Event
The Weakerthans
Decider Madison
presents
The Weakerthans
with special guests
Rock Plaza Central
The Weakerthans -
The Weakerthans are an award-winning four-piece Canadian indie rock band that blends punk rock with folk rock. The band was formed in 1997 in Winnipeg, Manitoba by John K. Samson, after he left the punk band Propagandhi to start a publishing company. Samson joined forces with bassist John P. Sutton and drummer Jason Tait, and created The Weakerthans as a vehicle for a more melodic and introspective brand of songwriting than that of Propagandhi.
One origin story for the band's name, as quoted in the liner notes of Fallow, is a line from the 1992 film The Lover: "Go ahead, I'm weaker than you can possibly imagine. The band's name may also refer to a Ralph Chaplin quote from "Solidarity Forever": "What force on Earth can be weaker than the feeble strength of one?" The band alludes to this line in the song "Pamphleteer" from the album Left and Leaving. The band's debut album, Fallow, was released in 1997 on G7 Welcoming Committee Records, and garnered positive reviews from Canadian music critics.[citation needed] Guitarist Stephen Carroll, formerly of Painted Thin, subsequently joined the band, and Left and Leaving was released in 2000.
In 2003, the band moved to Epitaph Records and released Reconstruction Site. The album was met with rave reviews from Canadian and international critics for its ambitious combination of punk, rock, folk, country and sonnets. It also became the band's best-selling record to date, as well as its airplay breakthrough on Canadian radio. It was the second Weakerthans album to be produced by Ian Blurton. Sutton, who played on all three of the band's first albums, left in August 2004 and was replaced by Greg Smith. In 2005, Left and Leaving was named one of the ten best Canadian albums of all time in Chart magazine's reader poll. In the same poll, Samson wrote the capsule review for another top ten finisher, The Lowest of the Low's Shakespeare My Butt, which he cited as a major influence on his own music. Reunion Tour was released on September 25, 2007 in North America by Epitaph and ANTI-. The band released a video for "Civil Twilight", which consisted of a single, unbroken camera shot of the band on a Winnipeg Transit city bus. Epitaph also re-released the Weakerthans' first two albums, Fallow and Left and Leaving, in Canada on November 6, 2007.
Rock Plaza Central-
Almost three years ago, Chris Eaton and Rock Plaza Central found themselves on the receiving end of a goodhearted fairytale. When we finished the last record [2006s Are We Not Horses, self-released/Outside/Yep Roc], explains Eaton, we only mailed it out to a couple of dozen people. We were just a bunch of friends that got together and played at the same bar. It was for fun. It was a reason to get together and drink, and music just happened. And it was gratifying and exciting to wake up one morning and my inbox has three hundred emails in it. Many of them are just ordering the CD or saying that they really like what were doing, and thats probably the best part, hearing from those people. But then were also being put on the cover of CMJ and being invited to play a big
outdoor concert in New York City and being called stars-in-waiting by David Fricke in Rolling Stone it changes the whole game.
Game change, indeed. With the increased requests to tour, line-up changes followed. The trumpet/accordion player and the guitar/banjo/trombonist both left the fold. Maybe we just didnt want to admit that they were gone, Eaton tells the story, so we just kept bringing their instruments with us. And because the instruments were there, the rest of us just started playing them. Live shows began to involve more banjo from Eaton, who then started writing on that instrument. And almost everyone started grabbing the electric guitar, putting a little more of the Rock into Rock Plaza Central live shows.
On June 16th, RPC return at long last with At the Moment of Our Most Needing, Or If Only They Could Turn Around, They Would Know They Werent Alone, out on Paper Bag Records from their hometown of Toronto. Undoubtedly the bands most ambitious and fully-realized accomplishment, Eaton describes the album as capturing that rockness: We were just listening to a lot of classic rock stations while driving, and so the songs in my head were definitely big hair-band numbers. Then we played them. Not that Needing will be mistaken for an Eagles of Death Metal or Thin Lizzy release any time soon. Instead, while nodding to acts like Palace/Oldham, Tom Waits, Van Morrison and even Led Zeppelin, the sound is undeniably their own.
Of course, after a concept record about robot horses, most people will want to know about the story. Lyrically, Eaton approaches each album as if it were a novel. With two critically-acclaimed novels under his belt (one that has been studied on three university courses already), Eaton is that very rare artist that has nurtured success in both the literary and musical worlds. Whats the story this time? Inspired largely by William Faulkners Light in August, the songs center mostly on someone who goes out into the world in search of an impossible dream: The Faulkner novel is the story of a young woman, eight-and-a-half months pregnant, who leaves home with big dreams and returns in shame, which she wears with pride, as she searches for her lover/her betrayer/the father of her unborn child. She has so much faith in the beginning. Everything is possible. And even when it all goes against her, and nothing turns out the way she had planned, she still seems to keep all of that faith.
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A portion of the proceeds for this show benefit Imagine A Child's Capacity, a Madison, Wisconsin based charity that assists children with special needs in getting their therapy, education and support necessary to foster inclusion, acceptance and independence.
The price for entrance is $16. You may choose to purchase a ticket at any price level, and all price levels are good for general admission. If you choose to purchase a higher priced tickets, additional proceeds will go to ICC.
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LocationHIgh Noon Saloon
701 E. Washington Ave
Madison , WI 53703
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 18 |
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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Contact
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