So tonight was the first night for SHiNDiG at the Railway Club. Man, was I ever ready for this tonight, after today. I couldn’t even escape empty commentary on TSN, where they were having in depth discussions about the role of sport during times like these. And EVERY channel on the TV had some sort of coverage it seemed. Made me sick. If there’s no news, don’t fucking report it. And you know what else? I could give a rat’s ass about the economy at times like these.
Anyhoo, I digress.
This year’s host at SHiNDiG is my good friend Ben. So tonight was his first night as host, and I think he was justifiably nervous. The previous host, Bryce, was loquacious and popular with the crowd. Still, Uncle Benny did pretty well his first night out. The bands? not so sure about. The fist band was called Quonset. They were….umm..they were everything bad that happens when you smoke too much pot and only have a 3-string bass guitar and a steel drum. Think really loud ‘soundtrack music’. Then lower your expectations. And the maybe, maybe, you’ll get an idea. The second band was really good. They were called Colour Thief, and were sort of a funked-out mix of Cake and Dave Mathews Band. Really excellent musicianship, and interesting biology-themed lyrics, it turns out.
After JokesForBeer, a SHiNDiG tradition (which went as bad as could be expected, I think), it was time for Three Inches of Blood. The crowd was clearly there to see those boys, who were a sort of speed-metal/skater/punk band. They had two vocalists. One’s job was to scream in a really high voice essentially non-stop, while the other screamed incoherently (to my ears) in an equally high voice. Of course, the guitars were fast and loud, though quite admirably. Seeing as I like speed-metal/skater/punk about as much as I like a kick in the head, I took the end of their first song as my cue to vacate the building.