| The Chucky Danger Band |
[Oct. 21st, 2006|05:53 am] |
Having just witness one of the coolest things I've ever seen (as like the film 8 1/2, this concert just about caused me to orgasm) I may be a bit jumbled and erratic and ecstatic in my writing-- but maybe that just shows how great these guys are...-- so here goes:
Tonight, but was supposed to be last night(The band was delayyed due to car crash on highway), I went to a concert by The Chucky Danger Band; and independent group of young(Although, older than me(20s)) musicians from Prince Edward Island (John Alexander MacPhee (Rhythm Guitar/lead vocals): We're still getting used to these things you call 'mountains'.").
First of all, before the real rambling begins, let me tell you who is in the band, and where such an odd name as "Chucky Danger" originated: Front-Man, lead vocals, rhythm guitar: John Alexander MacPhee; Bass, backing vocals--And impromptu piano--: Rob Wellington MacPhee (John's brother, who was a rather cute fellow); Lead Guitar, kazoo: Colin Gilmore Buchanan; Percussion: David Cyrus Macdonald... All top notch performers, but I'll get to that later... The origin of the name comes from an idea that a friend of the band's had. This friend, who's name I wasn't told, wanted to name his first-born child, regardless of gender, Chuck Danger; they found this amusing, so as a tribute of sorts, the title of the band came from this.
Now 'tis the point of no return(kind of), abandon all hope, ye who enter(if that is seen as necessary, people who know me probably might not have to any more), and let the ramblithon begin:
The entered from the back of the room, behind the audience, in tailored suits and cheap multicoloured sneakers, then immediately began--
My general feeling throughout the concert was some type of euphoria, a feeling of watching something big start-- Although I might be wrong, but they definately have the potential-- like I was seeing a Factory concert, with Joy Division on the rise.... Or something like that. From the getgo, the songs were a mixture of melodic fun songs to unconventional solos and some almost avant-garde abrasiveness. There was a song where the lead singer and guitarist did kazoo solos. Later the drummer did a solo using 4 drumsticks at once. Later then an epic guitar solo featuring a large amount of varying, almost cacophonic but always hypnotic sounds leading up to him pulling a cello-bow out from behind an amp and playing his guitar like that. Later still, another drum solo starts, but the band wanders over by the drums, picks up some sticks, and the whol band does a drum piece. The last little act they performed was a little switcheroo: the singer went over in mid-song and switched to bass guitar, the lead guitarist went to the drums, the bassist just sang, and the drummer had a really cool bongo solo... The music generally reminded me somewhat of The Velvet Underground or Thw Who, but oftentimes I couldn't think of a good band tI could compare them to completely. Rather unique. The singer reminded me of Ian Curtis in a single way: Sometimes he didn't play the guitar aside from during the chorus and sort of danced about. The bassist and Guitarist danced, bounced and jived about throughout the concert, at one point the guitarist joined a small, four-person-mosh-pit which had formed to the left of the audience and had a few hops himself. A friend of mine who had joined me was convinced they were drunk or high. I don't agree. (And to the right of the audience was a rather strange man: Harrison: Who was dancing about like a crazy person throughout the whole concert.) Some of the songs had sing-a-long choruses, and a few more had clap-a-long choruses. My hands were sore from clapping, not only from those, but especially from excitedly applauding their performances. During the small breaks in between songs, where the singer talked for a little while and there was a little background tunage from drums, bass, and/or guitar, about his experiences in and out of the country from spain to guatamala(Where he helped build a school). He was extremely unpretentious (And after the concert, all were nice and glad to talk with me) and oftentimes his stories had rather funny little bits: "...And after my work shift was over, I went to my house to rest and relax. So I grabbedmy guitar and went out and played a little bit. It was relaxing me so much I was starting to doze off. And in this state inbetween slumber and waking, A cannon shot came from behind me... Now... I'm not sure how things work here in BC, how many cannons go off, in PEI that doesn't happen much, if at all, so it was just a little shokcing, and asI was startled, this song-- the lyrics and the tune-- came into my mind..." As one might notice from my comments so far, they had quite the stage presence. They really knew how to put on a show and from solos to little acts they were absolutely amazing. Their sense of theatrics and timing was superb. Their acts were not overdone but just right, they all seemed to be having a lot of fun with t (About as much as the audience). One odd thing I noticed is the singer had 3 guitars beside hime and he switched between a few songs... but he only used two of them fro some reason. During the bridge of the last song, after dancing a strange variant of the robot in the middle of the stage, the lead singer and guitarst came down off it (the stage was only a foot higher than the audience, which was seated in a smalle gymnasium-esque area in the local Canadian Legion, which I'm sorry I hadn't mentioned before) and the singer hopped on some of the empty chairs in the front row and this is when the guitarist joined the small mosh pit that had formed.... They soon returned tot he stage and finished the song, going into a wild flurry of notes-- the impromptu piano coming in here: the bassist getting on his knees and slamming his hands on the piano at the left side of the stage until the final note was played. They then bowed modestly, the crown got up, they cheered, they clapped, they cheered more as the band left the stage and went offf the stage and the audience chanted for more. Encore! So they returned a moment after... What happened then I dont think anyone, especially me, expected... It started with a little story..." I wrote this songs a long time ago... It musta been around 30 years back. I'm not sure if some of you had even been born that far back. I was on a plane coming back from what was then the USSR" No... I thought, "I was going to Florida, and thinking about the girls I had met back in the fatherland..." ... It can't be..."And that's when I wrote this song:
Flew in from Miami Beach BOAC
Couldn't get to bed last night
On the way a paper bag was on my knee
Man, I had a dreadful flight!
I'm back in the USSR!"
i JUMPED UP, i SCREAMED, i APPLAUDED AND CHEERED.-- oops-- I was bobbing my head and singing along. I couldn't beleive they did it. I wonder if Michael Jackson is going to ask for the royalty money. It was so awesome.... Later, when getting a shirt, a program, and a CD autographed, the singer agreed with me that The White Album is the finest achievement in rock music ever recorded (Which 'Back in the USSR' was the first song from, if you, dear reader, didn't know (And if you didn't, go get that album now (And Blonde on Blone, for that matter, which is also pretty dman awesome))). Another fun comment made: "Yes, yes, I agree with you there [ white album is the best], well, the best next to this." At which point he chuckles and pokes my CD. Afterward he said that it's got nothing on the White album, which may or may not be true, I haven't given the album a critical listen yet. But if it was as coola s the concert, then they have a shot at my top-ten.... The second-last song-- pre-encore-- was called"Sweet Symphony" which was a very great soong and was nominated for the "Best East-CoastSingle" by somebody or some group... "We don't know how that happened, but we're honoured".
Lastly, after listening to a few songs on the CD.. I noticed one little thing... They sounded better in concert...
:3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chucky_Danger_BandOr rather-- lastly now--: Before another modest bow and then retiring to behind the audience to give out autographs and brief conversations with the audience, they played one last song with a sing-a-long chorus: "Can you feel it?" It was another fine song. I'd like to answer it, hopefully making sense:
Yup. Verily. And I like it. I like it a lot.
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fidelio_roo's journal
Listening to horrid music
ich bin heiss
jai guru deva om
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PANIC! at the Gaybar
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curious: Why am I upsidedown?
Best thing I've ever seen
I feel unique, now... XP