For those of you who have spent some time in areas called 'wilderness', 'outback', 'the bush', and so on, then you can appreciate this all the more, particularly if you are familiar with small town life and the dudes who have come here to work in these isolated parts. I spend a lot of time around here and it's very special country and this was a memorable event!! I hope that I did this some justice and that you enjoy it.
HALFORD Rocks the Canadian Wilderness!!
Nakina, Ontario, Canada - May 13, 2001
From the northern
lands of natural resources and raw materials, it's only appropriate that
it could produce a band with a sound that is raw as it's environment. There's
was the lonely call of the wolf on a quiet summer night; the screaming
north wind tearing at the bare trees in the
fall; the deathly
stillness of the barren winter hills; the raging rivers and the promise
of renewal of the spring melt...
And yet, no one knows them...nor did I until we went into Nakina (this is a very small town in Northern Ontario, Canada), last Sat. night as we heard there was a "Battle of the Bands" happening, rock bands that is, at the local Legion Hall, Vets Hall to you Yanks.
There was the
local group called, "What's Yer Poison", 5 pcs.: female vocals/acoustic
guitar, lead guitar, rhythm/pedal guitars, bass and drums. The other band,
"Geronimo's Revenge", a 4pc: drums, bass, lead guitar, rhythm/vocals,
who trucked their stuff 70 km up from a slightly larger town called Geraldton.
In case you haven't figured
yet, these are
indian musicians, Cree Nation!
We got in just
as 'Poison' were starting their set and we squeezed in near the bar at
the back, best place to be for thirsty ears, eyes and throats! The Place
was jammed with the usual critters, plus the fans (Cree and whiteys), Geraldton
rockers, some university kids passing
through and
even the oldtimers (nothing else to do and the draught is good). It was
just like the old days, the room was hazy with smoke so thick it burned
your eyes, and heavy with the smell of dirty ashtrays and spilt beer. Tonight
the laws were meant to be broken, even the occaisional joint raised no
objections!
'Poison' was into it's first song but mostly drowned out by whoopin', hollerin' and whistlin' until the locals joined in to echo their favorite lines, "The boys get stinko and the girls get pinko on a Sudbury Saturday Night!" This is a classic Stompin'Tom Conners tune. The joint was a stompin'!
The noise died down quickly on the next song. Now you have to realize that this is also Neil Young territory, so they floored us with "Helpless". It had a lot of us diluting our beer as the pedal steel wound it's way around our souls and our hearts were breaking from the mournful vocals. The indians have a unique vocal quality that can be very ethereal.
Next was an early
Joni Mitchell lite rocker, "Big Yellow Taxi" to pick up the pace with the
locals joining in again on the choruses, "You pay Paradise and put up a
parking lot. La, La, La, La". When all, more or less, settled down they
did a Kris Kristoffersom medley of 3 songs, "Me and Bobby McGee/Sunday
Morning Coming Down/Help Me Make It Through
The Night",
and just as they nearly mellowed everyone out they lit into the Eagles',
"Take It Easy". The steel guitar was slidin' real fine on that one. They
let us down a few notches, quite a few actually, with "Desperado". For
their last song, again there were more tears than beers as they laid us
out with Neil Young's "Unknown Legend". As soon
as everyone
recovered, they were again whoopin', hollerin' and whistlin'.
Between sets it was serious catch up and the entire surface of the table was covered in beer glasses and one small spot for a full ashtray.
It wasn't until
we heard the guitars tuning up and the drums being tested that we realized
that Geronimo's Revenge were about to play. If looks could kill, you should
have seen them! The drummer was huge, he had to be 6'5" and at least 250
pounds in his denims and cutoff sweatshirt, but My God, the arms!!! The
bass player was another bigun, thick, straight, black hair half way down
his back, near as tall and in
camoflage pants,
black, fringed leather vest and no shirt. The lead guitar was long, tall,
lean and mean with crazy eyes. The rhythm/vocals had long braids, black
Steve Earle hat, with raven feathers, full black leathers and lots of silver.
They weren't 'muthas', they were warriors!
The room went
suddenly quiet. The singer stood up to the mike and in a keening voice
began with something oddly familiar. I wasn't sure at first but on the
repetition of that voice up an octave, it was starting to come to me and
was confirmed when the volume was jacked up and the guitar began to chainsaw
Halford's stocatto riff intro to
"Ressurrection".
Sonofa fuckin' Bitch!! My stomach hit the floor and my spine went through
the top of my skull! I almost dumped the table when I leaped up and went
into syncopated convulsions. In no time the whole place started to rock
like crazy, a lot of people didn't even know what hit them, the Legion
Hall was one big moshpit! Even though the lead guitar didn't have all the
lightning licks he had a rightful raw, hard sound with some real cool distortions.
The bass was chuggin' a solid sound and the drums were a massive wall of
beat and as I've said, the indians have a special voice and this was not
a warrior to fuck with!
You might think
that Halford had these killers in mind.
Having totaly
banged my head, I was looking forward to hearing "Made in Hell" next, but
no go. Such a high, such a fall... Listen to this: cymbals struck 3 times,
"clash, clash, clash", the rhythym guitar hits and slides down to join
the raw, stocatto bass riff, the vocalist snarls, "I've got no sympathy..."
Verry Naassty! My head is spinning now to "Locked and Loaded". Now thse
guys have got this one down pretty good, leads and all. God! What next...
I have to take a leak! I wish I'd done it between sets, but I don't care
if I have to do it in a
bottle under
the table, I ain't leavin'!
Ahhh... slowin' down a bit on the next one, quiet and dark... "Silent Screams". My wits have returned to me and realize how blown away it is to see these Cree warriors dealing out Halford in the middle of nowhere and totaly stunning eveyone. The volume is now vibrating the tables and rattling the glasses... here comes, "The man in black is coming back..." this is getting too heavy... the sound feels like it's pulling then pushing me back and forth... it just never stops driving until the glorious climax... I'm blown!!!
Oh Shit... chainsaw guitar on the left, next bar... guitar comes in on the right, the drums and bass come in beating hard down the middle, "The One You Love To Hate". There is nothing left to be said cause they say it all. It's like it all belongs to them.
It is truly a wonder, these guys know their music. They did up Willie Dixon's, "7th Son" in an easy rollin', boogie blues, laidback riffs with some hot breaks. Most folks around here aren't too familiar with the blues, but were fascinated with the words and style. They got off on the next tune, Rolling Stones "Country Honk". Great stuff, a bunch of us honked at the end to do it justice. These guys were now havin' fun and carried on through with Chuck Berry's "Maybelline". Now everyone around here was brought up on that and were singin', shoutin', hootin' and hollerin'.
Hear comes the heavy, their message, Neil Young's "Needle and the Damage Done". For as much as they didn't say a single word during their whole set, they left us in silence while they started to break down their equipment. A chant for "more" started up and spread like a fire throughout the Hall.
In a flash, they knew they had us all along, they ripped into "Who Do You Love" Bo Diddley style. It is a great rockin' blues and they ran it for about 10 min. and before they left the stage they all laughed and thanked us for our support. The place just went on singing "Who do you love" long after the stage was clear.
I can't ever remember being quite this knocked out, but I have to take into account that this was completely unexpected, not that I mean to depreciate it, it was a BLOW OF A SHOW! But of course I'm a Halford fan and was able to make it to Toronto last summer to see them open his North American Tour with Iron Maiden. You know it's interesting, even though IM was the main attraction, I thought they were a bit lacklustre and Bruce Dickinson a bit of a whiner, whereas Halford and his band came out driving and maintained a professional show despite the even more lacklustre turnout from this suckhole (TO). That's when I became a Halford fan, and now I'm also a Geronimo freak.
I would have liked to get to talk to them and find out more about them, but nature called and I missed them when I got back, besides, we had to get back to the hotel and get an early start back to the bush the next morning. When I get back to Thunder Bay, I'll try to get some more info somewhere.
greyzone
May, 2001