God save the Queen

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/05/2004 (8055 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SPRING in Winnipeg is kind of like the life of a fish fly — 24 to 36 hours long, at best. One day, the slushy remains of the last big dump of the year are melting on our roadsides. Then, after a single temperate day, the sun is beating down and it’s the Victoria Day long weekend, the supposed start to summer and a time when every sane person in this city strives to be elsewhere.

If you’re heading out of town, stop reading this paper and get on the highway. The road to lakeland will be psycho tomorrow, as half the populace calls in sick the Friday before the May long.

But if you have to hang around, there’s no problem — an excellent crop of live music is coming through town this week.

U.S. punk-rock outfit The Distillers is the biggest concert, but there’s plenty to please other tastes, namely country, mainstream rock and over-the-top calypso-dance pop, the latter thanks to the unrepentant dude who wrote Who Let the Dogs Out.

Here’s the best of a wacky long weekend here in Winnipeg:

THE DISTILLERS:

BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO

Wednesday, Burton Cummings Theatre

The past year has been a mixed blessing for The Distillers, the California rock band led by Australian expat Brody Dalle.

Coral Fang, the quartet’s latest album, has been widely and favourably reviewed as the raw, confessional punk-pop album Courtney Love is too unfocused to make.

But at the same time, Dalle has been under a microscope, thanks to her very messy divorce from Rancid’s Tim Armstrong and the fuel it provided for much of the material on Coral Fang.

“For as long as I’ve been in this band, people have focused on Brody’s personal life,” says drummer Andy Granelli, speaking on behalf of a band that plays the Burton Cummings Theatre on Wednesday with ska-rock outfit Crowned King.

“I don’t have a problem with it. It’s the same as you asking me what it’s like having two arms and legs. But I also don’t have much to say about it.”

The Distillers hit The Burt toward the end of a long North American tour that saw the band play the sold-out Coachella Valley Music Festival with Radiohead, The Cure, Pixies, Air, Kraftwerk, Basement Jaxx, Dizzee Rascal and just about anyone else in the good books of modern-rock snobs.

Tickets for Wednesday’s show are $22.50 at Ticketmaster. Seating is general admission.

BIF & THE BOYS:

SCHOOL OF ROCK

Tonight, Cowboys

After 15 years on the rock circuit, Bif Naked is now the wily veteran. The Winnipeg-raised vocalist is touring with three young Canadian bands, each of them with a brand-new debut album of its own.

The Salads are out of Toronto, Social Code comes from Edmonton and Out of Your Mouth — the band with the sludgy cover of Madonna’s Music — cheers for the Calgary Flames.

“They’re keeping me on my toes,” says Bif, who headlines the four-band bill tonight at Cowboys but has so far resisted playing the role of schoolmarm on the road. “It’s great to have younger musicians around, but I can’t control them. I’ve learned that with members of my own band.”

So far, Bif has earned rave reviews from her cast of newbies. “She’s been calling it summer camp,” says Out of Your Mouth singer Jason Darr, “but all of her people have been nothing but great.”

Admission tonight is $20.

ANSLEM DOUGLAS:

LETTING DOGS LIE

Sunday, Norwood Community Centre

In the fall of ’96, Trinidad-born Toronto songwriter Anslem Douglas unleashed the calypso version of an unstoppable virus: Who Let the Dogs Out, the jockish novelty song later used by The Baha Men to terrorize the western world.

The maddening but catchy single was originally intended for Caribbean carnivals in Trinidad, Miami, Jamaica and New York. But its year-long stint as a Grammy-winning monster dance track took Douglas to audiences from Antigua to Zimbabwe — and now to a social hall in little old Winnipeg.

“You expect every song you write to be a hit. Just not like this,” says Douglas, who knows many people regard his most famous creation with an almost Macarena-like combination of amusement and revulsion.

“People always ask me who let the dogs out, so I’ve written an answer — just for fun, just for myself. I haven’t recorded it. It’s called Keys to the Kennel, and in it I sing I have the keys.

“So I’m the one who let the dogs out.”

Douglas performs tonight with Trinidadian calypso act Preacher, Ian Grant — the brother of Eddy Grant of Electric Avenue fame — and Winnipeg’s Charlo. Advance tickets are $20 at Bindy’s, Deen’s, Caribbean Spice, Dino’s and other Caribbean businesses.

MERLE HAGGARD:

THE LEGEND RETURNS

Sunday, Centennial Concert Hall

Back in the ’60s, Merle Haggard was a rough-edged country-music outlaw with a hard lifestyle and penchant for right-wing politics. Today, he’s far from a redneck: His liver’s in great shape and his politics are staunchly anti-establishment, at least what you can gather from new album Like Never Before.

But he still remains an outlaw, in that mainstream country music seems shallow and plastic to him. He brings his purist vision to the Centennial Concert Hall on Sunday. Second-balcony seats remain available for $49.50.

ASIAN CANADIAN FESTIVAL:

CHOPSTICKS AT THE FORKS

Sunday and Monday, The Forks

Go to The Forks this weekend and you’ll see fireworks. The annual May long weekend pyrotechnic show — the essence of Victoria Day, for many people — is slated for Sunday at 10 p.m.

Head down earlier and you’ll catch an exhibition of Asian-Canadian culture, as Winnipeg’s Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Philippine, Indian and Sri Lankan communities show off their food, music and performing arts.

The festival runs Sunday from 10 a.m. until the fireworks and Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

POWDERFINGER:
FIRE DOWN BELOW

Tuesday, Silverado’s

Powderfinger is the Australian version of The Tragically Hip — a band that’s huge Down Under but largely unknown everywhere else. New album Vulture Street marks another attempt to crack North America — hence the quintet’s appearance on Tuesday at the 700-seat Silverado’s.

“They sell out arenas in Australia. They always play the biggest festivals, like Livid Festival and Big Day Out and are always near the top of the bill,” explains Lynne Skromeda, co-host of DownUnder UpOver, an Aussie music show on UMFM 101.5. “I’m not really a fan, but I’m going to just to see it.”

Admission for Tuesday’s show is $12.50.

For more live music options this weekend, check out the concert and club listings in the following pages of The Tab.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca