Music West '96
Vancouver, B.C.
May 2-5, 1996
Text by P. Freako
Photography by Rodney Gitzel
Friday morning. Feeling brave, I wandered down to
the Music West conference at the Plaza of Nations. The first sight
I saw was music industry shmucks, and the horrible realization
set in that I had not gotten rid of all the evil bloodsuckers.
Sigh. Ahhh to hell with it, I'll drown my sorrows in boring seminars.
They're usually not too hard to find. I shouldn't knock them, but
you know, I wish more bands would attend these things. The more
of the business side the band knows, the better; the more control
they can take of their own career, the more the music business
folk can be held accountable, the better the situation for the
band. These industry types know this stuff already and most of
the time it's an egofest. Christ, there's enough music conferences
already, why don't we lose that part of Music West and just make
it a live band-a-thon?. Something to think about for 1997.
Friday night I ventured down to the Phunky Toad to
catch DSK, and, meeting up with our beloved
editor, we
heard a couple of songs and mutually decided that that was about
enough of their hard edge rock sounds for tonight. I don't know,
they just didn't seem to bring anything unique to the situation.
Anyway, back out I go and it's off to the Hungry Eye to catch
a band called Difference Engine. They had kind of
a funky, rock, in your face vocal thing happening and managed
to bring out a lot of noise with one guitar and one bass. Dare
I say a rasta version of Faith No More? They were great! The one
lead singer (there were two) was bounding about the stage in his
satin Spidey top and whipping the crowd into a mild frenzy. End
of the month at The Gastown Music Hall is where you can see them
next. I'll be there.
I like "The Eye," so I stayed for some
more. Are you ready? Close your eyes, relax, empty your mind and
imagine the following scenario: The Rocky Horror Picture Show
goes Hardcore Punk. Does that scare you? It should! I'm talking
of course about The Muscle Bitches, who were @#!%&$
fantastic!! Comprised of band members sporting (variously) a black
dress with red frills, a g-string, a pink jumpsuit and a blue
mohawk with a Mr. T. lookalike beard, they jumped and blared their
loud, in your face, interactive, insane hype with sweat pouring
from every fibre of their being. It ruled.
Still dizzy and delirious from the Muscle Bitches,
I thought I better hang around a while longer. This resulted in
me catching The McRackins. You've seen them, these three
guys with their painted faces and white outfits, two dressed up
as eggs and one as a dog. You can't miss them. They're always around
aggressively promoting themselves, so I thought I'd finally see
them. They put up chicken wire in front of the stage, to give
it that cool country look I suppose, and had a guy dressed up
as an 80 year old man bobbing his head and pounding beer, which
was funny, which is good. Their music was heavy rock with that
modern edge, but I've heard it before and nothing really stood
out for me, musically that is, but I will say they are quite the
hypesters and make their surroundings unique.
Feeling more stable, I returned to the Toad to catch
Seattle's Lloyd's Rocket. Sporting a new bass player, they
performed more of their slick alternarock to the sparsely attended
room. It was late after all and people were tired, I guess. Yah,
whatever. They were slick from start to finish and offered some
smooth power guitar combined strong vocals making for a mix of
good songs and thusly a good set. We've reached the halfway point
of Music West. Time for a stretch.
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3
