Monday 3 May 2010

French, Fists and Cottage Rock


We gathered a fine group of lads for the latest Graven show on Saturday: Japan Dan, Bill "Double Fist" Henry, the Dox, Old Ollie, and Sweaty.

Things got warmed up early with Texting Mackenzie - a little power trio from Guelph. Sweaty musta yelled "Gay-welph" a dozen times; laughing like it was a great new joke each time.

Graven hit the stage - we hit a few more Baltikas.

Matty was in fine form. Yelling, whooping, humming and singing - then dashing in some Gord Downie like improvised lyrics. At times he pulled out some Plaskett-style falsetto; all the while pumping out original Graven vibes.

A noted irony of the night was watching a fine creative band sing, and in the background, through the window, hordes of teen dancing queens lined up to get into some throbbing club.

Sweaty was anxious all night because French never showed up. After the most excellent show we all headed out to the street. There was French with his guitar, harmonica, and an open guitar case. He'd been playing just up the block; busking a few bucks from the kids lined up outside the dance club.

French plays pretty obscure songs. Turns out the kids gotta little sick of hearing Fred Eaglesmith tunes all night. This big lad tried to push his guitar case closed. French handed Sweaty his guitar, grabbed the goon and twisted him up tight and quick into a brutal wrist lock, tossed him down to the sidewalk, then stepped on his head and packed up his gear.

A couple of the goon's buddies tried to step in. Double Fist surged forward snarlin'. Dox held him back by the collar. Lucky he didn't slip outta his coat.

Japan Dan snapped a few pics. French picked up the goon and kicked him the ass for good measure.

Dox spoke to the goons and his pals: "Don't you boys have a home to go to?" The look on his face said more than his words.

Matty handed the head goon a Graven CD and they shuffled off down the street.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another good evening. Must have been the many Baltikas and Graven's music and the sly jokes from double fisted "I dont know the woman" Henry that got the boys spoiling for a fight. Usually the Dox lays low, not much of a fighter ya see, but when your backed up by hard drinkin' lads like French and Sweaty, well hell, you just get all puffed up and ready to take and throw a few. Ah, Fred Eaglesmith on a busker's guitar - that's sacred music to me.

HP

Fisheye Lens said...

Jesus Christ, does a brawl break out everytime the Bloggers do a night on the town? Sorry I missed the brawl, and the Baltika!

Fisheye Lens said...

"cottage rock" -- have you registered that genre with Patti Schmidt yet?

Unknown said...

great story olliver. i'd type more but my cat is on my chest making this difficult. glad to give those rowdy bums a shot to the kidneys. cottage-rock is a graven trademark.

Square Corner said...

Very, very, very good. Wish the SC was there to hit those rapscallions over the head with an old Underwood. Like I commented to Dox, we gotta collect these posts and put together an anthology. Could be bigger than the Beatles, man.

Anonymous said...

Yes, correctly.