Sounding a Mosaic, in the middle of a snow sqawl.

Yesterday, the Greater Toronto Area geologically sucked. My day began at 7am with a 3 hour trek to Mississauga in the middle of a snow sqawl which according to local news caused almost 200 accidents in the course of 2 mornign traffic hours. My energy and focus for this hellish work day was fueled solely by the news that my darling lady friend Carrie had secured two tickets to go see a performance by Bedouin Soundclash and Guest (The Junction) at Big Buck's Lodge in Burlington, or as is appropriately called by our local radio station Girlington because of the attractive nature of the majority of the other women there. However, Carrie still somehow ranked most attractive solely because of her ability not to look like a drunken fool on the dance floor as opposed to every attrativO running around us.

I've asked that Carrie write something for Seeds and Applesauce because of our frequent cultural escapades of late, and I dont feel it fair that is always left to my nonsensical ramblings to document the fun we have when out and about on the town; regardless here we go again.

We checked out Bar Italia on College Street for dinner, and dispite the most inept yet compassionate server I've had in a long time, I was treated to a bounty of a meal consisting of some wine and a really nice Risotto with Grilled Chicked, Portabello's, and Spinach strewn throughout. After much debate Carrie went with a nice Rigatoni in a blush sauce with Sausage, Rapini, and of course the choice of the season, portabello mushrooms. The meal was fatiguing, and I blame the liar of a light pasta Rissoto, and the house red, but nevertheless we made our way in horrendous wintery conditions westward to Burlington, land of the industrial boring, to see what could most likely be dubbed a top five of my most favorite of Canadian bands.

Their overly high ranking is in most part due to the childhood relationship I share with their drummer Pat Pengelly. We grew up together in Kingston, Ontario, frequenting tournaments of mini stick hockey, summer baseball, and the occasional school assembly or function with him on drums, and myself on drama queen performace roll. Regardless, it is amazging to see such success for a guy who used be a siv of a mini stick goalie. Another small note on Pat. Everytime I go to show, despite their increasing international popularity he has never onced passed me by without recognizing me, stopping to say hi, whats up, new, and thanks so much for coming. Now, prior to Pat's touring with Bedouin, I had not seen him in close to ten years, and reagardless of that enormous span of life, and all the faces he has to no doubt deal with after a performance for half a thousand people evernight, he still manages to remember my name, face, and our past. To me that is incredibly respectful and to that I throw a virtual cheers to Mr. Pengelly for being a stand up guy! Now sign my CD. Hah.

Alright, enough KissAssery. Well enough Pat KissAssery, now on to the Bedouin Group Kissassery. Every time I hear this band play I am impressed. They truly sound better live than recorded. A lot of this has to do with the use of reverb on lead singer Jay Malinowski's vocals on the majority of their songs live, which has this ablility to fill a room and when combined with the bass, drums, and his own lead guitar give so much more sound than a three piece ensemble should allow.

In my own social circle, Bedouin has taken a lot of heat lately, because of the mainstreams ability to saturate the public's ears with their single "When the Night Feels My Song". Recently voted best new single at some award show by Molson and the Edge radio station called the Casby's, "When the Night feels my Song" sadly isnt even close to one of their best songs. They dropped a hint last night that their next single to drop first in the UK in December and then to follow in North America in the spring will be a combination single combining a cover of U2's "New Years Day" and their own track "Shelter". They played this track last night, and it's good. Really good.

One might critique a band for releasing a cover as their second single and say that they are risking one hit wonder status making that move. FOR SHAME, I say to those listeners, solely because the recorded version of "New Years Day" was produced by Ian Broudie and Steve Harris in the UK, who also produced the original by U2.

If you have never checked out Bedouin before, please do, their link is listed at the end of my Phresh Phaces and Spaces section on the right column of this blog. Last night's show was just like all the others I've seen; really fuking good, and thats the most straigtforward review I can give you.
The best part about the show last night is that I finally got to restock both of their albums into my collection which were stolen during our Super Bowl Kegger last January. I guess thats one way to spread their good word.

posted by mr. tomas ubik @ Friday, November 25, 2005