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Heavy Metal Busker!?


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Anyone seen this guy Busking heavy metal at queen & university in downtown TO. Cracks me up. There's all the uptight Bay St. crowd heading home after a tough day at the office, cars all in such a big hurry to go wherever and then there's this long haired guy play continuous metal solo's right in the middle of it all. Always brings a smile to my face :)

Nice change from the usual Bongo banging Neil Young playing types found further W. down the street (nothing personal to all us bongo banging Neil Young playing types).

Anyone else got a favourite Busker?

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The guy outside Zaphod's / The Dominion in Ottawa is my favourite. He knows tons of songs, plays and sings them well. Every week for at least the past month I've picked a different artist, and when I walk into the bar I say 'Everytime I come out for a smoke I want to hear something by _________, and at the end of the night there's $5 or $10 in it for you." He's never disapointed me. He usually plays 5 -7 songs per night of the artist I want to hear.

I've asked him to play the following

Ride the Lightnight era Metallica (tricky guitar, good singing)

Paul Simon

Radiohead

Jethro Tull

He picks some good songs on his own too.

I highly recomend this guy. He can be moody though.

AD

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My favourite has got to be the half blind retarded dude who plays the accodion at Jackson Square. I've never gotten close enough to make a request because I'm afraid he much touch me and besides he's really not playing anything. I like him because he looks like he's having a blast.

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That guys is great AD. Me and my friends have left zaphods at the end of the night and then hung around requesting songs for another 30 minutes. I recall me and my friends requesting, pink floyd, yes, jeff healy and many others i cant remember.

cheers,

Jake

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Man I have lots of favourite buskers. Anybody who grew up in Toronto and/or went to a few Jays games as a kid has to remember the drummer who would set up in that big circle on Blue Jay Way and start drumming. People would gather around him in a 360 degree circle, everybody about 20 feet away from him on all sides. People would run up and put money in his bucket and he'd stop the beat and go "Thank you!" along with the rhythm and then keep playing. When two people came up at once it would be like "Thank you and you! And thank you too!". Good times.

I saw a guy on Queen West once, out if front of the Rivoli. He had a ukelele strapped to himself and was wearing a monkey mask. He had a boom box with a mix tape in it that was all Ozzy solo material from the 80's, and he was air-uking along to the songs and being very intense about it. It was hilarious.

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GoodRev I remember the drummer...he used to play in front of the Eaton Centre occasionally.

The guy outside Zaphod's is pretty good but my favorite has to be the guy missing a hand who plays bottle slide on his beat up gutar. He's usually on Elgin St. but probably gets around. He's not the most technical of players but he does have a bottle for a hand so you have to give him some credit.

Probably my next favorite is the black dude dressed like an angel who carries a sign saying something like "God n'est pas le 2/3".

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Anyone seen this guy Busking heavy metal at queen & university in downtown TO. Cracks me up.

Absolutely! I've seen that guy several times and even thrown a couple requests at him. What amuses me the most is that I haven't seen him bother actually trying to play the song; he just shreds the solos. Beautiful!

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The guy outside Zaphod's is pretty good but my favorite has to be the guy missing a hand who plays bottle slide on his beat up gutar. He's usually on Elgin St. but probably gets around. He's not the most technical of players but he does have a bottle for a hand so you have to give him some credit.

Stumpy usually gets my change...

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