Newt's rock 'n' roll weekend planner, Vancouver edition, April 3 to 5

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      A lotta people are no doubt psyched about meeting the likes of headlining guests William Shatner and Carrie Fisher at this weekend's Fan Expo Vancouver, but I was never that huge of a Star Trek/Wars fan. As a horror freak, I'm way more impressed by the appearance of Lance Henrikson (above), who you may remember from such roles as the android that gets ripped apart in James Cameron's 1986 creature epic, Aliens.

      One year after blowing folks away with that empathetic role as Bishop ("Not bad for a human"), Henrikson kicked stunning butt as vampire gunslinger Jesse Hooker in Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark. "I fought for the South," Hooker quips in one of that flick's many memorable moments. "We lost."

      And then a year after Near Dark Henrikson wowed horror fans yet again with his starring role in makeup-FX master Stan Winston's directorial debut, Pumpkinhead, playing a man who conjures up a gigantic demon to kill the teens who accidentally killed his beloved son.

      That movie was awesome, too.

      So if, like me, you're a fan of Lance Henriksen, go say howdy at the Vancouver Convention Centre this weekend. But take some cash with you, 'cause it's 50 bucks for an autograph. Mind you, that's $30 cheaper than Shatner's.

      Speaking of awesome horror movies, if you haven't seen It Follows yet, then I recommend you get your butt out to either International Village Cinemas or Burnaby's SilverCity Metropolis, where it starts week-long runs on Friday.

      "Every once in a while a low-budget indie fright flick comes along that makes everything on the major studios’ horror plate look like a pile of steaming crap," wrote one of the world's most esteemed and influential film critics in a recent review,"It Follows is that film, right now."

      After getting the poo scared out of you by It Follows, a nice way to mellow out somewhat would be to see Fleetwood Mac at Rogers Arena on Saturday. I saw the band at the same venue just over two years ago, but this time it also includes Christine McVie, who returned last year to solidify the '70s lineup that tore up the charts with albums like 1977's monumental Rumours.

      With McVie back, the current setlist has been altered to include songs she wrote and sang, like "Say You Love Me" and "Over My Head". So if you're the world's biggest Christine McVie fan you may wanna splurge and see the group on this tour, because—unlike the Stones—they won't be around forever. The band has been opening shows with one of my fave Mac tracks, "The Chain", a percussive showcase for legendary drummer Mick Fleetwood, who I interviewed back in 1997.

      “I get to whack the hell outta my drums on that, that’s for sure,” Fleetwood told me back then. “That was basically a band effort in terms of there was a lot of jamming that went into the original track. We all sat round and Stevie put the words in, Lindsey was arranging it, and it was just one of those oddball things that was deemed ‘Let’s just make this a band song.’ It’s certainly very, very apropos in terms of the survival of Fleetwood Mac. You couldn’t write a more specific song in terms of this bunch.”

      If you are going to the Fleetwood Mac show on Saturday, a pretty decent way to get lubed up for it—as long as you promise not to drive—is the first annual Beer League Bash that starts at 4 pm at the Britannia Ice Rink.

      A fundraiser for BASH (Britannia After School Hockey) the event features 11 local craft-breweries—Bomber, Red Truck, Parallel 49, Main Street, Strange Fellows, Off the Rail, Bridge, Central City, Storm, Yaletown, and Moody Ales—pouring tasters on the rink concourse while four craft-brewery teams battle it out on the ice in a round-robin tournament.

      Sounds pretty damn Canadian to me.

      My final recommendation for the rock 'n' roll weekend is just to pop out to Zulu Records on 4th or Neptoon on Main, search around for some vintage Fleetwood Mac vinyl, and then spend Easter Friday to Easter Monday enveloped in the bluesy guitar genius of Peter Green.

      I'm making that recommendation for the sole reason that it allows me an excuse to show this:

      Hoppy rockin'!

      Comments

      1 Comments

      Shoegazer

      Apr 3, 2015 at 9:46am

      Newt',
      Oh well wasn't included on the original release of Then Play On here in Canada.First time I ever heard it was on a LP my brother had that was like a promo album featuring various British acts of the day.It was included in subsequent re-releases in all its glory.Part two featuring spanish guitar really tops off the opening part seen here in the video.Tough to think about what roads all three guitarists travelled in the years following.This line-up played the Gardens in 69'.The one that played the same venue a couple years later without Peter was,I think,Jeremy Spencers second or third last show with the band before running off to join the children of God.It was the first tour to have Christine in the line-up and it still ranks up there as one of the best shows I ever attended.It was the Kiln House tour and Danny's "riffage"at the end of Station Man had my brother and I speechless and wide-eyed.Saw them again at the Gardens on the Future Games tour with Bob Welch replacing Jeremy before seeing them at the Coliseum with Jethro Tull.Still to this day one of my all-time favourite bands from those days of yore.

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