Jesse LeBourdais / Greg Rekus / Bluebird / Fire Next Time

The Cambie, Nanaimo, March 28, 2011

Jesse LeBourdais, a guy from my hometown, er, village, contacted me telling me he was playing in town. Actually, I spammed his facebook account and he told me to come see him play. So I did.

The Crowd

A handful of folks, obviously here to see the music. Black hoodies with white graphics, denim with band patches. One of the out of town acts I talked to remarked upon the high ratio of good looking girls, wondering if Nanaimo was always like that . . . everyone clearly enjoyed the evening.

Jesse LeBourdais

Disappointingly, I made it down in time to see Jesse play his last two songs. I saw enough to tell you he's a passionate, confident and strongly rhythmic guitar player and singer. Instant parallels to the punk folk ethic of Woody Guthrie and the blue collar ring of Bruce Springsteen. Jesse has spent several years fronting accomplished hardcore band Cambridge out of Vancouver, check them out here

http://cambridge.bandcamp.com/

if you like your punk fast, tight, melodic and politically potent.

In contrast to the hard-edged sound of Cambridge, LeBourdais pursues an acoustic sound steeped in folk process on his solo efforts, but retains a bit of the sometimes heavy-handed political bent. Instrumentation varies from simple guitar and vocals to fuller ensemble including piano, fiddle, and accordion. Strong originals, far from cliché covers.

I really enjoyed (read: played ten times in a row) “Go To Sleep” from his two-song Little Mountain EP,

a strong comment on nationalism, patriotism, and American Manifest Destiny/continentalism:

“I go to sleep to the sounds of the engines firing up

And I wake to the sound of the death of my country

And in some ways I am happy for the loss

Cause I never asked to be born inside of an invisible line on a map.

But I know that I will miss this when it's gone.”

Also check out his new full length album, ”The Worst Kind of Ambition”

Jesse's solo material can be accessed and purchased here

http://jesselebourdais.bandcamp.com/

Greg Rekus

A dude and his guitar. And his own miniature stage fitted with dual tambourines, the better for stomping. And a shitload of energy, because counter to my prediction, buddy stomped the entirety of his set, and I mean stomped. And not just stomped, but played the stage like a big old bass drum. On the whole, impressive. A little too effective, because a lot of the time I found myself focusing more on the stomping and less on the rest of the music, but the trance it put me in was pleasant enough. The time I spent outside of this meditative state was fun, lots of singalong parts and interaction with the audience. I also told him he should play some Stompin' Tom. He gets that a lot. I knew he would.

Decent iPhone footage of Greg doing his thing in Winnipeg:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoSFBHDSr7I

He's also in a skatepunk band called High Five Drive:

http://www.purevolume.com/highfivedrive

Greg was super fun, and you should go see him.

Bluebird

Like an ass, I drank beer and talked through the set of the only local guy on the bill. I even got his name second hand and have no real idea if Bluebird is what he actually calls himself. Shameful, I know. I did hear his first two songs. The first was a high energy tribute to his dead homies, and I enjoyed it. The second was a cover of 'Long Black Veil' that I felt strayed too far from the classic melody and gave not enough back in its place. But I vowed to find this man and give his next show a decent listen. A guy has to get his drink on sometime.

Fire Next Time

Presumably named after the idea that god promised not to flood the earth again, but to send fire next time. Maybe not. I didn't ask. But a good name. For a damn good band. Instrumentation and image were everything a punk* band usually has, plus a banjo playing keyboardist(?!). They were tight, like gunpowder packed into rock. When they set it off, it exploded perfectly. Elements of rock, punk, country, folk, and just a hint of good celtic music. The big old drinkin' band celtic music, not that leprechauny lucky charms shit. If you like loud high energy music that practically forces you to have a good time, the choice is obvious. Check them out here:

http://www.myspace.com/firenexttimemusic/music

but really, go see them live.

*(Fire Next Time not necessarily a punk band)