Posted by I can only remember being inside The Urban Corral a handful of times. That seems a bit odd to me now; it was one of the few bars in Moncton that featured live music on any sort of regular basis and though they presented a lot of country bands (as the name suggests) the bar wasn’t afraid to branch out and book whatever might be hitting town that could draw a crowd.
(It’s too bad that country music wasn’t at all my thing back then. At the time the east coast was a hotbed for country music and I’m sure I missed tons of great bands that rolled into town in search of a $5 cover charge. Just the pedal steel players alone that I could have been exposed to…it’s a shame.)
The band that was drawing the crowd on August 1st, 1989 was the Blushing Brides, a Rolling Stones tribute act that I had seen a time or two before. As I probably wrote then, it would have been my fresh and unrelinquishing adoration for all things Rolling Stones that got me to the bar, given my general distaste of tribute acts.
But I do remember this show quite vividly, or parts of it at least. I was with my friend (and the drummer of the cover band I was in) Derrick, and we languished at the back of the small dancefloor beneath wagon wheel chandeliers with lasso trimming, chugging beers and rocking to the Faux-Stones. I can see the band squished onto the small “stage” – was it even a stage or was it just a corner of the dancefloor? – under the hot lights that dangled a few inches above their sweaty heads.
I remember the singer doing his best Jagger moves, flapping around like a frightened pelican and tossing his head from side to side. He did this weird schtick where he pretended to pull his face off of his head and eat it like an apple. Maybe it’s some secret Mick-move I’m not familiar with, but I’ll never forget the image.
I don’t recall how the evening ended – no surprise there – but one thing I do know is when I walked out of the Urban Corral that night it was one of the last times I would darken their threshold. There was another show with Matt Minglewood that a friend of mine was doing sound for; I can’t remember if it was before or after this. Regardless, the place closed down in 1992 after a dozen years hosting bands like Alabama and Vince Gill.
I think it’s a physiotherapy clinic now.
Todd Man Out 