‘Tis the season … for leather? OK, so this is a weird one. Heavy metal icon and Judas Priest singer Rob Halford has released a Christmas album. I am confused. Aren’t Judas Priest the very same band who back in the 80s were put on trial for allegedly putting hidden satanic messages into their albums so that when played backwards they convinced kids to shoot themselves in the face? Oh, I get it, when you play this backwards, it turns into an anti-Christmas album and …. Dammit! I can’t get this CD to play backwards! I guess I’ll just have to listen to it the regular way. And not shoot myself in the face.
Anyways, it seems that other than the chugging guitars and piercing falsetto vocals, this is a straightforward seasonal entry. It’s even got traditional tunes like “O Holy Night” and “We Three Kings,” which actually sounds kind of awesome when given the metal treatment. I wouldn’t mind hearing this played at the mall slipped in between the Bing Crosby tunes. It’s not quite up there with Bing or the Boney M Christmas album, but it’s an interesting change of pace.
Went to The Mountain Goats & Final Fantasy last night in Austin; full review coming, I’m tired and trying to track down a set list. For now enjoy this video I took.
I ‘ve never been to a Billy Bragg concert before. In fact I couldn’t name you one song that he sings. My best friend Louise however has been a huge Billy fan for a very long time and has seen him six times so I went along with her to check him out. Oh I should let you know she’s from Leeds. Billy’s from Essex. This means nothing.
Turns out Billy Bragg is pretty amazing and pretty effing funny! It was just him alone onstage with his guitar. It takes a lot of stage presence and charm to hold an audience’s attention for ….get this…..2 ½ hours!!! All on your own. But he did. He joked with the audience and told us stories and played kick ass songs. Most of which reflected Billy’s social conscience and his desire for people to tune in, keep faith and join together in a battle against world cynicism.
Throughout his set he drank tea…..adorable.
My favourite anecdote was about him being in St. John’s and hearing that Margaret Thatcher had died and he was pissed because if he was back in England he’d be dancing in the streets and celebrating with the rest of the working class…….then he found out that the Margaret Thatcher that died was a dog…..he said he felt more sympathy for the dog.
Billy’s Set List
The World Turned Upside Down
Accident Waiting to Happen
Cindy of a Thousand Lives
The Warmest Room
Mr. Love & Justice
A Lover Sings
Ingrid Bergman (Cover of a Woody Guthrie song)
Ain’t Nobody that Can Sing Like Me
I Ain’t Got No Home in this World No More (Reuben Jones cover)
No Power without Accountability
Sexuality
Evidently Chicken Town ( A John Cooper Clarke cover in the style of Bob Dylan)
Freedom When Liberties are Taken in Thy Name. (The intro to this song was criticism aimed at our politicians for allowing Omar Khadr to rot in Guantanamo. The crowd went wild.)
Levi Stubb’s Tears
The Saturday Boy
All you Fascists
I keep Faith
Power in A Union Encore: Milkman of Human Kindness
Then he played about a million other songs from his first album but by this point I had been standing for four hours and didn’t care. Ended with A New England, a crowd favourite and a sing along ensued.
Then Billy Bragg tea bagged the audience. Yes that’s what I said. He tea bagged the audience. He took the bag out of his tea and tossed it into the crowd.
Well done Billy! Add one more fan to your list. My Favourite song of the night? Billy Does a cover of a John Cooper Clarke poem in the the style of Bob Dylan. Here is the John Cooper Clarke version:
The Balconies are a three piece from Ottawa, who have recently relocated to Toronto to attend school. They consist of Jacquie Neville, Steve Neville and Liam Jaeger. On the CD you can hear the occasional three part harmonies for mostly upbeat, catchy song with super catchy riffs.
The stand out song on the CD has to be Battle Royale. I played this for Ricky and his response to me was “Man, that Balconies song you played for me was awesome”. My response to him was “Yah, too bad it is the only one like it on the album”. That sounds awful since I really enjoy The Balconies CD. It is a solid pop album that sounds like it came out of Sweden, not Ottawa. Other solid tracks include 300 Pages and Serious Bedroom, but really, Battle Royal is a stand alone entity that deserves some attention.
The Balconies were opening up for Immaculate Machine and Dog Day. I spent most of the show sitting down in the back, but I did move up to the front for a couple of songs. While in both locations I overheard two different sets of people say to their friends “Hey, these guys are pretty good”. They were right. The tracks on the CD translated really well at the Horseshoe and they sounded fantastic. They opened up with an extended version of Battle Royal, which was awesome. Half way through the song it became apparent what the story of the show would be. The story of The Balconies begins with Jacquie Neville. She is a rock star. Her beautiful vocals, her hard and catchy guitar playing and her stage confidence reminded me of other Canadian female rock veterans like Emily Hains and Giselle Webber (Hot Springs, /Giselle Numba One) The one part harmonies of Jacquie Neville and her guitar playing are what I remember most from the show. Should they consider ever changing the name of the band, may I suggest Jacquie Neville & Friends?
One thing that was painful was their stage banter. The only time they really spoke to the crowd was when the drummer mentioned that their CD was for sale over on the side table. Even muttering those few words, it was obvious he had never attended a Toastmasters meeting. He started to say something in addition to his rehearsed “buy our CD” line, but he was cut off when one of his band mates broke into the next song. Awkward.
