Scenic detour

The Scenics formed in the same Toronto scene that generated The Mods, The Ugly, The Secrets, Teenage Head, The Viletones and their various offshots.  The Scenics aren't the only punk rock band to be influenced by The Velvet Underground, but they may take it a lot further than other combos, having released a much-praised covers album. Waiting For My Man, Candy Says and Here She Comes Now all made their way into the set.

Andy Meyers, part of the original crew.



Ken Badger, the other founding member.



Mike Young joined in 1979, and was replaced the next year by Ken Fox, now in The Fleshtones.



The whole lot (including drummer Mark Perkell)!



Shortless drumming action!



More Andy!



More Andy!



Some of these no-flash photos turned out decent.



Singalong action!



Scenic action!



Ken sings!



Big finish!



The years between their 1982 breakup and 2008 reunion don't seem to have dimmed their desire to make a loud noise, that's for sure.

• Show reminder: Big Jesus Truck and At Arms rock The Observatory at Algonquin College. Montreal rockers GrandLife are at The Rainbow; Dearly Beloved make some noise at Babylon's Boozeday bash.
  

On the scene

There were an interesting couple of acts last night - some local rock'n'rollers and a bunch of 1970s Toronto art-rockers.

40-watt Monkey was supposed to open but an urgent family matter KOed their appearance. Thus, they were replaced by a new group of familiar faces, The Big Bend. This was the band's second gig; they made me think of early classic rock, such as Joe Walsh circa There Goes The Neighborhood. There are a couple of Boom Creekers on board (Ian Vance and Ike McFaul) as well as Ashley Newall .. keyboardist and singer Tom rounds out the group.


Big Bend, Zaphod Beeblebrox, October 14, 2009

The Scenics made their reputation in the 1970s as an outsider band on Toronto's fertile rock scene - they show up on the Last Pogo DVD. Their tangled sounds reference The Velvet Underground. They're big fans, and have recorded an album of covers, some of which also showed up in their set in somewhat deconstructed versions of Waiting For My Man, Candy Says and Here She Comes Now. They could be a Canadian version of The Twinkeyz, and occasionally sounded a bit like early Talking Heads. Interesting historical note: Former bassist Ken Fox headed south and ended up in The Fleshtones - he's played town a couple of times with them.


The Scenics, Zaphod Beeblebrox, October 14, 2009

They sounded pretty good, and don't sound like they've shyed off the guitar freakouts or volume in the years since they got their start.

• Show reminder: The Great Bloomers and Kalle Mattson perform at Zaphod's; the Elmdale House hosts The Wild Turkeys and The Grass Mountain Hobos.