Tuesday 30 October 2012

Concert Double-Header: Adam Woodall vs She Stole My Beer

   I was glancing through the North Shore News, which I do periodically, and noticed the ad for the West Van Centennial Celebration in Ambleside Park on June 2nd, 2012. I scanned through the listings for the various stages and noticed two bands I knew playing at the beachside beer garden stage and thought... " Printed Mediis not dead". Nobody had informed me of this big bash going on. Thanks, North Shore News!
  It was going to be a juggle trying to catch both acts which were spread about three hours apart and to take care of other time-demanding errands. I plotted a way to find some time and scooted down to see The Adam Woodall Band first. 


   I walked down to the waterside park and wandered past some food vending stalls past the main stage toward the beach point where a stage was set up with a beachside beer-garden. Adam opened up with Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic", which has lyrics pertaining to the sea, setting a nice tone right off the bat. Adam continued with another classic by Johnny Cash. He played a few of his own tunes but kept the classic rock flowing. It was good, clean, classic beer-garden music. Adam's voice was sounding great. His band is very tight and minimal. Lead Guitarist Jesse Tucker lays down tasty chops and can really wind up a solo when the time comes.

   I played in a band with Adam years ago, called Apple and the Juice CompanyThe band didn't last very long, unfortunately. It had members from Crazy Fingers, Second Nature, The Way and People Play Music ; it was a melting pot of Vancouver early 90's rock.

   We were lucky to have Apple Jensen as a singer. She was our own late '80's version of Janis Joplin with an amazingly powerful voice and a happy, outgoing aura. And she would boogie. The only problem was that she was in at least three other bands- People Playing Music, Second Nature and The Harvesters (Crazy Fingers). All were bands from our scene that I used to love to see, dance to and share stages with.  We knew that pressures were mounted against us in regard to Apple. Her more established band-mates didn't need another band stealing her attention.  It came to a boil when we did our first show together with two of them and she had to play in multiple sets. It became obvious that we were going to be judged critically and that she would be pressured, once the dust settled, to drop her extraneous act -The Juice Co. I remember it being a tense performance that went off okay but didn't make a huge splash.
    As chance would have it, I left Studio 16 with a female companion in my van (which was my home at the time) and headed to Jericho Beach. I had my new amplifier and guitars with me and said good night to the rest of the band and we headed down to the empty windswept parking-lots at the waters' edge by UBC. We had a bunch of drinks and had a hazy night together only to wake up to the sound of seagulls and clinking sails, with a bit of a hangover. 

    We decided to head to The Naam for breakfast. I hopped in the front seat of my van and she got in the back side door and sliit shut, then climbed into the passenger seat up front. Unfortunately, she didn't yank the door hard enough and it stayed slightly ajar. I was partly guilty, for the crime that ensued, for having left my brand new amp (only one rehearsal and one gig's use) standing up on it's castors (wheels) when I moved it off the camper-bed, late the previous night.
 
    As I rounded my way up the hill out of Jericho beach onto 4th avenue I heard a horrendous sound. An evil sound like the grinding of teeth on metal. I turned to my right and, to my surprise, I could see my side door open and my Fender Twin amp outside on the road doing about 50 mph upside down beside the van. I pulled over and collected the bits and pieces of it.  

  We got to the Naam and I was feeling shakey and down right ill. I was cringing at the thought of the monthly payments to Long and Macquade on top of the repair bill and the embarrassment of it all. All of a sudden I felt like I was erupting like Mount Vesuvius and cupped my hands over my mouth and ran for the bathroom. Luckily I made it through the packed restaurant to the restrooms in the back and felt better after hurling. But how barbaric!... in such a healthy, morning-breakfast atmosphere.

   It reminds me how I've destroyed a lot of gear by accident and had some really close calls: like backing halfway over a vintage pedal-steel after bringing it out to a jam session.  My heart sunk to my feet as I drove back off of it, got out and loaded the crumpled Fender 400 into the trunk of my 1980 Mercedes. I was glad nobody had seen my blunder, which was caused by my leaving my keys back in the house. By the time I returned to my car, I had forgotten that I'd left the huge steel-guitar case directly behind the back bumper after I had tried, unsuccessfully, to put it in the trunk. The moral of this whole blog has got to be: be careful how you unload gear. Luckily, when I got home I was stunned to find that the only damage was to the case. Those old Fender cases were well made.  

   I was lucky that time, but in the case of the road-wrecked amp: it was repaired but never felt new again and had an ugly slat of wood across the back to protect the innards. The band fizzled shortly after as well, with all the musicians going separate ways I wish I had some video of the one show we did for a sit-down crowd (in rows on the dancefloor) at the Commodore, opening for Jefferson Starship.


   I'm really glad Adam continues to play because he writes great songs, he's got a friendly attitude and has a good knowledge of music theory. The Adam Woodall Band has got to be the busiest band on the North Shore, which is a rare success story in West Vancouver, an area where it's hard for bands to gain traction.





   Back in the present, She Stole My Beer were now playing and I had returned with some friends to rock out at the beach stage. The beer garden line was long and winding. The North Shore rock band was in fine form playing classics from "Sparks Off the Guardrail". As they played a cover of The Band's "Don't Do It", to their home crowd dancing on the sand,  a jumbo cruise ship floated by in the background, adding to the fatness
   
   It was great hearing some live Grateful Dead-inspired jamming in the open air and in West Vancouver, to boot. SSMB had resurfaced stronger than ever, with double drums and percussion. There was percussionist Franco Diligenti ( his brother Darren had joined my early band: "The Way", and was later followed by Adam, prior to the creation of Juice Co.)  and Geoff Hicks, who also played with "The Way" at the fabled Town Pump and jammed with "Juice Co."at Opto-Trist. They played alongside original stalwart-drummer Dean WaismanTom Taylor, Chad Chilibeck and David Hughes on the guitars were playing well and enjoying themselves. Of course, their sound would not be complete without Jordan on the keys. Hopefully, they play a lot more shows and the upcoming generation of West Van youth will tune into them, because they are a Canadian Classic and one of the better bands to come out of B.C. in the last few decades

       This double header goes to "She Stole", for sheer excitement level and crowd participation. AWB is also a Canadian Classic and may be holding down the most gigs on the North Shore per year, but SSMB proved they can still generate a sizeable crowd and get it moving.



Please feel free to tell some AWB or SSMB road tales in the comments section.