The 2nd half of October was (pop) culturally packed for me (that's why I'm only getting around to writing about it now!)
On October 24th, my good friends Eugene, Chris, Rob, Christy and I went to the long-awaited New Order show. The single greatest band from the 80's if I have anything to say about it. They haven't performed in Toronto since 1993! It was the second of two shows, at an interesting choice of venue - The Sony Centre for Performing Arts (formerly The Hummingbird Centre, formerly the O'Keefe Centre...), where I usually go to see ballet/musicals as opposed to rock shows. I learned an important lesson not to underestimate a venue for its ability to deliver quality sound for diverse purposes. I never once found the music to be too loud or distorted due to volume, but my hearing was a bit muffled afterwards, something I rarely experience at the Air Canada Centre after what I perceive to be much louder concerts.
Christy got herself some floor seats, while the rest of us were in the balcony. Security was kind (naive) enough to simply tell me not to use my big camera for photos/recording during the show, but with no need for flash, a 35x zoom, and seats a fair distance from the nearest usher. As soon as New Order took the stage, out came the camera. All the videos I took (ranging from shaky little excerpts to full tracks) are on my you tube channel. Before the headliners, we were treated to a toe-tapping set by DJ Nick Fiorucci. I say toe-tapping because Rob and I hadn't had enough to drink yet to start dancing in the aisle, instead he kept elbowing me to shazam every other song the DJ spun.
Some highlights include dancing to True Faith live, this is my favourite New Order song and an activity that would've been on my bucket list had New Order not been broken up the past few years.
The Perfect Kiss sounded amazing live, it's a good song but usually doesn't come to mind when we're on a road trip listing our Top 5 New Order songs. True story, Rob and I have done this, it was during a drive to Montreal.
One of the things I was able to observe through a 35x zoom lens on camera that I couldn't with the naked eye was the pairings of water bottles and wine glasses on the edge of the risers on the stage (you can see it in the Crystal video and one other that I posted). I've seen bands take the stage with water (obviously), beer bottles, Johnny Walker Black (that would be the Detroit Grand Pubahs who even shared a little with members of the audience lol), and other forms of hard liquor, but never water and glasses of white wine. How's that for a classy aging rock act?
It being the final night of the tour, we got a bonus encore in a round of Joy Division covers, the bonus being Shadowplay. Now I just need to hear The Killers perform their version and all my Shadowplay fantasies will be complete. (This might be a little blasphemous, but I actually like the Killers cover better than Ian Curtis' original rendition) Our only other real complaint was that Blue Monday needed more cowbell (let's take it back to '88!), next show will definitely be BYOC(owbell). Even the official concert tees were relatively well-priced at $30 (if you collect official tour merch you'll agree, $30 has become the "fair" price these days *sigh*).
The final encore was Love Will Tear Us Apart, which pretty much made my life complete. Love Will Tear Us Apart is my song, not just my favourite song, but a part of me. No joke, it's tattooed to me.
The show was everything I hoped it would be, and I don't' think I could've chosen better companions. Rob and I were the rambunctious ones, after a while we figured it wasn't our fault if the girls behind us weren't adequately excited and on their feet, that wasn't going to stop us from dancing. Chris and I have an unspoken deal to meet on the dancefloor anytime a New Order song plays when we're out, so it was awesome to finally catch the live show with him. And finally, a special thank you to Eugene, who's not the boogie sort, for taking videos of Blue Monday and Love Will Tear Us Apart for me as I was far too excited to hold still with a camera.
That weekend was part two of my Brit week, with just my buddy Chris this time. It was a special screening of Ecstasy with director Rob Heydon and writer Irvine Welsh in attendance. This was at the Projection Booth East, a grungy little rep theatre on Gerrard St. in Leslieville. I'd never been to the Projection Booth theatre before, it's all exposed painted concrete and threadbare half-broken seats. I'm not ashamed to admit I checked to make sure they were not mysteriously sticky before I sat down. It was the perfect venue for a screening of Irvine Welsh's Ecstasy.
If you've read the novel of the same name by Welsh, it's based on the short story The Undefeated about Lloyd, partier/low level dealer/drug mule, who meets Heather, a young woman trying to escape her unhappy marriage. They find happiness together but it's not without obstacles, not only must Lloyd figure out how to get out of his mounting debt with the shady Solo, there's trouble in paradise with Heather, while she's willing to experiment and enjoys their partying lifestyle, she disapproves of his constant drug use and living for the weekend. The wiki description puts it best..."they are faced with the question of whether they love their drugs, each other, or are just drugged into loving each other."
Welsh and Heydon kicked off the day's events with about a 45 min conversation and Q&A, much of it related to the trials of getting the film made, the numerous times funding fell through and other challenges. Once upon a time I think I would've hung onto every work Rob Heydon had to say, I mean, the event was entitled "Renegade Film School" after all. I endured the inevitable film student questions, you know, those asking for tips, advice on starting a career, does the filmmaker think a film degree is necessary for success. They were there because of the movie and so it was only fair that Irvine fielded questions about his role in the making of this film and others. Eventually a few questions steered him towards his writing, and writing novels vs. writing for the screen. Here are some iphone videos Chris and I took (I haven't checked the audio all the way through so hopefully you can kinda hear what's being said):
I was particular amused by Welsh's admission in his interest in characters who are fuck ups, but wanting to root for them anyway. Of course we all instantly think of Mark Renton in Trainspotting, but on a personal level I can relate as I've written my share of characters who are addicts/weekenders/sketchy ravers.
The movie itself was good. I don't think it's going to make my top 10 of the year, but it was entertaining, engaging, relatively well-paced, authentic, and well adapted from what I remember of the short story. Understanding the challenges in the making of the film and some knowledge of the settings they used (Sudbury I believe it was, one day in Toronto, and B-Unit in Scotland) made me appreciate the movie more. It does feel like a film that should've been made 10 years ago though (when it was first green-lighted) when Slacker fiction was at the height of its popularity. I have to say, much as I like zombies, vampires (that don't sparkle), the supernatural resurgence and fairy tale revivals, a part of me really misses slacker fiction. I would count certain Douglas Coupland titles in that genre, most books by Toronto writer Jim Munro, and Irvine Welsh made up the bulk of slacker fiction that I read in University. It was good stuff. Then "Chick Lit" exploded... I digress though...
The best (and worst) part of that day came actually before all this, let me start from the top. It'd been raining pretty heavily all day, I'd been out the night before, nothing crazy, but I was still sleepy and soggy when I arrived at the theatre. I'd eaten very little that morning and had only my large coffee to rely on for sustenance. I was in my seat while Chris stepped out to the lobby for a minute to speak to his friend and felt a bit of a dip in my energy levels, I didn't think much of it only that I was tired and hoped I wouldn't nod off during the movie. Chris returned mentioning that Irvine was outside signing books...
Ok, I do need to digress for a moment this time...for those of you who've seen my TIFF pics, the framed photos of me and Tarantino, etc. you'll know that I've done my share of celebrity stalking. You may have noticed I don't solely go for photos, or autographs, there are many ways to create celeb memories in my opinion. It also depends on my mood and whether I have a camera/sharpie handy, but sometimes I want the pic, or the signed DVD, but having a chance to speak to one of your idols can be an amazing experience too. I didn't really know which I was going for that day, but given that Irvine Welsh is an author, a book signing seemed most likely.
When Chris said Irvine was out in the lobby, I wasn't sure if he meant for just a moment or whether there was a line-up forming. I hesitated then decided I needed to go scope out the situation and jumped up. That was my first mistake, I saw black spots in front of my eyes. Nevermind, I thought, this will pass, and I made my way to the lobby. Yeah, when your vision is swimming, moving around more is not going to help. As I reached the lobby, a violent sickness struck me, I wasn't sure if I was going to throw up, or pass out. I stood there, not really able to talk, and undecided whether I should dash to the washroom or outside for some air. Poor Chris didn't know what the hell was happening, he was pretty much getting ready to catch me because he thought I was going to fall down any second. (Yeah, I looked that good) I went outside for a few minutes, and slowly the sickness subsided some. Weeks later I still cannot tell you what happened, a part of me suspects the milk in my coffee might have gone funky, but we'll never know. After much deep breathing and standing in the breeze under the canopied entrance, we finally went back inside. My vision had cleared up but my stomach clearly still wasn't right.
Enough about my nausea though. I walked in, and there he was, one of the greatest contemporary writers I could think of, just standing there by himself in front of the shelves of DVD rentals. And that's when it struck me, I want to shake this guy's hand. So I walked over, stuck out my hand, half mumbled something about being a great admirer of his, and shook his hand all the while praying that I wouldn't throw up on his shoes.
Everything after that was a bit of a blur, I think I stepped away and came back (or had an out of body experience?), but eventually Chris and I would have a conversation with Irvine Welsh and Rob Heydon about, of all things, New Order! Awesome, right??? I'd seen on Irvine's twitter that he'd been having dinner with the band a few days prior, so we talked a little about the show, I commented that Bernard's voice was sounding more like Ian's nowadays, and Irvine agreed! He noted how it was unfortunate that things went sour between Bernard and Hooky, and continued on with stories of the band. Weeks later I'm still wondering, did that really happen? Did I just shoot the shit with one of my favourite writers about one of my favourite bands and a concert we were both at??? I guess it must've happened though because when I tweeted a summary of the afternoon's event and "shooting the shit with @WelshIrvine about New Order" he favourited my tweet! Sure, sure, to him I'm just another weirdo fan, but I will not be forgetting the likes of this day anytime soon!
(Nor will I be flippant towards any signs of illness)
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