Unusual pair rocked the Forge

by Victoria Mallett

Last Wednesday night at the Forge, the unlikely pairing of off-beat group The Jazz Butcher and - well-known David Lindley - attracted a huge, diverse group of people.

Those who went specifically to hear the Jazz Butcher, accustomed to the versatility and spunk of albums such as Distressed Gentlefolk and Bloody Nonsense, may have been disappointed by the lack of musical variety, and shortness of their set.

While they were the warm up band for better-known David Lindley, a longer set would not have been untoward at a Torontonian ticket price of 14 dollars.

They did show characteristic humour and irreverence, with a couple of satirical numbers. One song was ‘Meet the Prime Minister’. After the second line, ‘eat the Prime Minister” the song gets paradoxically sillier and more admirable in its sardonic innuendo. Although more serious in its ultimate intent, “Meet the Prime Minister’ is the imaginative stuff of such favourites as “‘Water’’ — a song imploring consideration for thirsty elephant friends recorded on Bloody Nonsense.

What a pity most of the introductory comments were lost in distortion: perhaps due to alow ceiling over a large area and the ubiquitous excessive volume. Undoubtedly, missed remarks were witty, hilarious, provocative, absurd, outrageous, and entertaining.

David Lindley’s single set also seemed short. The band filled the dance floor with inexhaustible groupies.

They showed good judgement in getting “Mercury Blues” out of the way early on, following it with a number of highly danceable calypso, reggae and latin- flavoured songs which had the Forge Rocking.

What an unusual band to pair together. It worked.