Jon / David Chenery / Megabear!

Welcome to my first show review!  Bound to be few and far between, as I'm far too old and responsible to go out having a good time. And I'm broke and unemployed.  I said show review, and I meant it.  I'll describe the music as best I can, but I'm no expert on musical genres and I like a lot of terrible music, so there's better places to be bored by technical descriptions of something that's meant to be enjoyed.  But I'll let you know what I saw and heard and how it felt as best I can.

The Cambie, Nanaimo, Mar 19, 2011

I heard my old friend and ex-bandmate Dave Chenery was playing at the Cambie, so I made my way down to the old shithole to get drunk.

The Crowd

The place was filled with a wide variety of douchebags. The afternoon clientele of this joint generally gives it the ambience of drinking underneath the Johnson Street bridge, but tonight it was more like we was in da club. In Jersey. The focal point for me was the large table filled with tight-shirted-muscle-bound-shot-drinkers and their just-missed-being-fashionable-by-twenty-years love interests. And their cell phones. A young Peg Bundy held court over the mess, romanced by an enormous, sloppy Jabba the Hut-like figure in a spectacle that could only be likened to a truck full of watermelons colliding with a concrete mixer on a waterbed filled with tongues.

Jon

When I arrived, a fellow named Jon was in the middle of his set -- one guy, his first name, and his acoustic guitar. I couldn't hear shit above the uninterested babble of the yeti-heavy crowd, but John did an admirable job of trying. For him it was probably one of those nights where playing music is more like a shift on the factory floor than a shared connection with the audience, but he put in some very professional work. I saw an obviously solid player perform a strong set of folk/rock flavored numbers, with a passion that might have been difficult to muster given the air of general apathy. The audience was, however, lightly salted with music lovers who seemed to appreciate the effort. I got the feeling that I'd like to see Jon play again somewhere where I could hear what was happening. I previewed his band, Earlstown Winter, and their album “Porch Lights” here: 

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/EarlstownWinter1 

and that feeling was confirmed. Country tinged roots rock.

David Chenery

image © Robyn Von Swank

My buddy David took up space in my face after John left the stage, performing a set of all new material I had never heard. If you like to drink alone just before you kill yourself, you'll love David's special blend of darkness and despair. Haunting and heavy are good adjectives. All aspects of David's performance have continued to grow over the decade or so that I've known him, and his new shit is some of his best. He gave me a couple of tapes he recently released (that's right, tapes. Cassettes. I know.) The only thing I could dig up to play them on was a hand held, one speaker tape recorder with variable speed stuck on slightly too slow. Dave Chenery sounds just a little bit darker slowed down. I wouldn't have believed it possible. My favorite was the song he played first, 'Ain't I Evil?'. Beginning with a little steely guitar lick that would sound at home in the Mississippi delta, it goes deeper into the bayou with some scary lyrics I didn't quite understand but made me feel doomed anyway – “Ain't I evil? Oh lord/I'll take you by the hand/ lead you to the promised land/Oh, oh oh oh, I'm not ready to go/But it's too late baby, you're blood's already starting to flow”. Check out some of his old shit here:

http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/bands/DAVID-CHENERY 

For his new stuff, dig out your TAPE DECK and go see him live somewhere, probably Victoria, maybe with his illustrious band, The Lonesome Valley Singers. When you do, punch Dave in the balls for me. And tell Martin I said hi.

You can also download a free song from the Lonesome Valley Singers and watch a sweet heavyweight kickboxing match including japanese commentators and a surprisingly tender kiss here:  

http://beemp3.com/download.php?file=2165525&song=the+Long+misery

Megabear!

I don't think they usually have an exclamation point in their name, but they oughta. Partly because if a bear is mega, it deserves one, and mostly because they're fucking awesome. And it's not just the booze talking. Although it was also using exclamation points by this time . . . These fuckers were a crowd pleasing good time. Rifferiffic heavyness, catchy feelgood hits, slightly drunken drumming, one fantastic beard and . . . and . . . where was I going with this? They were a duo and I don't remember their names or if I even got them. They also play in another band I think, but I don't remember the name of it either. Or if it's even real. I tried to research it but the Cambies website is so wretched I wish I could just pee on it.  Look:

http://www.thecambie.com/pub/nanaimo
 

Anyway, Megabear! was a great rock band and I was drunk. If you like great rock bands, go get drunk near them.

Megabear! update:

Fomerly The Hotel Lobbyists, another great band.  Listen to them here:

http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/bands/The-Hotel-Lobbyists 

The beard is James Wood, the drummer is either Jordan or Jordie, but I bet he answers to either.  Here is an unrelated facebook page about some real hotel lobbyists from Washington, D.C. (The D.C. stands for District of Columbia) 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hotel-Lobbyists/137517647673