Glam Slam wrap-up

Warning: extremely inside

A small personal note and a thank-you to everyone involved in Thursday night's Glam Slam, the annual CFRU fundraising prom in Guelph, Ontario. For the second year in a row it's been a great honour to play with friends old and new and cover a wide swath of material. The set list is always a tightly guarded secret, so for any of you who know the principals involved and are curious, here's what went down and who sang what:

Shout (Isley Brothers): Geordie Gordon
Walking on Sunshine (Katrina & the Waves): Jen Cutts
Glory Days (Springsteen): Vish Khanna
Thing Called Love (Bonnie Raitt): Sylvie Smith
I Only Have Eyes For You (Flamingos): Geordie Gordon
Pretty in Pink (Psychedelic Furs): Dave Withers
Once in a Lifetime (Talking Heads): yours truly
Ghostbusters (Ray Parker Jr.): Bill Whitehead, complete with six cans of silly string: "bustin' makes me feel good!"
Careless Whisper (George Michael): Nick Craine
Crazy (Gnarls Barkley (no relation)): Tristan J. O'Malley
Do Ya Think I'm Sexy (Rod Stewart): Sylvie Smith, Evan Gordon
Thriller (Lambchop... just kidding, Michael Jackson): Jen Cutts
Get It Together (Beastie Boys): Vish Khanna, Anita Khanna, Michelle Lobcowicz, Bill Whitehead

If you don't know who any of these people are: Geordie, Sylvie and John Merritt are all Barmitzvah Brothers; Evan leads the most fantastic live band in Guelph, the Sad Clowns (also featuring Geordie and John. Both Gordon brothers play guitar and keys. Bill Whitehead hosts one of my favourite CFRU shows every Saturday morning, Voyage to the Great Attractor, and many moons ago played in a band with Jesse Stewart; here, he played clarinet of the bass and regular varieties. Jen Cutts used to sing in a band called Corduroy Leda. Tristan O'Malley (guitar), Dave Withers (Guitar, percussion), Nick Craine and I (keyboards, saxophone) used to play in a band called Black Cabbage. Tristan, Vish and I played in a band called the Neutron Stars. Anita and Michelle roll with Vish.

Other band members: Chris “mastermind” Herlihy on bass (Nathan Coles Outfit); John Merritt on drum kit, percussion and electronic drums; Gary Pereira on tenor saxophone.

I'm not sure why so much of the set drew from the 80s--don't kids today want to hear something newer? Apparently not, as the youngsters in the band (Sylvie, Geordie) didn't pick anything older than 1990 (Geordie picked songs from before even I was born). Gnarls was an obvious contemporary choice, and we picked the Beastie Boys just to make sure we had something from that god-awful decade of pop music that was the 90s.

I just find it strange that the song that's been stuck in my head the most for the last few weeks has been "Get It Together"--what does that say about all those other pop hooks?

This experience reminded me once again that I spend far too much time consuming music compared to creating it. Needless to say, the latter is always more rewarding, even if it's in a once-a-year cover band.

pics will appear at some point.