Tag: Wax Mannequin

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Show Recap: Phog Lounge with Wax Mannequin

Phog Lounge

  • When: Nov. 27, 2010
  • Where: Phog Lounge, Windsor ON
  • Who with: Wax Mannequin, Alex Carruthers & The Rhythm Brothers
    Set List:

  • Dusty Bones
  • Alligator Song
  • Southern Ontario
  • Aren’t You Glad (Beach Boys cover)
  • Stan & Georgie
  • Tortoise
  • Young Enough
  • Raise Your Dead

Windsor gets a bad rap. I haven’t spent much time there, so I can only comment on the following: the steak joint we ate at before the show deserves it, the Phog Lounge definitely does not.

We’ve wanted to play there for a while, so the 4 hour drive was well worth the excitement—add Wax Mannequin to the bill and it’s like Christmas came early. That’s not to say it was a show without hiccups. There were definitely hiccups.

Our blinking sign (which Phog manager, Tom Lucier, seemed to really enjoy*) had a couple dead lights, my little amp proved slightly too small, my guitar strap fell off at one point and I was getting what I like to refer to as “electrical tickles” from the vocal mic. Of course, if it all went smoothly there’d be no stories, right? Conquer adversity and all that…blah, blah, blah.

It helps that Wax Mannequin put on the best set I’ve ever seen him play, consisting of emphatic between song sermons about the mysterious power of crystals (done in what I can only presume was a Christopher Walken impression while holding—and throwing—various shards of plastic valuable gemstones) all culminating in a half-naked, fiery rendition of the Canadian classic, “The Log Driver’s Waltz.”

As a band, we like to get out of Hogtown whenever possible. I’m itching to hit Phog Lounge again soon…

*He eagerly told the crowd that we were the only touring band in Canada with a sign that blinked to the music and that sold paintings with download codes. We were very flattered.
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…On Wax Mannequin

Wax MannequinWax Mannequin is a force of nature—an awesome and unstoppable, if sometimes clumsy, hurricane. He arrives in a flurry of movement befitting the Tasmanian Devil, promptly loses his keys, gives an awkward and timid hello that belies the fury within then erupts on stage with an unmatched intensity before narrowly missing his flight to the next rock-forsaken town of which he will become the saviour.

There are not many performers that I put on the same pedestal as this tireless troubadour. He also holds a unique position in Dog Is Blue lore:

Tuesday, September 9, 2008. Laura and I drove to Guelph on a whim to see Wax Mannequin play with The Kettle Black at the now-defunct (and greatly missed) Family Thrift Store. Jenny Omnichord was working the door and informed us that Wax had been forced to cancel at the last minute. Knowing Laura and I had been hoping to start performing live, she proceeded to throw down the gauntlet: “You want to start playing music, right? Why don’t you open the show tonight?”

I payed solo on The Kettle Black*’s guitar for the most part, with Laura joining for occasional harmonies while brandishing a shaker made out of thrift store shrapnel. As a sacrificial offering to the dejected Wax Fannequins in attendance I opened with a timid cover of “End of Me” (a fantastic Wax song that had yet to be released at that point)*.

Our first show took place because he didn’t show up and the first song we played was written by him. In the sage words of the man himself: “That shit is Wax Mannequin.”

We’ve since had the good fortune of sharing the stage with him proper, and will do so again at Phog Lounge in Windsor tomorrow night (Nov. 27).

*The Kettle Black’s set was phenomenal. Angry, intense apocalyptic-folk complete with Jump kicks and loops galore. Definitely check him out if you get the chance.
*Not wanting to accept door money from people expecting to see Wax Mannequin, we were instead paid in thrift store merchandise—my share came in the form of two brown suitcases that we still use to haul gear. Here’s an old post with more details.
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