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I’ve always been fascinated by optical illusions. I love watching my brain switch back and forth between the witch and the pretty girl, between the wine glass and the couple reaching in for a kiss. I’ve discovered that there are also such things as audible illusions (yet another self-coined term), and they are equally mystifying. In a workshop I sat amazed as Kevin Breit showed us how hammering onto a harmonic at the 7th fret with a slide can produce two notes simultaneously – and neither from the fretboard side of the string. I’ve heard it, but I also know it’s not possible (right?!?). Or more simply, how a bass player can step in and completely change what the guitar player sounds like they are doing, even when the guitar player hasn’t changed a thing.
Or how it seems like there is more than one Chuck Berry song*.
Equally convincing but much less nifty are memorical illusions (patent pending). The sort of thing where two people recall an event with much clarity and agree on almost everything, except in one person’s memory it happened at a football game (say) and in the other person’s memory it happened at a cockfight (just using whatever examples spring to mind here). The older I get the more I notice this happening to other people.
So I sat down to the compose today’s story of the day this morning (yes, this is how I start my days) and my choosing finger landed on “Ottawa Jazz Fest June 30th, 2014: Whitehorse, Natalie McMaster, The Mahones”. Noting the date, I figured this was probably the first time I had seen Whitehorse. “Geez,” I reminisced, “I must have seen them, what, four or five times since then?” I did a little poking around and discovered that this was the only time I ever saw them! Sure I had seen Luke Doucet a bunch of times (I think I did anyway, I’m afraid to look it up) but had I really conflated a bunch of his solo shows into imaginary husband/wife duo Whitehorse concerts**?
(On the other hand, I was bang-on with the first point: this was indeed the first time I ever saw the band.)
Next I checked the record collection…now where did we buy this Whitehorse record and get it autographed? I remember it was definitely at jazz fest and I remember Melissa McClelland pointing out where her and Luke’s first apartment was in the background of the album cover as she signed it, but not until m’lady verified it did I believe that was also this show.
It was. It had to be, ‘cuz I only saw Whitehorse once. It was in the big white tent on the lawn at the front of Confederation Park, I remember it well. And in case you’re at all curious, it was a fantastic show. As a matter of fact it was so good that it feels like it happened a dozen times.
(Never mind that I picture us getting the album signed at the merch table at 4th Stage, not in the big white tent.)
Anyway. Natalie McMaster was up next, headlining on the outdoor mainstage. She was also quite great – she is way, way too talented not to be great – but y’know, try as I might I just can’t get very excited about Eastern Canadian fiddle music, which is 100% Natalie’s wheelhouse.
As memory serves, The Mahones closed out things in the late night tent, but I suspect I didn’t stick around for much of it. The Mahones are Kingston, Ontario’s answer to The Dropkick Murphys, which is Boston’s answer to The Pogues I suppose. In other words, it’s Irish Pub Punk which is by its very definition hard-drinking music. Looking at my Whitehorse record I see that it is in pristine condition. If I had dived into The Mahones set with proper conviction I’m sure the record cover would have gotten at least a bit sullied if not mostly destroyed, so I’m guessing that I probably went home early-ish.
I don’t really remember.
*My Ding-a-Ling doesn’t count. It’s a Dave Bartholomew song; Berry just covered it. Besides, My Ding-a-Ling never counts). For anything.
**In my very slight defence, I was all set to attend a free outdoor Whitehorse concert one February in Ottawa (part of the old Winterlude concert series) that got canceled due to cold temperatures*** (well, duh), so I was supposed to have seen them at least that one other time.
***Ironic that a band that takes their name from one of the coldest territorial capital cities in the world (you look it up…my coffee is getting cold) cancelled a concert due to cold weather. On the other hand, it’s idiotic to schedule outdoor winter concerts in Ottawa, which is the second coldest national capital city in the world. (You don’t have to look that one up. Everyone that lives in Ottawa knows that fact to be implicitly true, and they also know that Mongolia’s capital city Ulan Bator comes in at the number one spot.)
Todd Man Out 