Yellow Jacket Avenger / Heavy Meadows / Jeff Gay and Special Blends
Gus’ Pub, Halifax NS June 4

By Alison Lang

You know it's a special night out in Halifax when you can look around tiny Gus's Pub and pick out Joel Plaskett, Mike O'Neill and at least one member of Wintersleep swilling mini pints of draft in the crowd. These local legends, like everyone else in the packed bar, were beckoned by a rare reunion and seven-inch release show from the much-adored trio Yellow Jacket Avenger (pictured), helmed by former Haligonian Geoffrey Pye.

Jeff Gay and Special Blends kicked off the show with an endearingly ramshackle set of good-time bar rock. Gay grinned ruefully at the still-sober crowd as he bashed out tuneful, twang-y solos, shuffling back and forth in a grunged-out version of the electric slide. They kicked up the pace a notch with a couple of Band-style rippers and the kids at the merch table were soon nodding approvingly to the beat.

The second act, Heavy Meadows, drew a sizeable crowd to the front of the room, making the young ladies sway with their good looks and dreamy jam-rock. The music was pretty enough but after Gay's chugging, bouncy set, the atmosphere felt a bit anesthetized. Less ardent fans took the time to duck out for a smoke or grab an Oland's.

Pye, drummer Nathan Elliot-Doucet and bassist Chris Pennell took the stage a little after midnight. In a live setting, Pye is a compelling presence — he stood unobtrusively to the side of the stage for most of the set, but his warm, world-weary tenor bled through the room like an elixir. On record, Yellow Jacket Avenger's songs can sound gently, weirdly sparse, but when the trio gets a hold of numbers like "Seeds" or "Hiding Out," the songs become newly intense and propulsive. Gay joined the group on keyboards and soon the gang sing-alongs began. "I don't want it," the crowd shouted with Pye, but it's clear that this was, in fact, very much what they wanted — a brief and lovely memory of a musician who should hold rank with Plaskett and all the rest in the annals of Halifax legend.
Neon Indian
Sunparlour Players / Sheesham & Lotus
The Idan Raichel Project
Real Estate - Real Estate
The Mayfair Set - Young One + Self-Titled
Leyland Kirby - Sadly, The Future Is Not What It Was
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Cloak/Dagger - Lost Art
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Will Hoge - The Wreckage
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Dave Rawlings Machine - A Friend of a Friend
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Yim Yames - Tribute To
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Wooley / Lytton / Grubbs - Seven Storey Mountain
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Todor Kobakov - Pop Music
Castanets - Texas Rose, The Thaw & The Beasts
Low Low Low La La La Love Love Love - Feels, Feathers, Bog And Bees
Nocturnal Fear - Metal Of Honor
Slayer - World Painted Blood
Green Jellÿ - Musick To Insult Your Intelligence By
DRUDKH - Autumn Aurora
Letting Up Despite Great Faults - Letting Up Despite Great Faults
Comanechi - Crime of Love
Brilliant Colors - Introducing
Star Fucking Hipsters - Never Rest in Peace
Bastard Child Death Cult - Year Zero
Antonio Valdetaro e Grupo - Letícia
Ken Aldcroft’s Convergence Ensemble - Our Hospitality
Devin Townsend Project - Addicted
The Expos - Blackwater
Ray Charles - Genius Hits the Road
Marek Hemmann - In Between
Emptyset - Emptyset
Bassnectar - Cozza Frenzy
Basement Jaxx - Scars
David Sait - Postage Paid Dues — Volume 2
Muskox - 5 Pieces
Friendly Rich - Presents Pictures At An Exhibition
March Fourth Marching Band - Rise Up
Fat Freddy’s Drop - Dr. Boondigga & The Big BW
Collage - 54’05”
The Quiet Nights Orchestra - Chapter One
Sabrina Malheiros - New Morning
Chief - Collabo Collection
Paten Locke - Super Ramen Rocketship
DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid - The Secret Song
Scottt Catolico - Massacre
The Bushpilots - Seven Ways to Broadway
Coalesce - Ox EP
Black Anvil - Time Insults the Mind
Culted - Below the Thunders of the Upper Deep
Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect
Gossip - Music for Men
Bell Horses - This Loves Last Time
Shonen Knife - Super Group
Hockey - Mind Chaos
The Dudes - Blood Guts Bruises Cuts
Lee & Willbee - North Carolina
Teenage Bottlerocket - The Came From The Shadows
Krum Bums - Same Old Story
Los Yetis - Nadaismo A Go-Go!
Sacrifice - The Ones I Condemn
Priestess - Prior To The Fire
Various - Fire In My Bones: Raw & Rare & Otherworldly African-American Gospel (1944-2007)
The Schomberg Fair - Gospel
Various - D-Funk: Funk, Disco & Boogie Grooves From Germany 1972 — 2002
Grand Archives - Keep In Mind Frankenstein
7 Worlds Collide - The Sun Came Out
A Fine Frenzy - Bomb in a Birdcage
Raveonettes - In And Out Of Control
Headlights - Wildlife
Jakartah - In the Nervous Light of Coincidence
Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary
The Noisettes - Wild Young Hearts
Tinted Windows - Tinted Windows
Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue
Fashawn - Boy Meets World
Corporation - Return of the Corporation
Idlers - Keep Out
Mark Matos and Os Beaches - Words of the Knife
Genitorturers
The Jesus Lizard / Brides
Deastro / Max Tundra
Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson / These United States
Dinosaur Jr. / Pink Mountaintops
Young Galaxy / Politique / Blazer
The Fiery Furnaces / Cryptacize
Jonas Reinhardt / Sinoia Caves / Valet
Muse - The Resistance
Ricca Razor Sharp - Causeways & C-Trains
Muneshine - Status Symbol
Magnolius - Mary Musht
Port-Royal - Dying In Time
John Abercrombie - Wait Till You See Her
Mark Knopfler - Get Lucky
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