Newt's rock 'n' roll weekend planner, Vancouver edition, June 5 to 7

Whether he's fulfilling his "Rock N' Roll Duty" or just adding another page to his "Diary for Rock 'n' Roll Men", whenever Kim Mitchell comes to town you know it's gonna be a party. Maybe even a wild one. So a good time is pretty well guaranteed when the "Toronto Tonto" plays the Commodore on Friday.

I've been a fan of Mitchell's since I first heard Max Webster's "Paradise Skies" back in '79, but he really won me over with his first full-length solo album, 1984's Akimbo Alogo. It was loaded with great tunes--including "Go For Soda", "Lager & Ale", and "Rumour Has It"--but the one that really blew me away (and still does) is "Diary for Rock and Roll Men". To me it's like the perfect rock tune.

When I interviewed Mitchell back then I noted that he was still working with lyricist Pye Dubois, who cowrote all those great Max Webster tunes in the '70s.

"I always have and always will," he told me, "and that’s because I’m Pye’s biggest fan. Max used to have trouble getting American deals—or keeping them—because they were saying, “The lyrics are weird, they’re esoterical, and we can’t identify with them.” And I was saying, “Well, piss on that, because there’s nothing wrong with ‘The Party’, there’s nothing wrong with ‘The Hangover’, there’s nothing wrong with ‘She comes across like diamonds diamonds’. Those are not weird, esoterical lyrics—they’re amazing lyrics. And I have an audience here in Ontario and across Canada that’s got me six gold albums and one platinum that’ll back me up on that statement.”

Mitchell's promise to "always" work with Dubois hasn't exactly panned out, as his last album, 2007's Ain't it Amazing--which Wikipedia claims was "a runaway hit in northern Nunavut, selling just over 15 copies"--contains no songwriting contributions from Dubois as far as I can tell. But that's okay, as long as Mitchell keeps his old partner's lyrics alive in concert who am I to complain.

Speaking of Canadian hard-rockers who were big in the '80s and are still playing gigs, Helix also plays on Friday--on a bill with Headpins and Toronto at the Hard Rock Casino Vancouver. I wasn't the biggest Helix fan back in the day, but I will admit that their 1983 tune "Heavy Metal Love" is pretty sweet. And Trailer Park Boys director Mike Clattenburg--who used that song to fine effect in Trailer Park Boys: The Movie--backs me up on that.

“Isn’t that one of the most fuckin’ classic Canadian rock riffs you’ve ever heard?” he raved when I interviewed him back in 2006. “When you hear it again, you’re like, ‘Fuck, yeah, that song was awesome. Come on!’ ”

And if you don't trust Clattenburg's opinion, then at least you can trust Ricky's. Or maybe not. He thinks Helix are even better than Rush.

If rockers from the '70s and '80s aren't your style, though, and you'd rather check out a band from the 21st century, give Teenage Bottlerocket a try.

The skate-punk quartet out of Laramie, Wyoming plays Venue on Sunday, with guests the Copyrights and the Isotopes. They've got fast, two-minute, Ramones-style tunes with catchy titles like "Punk House of Horror", "Fatso Goes Nutzoid", and "Just Call Me Steve". 

And any band that'll take the piss outta KISS gets the Newt Nod from me.