Halifax Politics dot ca

Buffalo Tom
Three Easy Pieces
(UMG – 2007)
This is the Buffalo Tom record you have been waiting for.

Fans of the band know that their career is one of those Sloan or Replacement style arcs. They were the “next big thing” for years and years, always selling a fair number of records, but never blowing up in the mainstream as was expected. Musicians and music fans know this band, respect their work, love the songs, but at the same time, when an icon of your musical past puts out their first album in 9 years, you get nervous. Buffalo Tom hit their stride with 1992s “Let Me Come Over”, their third record, and released two more solid records, each one breathlessly painted as “the record that was going to break them.” While I enjoyed it and think there are a couple stellar tracks, Smitten, their last album from 1998, was far from their best.

I am not going to beat around the bush. I love “the Tom.” I work in the music biz and I went to Toronto June 7, nominally on business at the NXNE festival, but really, it was to see Buffalo Tom at the Horseshoe. I own all the records except the self titled, and also own Bill’s solo record. They played a smoking set, absolutely dominating the venue with a selection of hits from Let Me Come Over up to 1998s Smitten, they were as good as I remember them being last time I saw them in 1993.

Luckily, I got to meet the band (who I am trying to book to come to our festival!) and the manager gave me a promo copy of the record. It has been in constant rotation here, in my home, office, car, ipod.

From the stellar opener “Bad Phone Call”, a Bill number with lots of harmony on the chorus with Chris, through to the closing track “Thrown”, the pacing and energy of “Three Easy Pieces” never flags. Committed fans and new converts will enjoy the thoughtful ballad-esque tracks such as “You’ll Never Catch Him,” “Pendleton,” and “Lost Downtown”, and thrill to the rockers such as a classic sounding Tom song “Bottom of the Rain” or what to me are the two surprising standouts, “Renovating” and “Gravity.”

“Renovating” is a Chris track. Chris has more songs on this album than any previous. One of the exciting things about “Three Easy Pieces” is that Bill and Chris trade of chores and verse in the same song, something they did very infrequently in the past. The track is a happy up beat sounding song, even though the topic seems to be breaking up a relationship. It is an infectious to the point of being almost poppy and I have found my whole family singing along to the “ba da da da da da da” counterpoint that runs under the verses within 24 hours of bringing the record into the house.

“Gravity” is Bill track. The driving snare is meshed with harmonica, pipes has a marching band feel to it, and comes across as celtic/irish influenced. I love the track because it has this authentic Boston rock feel to it that just works without being forced or pretentious.

This album is neither derivative nor played out, which is often the case for bands that have been together for twenty years. The band put together 13 solid tracks that, while solidly a Buffalo Tom record, bring a lot of new song-writing, musicianship and lyrical content to the table, and this shows that the band’s sound has continued to mature and get better with time. In fact, the lyrics are about the types of issues that a couple of guys in their 40s who still rock are living with day to day, and that too is done in a way that is not over played or hokey, which is also an all to rare feat.

When the band took the stage in Toronto, I looked at Bill’s ring hand and was glad to see, yes, he is married. For 17 years I have been wondering if Lonesome Billy was as sad as he sang. I want Bill, Chris and Tom to keep cranking out moving, uplifting rock, for a long time yet, and be as happy writing and performing it as I am listening! I found out that night he is married with two kids.

Good for him, and good for the band for producing a record that is as good as anything they have ever released.

It is a cruel word where your loyal scribe goes on vacation, and then all hell deliciously breaks loose in the world of massive expensive concert promotion in Halifax. Few things could compel me to put down the Corona and get off the beach in Pugwash to write a few words, but the situation between HRM and the Trade Centre Limited (TCL) is one.

TCL, headed by Fred MacGillivray, is the Provincial/Municipal organization with the wide open mission to provide “economic benefits by bringing people together in Halifax and Nova Scotia” and the goal “to be the best events destination in North America within 15 years.” It is unclear if the goal is for Halifax, or the Trade Centre, to be that best event destination.

TCL operates Ticketatlantic, Events Halifax, the Metro Centre (though this is owned by the Municipality), and Mr MacGillivray is the Chair or president of every bid and games committee that the region ever puts together, from Commonwealth Games to Culture Capital proposal.

The not very arms length not-for-profit Events Halifax has been in the news much as of late. It is responsible for scooping up Federal and Provincial money and funneling it into event projects that benefit Halifax, if your definition of benefiting Halifax is “events that take place in the Trade Centre and Metro Centre.”

Many frustrated Halifax based festivals and promoters have been told “if you want ACOA money then go to Events Halifax” and then in turn been told “if you want Events Halifax, you need to move your event into the World Trade Centre.”

Events Halifax task is “to identify events that are available to a host city and determine if Halifax can be that city.” So it was only natural for Mayor Kelly to approach them, as one of the lead partners in last summer’s Rolling Stones debacle, about the possible events he had hoped to bring this summer.

Mayor Kelly was frustrated that Events Halifax had not secured another concert for the Commons this year, so, according to news reports, he went to other private sector concert promoters and requested their help and assistance. These efforts resulted in possible concerts by the Who and Justin Timberlake.

According to news reports, the Mayor then went to Events Halifax to brief them on what was underway, and shortly thereafter, an Events Halifax partner, Montreal based Gillette Entertainment Group (owners of the Bell Centre and the Habs) put in near identical offers on the same dates for the same bands in Halifax.

Now, Halifax has two agencies and two promoters both flailing around on the world stage, looking like rank amateurs. Here they are, competing with each other, trying to convince top flight talent to come to a tertiary market where the one major concert to date, the Stones, sold 40-50% less than its nearest competing market, the more established, forward thinking Moncton.

How could this have happened? Major cities do not work like this. Big cities have good, quality, cheap facilities and sometimes tax credits, and the private sector does the heavy lifting. Halifax has the Mayor’s office competing with a crown corporation through private sector proxies and fighting over it in the media.

You have to feel sorry for the Mayor. Clearly he forgot that when briefing civil servants at arms length agencies about municipal plans for events, it is wise to get the staff to sign non-disclosure agreements, so you can guarantee that they keep their big mouths closed.

How could this happen, and how come these people have not have been fired? As a joint provincial/municipal organizations TCL and Event Halifax represent both governments and are responsible to neither. The Haywood Report in 1992 said that joint responsibility means no one is clearly responsible. He was talking about municipal services and I would argue this is one.

Why does the Province of Nova Scotia run Halifax’s World Trade Centre, and an organization called Events Halifax? These are municipal affairs. A clear chain of command with municipal elected officials at the top is what is required. TCL needs to be reigned in, and Events Halifax rolled into HRM, or Destination Halifax, the HRMs tourism agency.

—
Waye Mason is music and festival promoter, business consultant and activist in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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