taking pictures of Art

Art Bergmann played a sold out show at Richards on Richards in Vancouver BC Thursday March 26.

Bergmann is unable to play guitar while he recovers from back surgery but still managed to be a menace on stage. He provided the surly and volatile stage presence fans have come to expect. I think anyone expecting a tamer, gentler Art Bergmann was in for a pleasant surprise -

I had forgotten how tense one of his shows could be… Bergmann threw insults at his band mates (made a gun gesture and shot his drummer and yelled ‘You’re horrible’ out, presumably to all of them). Of course, I didn’t feel sorry for them- they all looked like they could take care of themselves; particularly Tony Walker (aka Tony Baloney).

Bergmann also had an ongoing war with an uncooperative microphone stand (he won). The atmosphere got downright uncomfortable when the sound tech had what can only be described as a meltdown after being literally dragged across the stage by the sound man.

In contrast, Bergmann was friendly to the audience - he only threw a lime wedge at us (and, perhaps, the accompanying shot glass - I didn’t have my glasses on) and he even pointed out his nephew in the crowd. I am so glad I was able to be there for this show, it was exhilarating - rumored to be his last show, I hope this isn’t true!

For a big list of links to Art Bergmann related stuff, including a link to buy his new CD - visit my last post: Featured Artist for March (click here).

Video from Show

Baby don’t go rattling my monkey cage….

Rat Silo

Made up of ex-members of the late great Sons of Freedom, I preferred their slower stuff - kind of a Lou Reed crossed with Bruce Springsteen feel and great bass. The faster songs were reminiscent of Tragically Hip and I’m not a Hip fan. Was that the original bass player of Sons of Freedom? It had been so long since I’d seen a Sons of Freedom show, I couldn’t remember what he looked like. If it was, he is the only person I’ve ever written a fan letter to and one of the reasons why I started playing the bass. I never mailed the letter, but I was so impressed with his performance at a show that I actually wrote one…. I think the show was at the Commodore (early 90’s).

I didn’t get very good pictures of them (my fault, not theirs) - please visit their myspace site (click here).

Bring on the dancing horses…

TV Heart Attack

I own the Pretty in Pink soundtrack and I still stand by it as one of the best movie soundtracks of all time so it’s a compliment to this band that I felt like digging up my old cassette tape to see if TV Heart Attack was listed on it. One of the guys in the band was even wearing Duckie’s shoes so I can only assume that they are fans of this movie, too. The band was extremely tight and I bet they are going to do really well. It can’t hurt that two of the front men look like they should have been cast on Gossip Girl.

Here’s a quick slide show of some photos taken during their set. They have some good videos up on youtube too. In hindsight, I wish I had some photos of the guy dancing to them - I actually spent most of the set watching him, he was very entertaining…