A jot of inspired insanity runs through the legendary "Queen Street Scene" of Toronto. Its reverberations are still being heard today.
During the late '80s, the close-knit community of musicians who played the Horseshoe and other bars on Queen Street were as much an influence on the Canadian music scene as the "Yorkville scene" was in the '60s and '70s. Queen Street was a proving ground for the white, middle-class suburban youth of the time - including Barenaked Ladies, Blue Rodeo, the Skydiggers, Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, the Look People, the Rheostatics ... you may notice that the bands get stranger and arguably more interesting as the level of fame decreases. This is no accident. Along with the commercial cream, the truly alternative rose to the top, thanks to a truly alternative audience eager to hear it. Which brings us to today's subjects - both kings of Queen Street, as it were.
Playing tonight at the Myer Horowitz Theatre, the Rheostatics' odd and compelling brand of rock 'n' roll might not have found a voice were it not for regular gigs on Queen Street. The same goes for the opening act - Barenaked Ladies keyboardist Kevin Hearn (who's worked with both the Rheos and the Look People). One gets the feeling that these guys all hung out at the same trendy sushi joint discussing how weird they could get away with being - which isn't too far from the truth.
Hearn recalls, "When I was just first starting to play in bands, on any given night, you could see the Rheos, the Look People, the Barenaked Ladies, Corky and Juice Pugs, the Skydiggers, Blue Rodeo, the list goes on and on. It was good way to meet people and get to know different musicians. It's just such a great community."
As we have seen, many of these folks went on to wide commercial success. At the other end of the spectrum, both Hearn and the Rheostatics fit into the "quirky" category, for lack of a better term, as purveyors of thoughtful, playful, experimental music that isn't likely to see airplay on the Bear. Both admit they like making music that's "different," for lack of a better term. Both have new albums - the Rheos' Night of the Shooting Stars comes out today; Hearn's second solo CD, H-Wing (named after the wing in the hospital where he underwent treatment for leukemia) is out Nov. 6. And both artists refuse to play by the rules - even their own.
As Rheos' frontman Dave Bidini puts it: "People have painted us as being iconoclasts although, more often than not lately, I hear us described as Canadian icons - so I think it's OK to be both. I think it's great to be iconoclastic icons. That's the perfect situation. I think it means that people acknowledge you as being this force that represents constant change and constant challenge, both to your own identity and the way other people perceive you."
Politics and humour seem to be hallmarks of many Queen Street artists. Moxy Fruvous combined both to great, if fleeting success. The Rheos, who poked fun at the industry by calling their debut album Greatest Hits, skewer the Canadian political right wing (which recently skewered itself in any case) on Night of the Shooting Stars with the opening song These Days Are Good for the Canadian Conservative Youth Party Alliance and the lyric, "The sun comes up on the flat Edmonton streets ... there will be no nonsense for the workers to sweep."
As for Hearn, Barenaked Ladies fans may remember his schtick during the last concert where he sang the Darth Vader theme to the tune of Britney Spears' Oops ... I Did It Again ("You think I'm a liar, I've got an evil empire."). H-Wing, despite from spooky offerings like Death Bed Love Letter, also contains offbeat humor, along with crazy tunes like In the Minnow Trap, which sounds like Frank Zappa meets Primus at an atonal hootenanny. Like I said, inspired insanity.
Hearn and other Queen Street alumni continue to push the envelope - even the Barenaked Ladies, despite their massive American success. It can do nothing but good for the reputation of Canadian music around the world.
Bidini, also a two-time published author, has high hopes. "Canada is recognized for being a cavalier place, culturally, always trying to push it harder, certainly in the audacity of Canadian film and literature," he says. "There's no reason music can't have that same reputation. On the other hand, I don't know, people abroad might think of Canadian music in terms of Summer of '69. That's OK, too. It could be worse, I suppose."
Tickets to the Rheostatics with Kevin Hearn - and special guest vocalist Harland Williams, who is Hearn's cousin - are $15 and on sale at Ticketmaster (451-8000).
