Travelling Steam Show

The Fred Eaglesmith Travelling Steam Show has been touring small town Ontario this spring stopping in at Legion Halls across the province. We saw the show at the St Mary's Legion Hall on May 11, 2013 with some neighbors (Chico & Diane) and some friends from London (Sam & Al). The show was well attended -- at or near the capacity of the hall. We enjoyed the show but .... more in a moment.

We've been following Fred for years now. Not following him in a "creepy" kind of way -- we're not "Fredheads" -- but definitely interested in his music and it's evolution over the years. His summer picnic in August near Aylmer has been an annual treat for us for many years now and we try to see him at other events when he's in our area. Fred's home these days (or at least when not on the road) is near Port Dover on Lake Erie. That's not too far from here.

These days the travelling band/show consists of Fred Eaglesmith (guitars & lead vocals), Matty Simpson (guitars, keyboards & voice), Tiffani "Tif" Ginn (accordian & voice),  Justine Fischer (bass & voice), Mike Zinger (mandolin & voice) and Kori Heppner (drums & voice). Fred seems to have embraced the "Steam Punk" movement which as a "fashion" seems to involve a top hat, welder glasses and spray painted platform shoes. I'm sure there's more to it than just a fashion statement but I haven't discerned what else there is. Well, there's the fascination with steam engines -- Fred likes trains but this seems to be taken a little too far. I liked him better when he embraced the cowboy style. That made some sense to me ... and I like alt.country. The music is loud and electric but he still does lots of his earlier music. The Travelling Steam Show is a "wall of sound" Rock 'n Roll Show with tinges of country, jazz and more.

The show started with two opening acts who travel with the Steam Show. First we had Bill "Poss" Passalacqua who performed a solo act on guitar to warm up the audience. He also acts as MC for the show. Bill is a singer song writer and has some very funny songs. "Hay for Sale" (about, strangely enough, hay for sale in various sizes) and "Jack Rabbit" (about a dog who was really good at fetching things) stick in my mind as really catchy tunes. Bill has several CD's, his most recent recorded by Fred onto analog tape on a mono-mike (available at Fred's Store and at Bill's Store). He also has a book, "Bill Poss Travelogue" (available at Bill's Store), which should be an interesting read -- tales from the road travelling with Fred and the gang.  He's an entertaining artist and a good MC. Bill tells us he'll be MC'ing at the Aylmer picnic this summer. I look forward to seeing him again.

After Bill we had a performance with Tif Ginn backed by the full band. Tif is Bill Poss's wife and they travel with their young son. They've been with Fred for several years now. For quite a while Tif toured with her sister Britani "Brit" Ginn as part of "The Fabulous Ginn Sisters" and have several CD's as a duo (available at Fred's Store). There's an interesting review of their last CD "You Can't Take A Bad Girl Home" I found at the Austin Chronicle -- a source I trust. I'm not sure where Britani went. These days Tif is a solo performer (with Fred's band) and a member of Fred's band. Her solo CD is appropriately titled "Tif Ginn" and was recorded by Fred Eaglesmith at his studio using a analog tape and a single microphone (cf. Bill's CD). There's an interesting review of her new solo CD by John Conquest (another trusted source) of 3rd Coast Music reprinted on Tif's web page. She's an accomplished singer with quite a vocal and stylist range.

An odd tid-bit. It would seem that Bill, then Tif and then Fred all share the one guitar. Odd, but perhaps the Steam Show is travelling light.

Now for the "but" I promised. Fred's show was as good as ever. The acoustics weren't great but I suspect it's really tough to deliver good sound in the room he had to work with. As always I felt the mandolin and accordion are buried in the wall of electric guitars. As an all rock electric show you didn't get to hear some of the quiet thoughtful tunes that can bring a tear -- "White Rose Filling Station" and "Rocky" come to mind there.

What I will gripe about is his relationship with the audience.

Fred is well loved by his audience. And of course you'll have someone in the audience (probably a new fan who hasn't seen a live performance by Fred before -- else they'd know better) who shouts out a request. Someone in this audience wanted to hear "Wilder than Her" (from Drive-In Movie, 1996) and requested it a few times. Fred, for reasons which escape me, doesn't take kindly to requests from the audience. It's odd because he doesn't seem to play from a set list, he just plays what comes to mind. That night what was coming to mind was rock 'n roll. He wasn't in the mood for the pathos of "Wilder than Her" (which happens to be one of my favorite tunes) and especially wasn't in the mood during the Pie Auctions where he's raising money for Operation Smile his current charitable cause.

Now most artists would deflect a request from a fan with some pleasant banter -- I recall John Prine responding to a request with a smile and "We play no song before it's time". Fred takes the baseball bat approach, and I've seen him do it too many times, where he tells the fan in no uncertain terms to stop interrupting. In St Mary's the angry reply from Fred was along the lines of "Shut the fuck up!".

I don't like that response, I don't find it funny and I don't see it as necessary or desirable. There are far better ways to deal with a fan. If you treat your audience that way don't be surprised if they don't return. This fan is tired of the abuse coming from the stage.