16 Imprint, Friday, June 28, 1991
Parliament now.in session korge
clinbn
and the parwent Fur&ad&c Concert Hall, Tor0nto
Saturday,
June 22
my Dave Fisher lnlplint staff
t
The Saturday performance of George Clinton’s two-night stand went off with infinitely less hassle than the previous evening’s show. Apparently, Friday was marred by four of George’s ensemble being mceremoniously held up at Canada Customs, whilst members of the derivative Toronto backup Alix Anthony Band were hastily recruited as replacements. A daunting task at the best of times, the bedragglement merely got underway at 12:40 am and concluded at three o’clock Saturday morning.
It was apparent that old scores hadn’t been settled as the following evening’s patrons were compensated in kind, with one of the most lascivious pat-downs-in-triplicate body searches in recent memory. Worse, Alix Anthony and Co. were still in the band, looking terrified, at times char-
consolidated
with Manifesto
Meat
Who loves ya baby.. . mingly lost, and frighteningly out of their depth. Nevertheless, camouflaged as they were by an enormous M-piece band, the damage was
2%~ Opera Howe, Tommo Tuesday, June 25
imprintstaff In touring their newly-released Friendly Fuic~m LP, Consolidated have refined and focused the LP, shedding the slow or spoken-word material in Eavour of a concentrated 45-minute burst of high-adrenaline. About the only pieces of early lterial which re -ned in the- r set we re “America p Iber One” and most
groups who appropriate hiphop stylisms, Consol&ted are aware of their ludicrous situation, and lampoon their geeky
white-guy-ness.
Photo by Paul Done
discussion, “now we know what’s ruining rap - whiteguyslike you. . . and us.” Adam Sherburne, lead singer for Consolidated, admitted the format of the new show is more specifically rock’n’roll than in the past- The group
after-set
white
As they
said to a
would-be rapper (identified as ICE) who grabbed the mike during the
minimal.
In fact, this was I’ve seen in a
finestshows
while. That the Concert&l1
was at only
What saves the show from mindless rock spectacle is their use of video images to augment and even replace their presence on stage, For example, during ‘Typical Male,” the anti-phallic thrust of the songs was augmented by quick-cut video of male masturbation and phallic military footage. A bit heavy-handed perhaps, but also the @y way to project in as stimulus-charged a setiing as a concert
byPaulDone
Unlike
mercifully ohe of the
situation of wanting to entertain versus the effort to inform. Of course, the natural flow of a tight, rockin’ show precludes the transfer of useful information from performer to audience.
Beat
“Consolidated.”
Photo by Dave Fisher
finds themselves
‘Unity of Oppressionn was, in par& accompanied by gruesome images of
in the dichotomous
June 23.
by Bernard Kearney
Imprintstaff
1can think of a worse way to spend Spend it like a hazy Saturday afternoon, couped up in the confines of the &us-
a lazy Sunday afternoon.
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1991
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trophobic Waterloo Memorial Arena. To do a comprehensive review ‘of Saturday’s events would be both impossible and futile, as there was no way I would stay camped out in the hockey rink to watch a collection of bands I consider mediocre to pathetic. The only way Saturday would have been weirder is if Holly Cole had not cancelled. It should be mentioned that the Saddletramps did well, combatting the technical inadequacy of the environment and proving to be most popular
band
of the day.
Suffice
animal slaughterhouses and experimentation. In fact, the theme of vegetarianism was one of the prime themes of the night Consolidated gave part of their merchandising table space to an animal rights group* The open mike back-chat session which ended the concert demonstrated the depressing reality of democracy. After having been
assaulted with information intensity,
the trivial
concerns
of major raised
included 1) the tact that minors had to sit in the balcony (a situation over which the-band had no control), 2) the fact that the show, of moderate volume, was too bud, and 3) that “it’s not easy to be a vegetarian.” &at Beat Manifesto, the headline
drenched weekend saturated in music, sweat, and fun-filled entertainment for the whole family kicked off Friday night Lucky 7, with their mishmash of creole/zydeco/r&b, ilthough energetic, were unable to do much in transforming the “street stand” into its self-lauded street dance. But aaah, then God created Sunday. There was ne’er a cloud in sight
soundsofsummer~al warerloo Fkzrk, ~tdoo Friday, June 21 to Sunday,
half-capacity pvas maeed a shame, but this is rather an afterthought. The propulsive groove of the music demanded that the crowd (a blend of
to
say, if you were one of the 4OO-odd sardines, chances are you’d like to forget that part of the weekend anyway. What had hoped to be a sun-
Beer, in copious amounts, came directly from Molsons to your throat, thanks to a grateful ixnay on the middleman. Toting blankets, hack-i-sacks, frisbees, and coolers, literally thousands migrated to the Bandshell area to lie out, relax and listen to the sounds of slumber. ’ First to grace the 12’ by 12’area of limelight were the Phantoms. Sounding like David Lee Roth trying to look
like Jim Morrison (the skinny days) doing Bowie covers, this Torontobased band Jooked more out of place than a power drill at an Amish barn raising. With lyrics and diatribes meant to shock the masses, the only thing shocking was that they weren’t booed off the stage long before their set was over. Thmkfuily, after that pretentious tripe, the only way was up. Unfortunately, definitive crowd pleasers like the Leslie Spit Treeo, and Thomas Trio and the Red AJbino, didn’t induce
a mass dancethon,
as most
the devoted cult and the curious) indulge start to finish in a non-stop three-and-a-half hour ~rgia~tk funk marathon. I The tenacious 51-year-old Clinton is a master ringleader as clown, with his goofy gap-toothed countenance, dishevelled rainbow wig, magicmarker f&hioned bedsheet pon@o cape, purple and black striped spandex pants,-and bright yellow wrestling boots. His image as a spaced-out poor man’s Randy “Macho Man” Savage belies the shamanistic fervour of the music. Much has been made of Clinton’s influences Uames Brown, Hendrix, Sly Stone) and his unabashed flaunting of them, but at the very least he deserves equal recognition as an expansionistic and stylistic bridge to such far-reaching performers as Talking Heads, Prince, Public Enemy, Living Colour, Fishbone, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and many more. His live performances prove as much. At a time when it’s easy to &de into cynicism about ’60s and ’70s revivalist LuLu’s also-rans, it may seem easy to heap scorn on the likes of Clinton. But unlike most has&ens in the midst of mid-life crises, Clinton is a genuine living legend whose music remains stu~ing. fresh and vital.
act, were remarkably boring considering the near-ecstatic response they got. After a couple of songs, their entire show faded into monotony. The only entertainment value of the show was provided by their sawn-off troll of a dancer. Though some witnesses swear that he did seem to play the conga drums during one song, he generally just jumped and flounced across the stage like one of the seven dwarves on particularly vivid X trip. Consoiidated continue to confront the difficulties and questions involved in being a self-aware rock group. Their methods are rife with contradiction, but at least they are open to questioning Friend& Fmcis~ might have eased up the pressure a little, but in the concert setting Consolidated
still rock bells.
people were content to lie down and fry in the searing heat It wasn’t until late into Terrance Sirnien’s set that it seemed socially acceptable to boogaloo. The headlining act, Bootsauce were simply anticlimactic. At this stage, an hour late, the effects of the tong day were becoming blatantly evident, and although Bootsauce do have a certain amount of commercial success, the throngs of sunstroked bodies assembled around the stage couldn’t keep up with the impotent hype surrounding the Montreal outfit. It was a little presumptuous and self-indulgent to have the announcer plead with the crowd to cheer them back on the stage for an encore. I rank the acts of the day in this order. Tied for the blue ribbon,
Terrance Simien & the Mallet Playboys and Thomas Trio & the Red Albino. Second goes to Meryn Cadell with her original, often humourous performance art, and running a close third was the fabulously talented Sounds of Summer stage and sound crew. A pleasant but odd note was the apparent absence of beefy security parading through tne grounds and milling scornfully around the beer tent. Thankfully the day seemed to be incident-free, giving credence CO the maturity level of all those in attendance.