SOME WICKED: Dashiell Brown's Blog

This is Part 2 of Julie Doiron’s show last night. Part 1 is here.

So as Calm Down It’s Monday finishes a number,  Fred starts telling us all a hilarious story about his phone conversation with a funny fellow at the ICR Towers in Sackville, NB, their place of residence, I think. Fred was suffering from crazy dreams where he could speak in different languages, and the fellow at the towers said, oh yeah, that’s a frequent complaint, and wanted to know if Fred was in a hypnagogic state, that fine divide between a waking/sleeping state, kind of like when the comedian Stephen Wright says, “you know how when you’re leaning back in your chair, and you almost fall completely over, but you catch yourself at the last second? I feel like that all the time…”—maybe this is a hypnagogic equivalent. Then Fred mentions this movie, not Waking Life he says, as someone suggests from the audience, but The Good Night, starring Danny Devito, Penelope Cruz—“Just play some music!!!” a guy feels compelled to shout out in the church. What the hell??? Deer in headlights, I tell you.

Julie makes a crack later about how Fred got in a fight with the last guy that gave him a problem, and we all laughed. Anyone know who that guy was? Feel free to share, enquiring minds want to know. Just goes to show you that even churches aren’t safe from the dreaded heckler, but one must wonder how often a priest or a pastor gets heckled as he stands high on the mountainous pulpit, shouting axioms of undisputed truth and lore to his acolytes. “Hey, enough with God already, just get on with the show!” I doubt this happens, but then what do I know, I don’t go to church. I wonder how many people in here do go, or when the last time was. Again, feel free to share here, if you were at the show or whatever. What was your reaction to the heckler? Are you a church-goer? 

Here’s Part 3, Jody Richardson and Alex Pierson from The Pathological Lovers

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I am sitting on one of the many hard pews in the George St. United Church, and the unexpected is about to go down. “Unexpected” because it’s not every day you see an indie-rock act like Julie Doiron play in a Xmas-decked out Church, all alight with Xmas trees, wreaths, and boughs of holly—not in St. John’s, Newfoundland at any rate. I’m pretty sure this is a first for the church, since Mightypop is new on the scene, along with my show The New Spin that showcases the underground Canadian bands Mightypop hosts (Julie Doiron, Jenn Grant, Share, Cuff the Duke, etc.)

Sufjan Stevens’ sparse banjo is pouring from the speakers, an apt choice for a church, considering Sufjan Stevens is publicly known as a devout Christian, his lyrics full of Christian themes, especially in his album Seven Swans. We’re all sitting on the hard pews, and it doesn’t take long for me, or any of us, probably, to realize this isn’t going to be your ordinary rock show—and that’s a good thing; though most of us are probably wondering where the beer has gone off to or when can we go out for a cig, I’m sure all of us are thinking about the irony of having a rock band play in a church and the meaning thereof. Or maybe I’m just thinking that, but I highly doubt it. As I sweep my eyes across the pews with so many of us sitting docile-like, anxiously patient and submissive, there are more hipster intellectuals crowded inside here than you can throw a stick at—we read, we’re up to speed on the latest news, we’re musicians, writers, a new generation of beats, perhaps, photographers, journalists, film-makers, artists, you name it, we’re all here in this church together, unified and separate, a “hi” to any stranger sitting right next to you, and you know you have umpteens in common because they too are sitting on the pew right next to you, ready to watch one of the most underground events in St. John’s history go down: Julie Doiron in a church—all thanks to Mightypop, of course.

Without them, we wouldn’t be here obviously, with no drinks in our hands and nowhere to stand and mill about, and not allowed to talk over the music like is our habit in any other bar, The Ship, Roxxy’s, CBTG’s, you name it. And we certainly wouldn’t be watching Julie Doiron sitting all bashful with her bottled water on the drums over there, making history here in downtown St. John’s, giving us all this magical moment that will be with us forever. I mean, who is going to forget this? Seriously. And I know they won’t forget it either.

This becomes even more clear to me as Fred Squire introduces the two of them, he’s on guitar and Julie’s on drums, as Calm Down It’s Monday, as a rock band. And it’s so quiet, the exact opposite of the raucous goings-on of a typical show, very church-like, we’re all very studious and dutiful as we sit in our pews—this has got to be a deer-in-the-headlights moment, for everyone. This is an unprecedented moment, and Fred and Julie are right in the center of it, being stared at as if they were Siamese fighting fish behind glass, and we’re waiting for a show. The entire church and everyone in it are still as stone. And then Fred gently strums the guitar and the show finally begins. We can all breathe a little easier now, but are still probably sitting a bit tensely on the pews, all kinds of uncanny thoughts running through our brains: what is going to happen tonight, what will it be like, will there be beer at intermission, should we stand up? It turns out no one stood up for the entire night, and I’m still not sure why that is. No matter, though, it was a show like no other, and if you were there, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Read the next installment of Julie Doiron goes to Church.

in sound,

dashiell brown

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