ers that are better than Canadian NHL’ers, but they’d feel like they were betraying their country if they ever uttered it publicly.

Forget all the media hoopla; shouldn’t the NHL be sending royalties to the parents of Sidney and Alexander for deciding to have children that grew up to capture the attention of their entire audience?  In the ongoing battle to procure American advertisers and cable network broadcasters, the NHL can count on at least Penguins and Capitals games as easy ratings sells; providing that Crosby and Ovechkin are in the lineup.  Did anyone care about the Capitals before Alexander the Great?  A team with no Stanley Cups, and nothing more than a conference championship in 1997-98, former Hart and Art Ross Trophy Winner Jaromir Jagr couldn’t even make hockey exciting in Washington.  All of a sudden, the Verizon Center has sell-out crowds, and the team is a contender.  Ovechkin plays with a wreckless abandon that has resulted in a kneeing suspension, but what is coach Bruce Boudreau going to do with his star, bench him?  Tell him to ease up?  Come on.  The Penguins at least got to pair Lemieux and Crosby together in 2006, but the Steel-Town had been pretty dismal since the back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 1990-92.  Sure hockey’s a team game, but to suggest that the individual ability and rivalry of Crosby and Ovechkin isn’t largely responsible for the teams’ success and the league’s rising interest, is naive.

The 2008-09 playoffs were an absolute treat to watch, and many people would point to the Pens/Caps Eastern Conference showdown as a highlight, as well as an indication of who would/did become the eventual Cup winner.  Fans got to see Sid and Ovie go at each other for seven consecutive games rather than once a season, and they got to see both players at the top of their respective games; Game 2 featured both players notching hat tricks, and Sid’s 13 series’ points and Ovie’s 14 equaled the highest single-series point total since the 1995 NHL playoffs.  It was awesome.

Penguins win the series 4-3, and the “evil” Ovechkin, was banished back to Russia (well, Washington), screaming promises of revenge (actually he wished that the Pens win the Cup, but just work with me) while he was being dragged away. Meanwhile, the “heroic” Crosby was adorned on a mountain top, cape waving, a dark curl dangling from mid-brow (just above his perv-stache), all while giving an interview where he characteristically puts over his opponents, commenting on how well they played, and not giving himself any selfish credit. Wouldn’t it have been great/justified if he had finally just snapped, either after that series or after winning the Cup, and said, “YOU SEE?!?! I AM BETTER THAN HIM!!”

Ovechkin wins rookie of the year, Sid’s named the youngest captain in history.  Sid wins the Art Ross and the Hart, Ovie wins the Richard and Pearson awards.  And so they dance.  We’re still waiting to see what Ovechkin’s equal to Sid’s Cup win will be.  Alexander’s pursuit of a championship, Sidney’s defence of his, and their continued rivalry will continually be fun to watch, and is easily the best rivalry in the NHL today.  It’s Canada vs. Russia, tradition vs. new school, team vs. team, and man vs. man, all wrapped into one ongoing showdown.  If the NHL can’t sell that to Americans, then tearing fans away from the baseball diamond and football field for the hockey rink is a fruitless endeavor anyways.