Reviews
Ox (solo gig) Bob Kemmis
 24 May 2007
God bless the sampler, there's always room for a pint inbetween! I even managed to remember that he was a Libra and his favourite colour was blue. Great storytelling and a hell of a lot of ! fun. The Vancouver music scene is starting to interest me more and more. Especially after hearing tonights headline artist Ox. Although Ox lives in Vancouver he is actually from a little mining town miles away and you can kind of hear it in his songwriting. He had a real Neil Young-esque country sound and sings about cars, the city, women lost...real 'driving down Highway 61 with the window open' kinda stuff. Brilliant. He has an extremely powerful voice which I heard people remarking about afterwards. Bearing in mind it was just himself and an acoustic guitar (as well as harmonica at times) his gravely voice echoed throughout the bar and seemed to completely dominate everyones attention, espceially when he let one note ring. A great vocalist (and lets not forget Simons talents on the soundboard!). On the various flyers lying on the tables he is described as 'chart topping indie rock sensation', a description that dosn't quite capture the laid back, summery yet melancholy aspect to his music. Images of wide open plains spring to mind. Kerouac would be happy. "Do you still rise like a flowerchild? Ca! rolina lets get higher, your my summer daydream girl" he sang in his first song. There was a beautiful song mid-set called 'Weaving'. His voice echoed in reverb as he sang about a lonely woman sat by herself weaving as the traffic and pace of life keeps on moving outside. This was followed by another summery song, the 1969 atmosphere flooding back through the PA. "Gonna pick you up, drive you home, call your name, sugar cane". Ox did tell us at the beginning of his set that he was known for writing songs about cars. We were treated to one called "Old Buick", the tale of Buddy who decides to steal the car in question that sits sunk in someones driveway somewhere. He's "too drunk to drive tonight". We got a song called "Trans AM" and a song called "Hot Rod", "wind in my hair, ain't no ride like it". It makes you crave a road trip from the east coast to the west. Ox agrees as he sings "go down to L.A. City, the girl ain't pretty but the girl is mine" in L.A. City. We were treated to three excellent covers in his set. 'Surrender' by Cheap Trick, the fantastic 'Don't Let It Bring You Down' by Neil Young and a work of genius called 'Country Music Promoter' which had an interesting story behind it. Ox had found an LP at a pawn shop one day when he was on tour. It was called '20 Great Truck Driving Songs' and this song was on it but the artist was listed as unknown. He started to perform the song and suddenly the artist got in touch with him. He turned out to be called Lavon Lyle and was the genius behind the lyrics "I'm a truck drivin, coffee drinkin, pinball shootin, waitress pinchin, country music promoter"! The cool thing about seeing artists like Ox is the insight it gives us into a world and a way of life that we are completely alien to in the UK. Ox sings about places and situations that we only see in movies but the fact that we can relate to the basic human emotion and the dreamlike knowledge that such a life exists makes the musi! c highly appealing rather than alien. He's the drifter, the outcast and observer with nothing but his acoustic guitar and his love of wine, women and speed. Not to mention a dash of longing and heartache along the way, to bring you back down to Earth. Somewhere in the back of our heads we all crave that freedom and Ox is fantastic at making you feel that not only is it possible but its simply a decision away. Ed Cesar |