What’s in Your Fridge is where the Straight asks interesting Vancouverites about their life-changing concerts, favourite albums, and, most importantly, what’s sitting beside the Heinz Ketchup in their custom-made Big Chill Retropolitan 20.6-cubic-foot refrigerators.

On the grill

Aaron Chapman

Who are you

Writer, musician, Vancouver historian, humourist, and occasional voice-over actor. Author of Liquor, Lust, and The Law and the latest Live at the Commodore Ballroom: The Story of Vancouver’s Historic Commodore Ballroom. I used to get recognized at record stores thanks to playing in bands like the Real McKenzies, Bocephus King, and the Town Pants. Now I get recognized at book stores. I’ve spent a lot of time at concerts, either on stage playing them or backstage running some of them. I’m speaking at the Galiano Literary Festival on February 22 about my latest book, and emceeing and playing in the Pogues Tribute band on March 7 at the Imperial as part of the Vancouver Celtic Festival.

First concert

I got into punk rock later, but in my early teens I was into blues music. I bought a harmonica and tried to play along in my room to John Mayall records. But I grew up in Kerrisdale, where there wasn’t much pedigree in being a bluesman. I only learned later that Jim Byrnes was a near neighbour and he could have probably steered me in the right direction! When I was in high school, I’m sure I went to the Pacific Coliseum to see some big rock band of the day that was touring I can’t remember, but it was a show by blues guitarist Albert King in September 1990 at the PNE that I clearly remember the most. He was this huge guy on stage—great band with a great sound. But he was cranky or having problems with his monitors so he kept waking over to stage left while he was playing, to swear at the monitor guy. I was much closer to the stage than the Coliseum shows I’d been to, so I heard ever single swear word he yelled and I learned a few new ones that night too.

Life-changing concert

I’m going to cheat here slightly and say that it was one I played. It was July 25, 1992, at the Commodore Ballroom, and the first show I ever played in the Real McKenzies. It was a crazy night. This story is in Chris Walter’s new book about the Real McKenzies coming out in April. The band had only come together a couple of days earlier. We played a blistering six-song set, and backstage for me it was like that early scene in Goodfellas where Ray Liotta talks about how he met everybody. It was who’s who of the Vancouver music scene there and people I’d only known from seeing them play. All the faces and the characters, drinking and carrying on back there with Tony Balony, and Paul McKenzie. Chris Houston in a corner telling jokes, Zippy Pinhead gave be a big hug like he’d known me for years. In the end, I went home with a girl I’d just met. I thought to myself—this is the job for me. Two years earlier I was in the audience just seeing shows there, now I was playing there myself. As soon as I finished university I took off on tour and didn't look back. In a way, it's probably the day my research began for the book on the Commodore I’d write over 20 years later.

Top three records

The Pogues Rum Sodomy & the Lash The flagship record that sent hundreds of celtic rock bands into existence. This, along with Tom Waits's Nighthawks at the Diner, with its combo of barstool-poetry and humour, I found very attractive and fuelled my years playing and recording with The Town Pants in my own way. I probably didn’t do my liver any favours, but it was great for the heart and mind.

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! Sonically, lyrically, just hands-down a great rocking record from stem to stern. Like the movie The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, if you’ve missed the first few minutes, no matter where you start on it you’ll listen to the end.

Joe Henry Scar Nobody else makes records that sound as sublime as Joe Henry. There’s a great beauty, but a cinematic vagueness, and a pathos to his records that hit a watermark here, having that kind of "3 a.m. and you’re walking down a city street without a friend in the world" wonderful atmosphere to it.

Honourable mentions: Nomeansno Why Do They Call Me Mr. Happy; The Men They Couldn’t Hang Silvertown; Killing Joke Killing Joke; Richard Thompson Mock Tudor; Kevin Quain Hangover Honeymoon; The Stranglers Rattus Norvegicus; Sam & Dave The Best of Sam & Dave; Don Rickles Hello Dummy!; and the Clash Sound System boxed set.

All-time favourite video

Madness “One Step Beyond” I remember seeing it for the first on the TV show Soundproof on community cable in the early '80s. It’s very simple, and low-budget, but all the silly dancing and energy was infectious—it made it look awfully fun to be in a band.

What's in your fridge

With a lot of friends in bands, I have pals that come through town on tour that I try to go down and say hello to. And because I also do some occasional work as a production manager for some local concert promoters, I’m backstage at venues all over town a lot. Most band riders vary from being the kind of junk food you’d see at a kid's birthday party, to some very fine dining that you’d sample at a good restaurant, but it's amazing how much of the backstage hospitality bands leave behind. So a lot of musician friends or tour managers I work with end up saying when they leave, “Hey take this home rather than have it go to waste”. Thus my fridge is always a menu of items each with a musical history of its own.

Gwar-B-Q Sauce. This is the official BBQ sauce that Gwar makes, that Gwar drummer Jizmak da Gusher gave to me last time they were in town. I haven’t tried it yet, but apparently it’s very good. I’m sort of waiting for a special occasion - when I cook something and suddenly the occasion presents itself that suggests, the only thing that’s going to save a dinner is that bottle of BBQ sauce that Gwar makes. I’m expecting it spurts out of the bottle the same way stuff spurts out at their shows.

Asian Pears. Catfish and The Bottlemen were back in town last weekend, and we had a great time with them. They were headed back down into the States after the show, and like all bands you gotta be careful what kind of contraband you are coming back into the U.S.A. with. It’s not the greenery you’re thinking. Canadian fruits and vegetables get destroyed by US customs if they see it enter the country, so oftentimes bands leave it behind. I went home with a couple of nice Asian pears from the dressing room they left me with thanks. I’d rather have gone home with a nice pair of Asians, but like the man said, you can’t always get what you want.

Stoney’s Ginger Beer. A South African ginger beer that I acquired a taste for hanging out with Die Antwoord when they were here for a couple of days. It’s tough to get here in Canada so I have to be sparing with the few cans I have left of it. If all the items in my fridge played an instrument, it would be a hell of a band.

Find Aaron Chapman on Twitter: @TheAaronChapman.