Today's post spotlights videos on a YouTube channel brought to my attention last month when the channel's owner filmed an unlisted video at a recent concert, and while I don't share/post unlisted videos here without the video(s) in question being publically shared in some form, the channel in question has a bunch of public SMS-relevant videos! The channel (named Skwunch) is owned by Honest Work/ex-Nebraska Arms drummer Adam Sauve, and his bands have been featured in uploads for the past decade. How did I not know about it before now? Not counting his 2014 re-posting of Nebraska Arms playing "Lighthouses" at The Speak Easy (first uploaded to guitarist Wayne Watkins' own channel in 2008), Adam's first unique videos of one of his bands came in 2015, when he posted two videos of his now-defunct punk band Talk Shit playing two jam session covers.
These two videos feature Adam alongside guitarist Marc LaFrance and bassist Ian Robinson, and they seem to have been filmed before Steve Shaw replaced the long-since-relocated Andrew Angelic on guitar. Uploaded over a year before Talk Shit ended their 7 year hiatus from live gigs, the videos feature the guys covering NOFX's "Linoleum" and as embedded below, Propagandhi's "A Speculative Fiction". Very cool hearing Propagandhi covered by a local band, for the record! Adam sings here, and while they're obviously short-handed, these rough jam covers aren't bad for what they are, though the cymbals are way too loud in the recording. Check out Talk Shit's 2015 jam session covers above & below!
Next up, Adam belatedly posted a video in 2019 of Talk Shit's second reunion-era concert set, where they were among the performers at the first Guy Thiffault memorial concert at The Rockstar Bar in December 2016! Steve was now in the group, but Guy's old Bondar bandmate Mark Rand (now of Cross Dog) filled in for Ian here for unannounced reasons. An attendee filmed the guys covering Guy's old band The Hangdowns' song "Separation Anxiety", and this is a fun rendition with lots of impromptu guest vocals from Guy's friends and old bandmates, as filmed from a close spot on the floor. Good stuff that Guy would have been very proud of, so give Talk Shit's Hangdowns cover a watch below!
Today's other two videos are also from the 2016 Guy Thiffault tribute concert, but were filmed from a far more distant stationary camera angle, and were surprisingly only posted onto Adam's channel in December of last year. One is of Talk Shit covering NOFX's "Don't Call Me White", and if you just want to hear Steve, Marc, Ian, and Mark rocking out, this will do the trick! The audio quality makes up for how far away the stage is given where this camera was set up, but you do get a sense of the solid turnout for this memorial concert, and a nice reminder of the holiday season given the obvious Christmas tree in the lower right. Strong cover with Steve acquitting himself well vocally, so check it out below!
We'll close today with a band that actually played earlier that evening at The Rockstar Bar, namely 2008-2010 indie punk quartet Nebraska Arms, who Guy also fronted and played bass for in their original run. It was nice to see Adam and guitarists Wayne Watkins & Dave Prendergast bring the group back for a night in Guy's memory! Mark Rand filled in on bass here too, while Wayne sang lead, a'la The Northwest. During their short reunion set, Nebraska Arms were filmed playing their original song "I Was A Writer", and while the same visual deficiencies exist for this video, it's a solid performance of this melodic punk original from their heyday, especially given the circumstances. Give it a look below, and R.I.P. Guy!
