Steve Nash: Not Going to California, Staying in Phoenix

My brother and I were driving on a family trip, probably around two years ago, when a song came on the radio. We both looked at each other and said, "You know this was the best received Steve Nash song by faaaaar." My sister and sister-in-law were in the back seat and we had to explain to them what we were referring to.

As mentioned yesterday, the band was taking a couple risks with our set selection. I forget whose idea it was to do the song but I know it wasn't me. Nonetheless, I was the one figuring out the guitar parts for them.

I don't know why we did this song. I think it was because there were many girls in attendance recently so we thought we give this tune a shot. For them.

As soon as Drew sang the opening line, they all started cheering and sang along. I had NO IDEA this tune was that so popular at the time we played it. I later found out that due to CANCON regulations, it was the most played Canadian song on radio that year.

Here it is, on a lonely day:

Steve Nash: Helping Those In Need

As we got into more weeks of playing at the London Pub, our confidence grew and we decided to place ourselves into more challenging situations. This one was the most legendary. Jordan had to help a couple underage kids that were coming out weekly. Due to a law in Ontario that was being put into effect, the kids would be no longer able to attend after this week. For their last jam they really wanted to play "Enter Sandman" by Metallica but no one at the bar could sing it.

Jordan gets up from our table and tells us he'll be right back. As he loves kids, Jordan went to the car, popped in the cd, wrote out the lyrics to Enter Sandman. He comes back in with the lyrics, strips down to his wife-beater, puts on his sunglasses, and proceeds to the stage. Drew, Jason, and I are all sitting there going "Oh crap, this is going to be brilliant."

And it was.

The whole pub was rockin out. My brother's voice cracked about five times because he can't sing like James Hetfield. No one cared. The kids loved it. There were high-fives and hand-shakes.

It was exactly how a jam night was supposed to go. So for a little nostalgia, here's a little ol' school ditty by Metallica.

Steve Nash: Push

I forget how we ever chose this song for covering as an acoustic number but it worked out well, though I wonder if some of the patrons thought we were covering this as a joke.

Here's the video:



And as a bonus, here's the episode clip from Beavis and Butthead regarding the same video:

Steve Nash: Love the Song, Can't Stand the Band

For some reason we decided to go with Coldplay for one of our weekly sets. I never minded the tune but I personally always thought the band was "not cool, totally lame." People really appreciated this one. I guess they liked our arrangement of it as it was more acoustical. It got to the point where Doug the drummer would let us play an extra song if it was "Yellow," and courtesy of Parlophone.

The Name's Nash, Steve Nash

Late last week this girl I know posted some of the lyrics to "Hanging by a Moment" by the band Lifehouse as her Facebook status. Why do people do that anyway? Write lyrics as a status.

It got me talking about a band I was in around the turn of the century called Steve Nash. My brother Jordan was on vocals and guitar, my friend Drew was also on vocals and guitars. I was on upright bass. My friend Jason was the support. The house drummer for the London Pub jam night was Doug.

We went every Tuesday for months. People knew who we were and called for the songs they loved hearing us do.

So to kick off Steve Nash week on the blog, here's a video I'm throwing out to lady Lindsey and her Facebook statuses. One of the Steve Nash classics, courtesy of Geffen Records.

SoJay at Tryst

Tomorrow I'm playing with SoJay. Her website is currently undergoing renovations so I'll get at it later. We are playing at Tryst on Peter Street by King.

I'll let you know how it goes next week.

What I think about on the altar during a sermon.

Due to the amount of "Rush-ness" that has overtaken my blog, it's time to get back to what's been going on.

Last Saturday I had the extreme pleasure of playing with Steve Henry. He is one of the best piano/organ guys I've ever played with. His chord movements and structures are really creative. More importantly, he's a good guy and I love hanging with him. His wife too. Great people.

The message was long and I had worked a whole day, so my mind started to wander up there. So here's what I was thinking. I don't know why, but I was.

Steve Henry vs. Chuck Norris. Let's go.

1) If I was captured by terrorists and forced to watch the Twilight Trilogy, who would I rather watch it with. Steve 1, Chuck 0.

2) Who would I rather have a drink with? Steve 2.5, Chuck 0. Steve gets an extra bonus .5 just in case his wife decides to come too.

3) When I'm getting my ass kicked, who could I turn to. Steve 4, Chuck 1. Chuck would clean house for sure, but Steve would get one point for praying for me, and an extra bonus .5 for laying hands over my beaten self.

4) Really, how am I gonna get a good laugh from Chuck? Steve 5, Chuck 1.

It's already over. Steve wins 5-1 over the one-dimensional Chuck Norris.

Oh wait, it's time to play "Glorify Thy Name" and wrap it up. See you next time.

RUSH: I LOVE YOU MAN (THE SEQUEL)

At the end of the show last week (I can't believe that was 8 days ago already) a video was being played as fans were walking out of the venue. It is basically a continuation of "I Love You Man," the movie where Paul Rudd and Jason Segel play die hard Rush fans.


Enjoy.

RUSH on Hollywood Walk of Fame!!

Rush. They don't suck. People may not like them for some reason and say they suck, but they don't. You don't get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame by sucking.

Congratulations to the band and on a personal note:

Alex Lifeson and his family have been really good to me. Whenever I needed a request, they have went beyond accommodating me whenever they could, on many occasions. It is so nice to see such a great person be recognized in this way. Not many people can claim to have both the highest civilian honour in their country, as well as a star on the most celebrated sidewalk in the world. Enough said.

RUSH: THE ENCORE

Rush is too good to only have one week dedicated to them, so I'm going a little overtime.

Here is a clip from the Snakes and Arrows tour of Lil' Rush doing the Tom Sawyer intro.

Enjoy.

RUSH WEEK: THE CONCLUSION

Here is a clip of Alex Lifeson talking about his Hughes & Kettner cabinets he is using on the Time Machine Tour. Very interesting stuff. Video is courtesy of Hughes & Kettner.

RUSH: A PICTORIAL

Photographer Sara Collaton took some great high quality shots of the show and they appear on her site.

Check it out.

RUSH: THE REVIEW

Last night was Rush and they were awesome. When you watch the stage you forget they are 60. They could be collection a pension but they choose to rock harder and better than most of these younger bands.

The show easily went over three hours and it was all about their music. No openers, no presentations for World Vision (ie. Fred Hammond), no thirty minute rant by Geddy telling me how to live my life only to go and do the opposite (ie. Tye Tribbett), and most importantly, they didn't mail it in like so many artists do.

About the song selection. When a band like Rush is going 35 years strong on making great tunes, you can't put all the favorites into three hours. So subtract approximately 40 minutes to play moving pictures and you've got approximately 32-33 years of music to play in 2 hours and 20 minutes. But I have to say they pretty much nailed it. I didn't prefer every song but they show isn't the "Rush plays whatever Randall wants to hear" tour. Let's break it down.

SET ONE (11/11, a perfect score)

1. Spirit of Radio - Been there and done that, however, with the new video intro that was very entertaining it worked. I was very pleased with the opening.

2. Time Stand Still - I love this song so I was excited to see them do it.

3. Presto - I didn't really know why this song made it in the set but I remembered how they used to play "Bravado" a lot and was just thankful I didn't have to hear that one.

4. Stick it Out & 5. Working Them Angels - These songs rock out hard.

6. Leave That Thing Alone is my favorite instrumental that they do.

7. Faithless - I have to be honest. I don't really remember this one.

8. BU2B - A great new song from their upcoming album.

9. Free Will - This was up there with one of my top performances of the night.

10. Marathon - This is one of my favorite Rush songs of all time. I really liked how they came out of the guitar solo near the end. I was thinking to myself it would be really cool if they did that, and then they did. I always appreciate it when that happens.

11. Subdivisions - A lot of people love this song. I'm only lukewarm to it. My friend went and used the facilities during this song as the intermission was imminent. A great call by him.

SET TWO (9/11)

1. Moving Pictures Album - Loved everything except Camera Eye and Vital Signs. Rush has never played Camera Eye before this tour. I'm thinking there's a reason for that. I would rather hear tunes like Xanadu, or Jacob's Ladder before Camera Eye. Vital Signs I'm not big on either.

2. Caravan - I believe this is the first single from their upcoming album. I really like this tune.

3. Love 4 Sale/Closer to the Heart - There was a time when I would dread this part of the concert. Rush used to play Closer to the Heart EVERY time. After a while I would like to hear something else. They retired it for a number of years and brought it back, and it was nice to hear it again.

4. 2112/Temples of Syrinx - Fantastic. I'm glad they put this in there.

5. Far Cry - This is my favourite song from the last album so I'm glad I got to see it live.

ENCORE (2/2) Another perfect score.

1. La Villa Strangiato and 2. Working Man are classics that were well executed.

OVERALL

The albums Fly By Night, Caress of Steel, Grace Under Pressure, Test For Echo, and Vapour Trails were not represented in set this tour.

RUSH TONIGHT!!

Tonight I go to the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto to see the greatest band ever, our hometown heroes, RUSH!! I would like to thank my friend the2scoops for the ticket hookup.

As with any Rush show, the set list is of utmost importance. So you can find it here.

I will let you know how it goes tomorrow.

RUSH WEEK IS HERE!!!

To celebrate the two shows being played this week by the greatest band alive, Inside Randall's Pocket is going Rush for the next five days. All Rush, all the time.

Today I'm going to start off with the first ever Rush song I learned how to play.

I was in grade nine and had started playing the bass the year before. I had already gotten used to playing with U2's "The Joshua Tree," and INXS' "Kick," until a drummer named Andrew Little who was in grade twelve, told me to buy a Rush record. He said I would not regret it, and I haven't.

I had no concept of time changes or anything difficult at this point in my life so I just went ahead and learned the first song that was on the first record that I bought, "The Big Money" from the live double LP "A Show of Hands."

Here's the clip from the video release that coincided with it. It is now available on DVD as "A Show of Hands."

Go Netherlands!!

Sunday is the World Cup final. My mom was born in the Netherlands. I do not know much about the Netherlands outside of the general stereotypes and World War II history. But if Holland were to prevail, I made a promise to myself that I would go over to Uithoorn as that's where my mom lived. My wife is adament that I go over at some point so I figure that a world cup victory would be as good a reason as any, family history aside.

I remember watching the Netherlands teams when I was younger but I remember most the era of Patrick Kluivert, Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf, and Edwin VanDerSar.

If the current team of Van Persie, Van Bronkhorst, Sneijder, and Robben can get it done, I see myself kicking around a soccer ball there on a local field and putting one in top corner. We'll see what happens.

Go Netherlands.

Public Service Announcement

With all this humidity going on this week. I'm asking that everyone be patient with each other. There is nothing I cannot stand more than someone losing it for no reason. Actually, losing it for the stupidest reason is probably worse so we'll go with that.

Too many times when the weather gets like this people get impatient.

So can we all just take a deep breath and realize that we do have that extra five minutes to get done what we need too.

If you don't have that five minutes, you shouldn't have been there in the first place.

Zeus's Music Video: How Does It Feel

My wife had the opportunity to be the stylist for the band Zeus when they shot their video for their tune "How Does It Feel." All I remember about the experience is spending a Sunday looking for white jackets, and pants, and shirts.

I think she managed to secure a ninja costume somehow.

Anyway, the result is here, courtesy of Arts and Crafts (that would be their label):

Tye Tribbett Sighting

I remember Tye Tribbett. He had this great album called Victory that encompassed a variety of musical styles and blended them together like no one before, or since.

Then I decided to go to a show of his. He spewed off some crap out of his mouth saying that he could smell the moral stench of Toronto from the airplane when he was flying in. Whatever dude.


I guess he knows what that smells like, being the epitome of morality himself. You can check some of the rumours here. I call them rumours because when he could have addressed them, he just punked out like a little bee-otch instead of manning up.

Before he was "allegedly" caught, he put out a very bland follow up album compared to the genius Victory album.

Back to the punking out part; he disappeared. Generally I would have no problem with this but if you're man enough to run your mouth about how other people should run their lives, you should address yours.

But I found him.

On fathers day my brother and I were sitting in church and he asked me if Tye Tribbett was that cool choir guy that I liked. Totally stunned he would remember, I said yeah. He told me Tye was performing at the Ottawa Blues Festival.

I was happy to hear it. I was reading on the web that Tye disbanded his choir and was trying to re-invent himself. If you go to his website you'll see the evidence. That is good because after that crappy attempt at rock music that was all over the last G.A. album, I could use a re-invention.

The Ottawa Bluesfest link is here.

Let's raise our glasses for this toast:

To Tye Tribbett, may less crap come out of his mouth and more good music go in it.

Detroit: The People

I would like to thank the great people of Detroit for always being so nice. Your town takes a lot of crap from everyone but yet you still treat everyone with such class. I know this probably isn't true of everyone but I've bumped into my fair share of citizens and I've never had one complaint.

So thanks. And you will see me again soon. Hopefully with some money to support the economy.

It's a long drive

Tomorrow I drive to Detroit, and then back on Sunday. Finding the best driving directions is essential, but even more important is the tunes for the drive.

I decided to go with Green Day to start off. I'm only going with tunes from the first four records. I'm following that up with a Morcheeba/Skye mix. There are some nice grooves for the open road once Green Day is finished.

On the way home I made a huge King's X mix. I aim to make it all the way home with that mix. We'll see how far we get. I put 51 King's X songs on one tape, and I love all of them.

OH CANADA

Due to the birthday of the greatest country in the world, there will be no Inside Randall's pocket today.