Single-post topic to end the weekend with, as local/Thompson, Manitoba solo artist
Mike Haggith live-streamed his twelfth #LockdownLive concert onto
his Facebook page last night! This episode was subtitled "The Windsor Connection", and was centered around his band output in the late 2000s before enrolling in college in the Soo. We did discuss some of his Windsor bands on the SMS way back when in our old series on out of town bands from local musicians, but a lot of this aspect of Mike's career will be foreign to many readers. If I can source relevant links to the bands and songs on offer, I will let you know! After outlining the contest where the winner with the most engaged share of the video picks the mandatory cover for next week, Mike opens by playing
"I Love You Anyways", which he famously wrote in a dream at the age of 6, before including it in two of his Sault-era albums, early Din setlists, and in
#LockdownLive III a few months ago.
Afterwards, Mike calls a special guest, namely Dylon Rabidoux, who fronted his 2005-2012 stoner rock band
S.C.A.R. (short for Sick, Carnivorous, And Rebellious), and the guys reminisce on the good old days, including lots of discussion about their last album, 2010's "13th Circle Of Hell". Once Dylan hangs up, Mike dives into S.C.A.R.'s songs "Green Peace" & "Quiet, It's The Rainforest" (with surprise Bob Dylan pastiche at the end), a mash-up of Eazy-E's "Boyz-N-The-Hood" & "Nobody Move" that they amusingly played live (as inspired by Windsor's Daniel Rush Band), and their original "Fraction Of A Second". If you are curious, you can hear the three above original songs on
S.C.A.R.'s Facebook page in studio and/or live form. Next, Mike moves to his 2010 alternative/experimenal rock band
The Thorns, who gave us his next song,
"As Memories Fade Away", which Mike re-recorded solo on 2011's "Suspended Animation", and you may have heard on
#LockdownLive VI.
Similarly to his chat with Dylon earlier, Mike calls his old Thorns bandmate Jeff Morrell, who played bass in that group, while Mike was on lead vocals & rhythm guitar. We get lots of reminiscing about their band work and high school once again, but there is an odd break in the show when Mike has to retrieve his cat Luna from an excursion to his apartment's laundry room, deal with his neighbour's dog Chico, and then find his
other cat Artemis! Once that seven minute intermission concludes, Mike returns to #LockdownLive proper, where he performs the Thorns originals "A Quarter Mile At A Time" and "A Nightmare On Reed Street", the latter prefaced by a story of him getting the actual Reed Street sign from drummer Tyler Colley when he went back to Windsor for Christmas in 2014. The latter song is on
The Thorns' Soundclick page, but
not the former, despite 32 songs being uploaded there. He closes this section by summing up this band's short but eventful lifespan
The final Windsor band looked at here was Mike's 2007-2009 rock band The Air, who are very obscure for social media and surviving online materials nowadays. Mike performs their original songs "The Alberta Cheese Wagon" (yes, he explains the title), a shortened version of "Clockwise", and "Exit" to wrap up his look at his hometown bands. Mike ends the show by covering Elton John's "Your Song", as nominated by last week's share contest winner Brandi Martel, and given that this was a straight-forward, sincere choice not meant to troll Mike, we do get a pleasant, non-jokey rendition here. It's up to you to determine what approach you prefer, but he handles this cover very nicely! Mike gave closing remarks afterward to sum up each band in hindsight, hyped #LockdownLive XIII this coming Saturday, which will be his "quarterly report" episode looking back at the first 12 episodes.
Strong and informative #LockdownLive installment, especially if you weren't familiar with his Windsor music, and you do hear the potential that he'd carry into his local and Thompson solo and band work! Of course, much of this music is not representative of his maturity and talents nowadays, but I think he picked some good songs here! That said, could we get another #LockdownLive episode devoted to one of Mike's old bands again, perhaps The Strange Coyotes or the acid jam-era Din? Give #LockdownLive XII a watch below, and stay tuned for more news this week! Thanks everyone!
