QOTD - Favourite Rheostatics moment?

[guigsy]

alright, with all this talk of no fall nationals, and the big "final" show at massey hall next March, i've been feeling a little nostalgic about my Rheos... they were probably the first band to give me that feeling that you get from seeing live music... you all know the one... when you hear that magical moment and you're just taken... no matter what happens after that, thats why you keep going back. and i did. many many times. i went back to see them more than i have any other band. i've seen a hell of a lot of shit, but when the rheos hit one of those moments, man, there's nothing like it.

i'll never forget the opening notes of the opener of my first show. saskatchewan. sold. i remember tielli trying desperately to get through the song with the microphone shocking him everytime he got too close to sing. the man was pissed. turning to the side and yelling "FUCK!" a few times.

i've been blessed with a couple birthday rheos shows.. one being part of don kerr's last 2 shows at Teds, and another starting a Rheos>Burt birthday run last year. the Fat opener that nite was unholy.

i've got many great rheostatics memories, as im sure anyone who's been seeing them for any amount of time does. so, i wanna hear yours....

i'll start with my all-time favourite rheostatics moment:

Horseshoe during one of the first fall nationals... i cant remember the year, but if i had to guess, i'd say 2001 2000. end of the night the band comes down onto the floor with one acoustic and a cymbal - tielli gets up on don kerr's shoulders and leads the crowd in a (mostly) acapella sing-a-long of Northern Wish. i can still see tielli's jubilant face ad-libbing "We'll Sew 'em Together!" after the line "take 2 flags and make a sail". my friend and i were lucky enough to be in the front line of the circle that formed around them and i'll never forget that feeling in my stomach with all the crowd and the band singing along on a cold canadian night in toronto.

Edited September 8, 2006 by Guest
i get mixed up sometimes. whats it to ya???

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

I wish I could pin one moment down through my horribly fenestrated memory.... Probably seeing them back in '89 in the Melville days, and them hitting, as guigsy says, that "magical moment" during "It". It must have gone awfully deep; I remember a year later waking up out of a sketched-out post-dose night in a tent in the Sinai with, swear to God, a rock-solid imprint of the tune, note-for-note, playing through my head.

[Tenenbaum]

most memorable:

saw them in Hamilton (possibly 2003) and my buddy pushes me onto the stage so Martin can teach me this weird dance where your knees and thumbs swirl in opposite circle directions... it was too screwy for me to handle but I think I managed it.

[Tungsten Gruvsten]

hmmmmm big tie between them at Hillside in '92 playing on their own and then backing Jane Siberry, and a show in 2004 at the Starlight that lasted 3 hours with a walking-through-the-crowd acoustic "peas and rice" as the ending...

[Jaimoe]

I don't know their music much at all, but at an Sunday open mic night at the Duke Of Glocester on Yonge Street, a guy was putting on a smoking solo acoustic set to an audience of 15 or less. I asked the bartender who the guy was. He said "Martin Tielli of the Rheostatics".

I must say I love Frank Bonner in the recent Tarlek's video.

[timouse]

seeing them at the commercial tavern in maryhill. hanging with martin in the "green room" upstairs.

[Calamity Jane]

yep....those 'small-town/small-bars' days (gawd, well over a decade ago) were AWESOME! Also some of the crazy after-parties in those warehouse squats on Liberty Street....you ever go to those with us Tim?

[dave-O]

My first time seeing them in nearly a decade at Evolve 5 with NothernWish and Greg Hemmings wearing "I AM HERE FOR THE RHEOSTATICS" t-shirts comes to mind. Tielli being hammered at 2 in the afternoon and chatting with us in between songs is a great footnote to that memory!

[Northern Wish]

If you know me at all, you know this announcement is not making me happy.

I think my favorite Rheos event would have to be the evening that brought Alan Dodson, Scottie King and myself together many many moons ago at a performance at Call the Office in London.

From those humble roots grew the branches of wonderful, lasting, positive relationships with two of the most amazing people I have come across.

Maybe its not a musical moment, but it was all Rheos......

Thanks Dave B and C, Tim V and M, Martin, MPW, Don Kerr and of course Alan and Scott.

Sean

[Im going home Donny]

hmmm..my fave moment was discovering how much they fucking rock...WAY TOO LATE....none the less a glorious moment....thanks M-you rock.

Gregs shirt rocks too.

Thier last show just might need to be the moment to try out the heady breast pump...(M?).

...ha...sorry that might be a bit much information yo. :blush:

Edited September 9, 2006 by Guest

[Stoolshed]

My favourite canadian band for many, many years.

My favourite memory was in around 1990 when they'd released Melville All we had was one tape of the album that we were passing around, living in Kingston at the time. Ian the owner/manager/fuzzbrain of the Toucan in Kingston had sold 200-250 tickets to the Rheo's show at $3 each, in advance (if you can believe $3 advance tix). However the bar was capacity at 99 people, so when the cops came and gave Ian the word to clear some of the people out (show hadn't started yet and we were already packing the tiny dancefloor), Ian got mad and told the crowd that the band, who were standing on the stage with him, wouldn't play until a lot of people left. Dave Bidini walks up to another mic, looks at Ian and says 'You sold them the tickets. Why should they leave?' Crowd cheered, and no one moved for an hour. Finally they played, after we waited literally for a hour in place, like sardines, what's worse, NO BEER! Killer show, the first of many Rheos shows I saw. Then I moved to BC a few years later, saw them in Victoria where people hadn't really heard of them yet, just after they release Whale Music, giving me my first taste of west vs. east scenes. Needless to say, next time they came through, a year later, SRO, and a great show.

Other Rheo's moment...We got to open for them at Evolve 5, and during our set, I look over and Martin is lounging on the side of the stage watching us, smiling. I got so stupidly nervous, though I know I shouldn't, I had to start the first verse three times to finally remember the lyrics.

Love them, thank them for some incredibly beautiful and pontific songs, and wish them all well with other stuff.

The Rheos. You never sounded like the Replacements to me.

[AD]

Thanks for that memory Sean, twas a good day indeed. Although you left that show early and missed Junction Foil Ball!!! hehe.

I have a lot of good memories of Rheos shows but none are coming to mind as 'my favourite' at the moment... I will keep thinking....

AD

[scottieking]

Since Sean has already mentioned one of my more important Rheos gigs, the only thing I can think to write is not a specfic memory but more a flash of the things that made Rheos shows great.

-the days of Martin's chain smoking and personally keeping a smoke tally (I counted 14 once)

-audience interaction and parcipation

-Dave and Martin's banter

-ANY time the Blue Hysteria made an appearence. What a guitar. One night, the other shortneck was broken and Martin announced he would have to play that one all night. HEAVEN

-Yelling for Song of Flight, having Dave look and Martin, saying sure, why not and doing it

-acapella Legal Age Life

Many more I'm sure, but I just got up.

[DevO]

My favourite Rheos moments would have to be 1) when Washboard Hank sat in with them in Peterborough. To me it was cool that they know who he is and where he comes from, and illustrated their knowledge of the Canadian musical tradition. 2) In Ottawa 2 summers ago when they filled Asparagus' request for 'Satan Is The Whistler'.

[ersh]

We got the chance to play with them in Antigonish a few years back. Mike and I were able to sit in and jam some tunes with the band....

But my favourite moment was when Mike was onstage tearing it up, and Dave Bidini looks at him and asks him if he wants to get on his shoulders to further the rock of the moment. He crouches down and Mike tries to straddle his shoulders - to no luck at all, and they both wind up on their backs, continuing playing of course. Awesome.