Cheers to Inertia Entertainment for bringing Tragedy: All Metal Tribute To The Bee Gees And Beyond to Toronto…..for the first time ever!
My First Tragedy
One night in Edinburgh I met a man. Well, that doesn’t sound quite right🤔. He was a short man….not improving myself here am I? Bear with me…..he was a massive RUSH fan and upon discovering I was Canadian🇨🇦, struck up a conversation while having a beer at the pub. That pub would become one of my favourites the world over and certainly the best, coolest concert venue I’ve ever been to. Anyways, this RUSH-loving, short, thick-accented funny talker was at Bannerman‘s to review the gig in the concert room and he offered me his spare ticket. I’d not heard of the band, and TBH wasn’t sure that this bloke didn’t have designs on me🤣, but live music always wins. Let’s go!
That man has become an excellent friend for many years now and is none other than CGCM Rock Radio contributor (yes, that’s right I stole him away from his former outlet😎) Tom Cornell. The band we saw that night was Tragedy! Read all about here if ye so desire: LINK
How could I not attend Tragedy during their stop in Toronto on the current North American Tour. And so I did. Thursday, July 7th, 2022 at the Velvet Underground would be the scene of the crime so to speak. Tragedy do disco cover songs Heavy Metal style. And it works! Their show is a ton of fun and probably about 75% music 25% stand-up comedy. Their show tonight was every bit as fun as I remembered!
My Second Tragedy
The lights dimmed a little ahead of the scheduled showtime. Weird Al‘s “I Lost on Jeopardy” came over the loudspeakers. Oddly enough the spoken word section seemed different than I recall…..
Tragedy took the stage and launched into “Fame“. I can’t believe just how well this works as a rock song. Fabulous! On stage, Tragedy look the part. Some sort of disco metal hybrid dress code. Aside from the musicians in Tragedy who consist of Disco Mountain Man (vocals/keys), Mo’Royce Peterson (vocals/guitar), Andy Gibbous Waning (vocals/bass), Gibbon Ass Freehly (guitar/vocals), and The Infernal Demigibb (drums), there’s also their stagehand, Lance. Lance is his own character, as the members of Tragedy often say, an idiot. Lance comes dressed a bit like a sailor with a white cap and suit. But his is adorned with flames on the cuffs of the pant legs and breast pockets. When Lance entered the stage he was carrying a blow-up doll and a large blow-up penis.
Lance operated in the background, mostly wandering side to side across the stage behind the guys and occasionally unsuccessfully attempting to wipe at their brows with a white towel. Tragedy attacked the Bee Gees‘ “Tragedy“, their namesake next. Cool harmony vocals as we heard a different voice for each line of the verses.
I could have sworn next they were breaking into the AC/DC classic “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap“, but it turned out to be “Islands In The Stream” originally Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. “Funkytown” took us to a “Grease/Summer Nights” medley and then into John Denver‘s “Country Roads“. All of these peppered between songs with skits and jokes mostly at Lance‘s expense. And the drinking scene…. don’t ask what the drink was🤣. Oh, and Lance‘s man and woman blow-up dolls got a workout during “Summer Nights“.
Hello Herbert
“Africa” and “Sweet Caroline” took us to the introduction of the new guy, guitarist Ass Freehly! Who broke out into “Man After Midnight“. Jokes about Queen Elizabeth on our money preceded “Dancing Queen“. And during “It’s Raining Men” Lance was out in the crowd dancing with the streamers he’d fired from a little streamer cannon and dusting himself (and the crowd) with glitter from his man pouch fanny pack. After “You’re The One That I Want” bassist Andy Gibbous Waning called for Lance to bring him a ceramic squirrel. Somehow made me think of Monty Python. When the squirrel was handed over, after a loving look into its eyes, Andy said “Hello Herbert” and placed him on the stage at his feet. What?
After “You Should Be Dancing” came “How Deep Is Your Love” including some introductory segments and short individual solos. Lance was right into it here, holding a mic stand out to the audience for them to sing along. Unfortunately, there was no mic in the clip just an empty stand being thrust at folks. Great support Lance🤣. Idiot.
“Staying Alive” closed the set as the band left for the encore portion. The band left the stage, Lance did not. He was wailing on his little pink guitar (no, not a euphemism) in an attempt to do a solo! While it was a valiant effort, he was discredited because the guitar had 5 strings when he started and only 4 when he finished. Plus he just air-guitared to a tape🤣.
Tragedy wrapped up with “Hot Stuff“. What a great night of disco metal…get your Disco Balls To The Wall and catch one of these shows!
TRAGEDY OFFICIAL WEBSITE / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM
Cheers,
The Meister
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