Today achieved balance. But I don’t want balance. If balance means equal parts dark and light then a balanced day feels like a bad day. Difficulties and negatives cancel out advances and positives. You are now in neutral. Neutral is an unsettled place. There is nagging anticipation. Is there a hole in the boat? Is it a submarine? On the whole I realize I am blessed. I would be some kind of crazy stupid to not know this. I am merely moving into the microcosm of a day and not relating it to the scale of global misery. The Bertuzzi hit bleached all the newspapers red and white all over. In Vancouver it bumped the Spanish train bombings out of top spot. Our local serial killer pushed the 199 killed and 1000 injured even farther back. It took until after the hockey game was broadcast on radio for me to learn that 2 million people marched through the rainy streets of Madrid today to demonstrate solidarity against random evil. Two million. That is hard to comprehend. It is much easier to comprehend a sucker punch thrown during a heated and frustrating hockey game. Shouldn’ t something astounding win the front page? I hope tomorrow falls out of balance in favour of too much good news.
DON'T FORGET:
Craig Northey Power Trio , the Railway Club, Vancouver BC, Mon. March 22 with Shawn Verreault (Wide Mouth Mason)
"the Queens", Nanaimo BC, Wed. March 24 special guest TBA
"Upstairs", Bastion Square, Victoria BC, Thurs. March 25 with Shawn Verreault (Wide Mouth Mason)
"the Treehouse" Saltspring Island BC, Fri. March 26
The website has been static all this time but I haven't been static all this time. I had the surprise opportunity to open for Elvis Costello and Steve Nieve just this Sunday. Its a rare thing that I perform in front of that many people in a solo acoustic format. When you do that type of thing I think you really have to own the moment. If I'm too nervous, in my own estimation, I only rent the moment. The pressure of this particular situation (an S.R.O. audience stacked with celebrities, rock critics, singer/songwriters, my new management, and EC & Steve themselves) could have been pretty significant. In the end it fell away and came down to me going out there to do something for myself and enjoy the evening. I really did. In the end I love to sing and play. The audience went with me, listened and responded. Its a double edged crowd. If you can't come through with the goods you get shut down but if you're delivering they will give back to you in spades. EC & Steve positively killed. It was a smorgasboard of great music delivered with power and finesse. Elvis's voice is an ever growing force and Steve is mindbogglingly talented and tasteful. Enough has been said about the quality of the writing. As an adjunt to the "writing" I recommend Steve's journal on stevenieve.com.
set list
Someone Who's Cool
Beautiful Pain
Old Mistakes
Something Good
Satisfied
Famous Grave
Always Breaking Heart
the Last Drink
I'm quite excited about the Northey Valenzuela CD and Jesse is just adding a few little things in LA before we solidify the line-up. We're looking for a home for it and all my handlers have high hopes. I'm OK with being dashed on the rocks at this point because I know we've done good work and that's all we can do.