Updates: June-August, 2002

August 25, 2002 - The frosh better be ready: the almighty Monteforte will make a triumphant return to Healey's on September 7th. Maybe that blues big shot Jeff Healey, who runs the joint, will turn up for one of his legendary jams this time. Didn't seem to matter that he didn't last time, which was still quite the steamy affair. It'll be made all the steamier with Gash opening.

Moe sings O Canada for his anniversary in Rochester, N.Y. Photo by Nick Sciarratta.August 18, 2002 - Last Wednesday, Moe Berg and his lovely wife Laura celebrated their first wedding anniversary. (Can you believe it's been a year? Congratulations to them!) And what better way for our fave rock'n'roll husband to celebrate than accompany Mrs. Berg to a minor league baseball game in the U.S. and sing the Canadian national anthem? Okay, maybe there are better ways, but not for the Bergs, who'd been offered by our friend Nick, p.r. guy for the Rochester (N.Y.) Red Wings, to come on down for a game. Their anniversary coincided with a game between the Red Wings and the Ottawa Lynx, hence the anthem. "We thought spending it doing a uniquely American activity would be a fun alternative to the usual," explained the happy groom, adding that singing the anthem was an "unusual challenge" he couldn't resist taking on. From all reports, they had a wonderful time and the anthem went fine. How could it not, what with the snazzy personalized jersey?

August 10, 2002 - You may recall us breaking the news about Moe's regular Saturday night DJ thing at The Tap (if you don't, check here). Well, after almost a year of goofy flashbacks and good vibrations, someone in the big-time press finally noticed, and Nathalie Atkinson wrote a terrific article on it that ran in yesterday's Toronto edition of the National Post. While it raises more questions than it answers about Moe's future plans (new short story collection? several music projects? We'll try to get those answers..), it's an excellent snapshot of The Tap and the man who inhabits it with what's now called "Guilty Pleasures." You can find the piece in the Features Index, or just go straight to it here. Or learn about it for yourself and go to The Tap tonight! It's on Bloor West near Howland, a few doors down from Lee's Palace in the Annex section of Toronto.

- We'd be remiss here if we didn't mention another Pursuit DJ night at The Tap, as Dave Gilby spins the finest New Wave every Wednesday night. All Square Pegs mark your calendars.

August 2, 2002 - Now that Kris Abbott's back in Toronto, she's certainly making her presence felt. In the current issue of Now, you'll fine a great little story she wrote about a rather interesting encounter she had with a couple nuns during World Youth Day (and she swears every word is true). So check it out here. (Note: if you're a fervent Catholic or otherwise religiously conservative, you may be offended by the content...but then you also wouldn't like the band so much and you wouldn't be here.)

Monteforte rockin' you like a hurricane, 7/12/02: (l.-r.) Vikki Sleaze, Brad from Halifax, RoxyJuly 21, 2002 - We told you it'd be worth the wait. Over on the left is a shot of the mighty Monteforte blowing everyone's mind at the Horseshoe a week ago last Friday. Look at the calves under the cut-off railroad overalls! Look at Roxy with the black top and white jeans! (That vixen! Envious, ladies?) The gang was in fighting shape. As for mentally...well, let's say the lyrics and such were a bit...freeform. You almost expected Trey Anastasio to turn up. But the best bands can pull it off. Among those in the crowd were the Rheostatics' Martin Tielli, Chris Brown of Brown&Fenner and part-time of BNL, and a couple reporters from Citytv down the street. Even the great Kris Abbott, after years of not seeing MF, was there with tequila shots all 'round. (With that, she just may have saved the show!) And what were all these stars boogying to? Old faves like "My Sharona," "Livin' On a Prayer" and "Lick It Up," but also brand new faves Ratt's "Round and Round," Eddie Money's "Take Me Home Tonight" (with Roxy as Ronnie Spector), AND their most recent song EVER - their first song recorded after 1995 - "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls! And it was carried out in fine style with Brad's hair blowing perfectly in front of the carefully-positioned directional fan (for the new video, natch). Word is the next MF onslaught will be in September, so rest up in front of the AC and do your back-to-school shopping early.

July 14, 2002 - In case you missed the homepage, the Reunion Gallery (not one page but two!) is now up for eye-bogglement. So fabulous is it, we didn't have time to file a Monteforte review! Stay tuned for that soon.

July 7, 2002 - Okay, so the Reunion page isn't ready yet. (Got pictures? Scan! Send!) But to tide you over - the mighty Monteforte is back in action after an excrutiating layoff of...well, four months, actually, but an excrutiating four months nevertheless. Roxy, Vikki, the Crunch and Brad from Halifax will be kicking out the jams and letting the sunshine in this Friday July 12th at where else but The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern.

Moe and Renee (and Brad's arm) in Cambridge 6/21/02. Photo by Nick Bastian.June 23, 2002 - Hey, who are those two crazy kids over there? Why, it's Moe Berg and the lovely and tambourine-bruised Renee Suchy playing Cambridge, Ontario in TPOH reunion show #2 (thanks to local boy Nick Bastian) and your first of many many reunion pictures to come.

The June 21st show was tighter and smoother than the previous night, with two small changes in the setlist below: since Moe was having trouble hitting the high notes on the chorus to "I Like You," it was replaced with former encore song "Man's Best Friend," whose encore slot was taken by "Terrified". The small room of the otherwise large and stately building of Fiddler's Green was steamy and filled with happy head-bobbing people. But of course, it was only a warm-up for the next night.

The June 22nd show had had relatively little promotion: the regular Horseshoe listing in Now and eye, the neat article from our friends at Chart, some mentions on radio station Edge102. But the place was just about filled midway through National Anthem's opening set. When Kevin and the boys finished, the push to the front started and the dance floor was packed from there on in. The gang played pretty much the same setlist as the previous night, but bigger and louder than any of the other shows. And the crowd ate it up ravenously. So much so, they demanded an extra encore, so the entire encore list was exhausted, and even "I Like You" had to be brought back because, as Moe admitted, those were all the songs they had worked on and they couldn't have attempted anything else (he even did better on the high notes). And while in the warm-up shows Moe went out by saying something like "see you again in five years," in the last show he left out the five years part. But don't start emailing us with pleas from your town! Nothing has been ruled out, but nothing has been planned. Honestly.

You'll notice this "review" has been rather sparse. Well, if you weren't at the shows, you'll soon be able to experience as much of it as you possibly can. The Horseshoe show will be featured in the MP3 of the Week series, as we go song by song week by week - starting next week (were you at the show and have memories of particular songs? Let us know!). By the end of this week, you'll be able to read the only print article done previewing the shows, which appeared in Kitchener/Waterloo's paper the Echo, as a new addition to the Features Index, and within the next couple weeks, we'll have a new page dedicated mainly to photos from the shows (Do you have photos of any of the shows? Send them in!). So now more than ever, stay tuned...

June 20, 2002 - Many happy people with sore muscles that hadn't been worked for a while came away from the first reunion show in Barrie last night. Prominent among those happy sore people were those in the band. Everything went quite well for a first warmup show, and for those of you wondering where your set suggestions ended up, here's what they played:

Of course, there will be much more news from the next shows, with a page dedicated to them in the next couple weeks. Also, if all goes as it should, the Saturday show at the Horseshoe will be the subject of the next MP3 of the Week series.

- A couple associated notes on Saturday. Opening band Talladega have gotten copies of their brand new CD all ready just in time for the show. So please come early to check them out, and if you like their stuff, you can take it home with you. Also, Moe says he's taped a segment of the CTV entertainment show "e-talk" (hosted by the glamourous ex-PM's son Ben Mulroney) participating in some sort of group discussion about the state of Broadway or something (yes, we're shrugging too). It's scheduled to air Saturday at 6 or 7pm depending on the station and the page on their site.

June 16, 2002 - Well, here we are at the week of the reunion. All members (Moe, Kris, Dave, Brad and Renee) are finally in town and rehearsals have begun. To review once more: Thursday at The Foundation in Barrie, Friday at Fiddler's Green in Cambridge and Saturday in Toronto at the Horseshoe. Contrary to the listing on the 'shoe site, Talladega will play first at 10pm, then it'll be National Anthem at 11pm and the Pursuit set at 12:15am. If you still intend on getting tickets for that show online from Maplemusic, the deadline is Friday at Noon, eastern time.

- If you are coming to the Toronto show, feel free to join your fellow fans (including the esteemed webmaster and friends on the mailing list) at a little get-together at The Black Bull, a block up the street from the 'shoe at the corner of Queen St. West and Soho - mere steps from the corner where the original "I'm An Adult Now" video was filmed. Folks will start showing up at about 8pm,and we'll hang out until people leave to dutifully claim their Maplemusic tickets. We hope to be somewhere on their legendary patio, but aren't sure how we'll signify ourselves (perhaps hanging out a shirt or something), so just wander around until you notice a bunch of people slightly geekier than you. :-) Hope to see you there!

June 2, 2002 - It looks like Pursuit Pals will take the opening slots at the Toronto TPOH show 6/22. You could say the Grace Babies are opening, because 4 alumni from that dearly-departed band are in the two bands so far tapped to open: Talladega and National Anthem. The former you can read about on the Pursuit Pals page, the latter is the latest rock project of perennial Pal Kevin Hilliard (they'd be official Pals now but their site isn't finished yet) and in fact features some Grace Babies songs that were making the rounds up to the breakup. For a preview, check them out at the North By Northeast festival in Toronto this Saturday. To find out what other Pursuit Pals are playing NXNE, go here.

- So where is Moe Berg during this year's North By Northeast? He'll be in the Conference part, judging again at the Demo Derby, where artists submit demo tapes to random attempts of constructive criticism. If you're a delegate, check it out on this Friday at 11am in the Holiday Inn On King. Details here.

Updates: 9/02-4/03 / Updates: 2-5/02 / Updates: 9/01-1/02 / Updates: 4-8/01
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