Over The Edge Says
Goodbye to its wall art.
In the process of the
renovations made to the
office newspaper history
was wiped out with the

stroke of brush.
Everything from the
handprints of staff mem-
bers who have worked
here over the years to

Ath Avenue

While he hasn't
claimed to be bigger than
Jesus yet, Danko Jones
probably would if those damn
English boys’s hadn’t already
taken the line. Danko Jones,
an independent 3-piece band
out of Toronto, are raging
across the country’s radio
stations with the hit single
“Bounce,” and are certainly
not cowering behind false
modesty to explain their suc-
cess. No, Danko Jones are in
your face - the liner notes of
their new EP, “Love is Bold”
are even flamboyant, with the
infamous Bruce LaBruce
ranting about Danko’s incred-
ible fashion sense!

So you can just
imagine what happened on
Oct 19th, when namesake,
guitarist and singer Danko
Jones (not his real name),
drummer Dave Richardson
and bassist John “JC”
Calabrese were shoehorned

ye-Bye ™

the giant penis behind
the filing cabinet (dont’
ask). It would have been
nice if we had been
informed that this was
going to happen so that
we could have at least
preserved our memories
on film. As it is this pic-
ture is all we have left.

If there is one band that will
always sell out in Prince
George it's Wide Mouth
Mason. Quite possibly the
best live act in Canada, these
guys are an absolute treat to
see live and even more so in
a_ little place like the
Generator. Singer Shaun
Verreault has been playing
the bar ever since he played
his second gig ever there ina
cover band, and the band
obviously has a little senti-
mental attachment to it,
returning year after year on
their own accord. This was
my third time seeing Wide
Mouth Mason at the
Generator, and all | have to
say to those of you who
skipped out because you had
seen them before is that you
made a huge mistake.

The night opened with
Prince George’s own
Godless, who are developing
quite a strong local following
thanks to the Max FM 94 pro-
viding airplay for their self-
titled EP. The grungy sounds

Blues Host Denko Jones

He hasn't claimed to be bigger than Jesus (Yet)

into the tiny basement that is
the Fourth Avenue Blues
Club. They blew the roof off.
They had to - Tricky Woo, the
supposed opening act, ended
up gambling away their funds
in Alberta and didn’t show.
This led to a very good, if
somewhat unexpected per-
formance by the house band
to appease the slightly
grouchy (and slightly drunk),
crowd of about 130 people.
But the wait was worth it.
Danko Jones ripped into their
simple, straight up rock/blues
mix - unrelenting in its ener-
gy, personality, and sexuality.
Danko likes the ladies, and
he’s not afraid to show it. “I
get so excited / Goddamn |
need a sex change!” is just a
lyrical sample. Danko Jones
doesn’t go on stage to just
play music, he goes on to put
on a show. Playing songs
from their 5-song self-titled
1998 release and the new

six-song EP “My Love is
Bold” the boys blessed us
with what the man _ himself
called a rare “intimate and
interactive evening with

Danko Jones.” The band has

worked hard to create a repu-
tation as a live act, refusing to
put out a full-length CD until
next year (which is currently
in the works). The stage per-
sonality is apparently part of
the plan. “This is now worth
$50!” Danko Jones exclaimed
before the encore after sign-
ing a banana peel with a
magic marker and throwing it
on the floor. Love the attitude
or hate it - but it works. Their
shows back east are continu-
ally packed with media big-
wigs and rumours have it the
band is being courted by
stateside record companies.
So if you haven't heard of
Danko yet, you are going to in
the very near future.

of “Born Alone,” and “Losing
to Time” were well received,
and the band threw free
copies of their CD into the
crowd. A wicked cover of
“Phantom Power’ brought the
crowd dancing to the stage,
and Godless left having done
a great job of priming the
audience for Wide Mouth
Mason.

Starting with the hit “Smile”
off their latest release “Stew,”
Wide Mouth Mason hit the
octane early and kept it up for
nearly 2 hours. These
Saskatoon boys have had so
many hits since their self-
titled debut in 1997 that
almost nothing was unrecog-
nizable to the audience, and
Shaun Verrault noted what a
good feeling it was to see
people mouthing the words to
his songs in a bar he once
played covers in. He added
that he, along with drummer
Safwan Javed and bassist
Earl Pereira, wrote some of
the words to their first hit,
“Midnight Rain” on

e Best Act in Canada?
Wide Mouth Mason

Connaught Hill one night,
making that song feel extra-
special as they launched into
it. While their live show was
always good, WMM has near-
ly perfected it. Even slow
songs like “Companion” kept
the crowd dancing, and
Shaun was unstoppable with
fantastic solos and even play-
ing with his teeth at one point.
The last few songs were
reserved for covers instead of
the usual big songs, and they
were perhaps the best part of
the show. Led Zeppelin’s
“How Many More Times,” lent
itself well to the band’s bluesy
style, and the encore version
of Stevie Wonder’s
“Superstition” with “Billy
Jean” as an interlude was
nothing short of awesome.
Wide Mouth Mason is quickly
closing in on the Tragically
Hip in terms of cult Canadian
status, and personally | hope
that’s the genre they stay in.
Lets keep them all to our-
selves.