Posted by Something(s) that is (are) sadly missing from this collection of recollections is the glut of bar shows that I have seen over the years, a flickering newsreel of memories and forgetries that will remain scattered and uncounted (and hence mostly unrecounted) as they were ticketless and hence went uncatalogued in my otherwise rather comprehensive ticket collection books.
However as my mind wanders back to a particular bar show that went unrecorded in my tomes it occurs to me that I can easily nail down the date with just the quickest of internet searches, for it is a day that most of us remember.
And not because we were all seeing Junkhouse in Saint John, New Brunswick* because I can assure you, most of you weren’t there. No, I’m sure you will recall June 17th, 1994 for a different reason entirely.
What I remember was that I was spending my final summer as a university student back in Moncton working for my parents and my bestest buddy Jojo was out there visiting for a spell. With the usual dearth of live entertainment available to two fun-loving longhairs in the Moncton area we ended up in Shediac at a beach bar called Sharkey’s (that had it’s own swimming pool! Imagine that…a bar with a swimming pool) that I had never been to before (or since) seeing Junkhouse and we had a heck of a great time doing it too. We ended up hanging out with the band after the show and discovered that they were finishing out the weekend with shows in Fredericton and Saint John and with the well-practised shrug of a couple of carefree globetrotters we decided to join them.
And of course we had a huge pile of fun. Junkhouse had a minor Canadian hit at the time with a super-catchy FM rocker called Out of My Head but more importantly they were a hard working ass-kickin’ band that made a small smoky bar feel like a concert arena with little more than three chords and a crispy snare. It would be easy to assume that the power came from Tom Wilson, who would go on to become a Canadian Hall of Fame-level personality (if not an actual laureate) through a solo career that includes stellar work with his bands Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and LeE HARVeY OsMOND, but I remember the whole band – particularly the guitar player – being really solid too.
I don’t recall the name of the bar we were in – heck, I don’t remember the name of any of the bars from this three-night run – but I can picture the place clear as day (which is weird, because it was night). It was a square tavern-style room with cliché faux green stained glass panels along the walls that pubs often have, a big square bar in the middle of the room, and an obligatory tv screen hanging in the corner.
Actually, it was while I was standing at that square bar waiting for a drink or two that I noticed people were paying way more attention to that dangling television than they should have been, given the vast amount of rock and roll that was gushing from the small ‘stage’. I turned to look expecting to see a hockey game or something on and was surprised to see an overhead shot of a white Bronco surrounded by police cars driving slowly along an otherwise empty highway.
I asked the guy next to me what was going on and he told me. Naturally I couldn’t care less and a moment later the bartender filled my fists with drinks and I went back to having a killer weekend**.
Strange that the OJ trial ended up capturing the world’s attention while Junkhouse went mostly unnoticed.
*Curiously, the proper spelling for the city of Saint John, New Brunswick is just like that – never abbreviated – while the city of St. John’s, Newfoundland is always abbreviated (and with the apostrophized ess of course), a bit of knowledge that makes distinguishing properly between the two either easier or harder, depending on your particular bend.
**No pun intended***.
**Really. I’m actually mad at myself for not getting it until I was half-done typing it.
Todd Man Out 