The Resentments

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Sunday, we went to see "The Resentments" at the Saxon Pub  — one of our last music events as we head home on Wednesday. This is a ticketed event, a regular event (a residency for years now) and we get a table near the stage. 

I understand that one of the "rules" for the "The Resentments" is that the players should just come and perform without rehearsals, without a set list. They have been playing together for years so they know the tunes and can easily follow the rules.

We had been here a few weeks earlier on our trip but this was special as Jeff Plankenhorn was also here. Tonight the band consists of Bruce Hughes (bass), Scrappy Jud Newcomb (guitar), Jeff Plankenhorn (guitars and mandolin), and John Chipman (drums). Miles Zuniga, who Gord wanted to see, wasn't there. I've since discovered he's on holidays in Europe.

Most of the songs came from the front row of Bruce, Scrappy and Jeff. However, John Chipman did a couple of songs: "Just a Step" (by the Resentments from "Switcheroo", 2008)  which he often does with the Purgatory Players on Sunday mornings and "Already Gone" (by Slaid Cleaves from "Ghost on the Car Radio", 2017). Both worked very well with his gravelly voice. I had been in conversation with John trying to get my hands on "Just a Step" and found a copy of Switcheroo on Amazon — luckily as it's long out of print.

At the first Resentments event we attended, a month or so ago (February 9), they joked about No. 47 (aka Agent Kraznov, Don the Con, The Commander and Thief, and more) claiming Canada as the 51st state and suggested that their friend Jeff should be the governor. Jeff is an American but has a connection to Canada living with his wife, who is Canadian, on Vancouver Island. I found this joking around disturbing and deeply insulting. The tariff wars the current administration has unleashed are an awful betrayal and a real threat to Canadian sovereignty.  As a result I had a conversation with John over Facebook Messenger and again this very morning at the Purgatory Players.

We are distressed that people, especially musicians, do not take recent events seriously. While everyone seems to be against what's happening and nobody claims to have voted for him the attitude seems to be that things will return to normal in a couple of years with the Democrats taking back the congress at the mid-terms. We worry that the democracy will not survive that long. 

This isn't a matter of petty politics, what's happening in Washington is morally wrong! Everyone needs to speak up; to be silent is to be complicit.