The Dakota Tavern is one of the best bars in the city, always a great place to hear music¹, and the lineup for Elkas’ first night of residency was fantastic:

• Wayne Petti
• Peter Elkas & The Elkas Band
• The Pinecones

Petti was performing with a band, a bass player and a drummer, all that made me do is miss seeing him solo or as part of Cuff The Duke. The last time I saw him, he was opening for Entire Cities, and his performance was fantastic, this time, it was okay. The band didn’t add anything unique, and it wasn’t as strong as a performance as Cuff The Duke would give.

I haven’t seen The Pinecones since they were Brent Randall & The Pinecones (pictured), and while I enjoyed their original material, I much preferred it written by Paul McCartney.

Elkas’ set was a nice mix of material from all three of his albums, obviously focuses on the newer material from Repeat Offender. The songs from Party of One and Wall of Fire were great renditions, almost always true to the album version, the only change was Everybody Works which is now a fast rocker².

The songs from the new album seem to be the greatest departure in Elkas’ songwriting since even so long ago as The Local Rabbits. His songwriting has been a slow progression perfecting a silky smooth sound with which to seduce, the new material doesn’t seem to fit that bill in the least; instead he’s playing ’50s-style rock, which can only be influenced by his side project Oldies 990.

Oldies 990 are a ’50s and ’60s cover band feature Elkas, members of his former band³, and members of his current band. They were the soundtrack to my 2011 New Years, and is a great new direction for Elkas to write songs.

The Elkas Band was tight and solid. They played well, and even had a few people dancing at the show⁴; specifically Mr. Desperate-To-Get-Laid who spent too much time trying to coax women to dance with him, while none of the women were interested.

1. Horrible to get cellular signal in.
2. And has been for years.
3. The Local Rabbits.
4. A rarity in Toronto.

]]> http://www.neverhadtofight.com/2010/02/linky-link-5/feed/ 0 http://www.neverhadtofight.com/2010/02/rebranding/ http://www.neverhadtofight.com/2010/02/rebranding/#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:19:58 +0000 Adam M. Anklewicz http://www.neverhadtofight.com/?p=340 Today, I said to myself that it was time to rebrand this page. Though it’s a personal page, it’s more about music/film/etc than it is about Adam Anklewicz. So after debating over many domains, I chose this one, neverhadtofight.com. “Never Had To Fight” is a Local Rabbits song written by Peter Elkas. It’s the second track on their final, and best record This Is It, Here We Go.

I did this in the afternoon today, about an hour ago, I got a message in MSN from Jay… you know, Trig… from The Board. A while ago, I told him that Gooseberry records was doing a Sloan tribute album, and a Local Rabbits tribute album.

The conversation began with him saying…

I ruined your favourite rabbits song.

I read that as “You ruined my favourite rabbits song.” I was wondering how he knew so quickly that I now had this blog under neverhadtofight.com. Well, I was wrong, and he’s sent me his cover, which can be sampled here, and it’s awesome. Sure it’s not as awesome as the Rabbits, but it’s up there.

1) Sleater-Kinney – The Woods (2005)
2) The Magnetic Fields – i (2004)
3) Belle & Sebastian – Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003)
4) The Flashing Lights – Sweet Release (2001)
5) Neko Case & Her Boyfriends – Furnace Room Lullaby (2000)
6) The Joel Plaskett Emergency – Down At The Khyber (2001)
7) Julie Doiron – Woke Myself Up (2007)
8) Neil Young – Live At Massey Hall 1971 (2007)
9) Valery Gore – Avalanche To Wandering Bear (2008)
10) God Help The Girl – God Help The Girl (2009)

11) Wilco – A Ghost Is Born (2004)
12) Joel Plaskett – Three (2009)
13) Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (2005)
14) The Rural Alberta Advantage – Hometowns (2008)
15) Valery Gore – Valery Gore (2005)
16) Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire – The Swimming Hour (2001)
17) Elevator – A Taste of Complete Perspective (2000)
18) The Guthries – Off Windmill (2000)
19) The Magnetic Fields – Distorion (2008)
20) Cuff The Duke – Cuff The Duke (2005)

21) Matt Mays – Matt Mays (2002)
22) The Apples In Stereo – New Magnetic Wonder (2007)
23) Neko Case – Canadian Amp (2001)
24) Local Rabbits – This Is It, Here We Go (2001)
25) One Hundred Dollars – Forest of Tears (2007)
26) The Guthries – The Guthries (2002)
27) The Joel Plaskett Emergency – Ashtray Rock (2007)
28) Amy Millan – Honey From The Tombs (2006)
29) Elliott Brood – Ambassador (2005)
30) The New Pornographers – Mass Romantic (2000)

31) Rufus Wainwright – Poses (2001)
32) The Superfantastics – Pop-up Book (2007)
33) Dan Mangan – Nice, Nice, Very Nice (2009)
34) George Harrison – Brainwashed (2001)
35) Belle & Sebastian – The Life Pursuit (2006)
36) Sleater-Kinney – One Beat (2002)
37) Final Fantasy – Has A Good Home (2005)
38) K’naan – The Dusty Foot Philosopher (2005)
39) The Bicycles – The Good, The Bad & The Cuddly (2006)
40) Elliott Smith – From a Basement on the Hill (2004)

41) Peter Elkas – Wall of Fire (2007)
42) Gentleman Reg – Darby & Joan (2004)
43) Neko Case – Middle Cyclone (2008)
44) Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)
45) k-os – Joyful Rebellion (2004)
46) Matt Murphy – Bring It Back Home: The Life And Hard Times of Guy Terrifico (2004)
47) Cuff The Duke – Life Stories For Minimum Wage (2002)
48) Tom Petty – Highway Companion (2006)
49) Travis – The Boy With No Name (2007)
50) Ruth Minnikin – Marooned And Blue (2004)

Peter’s set, however, was fabulous as always. His band were a three-piece, and did a nice mixture of songs from Party of One and Wall of Fire. Elkas also played a few songs from what will one day be his third record (which he’s recording with Thrush Hermit’s Ian McGettigan). Of those songs, three were fantastic, fun, and wonderful; one wasn’t.

Sidenote: Peter, I’m sorry I yelled out “61 Days,” but you can’t blame me, it’s a fabulous song.

Another note: I spoke with Ben Gunning during the show, and he mentioned a show coming up at The Drake on December 9th.