New York City vacation: part four

Gambrinus

I've never been to Coney Island before and, since I'd shown mom all of the sights that she was interested in and it was a hot day, we figured we might as well spend some of it at the beach. The water was a little cool, but refreshing. The Luna Park amusement park was just opening its gates, so we had a look around but didn't go on any rides.

We continued walking along the boardwalk and stopped at Winter Garden, a beachfront bar with an extensive beer menu for a couple of thirst quenchers: a Bavick Pilsner and and Ommegang Witte. We left the beach and walked through the Russian neighbourhood dubbed Little Odessa, where we stopped at a nautically themed restaurant/bar called Gambrinus that had a welcoming patio and a decent selection of draught beers. I had a satisfying  half-litre of Julius Echter unfiltered wheat beer before we made our way to the subway for the almost hour-long ride back to our hotel.

Since this was our last day in New York, we picked up our bags and took the subway near the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Mom decided she wanted more Thai food for her final meal of the trip, and we were pleased with our curries from Talent II Thai Kitchen at 925 9th Ave.

The ride home was uneventful and, while some people may not enjoy spending 10 hours on a bus, I'm happy to recommend it. You leave at night, sleep as well as you can, and arrive at the beginning of the day. And if you order your tickets two weeks in advance, a round trip costs just $90.

New York City vacation: part three

Yankee Stadium

A leisurely Sunday morning walk up Lafayette detoured into Chelsea for a visit to the hotel that bears the name of the neighbourhood and has a distinguished and notorious history associated with musicians and writers. Everything seemed normal, but I found out upon returning home that it was the last day that the Chelsea Hotel was open.

We took our final Gray Line bus tour on the uptown loop, which took in Central Park West, Lincoln Center, Dakota Apartments, American Museum of Natural History, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Columbia University, Grant's Tomb, Harlem and the Apollo Theater, the "Museum Mile," Fifth Avenue and back again.

There was an hour to spare before our Circle Line cruise around the entire island of Manhattan, so we took advantage of the beautiful weather and had a drink on a patio near our embarkation point at Pier 83. The three-hour cruise covered three rivers and five boroughs, while passing under seven major bridges and past several landmarks. It offers a different look at Manhattan and, while some parts are a little dull, it also offers some great photo opportunities.

I fell in love with the High Line, an elevated railway line that's been converted into a park and walkway combination along the western side of Manhattan when I visited it in the summer of 2009, and was eager to see the second section that's been added to make the High Line go from the Meatpacking District in the south to as far north as West 30th Street. It offers great views of the city and the Hudson River and is a great addition to Manhattan and makes it an even better walking city.

We continued our walk through the West Village and Greenwich Village, where we stopped to take in Washington Square Park before a late dinner at Boyd Thai Restaurant on Thompson Street, where mom again had steak while I went for some duck.

After a brief pitstop back at the hotel, I picked up a traveller beer at a convenience store to drink before arriving at Manitoba's on Avenue B in Alphabet City. The bar is owned by The Dictators' Handsome Dick Manitoba, and I decided to stay with the bars owned by musicians theme by hitting Niagara, which Jesse Malin has a piece of. I stayed until a hard rain subsided and walked back to the hotel.

New York City vacation: part two

Central Park

Central Park

We walked to the former World Trade Center site to see the new construction and visit St. Paul's Chapel, Manhattan's oldest public building in continuous use, on Saturday morning.

We then hopped on the Gray Line bus and made our way north through several neighbourhoods before getting off at Central Park. We ambled leisurely through the southern part of the park,  browsed a street fair and picked up some gifts at the M&M store before the Sister Act matinee at the Broadway Theatre. I'm not a big fan of musicals, but was entertained by this one -- and mom loved it, which is what really counts.

Post-show drinks were in order, so we went to the Heartland Chop House Brewery for a flight of seven five-ounce glasses of their house-brewed beer. None of them were exceptional.

We had a look through Grand Central Station before deciding upon dinner at an excellent Brazilian restaurant called Ipanema, where I enjoyed churrasco mist -- a combination of grilled beef, chicken, pork and Portuguese sausage and mom had a steak.

New York City has lots to look at during the day, but it can be just as enthralling by night with all of its bright lights. The two-hour Gray Line night tour took us south from midtown, across to Brooklyn and back again. We fought our way through the throngs around Times Square and elected to keep on walking down Broadway back to our hotel. We took a number of breaks so mom could rest her feet, but we completed the more than 50-block journey in three hours.

That was enough for mom, but I set out again for more late night drinks and made stops at The Magician, National Underground and Home Sweet Home.

New York City vacation: part one

New York City was a place my mother had always wanted to visit, so this summer I granted her wish and took her to the Big Apple for an extra long weekend.

I booked a room at the well-located Holiday Inn SoHo on Lafayette Street between Chinatown and Little Italy, and within easy walking distance of the Lower East Side and East Village for my late night dive bar visits. This was my sixth trip to NYC, so I know it reasonably well, but thought the best way to introduce my mom to the city was through a three-day, hop-on hop-off Gray Line double-decker tour bus pass.

Our first day began with a walk further downtown that took us past a number of captivating buildings, the Brooklyn Bridge, the South Street Seaport (where we stopped at the TKTS outlet and bought a pair of tickets for Sister Act for the next day) and the financial district before arriving at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.

The free ride took us within easy viewing distance of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, which I've visited in the past but didn't on this trip. Upon disembarkation, we strolled past the Richmond County Bank Ballpark (the home of the Staten Island Yankees of the New York-Penn League) to the September 11 Memorial and then back to the terminal for the 25-minute return ride to Manhattan. This was my second time in Staten Island, but both have been short trips, and I'd like to explore more of it sometime.

The same can be said of Brooklyn, which I got my most comprehensive overview of on the Gray Line tour of New York City's most populous borough.  The two-hour tour was the of the day and our guide and driver made it entertaining and informative.

We decided to have dinner on Mulberry Street, the heart of Little Italy, and just made it inside Cafe Napoli before a massive downpour hit. My mom had an expensive but tasty stuffed veal dish, while I went with some fish. She called it an early night, I did some writing and then stepped out for drinks at Lower East Side watering holes Iggy's Keltic Lounge, The Cake Shop, Max Fish and Arlene's Grocery.

Max Fish

Gourmet Food and Wine Expo keeps me in good spirits

I've attended each edition of the Toronto Festival of Beer over the past 17 years, but made it to my first Gourmet Food & Wine Expo on the weekend. I think it could be the beginning of a new tradition.

Upon arriving at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre's South Building on Saturday evening, we were informed that there could be a two-hour wait to get in. But with my media pass and my three friends' VIP tickets, we were able to walk right in. Paying the $40 for the VIP ticket as opposed to $20 for the regular pass may not be a bad idea next year for folks like me who hate standing in line.

I was told that 40 one-dollar sampling tickets was the average purchase, so that's what I bought to make sure that my wine glass was never empty for long. I'm much more of a beer snob than a wine connoisseur, and I found one that I'd never had before along with Australia's ever-reliable Cooper's Sparkling Ale and Germany's Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel. The new one, to me at least, was England's Badger Golden Champion Ale. A hint of elderflower in the bouquet and a refreshing finish made it a worthwhile, if far from essential, discovery.

The place was packed and the clientele seemed to be skewed a bit younger than I might have expected, but perhaps it was just people getting a good start to their Saturday nights before hitting clubs after the expo closed at 10 p.m. I used it for that purpose, too, as we caught a great show by Boston garage rock band The Lyres at the Horseshoe Tavern at midnight.

I much prefer whites over reds, and Rieslings and sparkling wines are my favourites, so that's what I tried to focus on for the most part. The Alsace Riesling Willm Reserve was my favourite of those.

I quite enjoyed the Bassano Hard Sodas — a combination of vodka, spring water and natural flavours inspired by classic Italian sodas. Both the Lemon Sanguinelli and Raspberry Pomelo would appeal to those who aren't big drinkers and like some sweetness to go along with a 5.5 per cent alcohol content.

Some booths were offering spirits, so I was obliged to try a few. Khorytsa offered both a regular and a pepper vodka. The former was okay and the latter definitely had a spicy bite that seemed like it would go well in a Caesar.

I'd been intrigued by the bottle and label of The Kraken Black Spiced Rum when I'd seen it in stores, but had never tasted it. The Kraken was released and I got molasses and dark chocolate flavours from it, but I wasn't sold on this complex 47-per cent alcohol rum. A shot of Fireball cinnamon whiskey went down well, however, as it always does.

The crawfish etouffee from the Louisiana booth hit the spot and made me long for New Orleans, even though I'd just been there a week earlier.

I had more than half my tickets left at closing time, but luckily I had no major plans for Sunday afternoon and returned for another visit. There were fewer people, which made it more relaxed and easier to talk to the representatives at each booth about their product.

I found three new to me beers that I'd overlooked on Saturday. The Amsterdam 416 Urban Wheat has 4.16 per cent alcohol and came out this summer to mark the brewery's 25th anniversary. It lacked the fruit bouquet and flavours of my favourite wheat beers, and I have no need to drink it again. Slightly better, but unexceptional, was Theresianer — an  amber Viennese lager brewed in Italy. The best of the bunch was Beau's Nightmarzen, a dark amber fall seasonal from the organic Ontario brewery.

I was pleased with the light and fruity Riesling Moscato, Black Slate Riesling and 20 Bees Riesling, as well as the 6.5-per cent Sundance Pink Lemonade wine beverage that tasted more of grapefruit than anything else.

I balanced that with more of the hard stuff, starting with a lovely Caipirinha cocktail made with Leblon cachaca. A mixture of 360 Double Chocolate Vodka and Dooley's Toffee Cream Liqueur was certainly chocolatey — and good. Mathilde Creme Liqueur is an 18-per cent alcohol beverage from France that smells and tastes of raspberry, but there's no creme to be found. Cherry Heering cherry brandy liqueur tastes better in a Singapore Sling than on its own.

I visited the Mount Gay distillery in Barbados in 2010 and, while the booth at the expo lacked the same appeal, I still enjoyed the spicy sorrel cocktail made with its Eclipse brand. El Dorado is a Demerara rum from Guyana and was okay, but I'll stick with my Old Sam, thank you.

I sampled free veal, a few different types of pears and a variety of hot sauces, and soothingly sweet Panama Jack's French Vanilla Cream helped cool my mouth off after those. I paid a buck for a tasty San Danielle prosciutto slider, but it wasn't until the show was closing at 6 p.m. and I still found myself with tickets that I really turned my attention towards food. The friendly woman from Royal Elephant set me up with lots of spring rolls and chicken wings for my walk home.

Lots of people had left their wine glasses behind, so I put six of them in my bag, and then was given almost 20 cans of Clamato juice as I made my exit. I put that to quick use by making a couple of Caesars to sip on while watching Sunday night football on my couch.

Frank Turner makes history in Toronto

Frank Turner has come a long way in North America since I tried to interest people in his Campfire Punkrock EP five years ago, first saw him on a small rooftop at the South by Southwest Music Festival in 2009 and witnessed him playing to an almost empty Molson Amphiteatre later that year while opening for Offspring.

Turner launched his 2010 North American tour in my living room in front of 30 of my friends and is now selling out shows across the continent. More than 1,000 people turned out for his all-ages concert at Toronto's Phoenix Concert Theatre on Friday night, making it his biggest headlining gig ever outside of the United Kingdom.

Turner was obviously jubilant with the turnout and rabid singing along by many in the audience, and it was reflected in his ebullient performance with his backing band, The Sleeping Souls. He opened with "Eulogy" and went on to play a mix of older material and songs from his latest Epitaph LP, England Keep My Bones.

A Canadian flag with Turner's name emblazoned across it was thrown on stage towards the end of the 75-minute opening set. It was draped across the front of the drum kit before briefly gracing Turner's shoulders during a surprise closing number: a cover of Queen's "Somebody To Love." So that's what Freddy Mercury would have looked and sounded like if he was a raging heterosexual.

Turner's encore began with a solo acoustic cover of Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel," which he introduced as a Toronto song. When I gently chided Turner and told him that Cohen was from Montreal when we met for drinks at a local pub after the show, he said he realized he'd made a mistake as soon as the words left his lips -- but it was too late to turn back. The song should go over well if he pulls it out again tonight for his show at Montreal's Corona.

Turner remained alone on stage for "Ballad of Me and My Friends" before The Sleeping Souls returned for a rousing run through "Photosynthesis" wherein the singer urged everyone in the house -- including the bartenders and security guards -- to sing the anthemic chorus. They did, and Turner rewarded the diehards up front by diving off the stage into their outstretched arms.

Slowly but surely, Turner is becoming a star. That's certainly the case in Toronto, at least, which he's claiming as his second home after London.

The British artist's Canadian tour is almost over, but he'll return next spring as part of an exciting double bill that I'm already looking forward to but can't yet reveal.

Drunk fun with Kepi and Chixdiggit

Groovie Ghoulies' World Contact Day was one of my five favourite albums of 1996 and the Sacramento, Calif. pop-punk band was a very entertaining live act back in those days as well. The group has pretty much flown below my radar for most of this century, however, and broke up in 2007. But lead singer/bassist Kepi Ghoulie hasn't retired.

Kepi showed up at Toronto's Sneaky Dee's on Thursday night with Chixdiggit — fronting a set of his own with the headliners backing him and then taking a secondary role as bassist with Chixdiggit when guitarist K.J. Jansen shifted to centre stage for the second set.

Like with his previous band, Kepi plays short, sharp bursts of music grounded in '60s garage rock and pop and '70s Ramones-styled punk. His 12-song set included "Supermodel," "Hey Kepi Let's Go," "Girlfriend," Chixdiggit's "Quit Your Job," "Chupacabra" (his own song, not the Chixdiggit one), "Love On Demand," "The Beast With Five Hands," covers of Chuck Berry's "Don't Lie To Me" and "All Aboard," and lots of comedic banter in between.

The clock struck midnight and it was time for Chixdiggit's first Toronto performance in eight years. I believe I went for Mexican food and whiskey sours with the group, Fat Wreck's Melanie Kaye and a few other friends before that show, and it seems hard to believe that it was that long ago.

The Calgary band is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and playing all-request shows in response, but Jansen conceded that it couldn't play every song called out by audience members because it had forgotten how to play some of them. The passing of time seemed to mean less to many in the crowd, who were singing along to songs as if they heard them on the radio every day.

"Welcome To The Daiso" opened the proceedings, and the race through snotty three-chord pop-punk songs began. Personal favourite "I Feel Like Gerry Cheevers," "Gettin' Air," "Miso Ramen," "I Drove the Coquihalla," "Chupacabra," "Found Love," "I Remember You," "Spanish Fever," "Henry Rollins Is No Fun," "Where's Your Mom," "I Should Have Played Football in Highschool" and "I Wanna Hump You" were included in a 50-minute set.

But the boys weren't done yet. Kepi is apparently shooting a Chixdiggit documentary with his iPhone (he put it in his mouth and filmed during "Spanish Fever") and there was more potential footage to be had.

Jansen, with his trademark "Let's hear it for that" line, was as funny as Kepi in between songs. He's slightly bulkier than eight years ago, so perhaps that had something to do with him not utilizing another signature move: placing his mic extra low and singing from an awkward-looking position.

Despite becoming a father over the past few years (his wife is Kathy Camaro from The Riff Randells), Jansen still likes to drink while on the road and said he was feeling the effects of quite a few -- egged on by Kepi's chants of "Get drunk!"

Jansen's voice was a bit strained after some recent misbehaving in Halifax, and it showed when he returned to the stage alone for "Born in Toulouse." His bandmates helped him finish the song and stayed on for an encore that was almost as long as the main set and included "Ohio," "Quit Your Job," "Hot N Horny," "You're Pretty Good," "Thursday Night," "Toilet Seat's Coming Down," "My Restaurant," "J Crew" and "Geocities Kitty."

I was feeling lethargic from a cold and apparently missed the most exciting ending ever to a World Series game to attend the show, but the enjoyment derived from those three hours helped make me feel a bit better the next morning — and I probably exceeded my healthy quota of baseball-watching weeks ago anyway.

This was a nostalgic trip, but the good times still resonate.

Jim Fidler previews new album with three EPs

I wrote about my appreciation for Jim Fidler's music, and the friendship between us that grew out of it, in this spot two years ago when I heard his From The Inside Out album. It became one of my favourite records of 2009 and was robbed of the best reggae album Juno Award nomination it deserved.

Jim has a new album titled Up That River coming out in December, but he's introducing it with a trilogy of EPs featuring material from the LP, dub mixes and acoustic versions. I've listened to the first two, and he's on to something good again.

All the material was recorded, mixed and mastered by Jim at his Roots Cellar studio in St. John's, Nfld. He produced, engineered, played most of the instruments and sang lead. 

The first EP opens with "Intro (Joesph)," a short number featuring Jamaican-born Newfoundlander Keith (Joseph) Rickman talking about Jim in an excerpt from a forthcoming documentary about this multi-talented man being made by his wife Lillian.

Jim played me "Be Free" and "Leslie Street" in his studio when I was in St. John's for the 2010 Juno Awards. I liked them both right away and I'm glad that more people will finally be able to hear them. "Be Free" is a melodic roots reggae number with female harmonies not unlike those of Bob Marley's I Threes. It also comes in a dub version. "Leslie Street" is lyrically moving and showcases the best of Jim's voice along with some well-played guitar lines.

The EP is rounded out by "Operation Africa," which has a lighter pop funk groove along with jazz and reggae influences.

I've heard Jim perform Marley's "No Woman No Cry" before, but he'd never recorded it until recently for the 2 EP. And he goes one better by including a dub mix along with his interpretation of the reggae classic. Rory Hoffman, the only musician other than Jim to contribute to these two records, adds some sweet saxophone and clarinet to both.

The 45-second "Here Come the Katz" leads into "Cats Will be Katz," a largely instrumental number with jazz elements and the recorded debut of Lillian's voice. I prefer "Me," a rhythmic track with a fun mix of blues, pop and harmonica by Hoffman.

The third EP should be arriving soon, and all of them can be purchased from Jim's website. Each EP purchase entitles the buyer to a three-dollar coupon towards the purchase of Up That River.

Dirtbikers, Mystery and Devils

Toronto's Mitzi's Sister is just calling itself The Sister these days, and the place has changed substantially since my last visit. The restaurant/bar/music venue has been renovated, the bar has been moved to free up more space and Durham County Hop Head cask ale is available. All of the changes are for the better.

The Legendary Dirtbikers

One thing that hasn't changed, however, is the semi-regular appearance of The Legendary Dirtbikers at the Parkdale hangout. And that's a good thing, too.

If the band has a primary singer, I guess it would be bassist Mark Gabriel (Knockout Pill, Holy Microphone). But guitarists Fred Robinson (UIC, The Chickens, Possum, Holy Microphone) and Duncan Blair (The Mummers, The Dickens) also take lead on occasion and all three men contribute harmonies. Drummer Peter Timmins gets to stretch out from his regular gig with Cowboy Junkies and pound the skins harder and faster.

I'm not exactly sure how I'd categorize what these veterans do, or who I'd compare them to, other than to say they do it because they love it and not because they're trying to become the next big thing on either commercial radio or with Pitchfork-obsessed hipsters. It's definitely guitar-driven, pretty loud and touches on a few styles. None of the members are particularly strong singers, but their voices suit their material just fine.

"Another Country Song" was dedicated to me after the fact by Robinson, and I also enjoyed "Last Call," "Watching The Neighbours Watching TV" and "Still Remain."

Gabriel left the small stage after what he thought was the final song. But members of the headlining act, the young British mod punk trio The Targets, called him back with the threat that they wouldn't take the stage until they heard the Dirtbikers single "First Dog In Space." He obliged and I'm glad he did. I love that song.

I saw The Targets on a previous Toronto visit in March and, while I liked them, I elected to move on to The Silver Dollar to see Puerto Rican garage rock band Davila 666. 

White Mystery

Chicago's White Mystery was up first, however. The sister/brother duo of guitarist/singer Alex and drummer Francis Scott Key White look like hippies, but certainly don't play like flower children. The lyrics were often hard to decipher, parts of the set were a bit too raw for my tastes and some songs were definitely better than others, but I ended up being mostly won over by the visceral power.

Davila 666 came on just before 1 a.m., and the San Juan sextet was impressive from the get-go. There were none of the props, costumes or dancers I'd heard that performances can include, but the music was enough for me. The group came across like a better behaved Black Lips and, while I'm not familiar with its two albums, I'm happy to report that the buzz about the band that came out of the South by Southwest Music Festival in March was warranted.

The Spanish cover of "Hanging On The Telephone" was a very pleasant surprise that I appreciated almost as much as the woman in front of me wearing a dress dedicated to Blondie -- who compensated for the guy behind me who kept asking if I had any mescaline.

Davila 666

I swear I could feel the floor move under me at one point, which I don't know says more about the enthusiasm of Davila 666 and its fans or the structural soundness of the club, but no damage was done during the 40-minute set and two-song encore. Being from Puerto Rico may give Davila 666 a bit of a novelty factor, but this performance proved that it doesn't have to rely on it.

Shonen Knife: Osaka Ramones

Shonen Knife has appeared in Toronto each fall for the past two years, and that tradition continued Thursday night when the Japanese trio rolled into the Horseshoe Tavern. But there was an added treat this time as well, an appearance by alter-ego group Osaka Ramones.

I wrote in my MSN.ca column two years ago that Shonen Knife was my favourite all-woman band of all time (I'd provide a link to the top 30 list, but all of my blogs were removed from the site once my contract ended), and this latest performance did nothing to shake my belief.

December will mark Shonen Knife's 30th anniversary. Looking at lead singer/guitarist Naoko Yamano, you'd think she'd started the band out of the womb. But the youthful looking musician turned 50 last year. The rhythm section has seen a few changes over the years, and is now composed of effervescent drummer/singer Emi Morimoto and head-banging bassist/vocalist Ritsuko Taneda. This show was the first of a 26-city North American tour and attracted a healthy crowd of others like me who've fallen under the group's spell of fun.

No-one should have been disappointed with the song selection in the opening 45-minute set, as it included "Konnichiwa," "Twist Barbie," "Rock Society," "Capybara," "I Am A Cat," "Devil House," "Redd Kross," "Anime Phenomenon," "Banana Chips" and a few others. The trio's wide smiles and appreciative addresses to the audience showed that the ladies were enjoying playing their blend of girl group pop and three-chord punk as much as we were appreciating hearing it.

"Capybara" had a ska-based chorus that had some folks skanking, "Devil House" prompted some fans to crowd-surf and the "Hey ho, let's go" chorus of "Redd Kross" foreshadowed what was to come in the second set after the women changed from their customized matching outfits and returned to the stage looking like Joey, Dee Dee and Marky in jeans and black leather jackets.

Osaka Ramones were in the house and a 20-minute set featured a number of classic covers from Shonen Knife's new Ramones tribute album on Good Charamel Records. Label founder and Goo Goo Dolls bassist Robby Takac, largely unrecognizable under his toque and behind glasses, was snapping photos from the side of the stage as the second part of the performance started to unfold.

There were a few minor twists thrown in, but, by and large, renditions of "Blitzkrieg Bop," "Beat on the Brat," "I Wanna Be Sedated," "Sheena is a Punk Rocker," "The KKK Took My Baby Away," "Rock and Roll High School" and "Pinhead" were pretty faithful to the originals.

There was no encore, but Shonen Knife happily stood at the merchandise table posing for photos and signing records and T-shirts. A couple of friends who  hadn't seen the group before came away impressed, and I was a satisfied Shonen Knife customer for the sixth time.

Crocodiles and Dum Dum Girls make sense together

Colleen Green

It must be tough for the spouses of touring musicians, who are often away for weeks or months at a time trying to earn a living.

Crocodiles frontman Brandon Welchez and Dum Dum Girls lead singer Kristen Gundred have found a solution. The husband and wife have taken their respective bands on the road together, and they rolled into Toronto's Lee's Palace on Sunday night along with opening act Colleen Green.

I'd never heard of Green, but her fetching looks, green velvet mini dress and dark sunglasses caught my attention when I walked into the club. She was alone on stage playing electric guitar, and it took a few seconds for me to realize that she was covering Blue Oyster Cult's "Burnin' For You." I liked the arrangement and enjoyed the last song she performed, which used a programmed rhythm track, as well.

San Diego's Crocodiles packed the Silver Dollar when I caught the quintet during the North By Northeast Music Festival in June, but it seemed just as comfortable on the larger stage and in front of more people at Lee's. Welchez is a dynamic leader, whether he's playing a guitar or jumping around with his mic while singing. The group was showcasing some new songs and the lyrics were difficult to discern, but the sharp-edged guitar shooting through the wall of sound combined with the energy emanating from the stage to make words a minor concern.

Crocodiles

Crocodiles come across as Echo & The Bunnymen on amphetamines, with a large dollop of Jesus and Mary Chain and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. And when Gundred came out to duet for a song, a Raveonettes vibe was added to the proceedings towards the end of the 40-minute set.

The four black-clad women of the Dum Dum Girls came on at 11:15 p.m. and their rumbling instrumentation with '60s pop underpinnings carried on the momentum. "Bedroom Eyes" and "Wasted Away" were my favourite songs, though "Bhang, Bhang, I'm a Burnout," "Rest of Our Lives," "Hold Your Hand," "Teardrops on My Pillow," "It Only Takes One Night" and "Only In Dreams" ensured that I didn't lose interest.

Dum Dum Girls

Gundred writes solid songs and has a fine voice, and her bandmates' harmonies complement it well. The women have a sexy image and play well enough to overcome any accusations that they have little beyond that, even if there's nothing particularly groundbreaking in their music. But when your influences include The Ronettes, Ramones, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Jesus and Mary Chain, Patti Smith and Mazzy Star, there doesn't have to be.

I don't think I've ever heard The Smiths' "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" covered before, but Dum Dum Girls changed that and did a good job with it to end its 55-minute set.

Crocodiles keyboardist Robin Eisenberg joined the lineup for the lone encore number, the appropriately titled "Coming Down." The slow, brooding song wouldn't have been my choice as a closer, but Mariano Rivera can't pitch every night. Still, Dum Dum Girls and Crocodiles were both winners on Sunday.

A night with Bob Gruen and The Aggrolites

photo by Jeff Ross

Legendary rock music photographer Bob Gruen launched his new book, Rock Seen, with an exhibition of some of his best known shots at Toronto's Liss Gallery on Saturday evening.

I interviewed Gruen a few weeks before his 2008 show at the same gallery and spoke to him briefly again in between admiring his work, chatting with friends, munching on pizza and enjoying cocktails named after the New York Dolls and Iggy & The Stooges.

If you're a fan of John Lennon, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Blondie, Elton John, Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Bruce Springsteen and other music icons, you'll want to get to Liss' Yorkville Avenue gallery to see Gruen's work.

After post-exhibit drinks with a couple of friends, I headed west to Lee's Palace. I walked in to hear New Hampshire reggae band Roots of Creation covering Elvis Costello's "Watching The Detectives." It was a good start, and the band's original roots reggae material was certainly palatable — if not exceptional.

The Aggrolites came on stage for their headlining set of "dirty reggae," which mixes reggae, ska, soul and rock steady. There were a couple of different members in the all black-clad quintet since the last time I saw it, and the performance lacked some of the vitality of earlier shows I'd seen the Los Angeles band play, but the group definitely has musical chops and knows how to entertain a crowd.

Singer Jesse Wagner had an injured finger and wasn't able to play guitar, which didn't help things. But there were still a number of highlights, including a cover of The Temptations' "Ain't Too Proud To Beg," "Complicated Girl" from the group's recent series of 45s, "Banana" (which it previously performed on children's television show Yo Gabba Gabba!), "Someday," "Free Time," "Mr. Misery" and "Dirty Reggae." The 65-minute set was followed by an encore that ended things on a positive note with "Countryman Fiddle" and a cover of The Beatles' "Don't Let Me Down."

Life is a Highway is paved with Canadian gold from the '90s

The creators of television specials on Canadian music in the '60s, '70s and '80s are back again with Life is a Highway, a two-part look at the Canuck scene of the '90s.

The hour-long first episode aired last week and, even though it opened with a section on Bryan Adams, I still enjoyed it. I especially appreciated coverage of Spirit of the West, Rawlins Cross, Sloan, Thrush Hermit, Doughboys, Odds, Tragically Hip, Barenaked Ladies, Moxy Fruvous and Rheostatics. Some of these groups experienced substantial commercial success. All of them were deserving of it.

I learned that Brad Roberts came up with the chorus and title of the Crash Test Dummies hit "Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm" because he couldn't think of words to use in its place, while the episode also highlighted the contributions of the likes of kd lang, Tom Cochrane, The Rankin Family, Leahy, Great Big Sea, Ashley MacIsaac, Natalie MacMaster, La Bottine Souriante and Loreena McKennitt.

In addition to music from and interviews with these artists, the show also revealed the thoughts of other musicians and music industry representatives on their efforts to raise the temperature of the Canadian music climate, including Michael Kaeshammer, Ian D'Sa, Sam Roberts, Brendan Canning and managers Jake Gold, Jeff Rogers, Chip Sutherland and Mike Campbell.

Part two airs tonight on CBC's main network at 8 p.m. and will be repeated Saturday night on CBC News Net. A big part of its focus is on a quartet of women who became international superstars in the '90s: Celine Dion, Sarah McLachlan, Shania Twain and Alanis Morissette. Another Canadian female who became big at home but didn't quite reach such lofty heights elsewhere, Jann Arden, also gets her props.

Ron Sexsmith represents the male singer/songwriters, while Our Lady Peace, Blue Rodeo, The Tea Party and Big Sugar are among the primary rock bands. Bran Van 3000's eclectic approach gets more attention than most people who think of it as a one-hit wonder through "Drinking in L.A." might expect. I was especially pleased to see the groundbreaking Dream Warriors spotlighted, while Snow, Rascalz and Bass Is Base show the eclecticism of Canada's hip-hop community.

Like in hour one, there are lots of live performance and video clips interspersed with interviews with some of the aforementioned artists as well as Choclair, Luc Plamondon, David Foster, Maestro, Dallas Good and manager Terry McBride.

I entered the music industry in 1991 and edited its trade magazines throughout the decade until 2004, so Life is a Highway's content is very familiar to me and isn't as informative as the earlier decade retrospectives. But there's probably material that's revelatory to more casual music fans, and the shows are put together well.

Producer, writer, researcher and interviewer Nicholas Jennings deserves a breather. But after that well-earned rest, it's time to get on to a show on the 00s.

Arcade Fire deserved the 2011 Polaris Music Prize

The 2011 Polaris Music Prize grand jury made the right choice in awarding a $30,000 cheque to Arcade Fire and naming The Suburbs the best Canadian album of the year on Monday night.

I was one of the 200-or-so jurors who helped select the short list of 10 albums, but my role wasn't really that large. I hear that I was one of just three Polaris voters not to have any of the five choices marked on the initial ballot make the long list of 40 contenders. But two of my choices from those 40 made the final 10, led by The Suburbs.

It was fourth on my ballot but had a clear lead over my fifth and last choice, Ron Sexsmith's Long Player Late Boomer. Timber Timbre's Creep On Creepin' On was probably my third  pick, even though I didn't vote for it.

Monday's show, held at Toronto's Concert Hall in the Masonic Temple and hosted by CBC Radio 3's Grant Lawrence and MuchMusic's Damian Abraham (who won the Polaris two years ago as the lead singer for Fucked Up), featured performances from six of the 10 finalists.

Sexsmith was first up and impressed with a great mid-tempo pop song, "Believe It When I See It," before finishing with "Everytime I Follow."

Austra's performance was dramatic and theatrical, but the whole thing was too precious for my tastes.

The first impression I got of Montreal rock band Galaxie was that it reminded me a bit of a francophone Big Sugar. Singer/guitarist Olivier Langevin is a very good player, and his riffing made Galaxie the hardest rocking outfit of the night.

Timber Timbre may have received the biggest audience response for its two songs, and deservingly so. The trio was fleshed out with a small string section, and the combination of singer/guitarist Taylor Kirk's deep voice and the dark and foreboding music coming from him and his bandmates during "Bad Ritual/Obelisk" and the album's title track had me thinking about Nick Cave.

Braids' Native Speaker was a favourite on Canadian campus radio, and I can see why, but the group's dependence on effects and singer/guitarist Raphaelle Standell-Preston's sometimes high-pitched voice failed to hold me in thrall.

I appreciate Hey Rosetta!, but I'm not as committed to the St. John's, Nfld. group as others I know. Still, the band's performance of "Bricks" and "Yer Spring" ended the performances on solid ground.

Destroyer, The Weeknd, Colin Stetson and Arcade Fire didn't perform, but the Polaris-winning combo's Win Butler, Jeremy Gara and Richard Reed Parry flew in after headlining the Austin City Limits Festival the night before to accept the accolades and their large novelty cheque.

With only six of 10 acts playing, I can't understand why the show stretched out beyond three hours. And the long waits between action on the stage were made worse for those of us in the balcony, as the pads that were there in past years were nowhere to be found and sitting on cold concrete for that long doesn't really equate with the word gala.

But, unlike in past years when there were heated discussions on the merits of the winner at the post-gala party at The Drake Hotel, most people seemed satisfied with The Suburbs taking the prize. And that's the way it should have been.

Jim Jones Revued

Jim Jones Revued

Friends who'd seen England's Jim Jones Revue at the in Austin and New York City, and were instrumental in getting the group to come to Toronto, promised that Tuesday night's show at the Horseshoe Tavern would be one of the best shows I'd see this year.

The group attracted more than 300 people, which was a lot more than was originally expected — and probably somewhat attributable to last week's appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. While I certainly enjoyed the quintet, it fell a bit short of being the amazing experience I'd been primed for.

The Jim Jones Revue takes elements of Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, The Rolling Stones, The Faces, The Mooney Suzuki, The Sonics and Creedence Clearwater Revival and then turns up the volume and adds punk enthusiasm and aggression to a blended core of rock and roll, soul, blues and rockabilly. The band members were all dressed in black, making them look as dangerous as they sounded.

Jones, the former singer of late '80s garage/psych rock revivalists Thee Hypnotics, fronts his current band with and without a guitar. He's joined by ace guitarist Rupert Orton and a solid rhythm section of Gavin Jay and Nick Jones, but it's boogie-woogie pianist Henri Herbert who really helps make The Jim Jones Revue stand out. His vintage sound is straight from the '50s and sounds refreshing in this age of electronic gimmickry.

When Jones isn't using his roughly hewn voice to belt out a fast-paced repertoire of songs, he's pulling out the old cliche of pitting cities against each other to try and get a bigger audience reaction. He encourages crowd participation — with profanity — but I'd rather clap and sing along when I feel like it without instructions.

The band brought its own sound man, but what came off the stage was a bit muddy at times and so loud that it drove a few customers out the door. I was fine with earplugs, but it probably wouldn't hurt to turn things down a bit.

And it would help to have a few more top-level songs. The Jim Jones Revue's second album, Burning Down Your House, was released in North America last month. But the band's reputation has been built on its incendiary concerts, not on its songwriting.

A Jim Jones Revue performance is a great way to spend an hour. Whether the band can grow beyond that artistically remains to be seen, but it already has an energetic head start on most other combos on the club circuit these days — and sometimes that's enough to keep both the musicians and their fans happy.