Social Distortion and Mikal Cronin dominate night two of NXNE

Invasions

The North by Northeast Music Festival returned again last week, which meant a lot of running around Toronto trying to catch as many bands as possible.

Here's what I caught on night two:

A streetcar delay made me arrive late at Yonge Dundas Square for Social Distortion's 9 p.m. set, but luckily I got there just in time to hear "Story of My Life," which has always been one of my favourites from the band. I was pleasantly surprised by the large size of the crowd, considering it was cool and raining, and the performance didn't seem to be dampened -- even though Social D isn't what it was when I first saw the band about 20 years ago. Lead singer/guitarist Mike Ness was dressed all in black except for red suspenders and I realized, with a Citytv video screen behind the stage offering the cue to get me thinking, that Ness is starting to resemble Moses Znaimer -- if the television pioneer was covered in tattoos.

Social Distortion continued to mine its rich catalogue of roots-influenced punk rock with songs including "Cold Feelings," "Crown of Thorns" and the always great "Ball and Chain" before ending the set with "Misery Loves Company" from Ness' 1999 solo debut, Cheating At Solitaire.

The group emerged back on stage after a short break with Ness wearing a fedora as he launched into "Reach For The Sky," "It Coulda Been Me" and "Winners and Losers" before concluding -- as Social Distortion has every time I've seen it -- with a scorching cover of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire."

Mikal Cronin

I walked west on Dundas Street West and scored a bargain by snagging four pizza slices for a buck each, which I ate en route to The Silver Dollar Room, where I arrived for the second half of Invasions' 11 p.m. set. I saw this Toronto surf-garage rock band during Canadian Music Festival in March and, while I wasn't completely sold, I said I'd give it another chance. There seemed to be more energy, from both the band and the audience, this time. The trumpet also stood out more, which was a plus. But the group's cover of The Kinks' "Dead End Street" left me lukewarm once again. My friend Matzoh Ball described Invasions as "Glee doing a tribute to Calexico," which I laughed at but can't verify since I've never watched Glee.


Mikal Cronin was the main reason I was at The Silver Dollar, however, as he launched a three-night residency at the club. The place was packed and the front of the stage was full of moshing and crowd-surfing by those excited to witness the San Francisco-based singer/guitarist's brand of lo-fi rock and roll. "Apathy" and "Change" were my personal highlights of the short but explosive set. I'd meant to see Cronin at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas in March, and friends who saw him there or elsewhere have raved about his performances. Perhaps that set my expectations too high because, as much as I enjoyed Cronin and his three bandmates, I didn't find it mind-blowing.

Toronto's Pow Wows had their work cut out for them to try and elicit the same response from the now much smaller Silver Dollar audience, and the trio's unexceptional garage-psych rock wasn't up to the task and sent me on my way home before it finished.

Star & Micey and Los Oxidados bookend first night of NXNE music

The North by Northeast Music Festival returned again last week, which meant a lot of running around Toronto trying to catch as many bands as possible.

Here's what I caught on night one:

Star & Micey

Star & Micey is an act I tried to see in Austin during the South by Southwest Music Festival in March but didn't, so I was happy to get another chance at NXNE. The Memphis, Tenn. quartet arrived late and didn't start until 25 minutes after its scheduled 8 p.m. start time, but made up for it with an effervescent performance of fun and easy-to-listen-to, guitar-driven pop-rock songs. The group topped things off by parading through the venue and standing on the bar while playing its final song. It was worth the short wait to hear.

S.M.

The Mouthbreathers

Star & Micey's late finish altered my scheduling, so I rerouted to Kensington Market and the small Detour Bar to see S.M. -- and it wasn't because we share the same initials. The Sarnia, Ont. trio had an audience four times its size when I arrived part-way through its set of lo-fi rock. The vocals were somewhat atonal and the musicianship wasn't exemplary, but I stayed for the duration because I had to finish my Stigl tallboy and there was nothing else in the neighbourhood that I had on my list to see for the time slot.

Samantha Martin

I moved around the corner to The Boat for The Mouthbreathers, a quartet from Sackville, N.B. fronted by a singer/guitarist who was celebrating her 23rd birthday. The performance was reminiscent of the slacker guitar rock you'd hear more commonly in the early '90s. It was far from exceptional, but pretty good, well-paced and improved as the set went on. An Eric's Trip song was thrown in for good measure as a nod to a musical influence from the band's home province.
 

The Normals

I had a small window to grab a bite to eat and still make it to Supermarket at 11 p.m. for Toronto's Samantha Martin and The Haggard. Martin plays guitar and was backed by an electric guitarist, bassist, drummer and two female harmony singers. I was pleasantly surprised that her brand of blues incorporated soul, rockabilly and even reggae, and Martin's powerful voice matched the repertoire well. That passionate delivery was in full effect for an energetic, set-closing performance of Ike and Tina Turner's "River Deep - Mountain High."

Montreal's The Normals formed in 1977 and only lasted a year, but the old school punks are back together. While the trio's brand of punk may be a bit formulaic, I enjoyed what I heard and the set improved as the guys warmed up. "I Don't Want To Go To Work" was a sentiment that most people in attendance probably shared the next morning, and a cover of The Buzzcocks' "What Do I Get" ended my time at Cherry Cola's Rock n' Rolla Cabaret & Lounge on a high note.

The last stop of my night was at 1 a.m. at Hideout, where I was surprised to find that the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks were playing a third overtime of their National Hockey League final. But I was more interested in a group from Mexico City named Los Oxidados, which played a very fun set of instrumentals from the schools of surf, garage and spaghetti western. All three members wearing black eye masks was also a nice touch. While the music moved my feet, the sexy belly dancer who took centre stage throughout the set made something else move below my waist. It was a great way to cap off a good, if not great, night of music.

Los Oxidados

Unsettling Tales From The Organ Trade

Selling body organs is illegal in most countries, but thousands of people around the world buy and sell the most sought-after organ -- the kidney -- on the black market each year.

Tales From The Organ Trade, directed by Ric Esther Bienstock and narrated by Canadian film director David Cronenberg, had its North American premiere last week at Toronto's Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. It features people who buy, sell and perform the operations that transfer kidneys from donor to recipient and presents multiple views that shows the moral dilemma involved in this underground practice. After all, 182 people around the globe die from kidney failure in the 82 minutes this documentary plays out -- many of them while on long waiting lists to obtain a legally donated kidney.

Forty-four-year-old Filipino kidney seller Joboy in Manilla lives in a crawl space with no electricity underneath someone else's shack and says the $2,500 he can make for his kidney -- more than he can earn in a year from working as an unskilled labourer -- will go towards fixing his house for his wife and two sons. Eddieboy, a rival potential donor who says he earns $2.50 per week, is coached by organ broker Diane (who's already sold one of her own kidneys) on what to say when he's questioned by authorities on why he's donating a kidney. He's ultimately chosen by a doctor and recipient since he's half of Joboy's age.

A small town five hours outside of Manilla is a hotbed for black market kidney donors, so much so that they've even formed support a group. Some of them say they weren't paid all they were promised for their kidneys because brokers got some of the money, but all claim to have sold them willingly.

One donor shows signs of kidney disease and his remaining kidney is failing rapidly, however, just like the one he donated to a person he'll never meet probably is. It apparently isn't uncommon for people who've received black market kidneys to receive infections from them.

On the other side of the world, we meet two people in Toronto and one in Denver who desperately need new kidneys to enable them to live a normal life.

Mary Jo Vradis has been living on dialysis via a machine in her bedroom which she needs to use for eight hours every second day while she's been waiting for a kidney transplant for six years. Her mother's been on dialysis for 18 years and it's taken a major physical toll on her, and her brother started dialysis three years ago. There's an increased mortality rate for people on dialysis, so it's heartening when the film's epilogue informs us that Mary Jo eventually received a kidney from a cadaver after waiting for nine years.

Walter Rassbach needs a transplant in the next year or two or will likely die within eight years. He's been on a transplant list for two years and, since his daughter doesn't want to donate her kidney, he seriously considers going the black market route even though he admits that it's unfair to take advantage of people's poverty in this way. But a woman he's never met agrees to donate a kidney to him for free just because she wants to help someone live a better life. Such altruistic donors, we're told, are said to be one in a million.

Raul Fain mortgaged his house and went to Kosovo, where he paid $100,000 for a black market kidney transplant that has given him a new lease on life. He has no qualms about it and, when the filmmakers track down his donor, she says she has no regrets either.

Dr. Yusuf Sonmez, who has performed more than 2,000 black market kidney transplants, was driven out of Turkey and went to Kosovo for his operations. He faces numerous charges, but has returned to Turkey (which won't extradite him to Kosovo) and stopped his surgeries.

Prosecutors are still after him, however, just like they are with Israel's Zaki Shapira, who does his first on-camera interview in this film. The respected surgeon has done more than 3,600 kidney transplants, about 850 of which are considered illegal, and like Sonmez was jailed in Turkey for a few months before being released. He's now retired and claims that performing black market transplants is more moral than standing by and letting people, who could go on to relatively normal lives with donated kidneys, die.

As a person who's been living with one (thankfully healthy, so far) kidney all my life and may eventually need dialysis or a transplant, Tales From The Organ Trade made me think about what I'd do if faced with a similar situation. And at this point, I can't give a definitive answer.

But even if you don't have a vested interest, this film will open your eyes to a subject that's quite likely to have a bearing on someone you know. So even if it's for purely empathetic reasons only, Tales From The Organ Trade is worth seeing.

Good Ol' Freda reveals a nice part of The Beatles legend

Serious Beatles fans know who Brian Epstein was. But unless you were a member of the Fab Four's fan club, or have read extensively about the band, you probably couldn't identify Freda Kelly -- even though she was a member of the group's inner circle for 11 years and long outlasted its first manager.

Kelly quit school at age 16 and joined a typing pool. A short time later she was taken to Liverpool, England's Cavern to see The Beatles, where she became an instant fan and went on to see them there almost 200 times. It wasn't long before she was asked to become the head of the band's fan club, making her the envy of young women worldwide.

But she was content to remain in the background, avoid the spotlight and stay loyal to the the four band members and its manager, Epstein. She didn't succumb to bribe offers from newspapers looking for inside scoops back in the day, didn't cash in by writing a tell-all book after the break-up, and didn't fatten her bank account by selling all of her valuable Beatles memorabilia. She gave most of it to fans in 1974 and now keeps just a few boxes of items near and dear to her in her attic.

Kelly also turned down film offers in the past, but finally took up an offer from director Ryan White. He had an inside track since his uncle was a friend of Kelly's as a member of Beatles contemporaries The Merseybeats, and she wanted to leave something for her grandson to know about the exciting life she led in the 1960s.

The resulting documentary, Good Ol' Freda, had its international premiere last week at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival. The film's title comes from George Harrison giving Kelly a shout-out in The Beatles' 1963 Christmas message, and it features interviews with Billy Kinsley from The Merseybeats, members of The Fourmost, Beatles press officer Tony Barrow and Paul McCartney's stepmother Angie, among others.

But it's Kelly's warmth, modesty and honesty that make her the true star of the show -- outshining even Ringo Starr's appearance where he sings her praises during the closing credits.

Kelly isn't one to kiss and tell, as she says. But while she says she never dated any of The Beatles, there's a hint that something might have gone on with at least one of them since she said she had a crush on each one of them at various times. She says that McCartney was the nicest, Lennon was a "man of many moods," Harrison didn't come across as "the quiet Beatle" with her and that original drummer Pete Best was shy and handsome.

But after Starr replaced Best behind the kit, Kelly would visit his mother Elsie once a week and they became good friends. In fact, it was Elsie who persuaded Epstein to give Kelly a raise. Harrison's father taught Kelly how to ballroom dance and she became the link with The Beatles' family members in Liverpool when the band was touring. She says she felt like she was a member of all the families.

But all good things must come to an end and, even though The Beatles had split up a couple of years earlier, she kept her position as the band's secretary at Apple Records until 1972 -- by which time she was married with a son and had a daughter on the way and wasn't having the fun she used to -- when she heeded Harrison's advice and wound The Beatles fan club down. But, ever devoted, she answered fan club letters on her own time for the next three years.

As proof that Kelly never profited much from the Beatles' phenomenal success, she still works as a secretary in a law office -- and remains a dedicated Beatles fan.

Even though several books and films have been made about The Beatles, Good Ol' Freda manages to offer some fresh insights into the band and, perhaps more importantly, introduces viewers to a sweet woman who just might end up with a fan club of her own.

The Last Black Sea Pirates

Swashbuckling ain't what it used to be.

The men who star as the titular characters in The Last Black Sea Pirates will never be confused with Johnny Depp. But if your taste in heartthrobs runs towards slovenly drifters, drunkards and ex-convicts, the 72 minutes you'll spend with this bumbling band of treasure hunters will fly right by.

Leader Captain Jack The Whale, who has lived with several dogs and cats in a decrepit trailer on a secluded Black Sea beach in Bulgaria for 25 years, is quite content to keep his men supplied with booze and smokes as long as they do the grunt work of digging to try and find large stashes of gold allegedly buried in Karadere by rogue 19th century Ottoman naval commander Vulchan. After all, Captain Jack is a leader -- not a labourer.

They've searched for years, but have much more success at catching fish than discovering gold. But what they're best at is being drunk and hapless, and their relationships go through highs and lows as their frustration increases -- especially after it's announced that the area they've been searching is going to be developed into a tourist resort. The pirates vow to fight the development by violent means, though construction is delayed so they can keep using their dynamite to blast for gold while their dubious plans to sabotage villas and cabanas are put on hold.

But this documentary (which the writer and director admit has some scripted scenes) doesn't just focus on the quest for riches. Hard-drinking pirate Ilko is in love with fellow lush Zone, who dreams of being his bride and using their share of the elusive loot to finance a grand wedding. This tragi-comic couple's ups and downs somewhat mirror the fractious friendships among Captain Jack's motley crew members and provide a neat parallel.

I don't want to give away too much, and I learned more than what's in the movie since the director and writer talked to the audience after its North American premiere at the Scotiabank Theatre on Wednesday night. So, while Captain Jack The Whale may lack the charm of Captain Jack Sparrow, his oddly endearing men make The Last Black Sea Pirates a film worth seeking out.

The Last Black Sea Pirates will have its final showing of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival at 9 p.m. on May 4 at TIFF Bell Lightbox 1.

Rent A Family Inc. isn't what you might expect

Ryuichi runs a rather unusual company called I Want To Cheer You Up Ltd., but this Japanese man seems like he could use a lot more cheering up than his clients.

Ryuichi stands in to impersonate husbands, brothers and friends for Tokyo citizens who believe they need his services -- or those of the more than 20 people he employs to fill similar roles. His job is unique enough that he's asked to appear on a television show similar to (for those of you old enough to remember) What's My Line?, where he describes his profession while his face is blurred so his cover isn't ruined.

We soon learn, however, that Ryuichi's occupation is even a mystery to his wife and two sons. The wife says she never asks about his work, but finds different uniforms when she does laundry -- a byproduct of him having to take other jobs to make ends meet since I Want To Cheer You Up isn't as lucrative as he'd like and he finds himself in financial trouble.

When Ryuichi isn't away from home, the 44-year-old mostly sleeps on a mattress on the floor in his son's former bedroom -- since the boy now sleeps in a bed with his mother. And when Ryuichi is awake, he blocks out his family to focus on his website to try and build his business. His wife admits there's tension between them because they don't have meaningful conversations.

While Ryuichi claims that his focus is on making other people happy, it's at the expense of his family's happiness. For a man who earns part of his (meagre) living from impersonating husbands, he's doing a poor job of playing a real one.

Ryuichi dotes on his dog while complaining that his wife takes good care of their home, but not of him, and that she has a negative attitude. She concedes that she doesn't know if she'll stay with him after their sons leave for college in seven years.

One moment, Ryuichi shows us travel brochures and talks of his dream of taking his wife and kids on a Hawaiian vacation. The next moment, he confesses that he thinks of killing himself every day.

Ryuichi comes clean near the end of the movie and tells his wife about I Want To Cheer You Up and the financial distress they're facing. She thinks it's strange, which he expected, but says she doesn't care what he does. She just doesn't want to be part of it.

Getting this weight off his shoulders seems to lighten Ryuichi up emotionally and it appears that he's adopted a more positive outlook -- though things remain far from idyllic at home.

I went into Rent A Family Inc. expecting a quirky, relatively lighthearted documentary about an occupation and ways of life unique to Japanese culture (companies like I Want To Cheer You Up are apparently becoming more common). What I came away from was actually a pretty depressing film about a lonely man and a far from happy home.

I would have preferred the movie I anticipated.

Rent A Family Inc. will have its final showing of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival at 1 p.m. on May 5 at Scotiabank Theatre.

Romeo Dallaire fights to end use of child soldiers in new documentary

Romeo Dallaire

Canadian general Romeo Dallaire witnessed the slaughter of 800,000 people in 100 days when he was the United Nations force commander in Rwanda in 1994. Something like that stays with you, and he's now embarked on a global mission to eradicate the use of child soldiers -- who played such a big role in that genocide.

Dallaire's return to the war-torn region of Africa is chronicled in a book and new documentary that was shot last spring and is making its Canadian premiere this week: Fight Like Soldiers Die Like Children.

There are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers fighting in 30 conflicts around the world, and Dallaire says: "If we can make them cry as a child again, I would think that they'd want to get rid of the weapon and not want to play real life soldier anymore."

Children who are kidnapped and used as soldiers, slaves and bush wives are all too common in parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Uganda and Sudan. And while the Joseph Kony-led Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is the most notable exploiter, there are many other militias using similarly despicable tactics since child soldiers are relatively easy to corral and they offer an upper hand to those who use them.

Dallaire visited several camps and talked to UN representatives, rebel commanders and, most importantly, former child soldiers and bush wives who were taken against their will but lucky enough to eventually escape. Shocking, however, is the estimated 25-per cent recidivism rate since many of these kids often have no better alternative awaiting them in their home villages since they're often mistrusted and viewed as bandits.

Fight Like Soldiers Die Like Children shows what's being done to try and stop kids from being used as tools of war, and features some poignant stories from people who've been on the front lines in one way or another. It also illustrates how some community groups are arming themselves and being trained to defend against rebel attacks, and we're introduced to a father and the two children he rescued from the LRA after they were kidnapped.

Dallaire admits that it will take years to achieve his goal, if it's ever to be attained, but one of the best sequences in the film is when two teens who fought each other in the bush for opposing sides become friends once they get out of it and are taken by helicopter to an ex-combatants' camp in DRC before they're reunited with their families.

Scenes like this leave some room for optimism, as did a conversation I had last year with a lovely young woman named Grace Acan who was kidnapped by the LRA and spent eight years in virtual enslavement as the bush wife a despotic commander before escaping. She's now getting a university education and using her horrifying experiences to try and promote the rights of children.

Dallaire has a fairly high profile through his past experiences and a previous Emmy Award-winning documentary he made with Fight Like Soldiers Die Like Children director Patrick Reed: Shake Hands With The Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire.

The Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative is a global partnership committed to ending the use and recruitment of child soldiers worldwide by researching practical solutions, advocating for policy change and conducting comprehensive, prevention-oriented training. It works with military, police and peacekeeping forces and equips first responders and humanitarian agencies with the necessary tools and training to demobilize child soldiers and protect children at risk of recruitment. It aims to end this crime against humanity community-by-community and country-by-country once and for all.

Hopefully this film can mobilize more support for the initiative and others working toward similar goals.

Fight Like Soldiers Die Like Children will be screened in Toronto as part of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival at 2 p.m. on April 29 at Hart House and at 5:30 p.m. on May 5 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. It will play more widely in major cities across Canada starting on various dates next month.

You can watch a trailer of the film here.

Terrorism victims get their turn to talk in Wrong Time Wrong Place

While North America's attention has been focused on the Boston Marathon bombings and the subsequent manhunt for the Tsarnaev brothers who are allegedly responsible for them over the past two weeks, a Dutch documentary titled Wrong Time Wrong Place examines victims of the much more deadly domestic terrorism attacks launched by Anders Breivik in Norway on July 22, 2011.

Breivik, a far right extremist, killed 77 people when he set off a bomb in the centre of Oslo and then went on a shooting spree on the island of Utoya. The 80-minute Wrong Time Wrong Place features interviews with survivors and loved ones of those who weren't so lucky to escape his wrath, and all of their tales are poignant.

Harald, who had recently lost a son to a base-jumping accident, describes what he went through during and after the bomb blast that rocked his office building. It left him almost blind, but he says he would have been beside Breivik's car bomb when it exploded and would have been killed if he'd gone to his office five minutes earlier.

A young, pregnant Ugandan woman named Ritah who now lives at a Dutch refugee camp describes her excitement about visiting a Labour Party youth camp at Utoya and the fun she had there before escaping death by hiding from Breivik in a bathroom stall. She still dreams of the faces of girls killed on the island and questions why she survived while others didn't. She named her son Michael after an angel who she believes helped save her.

The parents of a young woman named Tamta from the country of Georgia blame themselves for letting her go to Norway, and her mother talks of a prophecy which foretold her daughter's death. They talk of how she always refused to take swimming lessons, and believe she might have survived like some others who dove into the water to get away if she only knew how to swim. She was Breivik's final victim before his arrest and was shot twice from behind by the water's edge.

Tamta's friend Natia invited her to Utoya with her, and they saw it as a chance to go abroad and take on a challenge. She questions why she survived and Tamta didn't as she revisits the massacre scene and concludes that it was "by pure chance."

A young Norwegian man named Hakon was waiting for the ferry to Utoya when he saw a van pull up and a man in a police uniform with guns (which turned out to be Breivik in disguise) get out to board the ferry. He admits that he joked about checking his police ID, and says he was only on the island for a few minutes before the shooting began. He invited Ritah and another young woman named Hajon to hide with him in the toilet stall.

Finally, a Norwegian man named Halvor went base-jumping on that fateful day instead of going to work, avoiding the misfortune of his two colleagues who were killed in the bombing.

Ritah speaks accented English, while the other interview subjects communicate in their native tongues, so you have to pay close attention to the subtitles to appreciate the sad and moving tales they tell. While so much attention is deservedly focused on the perpetrators of horrific acts, it's also enlightening to hear from those who were impacted by them and how their lives will be affected until they draw their last breath.

If circumstances and coincidences were just slightly different for most of these people, that last breath would have already been taken.

The soundtrack to Mexico's drug wars

I had a great time travelling throughout southern Mexico for two weeks late last year, but you wouldn't catch me dead in the United States border city of Juarez. And that's because too many people are already turning up dead there.
 
Police in this city of 1.5 million people across the Rio Grande River from El Paso, Texas processed an already high 320 murders in 2007. Then the Mexican government launched a drug war against the cartels and those numbers increased to 1,623 homicides in 2008, 2,754 in 2009 and 3,622 in 2010, compared to just five in El Paso.

The violence involved in these killings -- including torture, disfigurement and beheadings -- makes the law-abiding people of Juarez fearful and the economic health of the already poor city has declined significantly. Narco Cultura looks at the harsh realities of Juarez through the eyes of a crime scene investigator named Richi.

While that in itself would make a compelling documentary, director Shaul Schwarz also profiles Los Angeles singer Edgar Quintero and his band, BuKnas de Culiacan. Quintero sings narco corridos -- songs that glorify the gangsters and their drug-dealing, mass-killing ways -- which have become very popular in the U.S. and several Spanish-speaking countries as well as Mexico.

Much of the music, based on Mexico's accordion-driven norteno mixed with other popular genres, is often catchy and danceable. But the lyrics, often about real people and events, are repulsive. Here's a typical example from BuKnas de Culiacan, which performs with a group member carrying a bazooka, while audience members happily sing along:

"With an AK-47 and a bazooka on my shoulder/Cross my path and I'll chop your head off/We're bloodthirsty, crazy, and we like to kill/We are the best at kidnapping/Our gang always travels in a caravan/With bulletproof vests, ready to execute/I'm number one, code name 'M1'/I'm backed up by El Chapo/My name is Manuel Torres Felix sending greetings from Culiacan."

The top-selling narco singer, El Komander, makes $45,000 per show playing in large venues and is sought for steady bookings across Mexico and the U.S. Mexican action movies based on narco corridos, with singers as their stars, are available in major American chain stores. These guys are, to borrow a cliche, "living like rock stars."

This film deserves kudos for effectively juxtaposing the adulation received by narco singers against the lack of recognition given to investigators who risk their lives daily while trying to solve and stop drug murders. 

But where the movie suffers somewhat is in ignoring how narco singers and musicians have also become victims as well as chroniclers in the wars between the vicious cartels. Dozens have been executed. If you're singing the praises of one gang, that makes you the enemy of another. And these grudges are deadly.

That topic could make an interesting documentary on its own. But Narco Cultura opens eyes in depicting ways of life that, thankfully, are virtually unknown in Canada.

The Manor opens Hot Docs Festival

The Manor seems like a bit of an odd choice to open the 20th edition of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

Sure, it's Canadian and a world premiere, but I would have expected the curators to come up with something with a bigger impact to commemorate this milestone year. The Manor touches on several societal issues, but it leaves little lasting impression at the end of its 78 minutes.

The film is based around the dysfunctional Cohen family and its business, a Guelph, Ont. strip joint and low-budget, 32-room hotel that in better days was the home of early 20th century beer barons of the Sleeman family. Thirty-something director Shawney Cohen says (though far from boastfully) at the beginning of the film that his father bought him a lap dance for his 13th birthday and he's been on the fence about the place ever since he was a kid -- even though he's worked as a manager there for years.

The father, Roger, is a cigar-smoking, 400-pound Israeli immigrant who realizes his weight his negatively affecting his health. But instead of dieting or trying to exercise, he opts for stomach reduction surgery (shown briefly in graphic detail) which eventually gets him down to a far from svelte 300 pounds.

But it's hard to lose weight when your wife is constantly pushing large trays of food your way, even though Brenda weighs a mere 85 pounds and finally admits that she has an eating disorder toward the end of the film after her frail body can't withstand a fall and she breaks a hip.

Shawney's younger brother Sammy started working at The Manor right out of high school. He seems to enjoy the lifestyle and invites a stripper to move in with him in his parents' basement -- breaking two of his father's rules: you're not supposed to date staff or non-Jews. Sammy breaks up with her, even though she seems to be the most well-adjusted person on the screen, before the film is over.

Two other non-family members also play supporting roles, and they have their own problems.

Bobby is Roger's assistant and has been in and out of prison all his life. He admits to his boss that he's selling drugs and then he's jailed for assaulting his ex-wife. We learn at the end that the charges were dropped and he was released after a year, but he no longer works at The Manor.

Then there's Susan, the hotel manager who also lives there, who's rushed to hospital after what we're told is either a suicide attempt or drug overdose. Roger clears all of her stuff from her room the next day, but she's allowed to move back in a few weeks later after she recovers.

Roger is very anti-drug and converts the hotel to a halfway house for addicts and homeless people called Sue's Inn Support Centre. Meanwhile, he's shown insulting an overweight peeler that he's watching on a security camera at the club.

Business isn't as good as it used to be, which further stresses Roger and -- although the family seems to live comfortably in a large rural home with a gated driveway and backyard pond -- he refuses to pay for Brenda's counselling once she finally admits she needs help.

Brenda attends one session, but doesn't return for more, citing a lack of funds. Roger admits that he's grown apart from his wife because of The Manor, and Sammy says he resents his old man for treating her "like a piece of shit."

While The Manor is still going, Roger shows Shawney his plans to redevelop it into a condominium complex as the movie nears completion.

The film was shot over two years and, while real life seldom ties plot lines together neatly, The Manor leaves the viewer hanging in too many places without a resolution to any of them. That's the documentary's downfall. It leaves you wanting to know more, but not enough to warrant a sequel.

I wish the Cohens, Bobby and Susan well. They need all the support they can get.

A tribute to the legendary Stompin' Tom Connors

Dave Bidini and Chris Parson

I was honoured to be one of the volunteers who helped coordinate the April 10 tribute to Stompin' Tom Connors spearheaded by the multi-talented Dave Bidini, and it seems that pretty much everyone who filled the Horseshoe Tavern for it was as thrilled as I was with how things turned out.

Chris Parson was an adept organizer, Daniel Bradshaw made sure that things ran smoothly as artists rotated on and off the stage to honour Tom by interpreting his songs, and many other people made valuable contributions both before and during the concert that kept folks entertained and raised more than $6,000 for Street Soccer Canada and the Toronto Homeless Soccer League via ticket and poster sales, a silent auction and a draw.

Jokers Hockey Club

Tom Connors Jr.'s hockey team started the proceedings at 9:30 p.m. in typical patriotic fashion by singing "O Canada," something much more commonly heard before hockey games than concerts. But the sporting world was well-represented, with former NHL player Boyd Devereaux (who I interviewed six years ago about his love of music) and sports broadcasters Stephen Brunt, Sid Sixeiro and Dave Hodge all appearing on stage over the course of the three-and-a-half-hour show at the club where Tom played so often during his career.

Rheodinis

The grand-daughter of "Wop" May, "the top Canadian pilot of the day" who Tom wrote a song about, was in the house along with a musical member of parliament, Charlie Angus. They were just two people from a large cross-section of friends and fans of the man who passed away after a very full life at age 77 on March 6.

And of course there were the musicians, all of whom shared respect and appreciation for what Tom did in his career and how his maverick approach to the music industry indirectly opened doors for them. They freely gave their time to sing his songs and further strengthen that bond, even though the man in the black has has left us -- in body, but certainly not in spirit.

I shirked a bit on my normal note-taking since I was busy co-ordinating interviews and performance shots for CityNews, giving away ball caps from sponsor Labatt 50 and selling five-dollar souvenir posters, so this set list may not be quite complete, but it should give you a good idea of who performed and what they played:

Dave Robinson

Rheodinis: "Bridge Came Tumbling Down," "Gumboot Cloggeroo," "Wop May," "The Ketchup Song" and "To It And At It"
Kurt Swinghammer: "Snowmobile Song"
Shawn Creamer (The Beauties): "Ben in the Pen"
Peter Elkas: "Bud the Spud"
Steve Stanley (The Lowest of the Low): "TTC Skidaddler"
Dave Robinson: "Algoma Central #69"
Tom Wilson: "Old Atlantic Shore"
Charlie Angus: "Fire in the Mine" and "Reesor Crossing Tragedy"

Charlie Angus

Whiskey Jack: "Gumboot Cloggeroo," "Bud the Spud" and "The Hockey Song"
Mikey Chuck Rivers: "Peterborough Tuesday Night: A Stompin' Tome to Tom Connors"
Shiloh Harrison and Andrew DeVillers: "Red River Jane"
Elliott Brood:
Jose Contreras and Lily Frost: "Sudbury Saturday Night"
Paul Kolinski: "I Am The Wind"
Stephen O'Grady: "Streets of Toronto"
Matt James and Boyd Devereaux: "Tillsonburg"
Jen Cutts: "Muckin' Slushers"
B.A. Johnston: "Rubberhead"
Jerry Leger: "Don Valley Jail"
Doug Feaver: "Bud the Spud"
All performers: "The Hockey Song"

Thanks to everyone who came out and helped make the night so much fun. If you didn't make it out, there seems to be a groundswell of support for making the tribute an annual event, so you might still have a chance. 

Jeff MacNeil and Stephen O'Grady

Playing Tom's songs late into the night. I think he would have appreciated it -- and tried to keep it going until sunrise.

I raise a toast to you, my friend. I'll be keeping an eye out for small pieces of falling plywood just in case you find a stompin' board in the sky.

If you're interested, you can read some of my interviews with Tom here and here and here.

Blackie Jackett Jr., Scott Kempner and Glen Matlock bring Canadian Music Festival to successful conclusion

The 2013 Canadian Music Festival concluded on a high note for me at the Rivoli with a set from some young veterans and two from veteran veterans.

Blackie Jackett Jr.

Blackie Jackett Jr. is a traditionally influenced country-rock outfit formed by Finger Eleven rhythm guitarist Rick Jackett and lead guitarist/backing vocalist James Black that released its Whiskey and Tears debut album in 2009. I’ve interviewed the duo (which has filled out to become a full band) a couple of times and liked the 14-song album a lot, but it had been two years since the last time I saw it perform so I was looking forward to its CMF set.

“It’s time to get inebriated,” Black sang in the opening number, which set the tone for a show full of songs celebrating drinking and getting drunk and high. (I was sober, so there was no way that I'm mistaken that a guy with a ventriloquist’s dummy sat down beside me and started talking.) Sandra Dee offered a nice vocal counterpoint to Black with her contributions, and there were also more women in front of the stage than I generally see for a band of this genre.

The set included Whiskey and Tears’ title track as well as staples “Dorothy,” “Stuck in Rewind,” “Married to the Highway” and “Burned (Fuck Me),” as well as new single “I Got Stoned and I Missed It.” Hopefully it won’t be too long before I hear a new album and see more shows, since a night out with Blackie Jackett Jr. is a good time.

Scott Kempner

Scott “Top Ten” Kempner is a founding member of The Dictators and The Del-Lords and has been playing with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Dion DiMucci for years, so the man has a rich pedigree and wide-ranging musical knowledge. He looked every inch the pompadoured rockabilly dude when he sat on a stool by himself with his acoustic guitar and opened an impressive set with The Del-Lords’ “Livin’ On Love” from its criminally overlooked 1984 debut album, Frontier Days, which showed how well rock-and-roll could mesh with country, pop, blues and folk influences.

Kempner’s voice and guitar tone sounded great as he continued with Del-Lords favourites “Burnin’ in the Flame of Love,” “Cheyenne” and “Heaven,” the Latino rockabilly-flavoured “Listening to Elvis,” “Stolen Kisses,” a wonderful cover of The Reflections’ 1964 hit “(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet” and ending with The Dictators’ “Stay With Me,” which was dedicated to the ailing Tommy Ramone, who Kempner replaced on this tour with former Sex Pistol and Rich Kid Glen Matlock.

The Del-Lords have reunited and have a new album called Elvis Club coming out on May 14, so Kempner introduced “Flying” and “Damaged” from it. I’m happy to say that they sounded as good as anything from the band’s ‘80s glory days.

Kempner offered a few amusing anecdotes between songs and, after noticing that I was the only person standing in front of the stage and that I expressed more appreciation than anyone else during his set, he gave me his song list and we had a great conversation for half-an-hour at the end of the night. He’s a genuinely good guy with lots of interesting stories to tell since he’s seen and done so much over a music career that now dates back almost 40 years. I wish I had my recorder with me. Kempner said he’d be back to Toronto with The Del-Lords, and that will be a show that you shouldn’t miss.

Glen Matlock

Glen Matlock was the Sex Pistols' original bassist and co-wrote 10 of the songs on Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols, but he’s largely a forgotten man since most people think of Sid Vicious playing bass (or at least sometimes trying to) with the Pistols. I’ve seen Matlock with the Pistols during two of their reunion shows, but tonight was a chance to see him on his own with an acoustic guitar playing songs from throughout his career.

After a number of angry and confused senior citizens looking for Andy Griffith were asked to leave the premises, Matlock opened with “Somewhere Somehow” that prompted the still relatively modest audience to move forward to the stage. That was followed by “A Different World” and then The Rich Kids’ “Burning Sounds,” which was inspired by Matlock’s favourite ‘60s bands. Matlock asked the audience to clap out a rhythm for the Pistols’ “God Save The Queen.” The crowd sang along and, while I enjoyed Matlock’s acoustic take, it obviously didn’t have anywhere near the impact of the original.

The audience was asked to sing along to the chorus of “Hard Work” and Matlock performed “Ambition” (which he co-wrote and performed on for Iggy Pop’s underrated 1980 album Soldier) in a blues style. The Rich Kids signature song, “Ghosts of Princes in Towers,” was next and provided a small thrill.

Matlock’s cover of The Kinks’ “Dead End Street” was okay, but paled in comparison to Ray Davies’ rendition. The covers continued with Scott Walker’s “Montague Terrace (In Blue)” and the best of them, “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” (which has been done by Paul Revere & The Raiders, The Monkees, the Sex Pistols, The Farm and many others).

“Yeah Right” may have been my favourite from Matlock’s solo catalogue, but he also performed “On Something” and “Born Running” before ending with the Pistols’ “Pretty Vacant’ that left me feeling pretty much the same way as his “God Save The Queen” did. 

Glen Matlock and Scott Kempner

Matlock elected to do an encore and called Kempner up to join him on a cover of The Faces’ “All or Nothing,” which ended things on a high and continued my Faces kick that began a week earlier at the South by Southwest Music Festival by hearing The Split Squad cover “Sorry, She’s Mine” and then Ian McLagan doing “You’re So Rude.”

Rivals, Savages, Invasions, Eyeballs, Brews and more on Canadian Music Festival’s Friday

Kendel Carson and Dustin Bentall

Dustin Bentall is one of those artists who comes through Toronto once or twice a year and I mean to see but never do. That changed last Friday when he performed with his band at the Horseshoe Tavern as part of the Canadian Music Festival.

The roots-rocking, alt.country artist is the son of ‘80s and ‘90s Canadian music star Barney Bentall, but I’ll take junior over pops. He sings and plays electric guitar in front of his band The Smokes (bassist Del Cowsill, drummer Rich Knox and female fiddler Kendel Carson — who I found to be quite smoking), and they play country songs that sound authentic and rock numbers that are full of passion. I’d definitely like to hear a longer set when Bentall and company tour in support of their forthcoming full-length album.

Young Rival has been a favourite Canadian band since the days when it was called The Ride Theory early this century, but its performance at the Horseshoe was the first time I’d seen it since guitarist Kyle Kuchmey left and the group became a trio in late 2009. A short and sweet ‘60s sounding instrumental was tossed amidst hooky rock numbers with vocals like “Two Reasons” and “Authentic” that also harkened back to that era, and a cover of The Deadly Snakes’ “I Can’t Sleep At Night” fit in with the repertoire perfectly.

Young Rival

If you like vintage-sounding, guitar-driven rock-and-roll and power pop, Young Rival should be on your radar. There’s not a lot of dynamism on stage, but musically the group reminds me somewhat of Black Lips without the accompanying mayhem. Young Rival should be much more popular than it is.

Savages, an all-female band from England, caused a buzz the previous week in Austin, Texas at the South by Southwest Music Festival, and that followed the quartet to Toronto for its first Canadian show. The members were all clad in black, and most of their post-punk music was equally dark. Singer Jehnny Beth is very animated, even if she often turned her back to the audience during a set that included “Shut Up” and “I Am Here.” Savages needs more songs, but the four girls are still young and have potential. For now, the group comes across as a blend of Siouxsie and The Banshees and Killing Joke.

Savages' Jehnny Beth

It was time to move on to The Silver Dollar Room and, on the corner of Spadina and College on my way there, I saw club booker Dan Burke get into a car. I thought that was ominous.

Invasions was already on stage when I walked in at 11:15 p.m. I ordered a pint of Molson Stock Ale for $5.75 and the bartender, who I’d never seen before, swiped my $4.25 in change off the bar while I was reaching into my wallet to give her a more sensible smaller tip. I told her to bring my money back and tipped her a buck. I probably shouldn’t have. A lot of the Silver Dollar employees were wearing retro ‘70s blue Adidas tracksuit jackets. I couldn’t help but think that they must have been the result of a Burke “negotiation.” The Silver Dollar can be a sketchy place.

Invasions is a Toronto surf-garage rock band that stands out a bit from the pack because one of its members plays trumpet when he’s not pounding on the keyboards. A not so well done cover of The Kinks’ great “Dead End Street” was inferior to some of the group’s original tunes. Invasions has all the elements of bands I like, but it just didn’t present them consistently enough. Still, I’d see it again.

Invasions

In between bands, Burke ranted about the greatness of Michel Pagliaro and took over a pool table while proclaiming himself king. Then, as quickly as he appeared, he vanished.

Brooklyn, N.Y. band X-Ray Eyeballs was booked in for a three-night residency at the club, but the crowd thinned out a bit after Invasions. The quartet used dry ice and more of a light show than you usually see at The Silver Dollar, but I’d hoped for more musically. The two-male, two-female group lived up to its “new wave garage pop” billing in its 30-minute set, just not as adeptly as I had hoped for. It has a look and sound of something I’d usually be totally in to, but it lacked quality songs.

X-Ray Eyeballs

I hadn’t been to Sneaky Dee’s in about a year, and was disappointed that the beer prices had risen and the windows of the second-storey club had been covered when I arrived for Brews Willis’ 2 a.m. set. The Toronto trio is just what you want to hear at this hour after you’ve had a beer or seven. It’s fun, energetically melodic and slightly sloppy. It opened with “Sweaty Hands” and continued on with “Can’t Fight The Water,” “Hell No Fuck You” and a few others before ending with “Sun Burn Boner Boy,” which the band members continued to play as a friend came on stage and poured shots down their throats. It was an appropriate way to conclude the night.

Brews Willis

Stanfields were the class of Wednesday’s Canadian Music Festival

I arrived toward the end of the Collective Concerts-Ticketfly party on Wednesday to kick off my Canadian Music Festival. I missed the smoked meat sandwiches courtesy of Caplansky’s, but was in time to grab a couple bottles of Labatt 50 before the open bar closed at 8:30 p.m.

The Danks

That gave me time to reach The Silver Dollar Room by 9 p.m. to see The Danks, whose 2009 Are You Afraid of The Danks full-length debut was my fourth favourite album of that year. I hadn’t seen the Charlottetown, P.E.I. group (which shares members with Two Hours Traffic) perform, however, and had high hopes for this set.

They were soon dashed, however, as lead singer/guitarist Brohan Moore’s voice already seemed shot — which didn’t bode well for the rest of the band’s shows the rest of the week. Maybe it was Moore’s voice that threw me off, but I didn’t hear all of the power pop goodness that made Are You Afraid of The Danks so special.

“Die Young” was my favourite of the original songs and although The Danks tried to elicit bigger reactions from covering Devo’s “Girl U Want” and Pixies’ “Alec Eiffel,” it wasn’t in the cards. There was a lack of stage presence and little talking between songs as well, but I’m hoping that was just another part of a young band having an off night in front of a relatively small audience.

Toronto’s Rattlesnake Choir followed on the Silver Dollar stage at 10 p.m. with a roots rock and country set featuring Screamin’ Sam Ferrara on saw, cheese grater and a Slinky-like instrument to augment lead singer/acoustic guitarist/harmonica player John Borra, upright bassist Tony Benattar and keyboardist/accordionist Michael Boguski. The originals were perfectly decent, Handsome Ned’s “I’ve Come to Get My Baby Out of Jail” brought back fond memories and a familiar-sounding instrumental was also enjoyable.

Crazy Strings

Crazy Strings inherited the vibe that Rattlesnake Choir established and kept it going for a larger crowd that was looking to dance by opening with an excellent finger-pickin’ instrumental, covering Lefty Frizzell’s “My Baby’s Just Like Money” and capping things off with The Carter Family’s “I Ain’t Gonna Work Tomorrow.” These five guys certainly know their way around acoustic guitars, mandolin, banjo and upright bass, and their harmonies are nothing to sneeze at either. Humorous song introductions were the icing on the cake for a fun set from what may be Toronto’s favourite contemporary bluegrass band.

 

The best was saved for last, however, with a midnight set by The Stanfields at The El Mocambo. This Halifax quintet possesses both power and instrumental virtuosity and was riding high on two recent East Coast Music Awards, including the coveted entertainer of the year. This show illustrated why it won, as the crowd down front was dancing from the start to Celtic rock songs that tell stories and include both humour and social commentary.

The Stanfields

Passionate renditions of “Mrs. McGrath,” “Federal Hall,” “Run on the Banks,” “The Road to Guysborough,” “The Boston States” and “Invisible Hands” from last year’s excellent (and ECMA-winning) Death and Taxes sophomore album earned each band member a shot purchased by a fan. The group reached back to its 2010 Vanguard of the Young & Reckless debut for “Ship to Shore” and a rowdy “The Dirtiest Drunk (In the History of Liquor),” which ended the set and left the crowd roaring for more. It didn’t get it, but there was no-one in the room who should have left unhappy.

SXSW 2013 day six: Alejandro Escovedo and pals put on a party

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The final day of the South by Southwest Music Festival didn’t get off to a great start, as my Mixed Media Mongrels softball team had an influx of new and inexperienced players and we got smoked badly and were eliminated from the SXSW tournament after the first game. Luckily, there was lots of free and delicious barbecue from Ruby's to eat at the diamonds afterward and Alejandro Escovedo’s non-SXSW-affiliated show at The Continental Club provided a lot more thrills through Sunday night.

After licking my wounds and relaxing around the condo having a beer and watching Sixteen Candles, I trudged down South Congress Avenue and had a margarita at Guero’s outdoor garden stage while watching a local vintage boogie band getting couples up on the dancefloor.

I crossed the street to the Continental at 6:30 p.m., arriving in time to hear the last couple of songs from Rosie Flores — including one in which Kelly Hogan and other women sang back-up. Best of all, I found a seat. Standing at this show for 10 hours last year after a week of SXSW club-hopping almost did my legs and feet in, so the chair near the back of the intimate, 200-person capacity club was a godsend.

Mighty Stef, an Irish rock-and-roll quartet that’s better than its name, followed shortly thereafter. The audience sang along to “We Want Blood,” but there were no St. Patrick’s Day shenanigans like I’m sure must have been happening at other bars around the city. But colourful Halifax bar owner and former mayoral candidate Victor Syperek cut a dashing figure walking around the club in a top hat with feathers sticking out of the band.

I’d seen Willie Nile a couple of times before, but his 7:15 p.m. set was definitely the most incendiary I’d witnessed. The singer/songwriter/guitarist and his band opened in a big way with “House of a Thousand Guitars” and kept things pumping through a set that also included “Holy War,” “American Ride,” “One Guitar” (with Escovedo and two women singing harmonies) and a ripping cover of Jim Carroll’s “People Who Died” that had much of the room (including me) singing along.

I’ve seen Bobby Bare Jr. a few times in the past, but tonight I got to witness his namesake father, who was one of the biggest names in country music in the 1960s and ‘70s. He looks and sounds great for a 77-year-old, as he sang and played electric guitar in front of a five-piece band that included Jr. on backing vocals. He opened the set with his classic 1963 hit “Detroit City” that induced another sing-along. “Ride Me Down Easy” and a cover of “Tom Dooley” led to Escovedo’s “I Was Drunk,” with the night’s host walking out to share vocals. “Boll Weevil” and “John Hardy” carried the set through to a fine conclusion with Bare's 1974 chart-topper, “Marie Laveau.”

Austin sextet Pong was eclectic and amused me for a while, but I wasn’t sad to see its time on stage come to an end.

I’d first heard Barfield, "The Tyrant of Texas Funk" at Escovedo’s Continental showcase at last year’s SXSW and was pleasantly surprised. Mike Barfield has some interesting dance moves and his band definitely brings some rocking funk, including on one song that incorporated The Clash’s “Magnificent Seven.”

I’m not sure if Gordie Johnson and his bandmates in the reformed Big Sugar spend more time in Austin or Toronto these days. But the group, which got back together in 2010 and released an album a year later, reached back into its catalogue of Canadian hits and opened with 1996’s “Diggin’ A Hole” and ended with 1999’s “Turn The Lights On,” which included some of The English Beat’s “Rough Rider” in the middle. There’s a reggae vibe to more of the material now, not unlike what was found on 2000’s Alkaline side project album, and recent addition Friendlyness does a lot of toasting in addition to his keyboard duties. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would.

Kurt Bloch and Peter Buck

R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Bill Rieflin and Scott McCaughey, along with Fastbacks guitarist Kurt Bloch, had been circulating around the club through much of the evening, but the time finally came for them to take the stage together for a 25-minute set heavy on songs from Buck’s self-titled debut from last year. Robyn Hitchcock was standing beside me when the band launched into “Monkey Mask,” and then a go-go dancer came out for “Give Me Back My Wig.”

The crowd got a particular thrill, and a chance to join in, when Mills sang the R.E.M. classic “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville.” A few more rocking and raucous power pop songs followed before things came to an end the same way they do on Buck's album with “I’m Alive.” Buck wasn’t a vocal contributor to R.E.M. and he’s hardly a pure singer, but his rough-hewn growl is suited to the primitive-sounding material he dished out with a large dash of attitude during this performance.

I hadn’t really heard from or thought much of Atlanta’s Drivin N Cryin in 20 years, and didn’t know it was still together, but the quartet’s performance was a revelation and rocked much harder than I was expected. The group is now issuing a six-song EP every 90 days and included a song about “Hot Wheels out of control” from its latest one that seemed as strong as its past material. Given who was in the room, the band’s R.E.M. tribute song was perfectly timed and Mills and McCaughey showed their appreciation from the bar.

Buck joined the group for “10 Million B.C.” from his album and stuck around for Drivin N Cryin’s “Straight to Hell,” with Mills also coming out to add harmonies on the 40-minute set’s final number.

Escovedo had been coming on stage in his snakeskin jacket and ascot to introduce each band throughout the night, but the Continental’s owner did the honour for True Believers — a rocking roots band which he said first played that stage exactly 30 years earlier and changed the Austin music scene forever — which was formed by Alejandro, his guitarist brother Javier, guitarist Jon Dee Graham, drummer Kevin Foley and bassist Denny DeGorio. True Believers have reunited and this performance would be the last of several it did during SXSW.

True Believers

The Escovedo brothers and Graham traded off on lead vocals throughout the 40-minute set, which I enjoyed but could see really meant a lot more to the locals in the crowd who seemed to worship the group. “Rebel Kind” resonated most with me until the last song, a cover of Velvet Underground’s “Foggy Notion” that was injected with accelerant. That wasn’t enough for the audience, however, which included Fleshtones/The Split Squad singer/guitarist Keith Streng. It demanded and got an encore, for which True Believers sounded even louder.

The $20 cover charge was a small price to pay for such great music but, even better, it was all donated to The Palapa Society of Todos Santos, A.C., a multicultural, non-profit civil association dedicated to developing and administering scholarship, educational, medical and environmental programs for the benefit of children and their families in Todos Santos, Mexico. Buck is a big supporter of the organization, and holds an annual music festival in support of it, and he walked through the audience with a bucket to collect additional donations as True Believers played.

It was almost 2 a.m. and time to make my final walk back up South Congress to our condo. It had been another great week in Austin, and I never spent a penny on food throughout the music festival, which made it even better.

Thanks to everyone who I spent time with in one way or another. Let’s do it again.