Jon Creeden, Jesse LeBourdais and Fresh Hell @ Minou’s House
A drunk and entertaining Jon Creeden, a moving and very real Jesse LeBourdais, and a “loud” Fresh Hell played the first ever show at Minou’s House Monday night.
Setting the stage was Jean-Sebastien getting revenge on Cory and one-litre icing him. For those that don’t know, icing is when you present someone with a Smirnoff Ice and say “iced” to them. They must then chug the bottle. This excited Jon Creeden who said, “You’re bringing icing back? Sweet! I’ve been waiting two years for this.” Cory chugged down that one litre and as much as it hurt me to watch, it was clearly a much worse experience for him.
On the crisp fall night Fresh Hell got things started in the backyard. What could possibly go wrong having a punk rock band amped up and play in a subdivision in Little Italy? We were about to find out. The band opened with their “bangers,” to quote drummer Vance McBride, playing “Surrounded” as they were surrounded by 20 or more of their friends and then “Home” which they were playing outside of guitarist Cory Levesque’s house. Well played gang. Fresh Hell then played “Not Alone” and seamlessly transitioned into “Things Go Away.” So smooth. Then came the shouting from some neighbour, “Sounds like crap,” and then depending on who you ask, either “turn it up,” or “turn it down.” The band played a few more songs and began to tear down as a police officer came up the driveway. He issued a warning informing them that four noise complaints had been placed, but said if the rest of the fundraiser was acoustic it could continue.
The show was in fact a fundraiser for Ottawa Rock Camp for Girls and Cory’s girlfriend Megan Snider made amazing vegan chili, curry and home-made pita bread.
Next up was the very talented Jesse LeBourdais. I have always been fascinated by these solo punk rock acoustic guitarist types. They always deliver such awesome lyrics that ring close to home no matter where they are from. Case in point, LeBourdais is from B.C. and the amazing opening lines to the first song he played “Welcome” were, “There is a pile of records sitting on my floor right now, they’ve been waiting for my dirty hands to get clean enough to hold, somewhere in that pile there is something that will hold me and won’t let go, when the needle finds a vein in the groove it goes right into my soul.” Now those are lyric after my heart. LeBourdais continued with another song off his latest album Long Winter, playing “Breathing In/Out.” He probably felt right at home as a slight drizzle started during some of his songs about B.C. He concluded by inviting Jon Creeden to join him on guitar and Cory Levesque on harmonica to play “About Right” (video above). So glad to have finally met and watched LeBourdais play – go see him when he plays a city near you.
As Jon Creeden began his set, LeBourdais stayed up with him and they opened with the song everyone always wants to hear, “The Captain.” Just as they finished, the rain began to come down much harder, so Creeden moved beneath the lip of the garage to protect his guitar and leave his adoring audience in the rain. Jon had had a few, including the Beau’s Hardcore 8.1 I brought him and was feeling good. “I thought I could get drunk, love my friends, play guitar and entertain,” he said. “Think I’m only doing 1 and 2.” He took requests from the crowd so we got to hear a lot of our non-Captain favourites like “Dominoes,” “Movie Song,” and “Take That Steve Perry.” And in his new Ottawa tradition, Creeden played the three songs he wrote about awesome Ottawa people and places. First the song about Jean-Sebastien, which he requested as he stood by Creeden’s side, then “558 Scum,” about Scum House, and finally the song about Robot House! We all sang along and had a blast, as Ottawa always does when Jon Creeden is in town.