A surprise gig @ NXNE for The RLB
Once again, fortune smiled on the Russell Leon Band.At about 5:32PM yesterday, Jay called from the annual (and infamous) EMI rooftop patio to say that Yvonne Matsell needed a band to play a NXNE festival showcase at the Silver Dollar at 10PM that night. Evidently Whiteboy Slim (AKA Maurice Richard Libby) was stopped at the border and had just called. Yvonne wanted a replacement ASAP.
Could we (a band with about 7-9 members depending on the day) get mobilized to play a gig in less than 4.5 hours? No problem.
I confirmed Russell right away, and Larry was also good to go. Keith was available, but Ansgar wasn't. And I don't know what Dan's story was. Brian was on the road to Montreal and couldn't make it (though he briefly contemplated turning around at Kingston and coming back to T-dot for the show).
The four of us got to the club around 9:15 and hit the stage right after 10. We proceeded to rock out to a crowd of disappointed Whiteboy Slim fans who were quickly converted to RLB fans. As well, a few friends came out after some last-minute promotion and that was cool to see.
We played the usual set of blended Rock, Funk, Ska, Reggae, Folk, Celtic, Latin, Klezmer and Pop songs and they all went over really well.
The Silver Dollar was one of the few rooms in the city I had never played, and I liked the vibe, acoustics and energy in the room. The soundman did an excellent job and the monitors were great, particularly in respect to Keith's sax levels and Russell's vocals. Of course, there was also LOTS of bass. :)
This is me with my favourite stage shirt (courtesy of my sister Su) and my Warwick thumb bass. I think I'm trying to pull-off a Pete Townshend-style move during the down-tempo part of Scenester here, but I can't remember for sure.
The first time the RLB played a festival gig was at CMW on February 28, 2003, and that was also a surprise gig. I had scored the band some festival passes and we all coincidentally happened to converge at the same club (Holy Joe's) at the same time for the same gig (I can't remember the band's name anymore).
The band that we all showed up to see had cancelled or just not shown up (perhaps due to border crossing problems), and the singer of the band that was supposed to go on afterwards was a friend of Russell's. The stage manager was pressuring that band to go on early so there wasn't an hour of dead air during the festival, but the singer had invited lots of media and biz peeps and he insisted they wouldn't start early and risk the opportunity cost. As the argument started getting heated, we offered to save the day by just filling-in for the no-show band.
Thanks to a combination of charm, good fortune and the graceful way a gifted pint can grease the wheels with even a hard-hearted stage manager, we got to play that night for a packed house.
It was SOOOOO much fun.
I had been playing with the RLB for only 3 months or so at that point and it was my second or third performance with them. It was definitely my personal best of that set, and the first time since playing with FRUST that I got to feel the rush of playing a GREAT high-energy set for an enthused audience.
That surprise gig at CMW was special for other reasons, too:
- FRUST had applied to play a CMW showcase twice (1994 & 1995) and we didn't get in.
- As a student at Ryerson's Journalism School (1995 & 1996), I covered the festival for the EyeOpener student newspaper.
- In 1997, a year after FRUST broke up, Tim Drodge and I were running the boutique Internet production company Humungous Productions and Canadian Music Week was one of our first clients. I spent a lot of time working with Neil Dixon on their web strategy and learned much about business practices of personality-driven companies from him.
- I was the CMW webmaster for almost four years (1997-2000).
- I spoke at two of their events (1998 & 1999) about the future of digital music and guerrilla web marketing for musicians.
- I launched KickInTheHead.com at CMW in 1998 and had a booth at the trade show in 1999 & 2000 (there are some great pics somewhere of Noah & I hanging out at the booth)
- In 1998, Jay's Tomorrow The World was THE buzz band of the festival and I got to experience his ride from an extreme close-up perspective.
- In 2001, I brokered the deal that brought Sympatico.ca to CMW as title sponsor
I attended the festival, conference and trade show in a wide variety of capacities for almost ten years, but never as a musician. So when I finally got to do that, even just thanks to a random series of coincidental events, it was exhilarating. I didn't actually realize the significance of it at the time, but hindsight points out how cool it really was.
The RLB played the festival in 2003 (Holy Joe's), 2004 (The Black Bull) and 2005 (The Cameron House). Each of the gigs were great, but this year's was definitely the best.
I'm really going to miss playing with the band. In a big, big way.
I'm also sure I'll write more about my RLB experience in about a month's time, as the lead up to our next gig (and likely my last with the band) is coming up.
And on that note...
The Next Gig from the Russell Leon Band
Saturday, July 16 at 11PM @ The Reverb (SE corner of Queen & Bathurst in Toronto) – Likely my last show with the Russell Leon Band. Most of you have never seen us play, and we really do actually rock. We’re a 7-piece (sometimes 9) blended Rock / Funk / Ska / Reggae / Folk / Celtic / Latin / Klezmer and Pop-influenced band that sounds sort of like a cross between The Police and Spirit of the West on a hot summer night. Many music industry insiders are regularly astonished to learn that we aren’t selling millions of records and playing stadiums.
It’ll be your last chance to see lovely me rock out with these amazing musicians, and it might be THE concert of your summer. So mark it in your calendars and tell all of your friends.
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