My Fellow Rockers,

    This week was an emotional roller coaster.  Monday started with a bang! (quite a few actually!!!)  I went to see KISS at the Bell Center in Montreal (thanks Nath!) and let me tell you although I am a fan of the original four, they have lost none of their flash or flair over the years!  Paul Stanley still has the moves and golden pipes and Gene Simmons makes every act of breathing fire or spitting blood as he flies through the air as visceral and intense as if it were the first time.  Eric Singer is drummer deserving of rock god status and he sings like a bird.  Tommy Thayer is true to the original Ace but with out the chemical influence.  All in all I thought, "rock is alive and well in this city....". The crowd showed fanatic appreciation for the "hottest band in the world" (measured by actual temperature degrees due to copious amounts of fire, bombs and flares they blow up during any given show).  I've seen them three times over their long and prosperous career and I am still if not in awe, of genuine respect and admiration for their old-school work ethic and value-added show business philosophy. After Monday was a barrage of rehearsals (we have a great surprise coming in the very near future!!!! Ooooh I love surprises!!).  Fast forward to Friday..........

  Last night we played (sadly I might say for the last time) at TNT Concept Rock Bar on Crescent street in the heart of Montreal's downtown night life along with a plethora of other bands all participating the NDG Entertainment "Summer Rock Festival".  TNT is (was) the ONLY place left in the downtown core where a self respecting headbanger could go to get a fix of real live rock music of the cover and original variety!  And after lengthy add campaigns on CHOM 97.7 (Montreal's ONLY rock station) and countless promotions and special events they failed to achieve the critical mass necessary for self-sustaining fusion.  Which begs the question why?

  There are many valid arguments as to why this ship didn't escape the gravitational pull of the black hole of failure.  One point could be that historically rockers are not known to fork out a cover charge plus 6$ plus tip for a bottle of swill no matter how much visible cleavage the 20 year old waitress throws your way.  God bless all you hard working ladies.  The patrons simple want to go there to worship the music that gives meaning to their lives (it does to mine anyway).  Proudly flying the devil horns, banging heads along side our their semi-inebriated brethren.  It's really just our chosen way to blow off a little steam after a hard week at the salt mines.  Good dirty fun really!

  I see it this way..... Montreal has lost it's proverbial balls where music of the harder persuasion is concerned.  Oh sure we were the "it" city for about fifteen minutes years ago but there is no MONTREAL SOUND!  The bands here are of so many different varieties that our "scene" has failed to reach real heights on world stage in the same way as say, Seattle spawned the Grunge movement or London attacked the establishment with Punk Rock.  Montreal is a city of about 3 million people and that is s good sized city even by world standards BUT, in this one city there are sooooo many different styles of music and tastes (which is paradoxically part of the city's charm) that it poses a much greater challenge to any band to rise above the musical din of eclecticism.  Here is a partial list of some of the musical samplings you can hear on any given night in Montreal...... Francophone Quebecois, Ska, Rockabilly, Jazz, Hip Hop, R&B, Dance, House, Electronica, Blues, World Music, Hardcore, Punk, Gospel, Classical, Musique Concrete, Pop etc...... you get the idea.

  As little as twenty years ago there was a smorgasbord of rock clubs in Montreal to choose from, The Moustache, Backstreet, The Brick, The Grand Bock, The Maples Inn, The Edgewater, Que Sera, and more...all of which are gone never to return.  Now before you think "all right TJ stop wallowing in your mid-life nostalgia", I want to say that this is not a lament but a call to arms!! A clarion call to defend the temple of ROCK in Montreal.  I know there is so little time and so little money to go around.  We all have our crosses to bear in life but if you really love rock music, let us not allow it to become a museum piece or strictly an imported commodity.  Every night that TOP JOHNNY! takes the stage whether in our home town or abroad we bear the banner of genuine ROCK music!  We play every show as if our lives depended on it (and in a way it does).  If we can't breathe life back into this workingman's art form it will perish.  I fear it is already suffering from acute apathy and atrophy.  Live music in recent years (due to economic and stylistic influences) is on the decline but never has there been so many bands willing to pay to play!!!  I bid thee, turn off the Youtube and  MySpace, Twitter and Facebook and take to the streets!!!!  Demand good quality entertainment at a fair price.  Stand face to face with the established practices of the information age and go outside!!  The bands are willing to play but as I was witness to last night....nine bands played at the Summer Festival and there never more than 40-50 people at once in a club a that can hold 400!!!!  We can lead the gift horse to water but we shouldn't look him in the mouth.  I know I'm not always the sharpest tool on the tree and there could be a lot of reasons for that but the point is that if we don't encourage the bands of tomorrow we WILL turn ROCK MUSIC into a museum piece.  The choice is ours. 

 
     ROCK IS DEAD!!!!!  LONG LIVE ROCK!!!!!!


               TJ STAR