Review and photos - Forest City Lovers at Lo Pub, Winnipeg, July 20 2010

• text by eugene osudar/photos by Ailsa Dyson

he’s the one wearing
the red checkered shirt…
not that one,
though.

Kat Burns
of Forest City Lovers
says to me.

i’m looking for Leif Vollebekk
and really,
isn’t everyone?
if you’re not
(yet)

you should be

watching/looking
for him,

(Vancouver,
Media Club!
July 29)

when and where
he plays
next in your city/town
hamlet/omelet

www.myspace.com/leifvollebekk

i look over
at the one
in the red/white
checkerboard shirt
who isn’t
Leif Vollebekk.

oh, it’s the other
guy, heavy black
beard, shorter,
wearing a darker
red checkered
shirt.

hmmmm, the guys in checkered
shirts are talking to each other.
they’re (attracting)
each other.

in fact, i begin noticing
there a few guys in
checkered shirts
at The Lo Pub
tonight.

and they all
come over and talk
to Leif V.

hmmmmm.
unusual.
this isn’t the 90s.

a motif!

i introduce myself
to Leif V
and his eyes
instantly
capture
“Nuna”

my Nuna Festival shirt

he rattles
off a sentence
or two in Icelandic,

of course he does.
doesn’t
everyone?

however. Leif V isn’t
Icelandic
but
he spent a year in Iceland
studying/

Icelanders.

why not!

we talk
about Icelandic bands
like Seabear

ah, the Icelandic sound
we laugh and
we separate.

my Nuna shirt
isn’t checkered.

Leif V’s texting

that’s a recurring image
of the night
he texts nearly all the time
when not talking
to someone
in person

he’s in
perpetual
communication
mode

a motif!

texting
bearded
checkered
shirted
man.

and oh, he’s a trickster
a laugher
a humorist
a funny bone
tickler

i’m talking to the Forest City Lovers
(all sitting behind the merch table)
about guttersnipe
(a band that merchs together…)

“the publisher is Shawn Conner —

eeeeeeee, Leif adds gleefully!

Conner —

eeeeee.

Connerrrrrrrrrrrr —

eeeee.

Leif V can’t help it
he loves a good laugh
a fine poke —
rrrrrrrrrrrrr —

eeeeeee.

we talk about the usual set times
at venues. well, The Lo rarely begins
before 10:30 and 10:45 is typical.

but here we go, opener at 10.

wait. before the show. i’m waiting outside
and see Ricardo of Oldfolks Home
and sound tech at The Lo.
Not tonight.
Ricardo tells me of the time
he was still in Boats
and played TO with another band (and)
Leif Vollebekk (and)

Leif blew them all
away! off the stage!

huh? wha? just one guy?
and his guitar?
checkered shirt guy?

so, Leif V steps
right up
at 10:22
and instantly
he’s playing the blues
with a Voice
like
Timber Timbre

(don’t you just Love
Timber Timbre?)

close your eyes
and hear it.

the words are
soul;
wrenching
hard,blues
poetry

“seen your legs
wrapped around
Mr Salamander’s
bedpost”

and

“yes
my heart’s
in the ashtray
blood dripping
off the sides,
and
my pulse is
throwing up the ashes
up into the night.”

Leif V
rips a howling
harmonica
solo

just the way
Bob Stinson
of The Replacements
played
his electric guitar
solos

unconventional
and brilliant

i’m watching
Leif V’s
fingers,

plucking style
finger strings
picking
percussive
popping
the wood
of his acoustic

guitar

and brothers
sisters

the blues
are mean
are leaving songs
hurt
heart
songs
bleeding soul
songs

Townes Van Zandt
said there are
two kinds of music

The Blues

and

zippity doooooooooo
dah!

and Leif Vollebekk plays
The Blues
mean, hard
and hurting.

he’s bopping up
and down
like a piston
engine
on his feet
tiptoe
s
up and down
in his worn out
runners
grinding
the balls
into the wood stage

(watch for it)

looks
like he’s about to burst
bust
out of his bones
and skin
and clothes

and sin.

grab us
by the ashtray
heart
blood dripping
off the sides
ashes hurled
into the night

he tells us, the picking style
came about
because of crabby neighbors
and yeah,
we’re laughing.

Neil Young’s Barstool Blues
well, i used to think
Soul Asylum’s version
was The Best
and The D Rangers
bluegrass version
pretty true, pretty cool

i was moved
beyond both of these
together
delays and effects
a la Andrew Bird
with more intensity
of feeling
grinding the blues
coursing/pulsing
through
veins
arteries
busting bones
bursting skin
ripping fabric

electric guitar and violin,

by the way,
these belong to the
Forest City Lovers
Leif V just borrowed them
for the set and playing them
for the first time
made our hearts

(weep)

(soar)

(believe)

(faith)

30 minutes
6 Blues songs
Townes style

in the morning
cairo blues
quebec
barstool blues
1921
just for a thrill

cairo blues,

“i stole most of it…
it’s a little about not getting your records
back after you’ve lent it to somebody.”

stolen
borrowed
re/shaped
don’t matter
it’s a seething
searing hot
Blues song

in the morning,

a broken heart song
a naked song
a mountain moon song
a cheating song
Hank Williams
Leadbelly
The Blues

“day in, day out
stay in, stay out
you’ll see
you’ll be”

“i saw you
in the morning
you weren’t wearing shoes”

“and go on
eat your heart out
put it
up
on the shelf
go on…”

legs, feet, ankles, wrists
shoes
hearts
motifs

1921,

“she’s in the shower
i hear the pipes
a creaking
groaning like the traffic
outside
she comes down and sits
next to me
my mouth was open wide…”

swirling
melody
erotic
delights

and ending
with Beauty
too few cover

Ray Charles

just for a thrill.

leaving me
us
we
in awe.

and just as Leif finishes
his set
10:52
guttersnipe photographer
Ailsa Dyson enters.

so the shots of Leif
V are post set.
(texting. talking.
communicating.
laughing.)
in a venue
that rarely has 1
let alone two acts done by 10:52!!!!!

www.myspace.com/forestcitylovers

14 songs
57 minutes

phodilus & tyto
tell me, cancer
minneapolis
light you up
sea to land
oh the wolves
keep the kids inside
if i were a tree
constellation
pirates
watching the streetlights
don’t go
country roads
orphans

9 songs
from their
(pop wonderful)
new cd,
Carriage

beautiful
melodies
words
flowing
in and out
of dreams
slowly building
song/scapes
in,to
faster
(engaging)
speeding
(bouncy)
tempos

my friend
Shaun Gibson
drummer of The Details
says to me,

“from the back,
closing my eyes
i could hear

Jenn Grant.”

especially when lead singer
Kat goes

l
o
w

and after the set
Kat likes that.
she’s been singing
lower recently.

the last song,
Orphans

an encore
for a (lovably
demanding)
new fan

is now
something of
an orphan,

clearly gorgeous
and
so,pop,wonderful

after
playing it
in every set/
it’s now

a maybe play.

an orphan.

seek it out,

Kat Burns
Forest City Lovers
too.

Engaging.
fits.
perfectly.

Leif Vollebekk
Forest City Lovers
The Lo Pub.
July 20.

More Forest City Lovers on Guttersnipe