Let it blow

Here we are, the final day of Bluesfest 2008, and my first exposure to hot Wichita duo Moreland & Arbuckle. They may be from Kansas, but there hearts are in the Chess Records studio, heavy on the harp. They also dig the rock, referencing Led Zeppelin and The Sex Pistols in their bio. I went to check these guys out - despite the double-barrelled name, they're actually a trio - and found they deserved their promising writeup.

Dustin Arbuckle says hello.



Aaron Moreland rocks The Paul.



Aaron slides some.



Dustin harps.



The whole lot! The drummer is Brad Horner.



Things get breezy.



More Brad!



Hair-shaking action!



Rocking action!



Aaron breaks out the cigar-box banjo.



Clapping action!



Faceoff action, now with extra string breakage.



More rocking action!



Thank you and good-day!



Another one of Bluesfest's more pleasant surprises.

• Show reminder: Upstairs at Cafe Dekcuf you have The Mohawk Lodge, Chris Page and Male Nurse; downstairs there's Priestess, Early Man and Trigger Effect. Al Wood and The Woodsmen and The Coggs perform at Irene's. The Elmdale House hosts John Allaire, Songwriters Roundabout and Matchless; The Sound Technicians, Watters Brothers and To The Rescue are at Zaphod's; The JW Jones Blues Band plays The Rainbow. Jon Reilly-Roe and Clair Reilly-Roe rock Raw Sugar; Brainhunter, The Sonic Defense and Minnetonka make some noise at the Avant-Garde Bar.

Stay hungry

Garrett Heath Kruger and Raymond E. Biesinger, the wacky Albertans also known as The Famines concluded the evening with some jumping and shouting and strumming and hitting.

Most bands wait for a few songs to go by before they run around in the crowd - they'll be no such delay here!



Garrett rocks the hair.



Raymond struts vertically.



The whole lot! Or to put it another way, both of them.



More hairiness.



Raymond works the crowd again.



Raymond goes down!



Whole lotta shakin' goin' on.



Aaaaaah!



Boom!



Raymond in red.



Raymond likes the floor.



Alot!



There's a lot of lying around on the job here. Must be Irene's swell rug.



I forget how Garrett got over there, or why.



And that's it! As you can tell, they're a lively bunch. I bought their book-tape combo, but haven't had a chance to listen to it because my tape player died. D'ohh! Book looks nice, though.

• Show reminder: Billy Bragg and The Skydiggers (or at least two of them) play Bronson Centre; Two Hours Traffic, Still Life Still, The Gallop and Taekwondo No-Show appear at Cafe Dekcuf. By Divine Right, Spooky Ruben and The Job perform at Zaphod Beeblebrox; Capital Grass and The No Men show their appreciation for Folk Festival Volunteers at the Elmdale House. The Bible All-Stars help the ladies of Starlite Burlesque shake it at Babylon.
  

The dead shall rise

Up next night at Bruised Tongue's night of noise, Fucked Corpse - home to the Tongue's executive. Fucked Corpse has been through a few permutations since I saw them first. Members have come and gone, their ranks have swollen and shrunk and travelled to the far corners of the world (or at least Montreal). While they were still playing here and there, a whole two years passed between this show and the last time I saw them at Babylon in July 2007. They were a quintet for this particular gig.

Ryan and Bruised foreman Craig.



Rhythm section action with Tongue co-kingpin and drummer-to-many Matt!



Ryan steps on it.



Barefoot Pierre takes the mike.



Singalong action with Carruthers and Craig!



Back-to-back action!



And so on!



Craig twists.



Tasmanian action!



Shouty action!



Craig works the crowd.



Big finish!



As for future plans, the Corpse appears to be lying low.

• Show reminder: First off, The Balconies and Modernboys Moderngirls play a rare Wednesday show at Irene's - you may want to go early if you want to get in, the way the buzz is going for both bands. Then again, it is a Wednesday in Ottawa ... Epyllion, Andrew Allen and Hot Shot Casino perform at Zaphod's; Lacuna Coil, Hail The Villain and Doll rock Mavericks. Solomon Dean and Decade Of Sleep play The Rainbow.

World of hurt

Time for another break from Bluesfest with Wrist Pain. This quartet of local music veterans boasts members from Weapons of Mass Seduction, Cold Coffee and Salty Boots, Daydream Square, The Trudels and The Solid Senders. They were openings things up for an evening of strange noise courtesy of The Bruised Tongue label.

The Duke (from WOMS) and Eric Espig (from a lot of bands).



Knob-twisting action with Aurele Gaudet.



The Duke goes wah. Behind him is Jason Vaughn of Artguise and Cold Coffee and Salty Boots fame.



The whole lot!



Jason sings and buys it for the articles.



Psychedelic action!



More Aurele.



Feedback action!



Eric takes the microphone.



Jason percusses.



The Duke switches to bass.



And finally, blurry action!



What they plan next I know not, but a release on Bruised Tongue is allegedly "coming soon."

• Show reminder: The Chandeliers perform their first-ever show at Babylon. The Idlers are at The Rainbow; harp guitar guru Stephen Bennett is playing the Elmdale.
  

Eats, shoots and leaves

I briefly considered going off to check out other acts after David Lindley had left, but I wanted a good place to watch Drive-By Truckers from and there didn't seem to to be a lot going on. So I took a seat near the security barrier and waited for them to get on stage. Shortly thereafter, someone tried to step on my head. It seems a group of young people wanted to get into Bluesfest but didn't want to pay, so they jumped a fence near the back of the Subway Stage, leapt over the barrier (and onto me until I scrambled out of the way) and took off into the sparse crowd, leaving only a water pistol lying on the ground in their wake. I just hope they weren't Ludacris fans - if so they were a few minutes late to catch his set. Back to the Drive-By Truckers. They're probably my favourite band currently in their heyday. They've also had a busy year, with a new live CD/DVD, an odds-and-sods collection and Patterson Hood releasing a solo album. They've got a hard-earned reputation as one of the best bands around and proved it with a long and sizzling set.

Patterson Hood says hi.



Mike Cooley smokes.



Phew, they turned the lights on! That's steel-guitar man John Neff at left and travelling keyboardist Jay Gonzalez just behind Hood.



More Mike! I tend to be a bigger fan of Cooley's DBT songs than Hood's.



"Is there any way to dim that light?"



Shonna Tucker sings!



Shadowy steel guitar with John Neff!



Gripping action!



More Shonna! And a blurry Brad Morgan on drums.



Trucking action!



Brad rocks the traps.



Faceoff action!



Cooley does like to strike a pose.



Mike works the axe.



Patterson swings the goldtop.



More gripping action!



Hooray!



The only problem was that Black Mountain was putting on an equally sensational show back over at the Black Sheep Stage and you couldn't see both.

• Show reminder: The Fays, Vancouver popsters The Parlour Steps, Sin Kickers and The Sonic Defence play Zaphod's; The Rainbow hosts Paper Lions.
  

Let it slide

David Lindley is truly a master. He's capable of playing with consummate skill, taste and invention on a staggering away of stringed instruments, and has been called on to flesh out the work of a vast number of other artists. His work as a member of Kaleidoscope is amazing - I heartily recommend the Pulsating Dreams triple-CD to any and all. He's also a wonderful solo performer, as I saw firsthand during his set at the Subway Stage - one of the best of the festival.

He started things off with some Weissenborn guitar.



Sliding along ...



He's been working on those sideburns since 1963.



Some mandolin action.



Storytelling action!



Thank you and good night!



An entrancing show. Lindley's rounding the month out with a few performances in his home state of California.

• Show reminder: Hostage Life, Dig It Up, The PG-13s and Assemble Me play Cafe Dekcuf; Quo Vadis, Martyr, Insurrection and Immersed bring the hammer down at Mavericks.

Give 'em the boot.

There was still more wandering to be done so I headed over to the Black Sheep Stage, taking the long way to see what was going on at the Subway Stage. The Rhythm Council was wrapping up their set. From what little I heard the band is mostly focussed on the keyboards of outstanding blues pianist Henry Butler. It also features a Sousaphone player Kirk Joseph of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Papa Mali, along with Mali's drummer Robb Kidd.

The Butler did it, and won several W.C. Handy awards in the process.



Sousaphonic action!



Mr. Mali himself.



And, er, that's it, since I then trotted over to the Black Sheep Stage to see That 1 Guy. He's a busy fellow. First he did the festival circuit, now he's crossing the continent on his Mustaches and Lasers tour. He had one Canadian date, in Montreal on Wednesday, and is now on his way to Philly. It's a little hard to pigeonhole his act - he's best known for playing on a series of pipes linked end to end, each one equipped with its own bass string. I imagine Primus fans might get a kick out of his act.

He also plays his own boot.



This song's a real toe-tapper.



That 1 Guy - a.k.a. Mike Silverman - sings!



Pipe-whacking action!



Can't say I've ever seen that before ....



Quite entertaining.

• Show reminder: Speaking of strange sounds emanating from pipes, Dead Wife, Army of St. Joan, Cousins of Reggae, Sick Llama, Cotton Museum and Self Surgery are at Leaky Pipes, better known to the postal authorities as 636 Somerset St. W.; You Say Party! We Say Die!, Think About Life and The Centretown Cripplers get the party started and finished at Babylon. Pilot Speed, Misstress Barbara, Eppiphane and Elias rock Mavericks; Ann Walton and the Crooker Brothers drop in at Cafe Umi; Lindsay Ferguson, Jadea Kelly, Dave Borins and Phlegm perform at The Rainbow; The Withering Pines and Nathan Hunter are at Irene's; Filly and The Flops, Iz and The Two Tone Rockers and the Honky Tonk Hearbreakers play the Elmdale House. Rep By Pop are back at the Avant Garde. The Most Serene Republic and The Windup Radio Sessions perform at Zaphod's.