Save Ferris Rents Stage Time From Baby Baby – Lee’s Palace March 7th

Save Ferris – the 90’s Ska band with the 80’s throwback moniker – playing a show at Lee’s Palace, half a stumbling distance from my house. The horns, the energy, the jumping… this would be just what the doctor ordered to take care of some of the stress I’ve been feeling lately. A few drinks and a few tunes in and I would be transported to my secret happy bouncy dancing place.

And I was… more or less…

Here’s the thing: I’m going to keep the review of Save Ferris fairly short in adherence to that “… then say nothing at all…” golden rule. I’m not here to rip them… they looked amazing, the horns were KILLER and the energy was high for several songs.  For me, Ska shows are like pizza… there’s no such thing as a bad one. I will bounce and grin like an idiot through pretty much anything because I just love the music.

Do I wish they hadn’t gotten so tired so quickly? Yes.

The stamina just wasn’t there and it showed itself in wheezy, lazy audience banter from Mo, an awkward as hell costume change and a general slowdown towards the end of the set that culminated in an encore that was more “Aw, do we hafta?” than it was “Thank you Toronto!”

To be doing this as long as they have, there has to be shows like this. They are SO talented and have kept it together for SO long that I really am convinced this was just an off night.

Again, grinning, dancing idiot me honestly couldn’t care less in the moment, but it would be untrue to review it as a tight set filled with energy from start to finish.

So, let’s get to the SHINE on the night.

Baby Baby.

The charm, the charisma, the style… this was the band I came to see that I didn’t know I came to see.

I’ve been listening to this song for days now; a love song to Atlanta but, as the lead singer Fontez Brooks said before playing it, “If you love your city, then this song is about your city, it’s about any city. It’s about loving your city”

Check it out.  The swagger and the funk.  Here.

 

I’ve been trying for a few days to describe the band, but I can’t do better than what they have posted on their own facebook page:

Channeling the Beastie Boy’s silly irreverence and Andrew W.K.’s party-rockin’ spirit, Baby Baby blend their homemade Fun Rock songwriting with a hip-hop swagger and an emphasis on the live experience. Imagine if National Lampoon directed the next Legally Blond and you’ll start to get an idea of what BABY BABY is all about.

Baby Baby is a big, inclusive tent. There’s room under it for friends, foes, Nickleback fans, even haters; we all need someone to keep us in check, don’t we? All they ask is that you come ready to dance and make some new friends on the floor. They’ll take care of the rest.

More? Yes, you want some more.

Hang in there.

 

And lastly, this is making it to my cottage playlist:  A Short Little Summer Love Song.

 

Baby Baby had us in the palm of their hands – laughing, dancing, singing along to songs we were hearing for the first time and they finished in absolute chaos with Fontez dancing in the crowd still jamming away on his guitar while other members of the band did the first ever Rock and Roll tallman.

All of this after the best (and only) conch solo I’ve ever seen.

They were mayhem and I loved them and will not miss a show should they ever come back.

If Save Ferris was the band you wanted to play at your prom in the 90’s, Baby Baby is the band you want to be on the dance floor with.

 

* * * * *

Further Listening:  Save Ferris

This video is ten minutes of recent live footage that is essentially what I saw, but amped up a further 50%.

 

And I can’t resist one last piece of fun from Baby Baby… 

A Drop In The Ocean

A week ago I concluded my month long commitment to re-post songs from the fantastic 30 Days 30 Songs initiative, instituted by Dave Eggers, across my social media platforms.

It was an interesting month made up of hits and misses and I wanted to let the results sink in a bit before I weighed in on them here.

At the end of the day, that small act was just a drop in the ocean.  Some posts received multiple comments, likes, shares etc. while others went ignored.  I found that the posts with more recognizable names behind the songs got more love, which is definitely understandable and what I could have predicted.

What I found most interesting is that during the month I didn’t find myself caring as much about those likes and shares, or lack of them, as I thought I would.  Taking the time, once each day for a month, to really listen to a song, to read the accompanying notes as to why that song was selected as a part of the project and, many times, diving in deep to learn more about the artist and other songs they had done, was much more of a reward than the social media acceptance of the post itself.  The likes were the cherries on top, the afterthoughts…

What was also interesting is that my personal facebook page became politicized on a regular basis for the first time, something I am still working through, and I found that during the month I really needed to focus on posting other material to help balance out what could have easily just turned into another anti-Trump hate site.  Focusing so much on the negativity around this administration and, let’s face it, the negativity in many of the songs pointed at this administration, I had to go in search of good news stories to help give myself a sense of balance.

Not to sound too trite, but part of being a part of any resistance is to remember the positive things you are fighting for.

“Part of a resistance” – even I snicker at those words… so easily and potentially read as  those of us choosing to raise our voices making ourselves out to be something out of the movies, or the history books.

But I think I would speak for many that that is exactly the reason we are doing this – to be a part of those history books.

No matter what happens on a daily basis now – and there may yet be many more terrible things – we KNOW that there will be a day where history will judge this time period and those who acted in it.  History always judges and there will be one side who is on the wrong side of history.

I have faith in that future generation.

Globalization and multiculturalism will not be stopped.  Human Rights will progress.  Old racist people will die and the generation they leave behind them will be a slightly smaller generation of small-minded racists, and so on and so forth until the number of racists left will not be able to hold any executable power in society.

I have to believe this is the path humanity will go down and when those future generations look at the actions we took now, I know I want to be on the side that DID something.  That SAID something.

30 Days and 30 Songs was just the start and I will continue to be a voice for what I believe is right.  It’s been said that “Opinions are like arseholes – everybody’s got one.”

My specific posts and my specific opinions may not make any material difference at all.  But then again, they might.  I will continue to echo those with bigger microphones than mine and who knows, I may develop a powerful microphone of my own.

Action is better than inaction.  Reading, Listening  and Contributing is better than Reading and Listening on their own.

There are so many drops in this ocean that will never be heard, felt or thought about, but without all the drops it ceases to be an ocean at all.