>>PREVIEW
THE RHEOSTATICS
High Performance Rodeo
January 10 to 14
Big Secret Theatre
(Epcor Centre)
I’m not entirely sure how to properly address the music of a band that means so much, in so many different ways, to so many different people.
The Rheostatics are such a band and their music has affected Canadians for 25 years. Fans who have a history of listening to their essential compositions feel entitled to their music, and those who have just been introduced instantly experience a slight déjà vu that makes them feel like they have been listening to the band for a lot longer than they have. If you aren’t yet a Rheostatics lover, this High Performance Rodeo offers the perfect opportunity to get to know them. They’ll be the house band for One Yellow Rabbit’s festival, playing six shows and providing a retrospective of five of their albums.
The Rheostatics’ first full-length CD was 1987’s cleverly titled Greatest Hits – nine songs that established their love of Canada, their wonderful wit and a knack for writing a catchy rock song. Since then, they’ve released almost a dozen full-length recordings, including a soundtrack to the film version of Paul Quarrington’s novel Whale Music (not to be confused with the album Whale Music, released two years previous, that the band named after Quarrington’s book), a whimsical children’s record called The Story of Harmelodia and a double album of live material – which subscribes to the Foghat principle – aptly named Double Live.
I don’t think anybody would argue if I said these guys are shameless music geeks, who have grown to vindicate every kid shoved into their lockers or verbally pestered by peers who didn’t understand the bands that weren’t being spun to death on the radio and who, to be honest, never gave a damn about music anyway. The Rheostatics remind us that it is cool to love music – and they love so much of it that it’s contagious. When they sing about the first time they saw The Ramones or compose music inspired by Canada’s most famous painters, there is no elevation between topics – their passion is universal. What they love, they love equally in their music.
Their High Performance Rodeo residency will see them re-creating five different albums over six performances, starting with Whale Music and moving through Melville, Music Inspired by the Group of Seven, Harmelodia (for the kids) and their most recent, the engaging 2067. The halfway mark finds them performing with Calgary’s best musicians in a kind of Rheostatics karaoke night, where the band provides the music and local singers provide the vocals to their favourite Rheostatics songs. And just like the best Ship Jams, Lorrie Matheson will host the evening.
Matheson will be singing as well and, a hard-core Rheostatics fan, he’s having a tough time deciding which song he’ll do. "Early front-runners for me are ‘We Went West’ from Night of the Shooting Stars, or ‘Bad Time to be Poor’ from The Blue Hysteria," he says. "I'm having a hard time picking just one, but since I'm organizing the damn thing, I can hold off on the final decision. It's definitely gonna be a Tim Vesely tune, though."
Matheson has been into the band for more than a decade. "I don't remember the first time I heard them," he says, "but I fell in love with them in October of 1995, driving east over Lake Superior on my first tour out East. That's a loooong drive, and Melville was the soundtrack."
For many, The Rheostatics’ shows are as treasured as their albums. As the band members age, their live performances have evolved. The first time I saw them was at the Uptown with local openers Red Autumn Fall. An extremely special evening, the entire crowd hung on every one of Martin Tielli’s controlled wails, Dave Bidini’s positive incitements and Tim Vesely’s lush pleas. It was one of those wonderful moments where you enjoyed something slightly exclusive, but without feeling alone.
Since then, I have seen them a number of times, including a show in Vancouver where they played with Farm Fresh – which turned out to be one of the best shows that didn’t come to Calgary – as well as in stadiums, outdoors at festivals, and in more intimate theatre settings. With each set, they adapt to their audience and surroundings, which, of course, is not unique to this band, but they do it in such a way that it comes across as a compliment from a group of musicians so in love with what they do that they can’t help but take you with them.
Vesely, Bidini, Tielli and Michael-Phillip Wojewoda. Four musicians with extremely different sets of talents and passions, and yet they come together in perfect harmelodia. Hockey, art, music, production, books and kids have infiltrated their lives and their songwriting and it speaks to a nation of millions.
This time last year, during an interview with Michael Green and Blake Brooker of One Yellow Rabbit, I remember asking them to describe their company’s equivalent in the rock world. Without much hesitation, they responded "The Rheostatics." I suspect that’s because the band exudes creative independence. And no matter what direction they take, hit single or not, it’s genuine, genius and incomparably Canadian. |
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