The Orbit Room, Toronto
February 19, 2009
by Live Music Head
“Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”
Yup, it’s time for the song of that title
and some of the more than 20 top ten hits from 5
Number 1 albums by Chicago
honoured by an all-star collection of Toronto musicians
calling themselves Brass Transit”
~ Gary 17, To-Nite Magazine
I’ve never seen Chicago in concert.
Nor have I seen a cover band play their music.
But after reading a blurb about a Toronto band
in the January edition of Gary 17’s To-Nite magazine,
I got excited.
I don’t know who the musicians are,
but if they’re playing Chicago music
and it’s happening at the Orbit Room,
they must be good.
A month later,
Graydon arrives in my driveway
just in time for Beck Taxi to pick us up.
Driving through town,
snowflakes swirl around
and the anticipation grows in the back seat.
I can’t wait to get blasted to the Orbit of Chicago!
Standing on the sidewalk in the heart of Little Italy,
the College Street sandwich board reads:
Tonight Only - Brass Transit plays the music of Chicago.
Well, alright!
Arriving at the top of the club’s stairs,
we find Vanessa holding court at the table there.
A big fan of great music herself,
Vanessa wears dangling earrings of peace
and introduces us to Don Breithaupt,
the man of the Brass Transit keys.
What a nice guy!
Motown is playing overhead...
“Nope, that’s not Marvin Gaye,”
Jeff, otherwise known as Graydon, says.
But I insist,
“yes, yes it most certainly is!”
Before we get into a great debate,
and bet our life savings away
“it’s Curtis Mayfield”, the bartender says.
Dammit, I’m a loser again.
But my enthusiasm is far from lost,
watching the singer with percussion in hand
on stage, fronting the eight-piece band.
There’s an electric guitar to the left,
and a bass player to the right;
trombone, trumpet, and sax stand at the back
and in front of them, the keyboards,
while the drummer sits in the middle, smack dab.
Off to the danger zone I go,
drinking tall from a bar stool
is something I shouldn’t do.
Graydon my friend, I blame you.
Because like me,
you love the old Chicago songs too.
As my mind wanders to a guy,
I sip my beer
wishing he was here.
And I wonder if he’ll arrive.
Having left the house malnourished
and completely under slept,
What the hell could I expect?
Of course I’m drunk before the sound check!
I can’t even remember the reminiscing
Jeff and I just did.
“Where’s my pen?”
It’s the present I need to be in.
When I hear the opening piano play
and the singer says...
“Saturday in the park
I think it was the Fourth of July
People dancing, people laughing
A man selling ice cream
Singing Italian songs”
using a pen doesn’t come easy, I find
so, to hell with it!
“I've been waiting such a long time
For Saturday”
It’s clear the bass player leads the band,
but for me, it’s all about the brass baby, the brass!
“The singer wants his monitors turned down?!”
The band laughs.
“Time passes much too quickly
When we’re together laughing
I wish I could sing it to you, oh no
I wish I could sing it to you”
Neil Donell is described as “Canada ’s most recorded voice”,
and he’s doing a fantastic job.
The guitar player is bang on
and the backup vocals, keys and drummer play perfectly.
“I'm covered with chills all over my body
And while I feel them, I quickly try to decide which one
I should try to put into words, oh no
Try to put into words
Mostly I'm silent”
The band is tight and completely flawless
and the brass, man oh man...
“Jeff, this is so good, I can hardly stand it!”
The singer shakes an egg from Chicago 7.
Vanessa is smiling.
Another Creemore appears.
“The feeling is clear
Clear as a blue sky on a sunny day
Everything was you
Cause no one made me feel
The way I felt with you
Call on me
Cause I love you
You know I do
You love me too”
Hearing the music of Chicago is a joyful experience.
Every note and every word of it, entirely positive.
No wonder they sold a ton of records,
and Brass Transit does it exactly the same way.
The drums and horns are hair-raising!
“I just want to be free
I wanna be free of all the hurt
I wanna be free of all the pain
I want to just end these lonely hours
End these lonely days”
I wish he was here.
But instead,
we leave Chicago 3 for an upfront tambourine
and the singer says,
“perhaps to this song you were conceived”.
Remembering a 70s van with painted mural,
a flute plays...
“As time goes on
I realize
Just what you mean
To me
And now
Now that you’re near
Promise your love
That I’ve waited to share
And dreams
Of our moments together
Color my world with hope of loving you”
Reads like a Hallmark greeting card, doesn’t it?
And the keys sound great.
Question 67 & 68 is the singer’s favourite.
“It’s majestic”, he says
and little did I know, it would be this number
to leave the tracks of my tears.
“I’d like to know
Can you tell me; please don’t tell me!
It really doesn’t matter anyhow
It’s just that the thought of us so happy
Appears in my mind, as a beautifully mysterious thing”
Wow, upon hearing that,
I’m so emotional.
But it’s okay.
It really doesn’t matter anyhow!
On the bar, another Creemore is found.
With a driving back beat, my heart begins to race...
“Children play in the park, they don’t know
I’m alone in the dark, even though
Time and time again I see your face smiling inside
I’m so happy
That you love me
Life is lovely
When you’re near me
Tell me you will stay
Make me smile!”
To end the first set,
the song I wanted to hear the most;
vocals and drums so intense,
thank you, thank you, thank you
Brass Transit!
“doesn’t the bass player always lead the band?”
when I find myself standing beside him, Jay Speziale says.
“But there’s a urinal in here.”
Oh my god, I’ve walked straight into the men’s room!
I blame George Benson,
because the stage is On Broadway for the second set
and it’s so distracting.
“That’s not Chicago , Brass Transit!”
The boy’s room doesn’t seem to mind me using their stall.
It’s been 3, 6 or 5 Creemore on tap, after all.
Not long ago, a television ad used the music of Chicago
to play over Sonny & Cher and other icons of the 70s,
promoting Toronto’s oldies radio station, 1050 Chum.
I loved the ad.
And now Neil Donell replaces George Benson
to open Set 2 with Chicago 8,
singing Old Days with that same old feeling.
This makes me very happy and
blissfully blasted to the Orbit of Chicago 7.
“I've been searching...
So long
To find an answer!
Now I know my life has meaning
Woah, woah”
With rising horns, off we go!
To Track 2 of Chicago 6...
“Just you and me, simple and free”
My god, Chicago has a lot of great songs
and we’re feeling each and every one of ‘em.
When suddenly, I hear the wah wah
and a cowbell...
“I'm a man, yes I am, and I
can't help but love you so!”
How cool is that?
I hope they jam this one out
for a full twenty minutes.
“I'm a man, yes I am, and I
can't help but love you so!”
It shakes.
It rocks.
And it damn well rolls!
Leaning in during the next song, Graydon says...
“Hard to Say I’m Sorry?
No man should sing like this.
It’s like Styx, no man should sing like this!”
They’ve gone off on a path we would not choose,
but we can’t complain.
Really, we absolutely can’t.
For the most part
Brass Transit have avoided the later material
allowing folks like us to live happily in the seventies
and the early days of Chicago Transit Authority.
“After what you've meant to me
Ooh baby now
I can make it easily
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
I know that we both agree
Best thing to happen to you
The best thing that happened to me
Yeah, yeah, yeah!”
After Feeling Stronger Every Day is played,
beer glasses come crashing down
on wooden table tops they pound.
“Encore! Encore! Encore!”
We shout and cheer, whistle and scream
before the band is brought back,
and I can’t say enough about the brass.
With a driving guitar riff
the rhythm section is one helluva beat,
when the singer sings...
“Feeling like I ought to sleep
Spinning room is sinking deep
Searching for something to say
Waiting for the break of day
25 or 6 to 4”
Hell yea!
Chicago 2, please give me more!
Within the intimacy of the Orbit Room,
Brass Transit is a class act.
How f&^king cool was that?
Please band, can you play again?
“but we don’t know any more!”, the drummer says.
It’s been fun getting drunk,
but with regret, tomorrow will come
with an aching head
not remembering the conversation.
And not using my pen.
Vanessa you rock
on my cell phone, I found a double shot.
Photos of you I took atop the drum kit.
“Hey, were you as drunk as me?”
On the cold sidewalk,
hugs and another taxi.
Creemore, Youtube, cigarettes and pot,
I don’t smoke and it’s no longer Thursday,
but Graydon, we sure do rock!
Now I really need to rest,
but before I do, let’s listen to this...
“I’d like to change my life, and you know I would
Just to be with you tonight, baby, if I could
But I’ve got my job to do, and I do it well
So I guess that’s how it is”
Just me myself and I, crawling into bed
finally I rest my head
“Sleepless hours and dreamless nights and far aways
Ooooh, wishing you were here
Heaven knows and lord it shows when I’m away
Ooooh, wishing you were, wishing you were here”
Drifting dreamily on the night, I reflect.
The voice inside my head says…
“Wishing You Were Here is by Chicago?
But it sounds like the Alan Parsons Project!”
An excellent video clip promo of Brass Transit...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDIwzxbUIzE
http://www.brasstransit.com/
http://www.orbitroom.ca/
http://www.chicagotheband.com/
