Arts County Fair ‘97

Elijah Bak

 

his year’s student booze fest

was a roaring success. The

kids flocked to Thunderbird

Stadium in droves and, for
the first time in the brief history of the
event, the fair sold out. People were
lined up for a hundred yards from the
main gate, vainly trying to gain access
to the cheap booze and live music
contained within. The main draws at
this year’s event were Big Sugar and
54/40, and it was heart warming to see
so many young Canadians rocking
away to the sounds of two of our
country’s finest live acts. The sight of
thousands of people completely
enjoying themselves to the pulse of
Canadian music put the lie to the
notion that we are not able to produce
quality music on a scale that the
masses might enjoy.

To my slight embarrassment, |
arrived late at the fair, but was in time
to catch the beginning of One Step
Beyond’s set. They laid down a funky
groove, a nasty infectious pulse that
had everyone frugging away at the air.
The second number they played was
in a similar vein, and had me thinking
that | may have been on the verge of a
new discovery. Alas, it was not so. The
rest of their set was stalled in a pool of
musically retarded disco cliches, and
wasted the promise of their two
opening numbers. Their band consists
of a Moog synth/keyboard player, two
horns, bass, drums and a guitar player
whose stylings might have been better
used in an Ex-Lax commercial or as an
assist for insomniacs who don’t
respond to hard drugs. (Tip: ditch the
lounge lizard and turn the band in the
direction of the Moog player!!)

 

(guitar & vocals) seared the
air within twenty feet of his
roaring Marshall amps. |
can’t fathom how anyone
could stand to be anywhere
near the stage, let alone
stand in front of it, without
wearing earplugs. When |
saw them at the Commo-
dore (sigh...) last summer, |.
was prepared with a set of
plugs and still suffered from
ringing ears after the show.
With the show being staged
out of doors | thought that
this might diffuse the sound
to the point where people
would be able to get near
the stage unprotected. HA,
HA, HA, HA, HA!!! During
numbers like ‘If | Had My
Way,’ ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy’
and the set closer ‘Ride Like
Hell,’ the band made a huge
beautiful noise that lent new
vitality to the overworked
blues riffs that Johnson
churned out. This is not to
say that Big Sugar are
hackneyed, but they openly
work in a classic rock-
Cream-Hendrix-Led Zeppe-
lin-Traffic jigunjah guitar
solo, squalling feedback
idiom, so it is fair to call the
riffs that Johnson plays, at
least, overworked. But by
unashamedly embracing
every cliche as though
Gordie had invented them,
Big Sugar avoid the pitfalls
that ensnare less committed
artists. Like Stevie Ray
Vaughan before him, Gordie
Johnson and his band forge

 

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The highlight of the night (for me at
least) was seeing (and hearing) Big
Sugar in a venue that was (finally)
large enough to accomodate their
gargantuan sound. Gordie Johnson

anew the steely spine of overdriven
feedback drenched 60s rock, but with
a completely authentic grasp and
appreciation for the blues, without
which they would wind up sounding

like poor poseurs in the vein of Kenny
Wayne Shepherd, Johnny “Jailbait”
Lang, or homegrown CNIB poster boy,
Jeff Healey.

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A&E 29