Watching The 2009 Junos
I don’t usually watch awards shows. They leave me cold. But since E has been working the past eleven days straight on the Junos, I thought I’d see the results of his handiwork.
Nickelback? Insisted on pyro even though they were first. That’s rude like making someone else carry your used tissues is rude. Plus, Chad whatshisface gives me hives. Even with his clean hair and sincere singer face on.
Who is Gord Downey singing with? The frontman looks like a math teacher. Where’s the rock’n’roll? Oops, wrong key for a second there! I caught that!
I am really glad Loverboy’s being inducted into the Hall of Fame. I love Loverboy. Who doesn’t, really? Those red leather pants are iconic! But wait, how did they get so old? And Mike Reno seems to have had some very satisfying meals! Oh, but the sixty year old in the evening dress across the aisle from them, making the ‘you rock’ sign? He just made me cry!
Also, this Russel Peters person. He is mildly amusing, but the punchline always seems to be that he’s brown. Hello, I am pink, more so in exertion. Can I host an awards show?
Hmm. This lead singer will probably regret his choice of what appear to be capri pants. Although, I must say I like their music.
I think Bryan Adams is doing the Geddy Lee thing and aging appealingly. He was -aah! He just broke off laughing! Yes, he is definitely getting cuter.
Urgh. Sam Roberts’s bandmate is sporting a terrible wanna-be-a-dictator ‘tache. And nobody in the band even bothered shaving. What’s with that? Oooh, but Dave Nugent is a very handsome young man.
Great Big Sea and Hawksley Workman are doing Gallows Pole. Scratch that. Butchering it. Where’s the melody? Oh. Wait. Maybe that’s it-oh, no. Too soon. And where’s the verse about the brother? There’s the melody. Okay. They definitely Great Big Sea-ed it. Yep. They Great Big Sea-ed the soul right out of it.
That was…an awards show. Now I’m going to go listen to some Led Zeppelin. Played by Led Zeppelin.
Some Stuff | Liz March 29, 2009
By rachel, March 29, 2009 @ 7:14 pm
I’m glad I’m not the only one who has never been so smitten with the Great-Big-Sea-ing of anything much. And I LIKE old timey Celtic fiddle and accordion-based music. I don’t know why I can’t get into them.
Bryan Adams, though? Really?? I’ll have to look him up. Like, with the sound off.
By elswhere, March 29, 2009 @ 8:11 pm
Loverboy is Canadian??
By Beth, March 29, 2009 @ 10:08 pm
The drummer from Loverboy used to live in North Van and his kids went to our school. (they were shown on screen when Frenette thanked them) And I didn’t know who the hell he was.
They sold their house to Anne Hesche when she moved here to do “Men in Trees” and we almost had her kid at our school. Frenette moved to New York cause his son is in ballet school there.
That’s it, my moment in the gossip sun.
By Beth, March 29, 2009 @ 10:09 pm
Not North Van, I mean West Van.
By Liz, March 29, 2009 @ 10:17 pm
Sometimes GBS is fun, Rachel. However, sometimes you just can’t trust a bunch of down-east yokels with a song that’s close to your heart. They’re really hit-and-miss for me. This was a mile-wide miss. I would actually like to castigate them.
Els, Loverboy is Canadian like apologizing, giving noncommittal replies, and frozen chow mein pizza. Except Loverboy doesn’t compromise. Loverboy sings directly to the wild, rocking hearts of Canadians, exhorting us to run wild in the streets, make passionate love, and have the full-fat latte. Loverboy is Canada’s version of Freud’s Id.
By Liz, March 29, 2009 @ 10:18 pm
Oooh, Beth, I didn’t know any of that! Thanks for the gossip!
By Erin, March 29, 2009 @ 11:16 pm
When I was 20, living in West Van, I ran into Mike at Safeway a few times. I finally got the gumption to say hello – he was with his little boy at the time. I asked him if he still wore his red leather pants, and he blushed and laughed. I think it made his day to find someone my age who loved his music.
By Derek K. Miller, March 29, 2009 @ 11:58 pm
My wife and I were at the Junos, and live in person, I actually liked the City and Colour/Gord Downie number the best. I hadn’t heard the song before (I’m a musical oldster now), but it hit me somehow.
Bryan Adams and Kathleen Edwards shocked me by being my second favourite – I think he’s growing into that gravelly voice, they sang wonderfully together, and were soulful and genuine. Then Divine Brown. Wow, what a voice. She needs to get out from under all the overproduction on her album.
“Gallows Pole” is, of course, not an original Zeppelin number, but a traditional song. However, the ending number was kind of a mess. It would have worked in a bar, but in GM Place and on national TV? Not so much. I wish Hawksley Workman could have performed himself.
Nickelback? Well, somebody must be buying their albums; I just don’t know any of those people. I preferred them to having Celine there, but that’s not saying much. And it would have been much better if Loverboy had done a number instead.
Finally, Russell Peters is better when he’s allowed to be rude, but this was TV. I liked his little backstage thing with Michael Buble: “Somebody’s going to get hurt real bad.”
By Liz, March 30, 2009 @ 7:03 am
Derek,I’m with you on the oldster bench. I hadn’t heard of half of the acts. I was, however, pleasantly surprised by a lot of the talent. Just not Great Big Sea putting rollick into a song that’s traditionally more about soul and guts. Also, I love Hawksley Workman’s voice. It just wasn’t right for that song. I don’t know that they wouldn’t have been pulverized, had they done that in a more intimate setting. I guess it depends on the bar.
Also, re: Nickelback. I don’t know who’s buying their albums, either. I suspect Maple Ridge and Port Hardy. Places like that.
By John, March 30, 2009 @ 11:07 am
Yeah, enough Great Big Sea, enough Nickelback.
More TOWN PANTS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lwj50bP8RE
And yes, I’m biased ‘cause that’s my cousin Kyle up there with the Mohawk, destroying that fiddle.
By Liz, March 30, 2009 @ 1:10 pm
Erin, I can’t believe you asked him about his pants! You rule!
Also, Town Pants rule, too. I am going to incorporate that name into my everyday vocabulary: “Who does he think he is? The town pants?”
By Deb, March 30, 2009 @ 5:49 pm
I saw Matt Frenette at a Starbucks near the convention centre yesterday, sitting with the Loverboy guitarist who used to have the long rocker-fro, surrounded by their lovely children.
Frenette is one of the great, under-rated, bad-ass drummers.
By cheesefairy, March 31, 2009 @ 3:45 pm
I swear to god, Nickelback is a front for the BC Liberal party. If you listen to their music backwards you get “vote for Gordo / he’s the best.” How else do you explain “Well I didn’t vote for them…but SOMEONE must have” applying to Nickelback winning awards and Liberals winning elections?
THINK ABOUT IT.
/conspiracy
By Liz, March 31, 2009 @ 10:30 pm
I am digging all the Loverboy sightings. What a band!
Cheesefairy, further to the Liberal/Nickelback conspiracy, Nickelback’s roadies were all totally dicks to the local crew. Plus, they made the pyro show way bigger than it was supposed to be, and almost set fire to some of the lighting guys up top. That’s the kind of thing a dick like Gordo would do, right?
By cheesefairy, April 2, 2009 @ 2:55 pm
Nickelback’s Juno performance = 2010 Olympics.
You heard it here first.
By duncan, April 2, 2009 @ 3:55 pm
Did you see me? I was sitting two rows behind Elvis Costello. And Sonja, my new girlfriend, was the one sitting beside Divine Brown when Russell Peters went up to sit beside her. We were seat-fillers. Too funny. Good times. And a damn good show. Your boy there did a tremendous job. Everyone involved with the production should pat themselves on the back. Regardless of the quality of music offered, the production itself was flawless. In my eyes, anyways, as a audience member.
By Liz, April 2, 2009 @ 9:29 pm
Succinct, Clara, and I believe you.
Duncan, I totally didn’t see you. But thanks for the feedback. E will be muy pleased!
By lbfan, May 2, 2009 @ 2:39 pm
Mike Reno, Paul Dean, Matt Frenette, Doug Johnson, & the late Scott Smith finally in the Canadian Hall of Fame
They are the Pride of Canada