The Olds:
8 April 2004:
The more observant of you will have noticed the new Ancient History link above. The majority of you noticed the Ancient History links in this and the previous sentence. AOLer's can click here. This plethora of new links all take you to the Faculty of Ancient History, which is a fancy and innaccurate label for a page of old photos and things from 1994 and earlier, including some funky digital mutants. In other news, we are entertaining the idea of playing a gig soon, but the idea doesn't seem that entertained yet. We were thinking of pulling out the Twister and Mazola next to try and break the ice, get the idea to loosen up a little, maybe take off it's tie and jacket and boogaloo 'til it pukes, but you know how uptight ideas can be. We're currently upgrading some of the gear in our jam space- better speakers and other PA fixits to enable vocals, etc. to be heard above Mr. 'I've stuck my stick through my kevlar snare head again!' Rusch. It's like playing with a muppet...
31 January 2004:
We've made arrangements with John Wardrope to record at his Psycho Symphony Studio, where Ben recorded previously. Tentatively, the track list will be: Everything, with some new stuff as well, most of it not yet written. The release date is unknown, but at least a year away. The album title is not decided, although it may or may not be 'Gigapöcalyptica,' 'Dreamatörium,' 'Mental Flöss,' and/or sömething cömpletely different. Will we include cömplimentary pröphylactics in the packaging? Wait and see.
20 January 2004:
There's been a scarcity of newsworthy developments lately, in case you hadn't noticed... Not to fear; things continue to progress, as things will do. They just haven't yet progressed to the point where we feel ready to present ourselves to the public eye... or any of the public's other organs, for that matter. This, perhaps, doesn't really qualify as news, alas, but it's better than nothing. To fill out this entry, and make it look like something more substantial than the useless piece of pointless tripe that it is, here's a totally irrelevant bit of Providence trivia: The first tune we played at the first session after Ben rejoined was 'Bela Lugosi's Dead' by Bauhaus. There. Don't you feel better now? I do.
12 September 2003:
Providence is on the air! er... web, no... the air-web thingy that's made of webs of air, and... wait... Oh, hell! Just go to New Music Canada and check it out for yourself, already!
5 September 2003:
One of the more pleasant side-effects of Ben having returned to his former exalted position, is the fact that he had squirreled away the original 1994 4-track tapes. It is to you, gentle readers, or browsers, or surfers [or whatever it is you call yourselves,] that we dedicate these performances of Ascent of Man, Nuclear York, Pathetic Fool in Bathtub with Wrists Slashed, Temporal Stasis, and The Way. Thanks to Ben and his buddy Cheese for the remixing and mastering of these old gems. [Silicon carbide and cubic zirconia are gems, right?] There's also a previously overlooked live version of Cryonaut from the '94 speedway gig online.
28 August 2003:
Reconstruction of the site continues... There are demo MP3's embedded in some of the lyric pages, the new guestbook is up and running, a few photos have been scanned and posted, the FAQ has been updated... well, just poke about and check it all out for yourselves...
21 August 2003:
There's news... and then, there's News...
After much thought and deliberation [about 10 years on his part, and about 10 seconds on ours,] Ben has decided to re-occupy the drummer's chair in Providence. Welcome back, you rhythmic psycho, you.
We'd like to thank Ian for his efforts over the past 10 months, and wish him well with his future endeavours- he's a brilliant drummer [even if he won't admit it to himself.]
16 August 2003:
Well, whaddaya know... we moved to a real server. Thanx to Geo-shites and all, but whoa! the limits left no room for any real content. You get what you pay for... The new URL to bookmark is http://providence-progband.ca We're now hosted on New Winnipeg hosting, because they're really cool. Check them out at http://www.newwinnipeg.net/hosting. Keep watching for photos & tunes & things, coming soon, which reminds me: Ben, you rancid plastic bugform pischer, for the love of Dog, scan & send me the reunion gig photos, pleeeeeze? The guestbook will be back up in a few days, otherwise, pretty much business as usual.
26 July 2003:
If you didn't go to BryceFest this year, make plans for next year... what a blast! Thanx to Bryce and the whole crew for hosting a great party. Sorry that 2/3 of us had to bolt back to the city for work the next day... we're still kinda pissed about that ourselves.
As luck would have it, we were up first Friday night, despite Basil's big adventure in automotive reliability, heh heh. The set appears below, next to the poster, as usual. After grinding out a couple of sound check tunes, we launched into the planned stuff... except for that JP tune sneaking in from somewhere... see what happens when you get drunk and shout silly requests? Once the set was out of the way, nobody was in a panic or rush to leave, so we hogged the stage for a bit... Thanx to all you silly, drunken bastards who came out and shouted for more!
9 July 2003:
A quick note about an upcoming gig: Sound Check:The Sound Check Song... a work in progress (formerly titled 33-1/3) The set:The Wheel Marathon...Red Barchetta...The Necromancer...Tom Sawyer...Spirit of Radio...Freewill...YYZThe Encore:Panic in the World [Be Bop Deluxe] |
 |
7 February 2003:
Well, that didn't suck! A few warts here and there, but only a couple of the really nasty ones with hairs growing out of 'em. Neil Wood, our special guest, came through with ripping vocal renditions of some of our favorite cover tunes, and Ian, the new drummer from heck, flolloped around behind his kit like nobody's business.
Jay Ewert started it off with his excellent folksy thing, followed by VW Jason & Tabla Pete on Sitar and Tabla. Cool sounding stuff, but the sitar makes your teeth itch after awhile... Mynor the Irrational did a short performance, banging sharp bits of metal into his head. No blood this time, to the disappointment and/or relief of the members of the audience. We made a bunch of noise, topping it off with an excerpt from the new Nuclear York, then Echo Dale finished the official proceedings with a folk reprise. The other 2/3 of Antigravity showed up for the jam afterwards, along with a few other good friends.
Thanks again to Jay, who "organizes" Wednesday nights at the Latin Garden, the management and staff, and everybody who came out to see the show and jam with us after.
8 January 2003:
|
As you can see by the poster-like thingy, Providence is up and gigging. Come check out the new lineup, and a few cover tunes we're throwing in to mix things up. We're looking forward to a great gig! Ian's all charged up to play, we have some new twists on some of our old tunes, and a guest guitarist/vocalist joining us on stage. The set:Panic in the World [Be Bop Deluxe] War Pigs [Black Sabbath] Run Like Hell [Pink Floyd] Closer to the Heart [Rush] In the Mood [Rush] Nuclear York [abridged] |
28 November 2002:
Time for a quick update, yes? Bob and Bas have been rehearsing with new drummer Ian Brown, and will be looking at gigs early in the new year. We've more or less reached the conclusion that the main focus of the band will be recording, rather than gigging, however. Between the three of us, we've presently got enough bits & pieces of this and that to enable us to record in our rehearsal space (aka Ian's basement.) We've already recorded some 4 track experiments, and will be mixing some of these down for use on the web site eventually.
'Nuclear York' has been hauled into the shop, disassembled, and is currently being re-assembled with some new bits here and there, including new vocals by Basil. 'Cryonaut', 'Temporal Stasis', and 'Illuminous Love' are pretty much up to speed. We haven't hit Ian with 'The Way' or 'Ascent of Man' yet, but eventually we'll drag the keyboard over and run them past him. After the old material is all running well, we intend to start writing a whole whack more, so you haven't heard the last from us.
No rest for the wicked... See you next year!
8 August 2002 (or thereabouts):
Well, that went about as well as could be expected... 2 rehearsals in eight years and we cranked out the old set in true bombastic Providence style... kick ass! Thanks to: Jay Ewert and Antigravity for sharing the stage; Denny for sharing his drums; Oscar and the staff at the Latin Garden; all the guys and gals who came up to jam after the show; and Mynor the Irrational for the bloody entertainment, and I do mean bloody... This guy wanders in off the street and proceeds to chew glass and stick needles in himself... I have his blood smeared card as a souvenir. If you catch his act here and there about the streets of our fair city, give him your attention and loose change, you won't be disappointed. Of course, the biggest thanks goes to all of you who came out to see the show and make noise for us... without you, we'd just be playing incredibly good music in an empty room.
Here's a message from Ben:
"Thanks guys, it was fun playing those old tunes again. I had a really good time and one hell of a leg cramp at the end of "Nuclear York". It was worth every bit of sweet suffering. I regret that I was unable to stay for Antigravity's show and the "Monster Jam", but that's the life of a wage-slave like me.
I really want to pass on my sincere gratitude to Denny Moznar, whose generosity played no small part in my decision to reunite with Providence, and Jeff K of Long and McQuade, whose "drum pedal tune-up" saved me a huge pain in the ass, and John Wardrope for his infinite patience.
Although I'll always have a soft spot for Providence, I'm reluctant to speculate if I'll have the time or inclination to go once more unto the breach. So, I'll leave it at that. Strange times beget strange events. Lightning does sometimes strike the same person twice...."
A right proper gentleman is Ben, and we would be remiss in omitting a huge thanks to him for coming out and playing.
Keep an eye out here for further developments... Basil and Bob are still working on ways to continue bringing you the best in prog-rock, and you never know... we might even drag Ben on stage again in the future.
July 2002:
|