Friday, April 26, 2013

Blushing Brides honour Stones' music, fans' wallets - Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL - There is a rather large price discrepancy between the Blushing Brides show at Club Soda on Friday night and the Rolling Stones concert on Grand Prix Sunday at the Bell Centre.

The Brides, who have been a Stones cover band for 35 years, are charging $12.50. (Even better, a limited number of free tickets was available online; the allotment has sold out.)

Conversely, ticket prices for the June 9 show with Mick and the boys range from $168 to $635, plus service fees.

Brides lead singer and harmonica player Maurice Raymond is very much in awe of the Stones? business acumen. ?These guys are still selling out arenas, and at such ridiculously high prices,? the Montreal native marvels. ?I never would?ve believed that at 70 years old they would still be doing this.?

The Brides proudly bill themselves as ?the world?s most dangerous tribute to the Rolling Stones.? The band has spent the last 3? decades setting tongues wagging with their accurate homage to the London b(r)and.

Raymond, 55, shares more than a passing similarity with the Stones? frontman. From the second he struts on stage, he oozes a cocksure enthusiasm that reminds the concertgoer of the Stones in their younger, bad-boy days.

?What we?ve done,? says Raymond, ?is capture and try to stay true to the 1972-73 Exile on Main Street Stones tours in our musical approach. This gives us the ability to do more experimenting and interpreting.?

While many others try to do note-for-note covers of a band?s songs, Raymond says the Brides try to delve a little deeper. He says a fan who comes to a Brides show can expect high-energy versions of many of the big hits, as well as some medleys and B-sides that you probably won?t hear at an arena or stadium Stones show.

Raymond relishes the unpredictable nature of a Blushing Brides concert. ?I don?t know what?s really going to happen by the end of the night. There?s a certain beauty to that, and it?s something the crowd feeds off.?

It?s also what separates the Brides from their rock ?n? roll idols.

?The Stones have to stick more to a formula,? says Raymond. ?When you go to a Stones show, you know exactly what you?re going to get. You buy a T-shirt, sit in your seat, and see a show that you know will end at a certain time. The Brides still have the luxury of not having to adhere to a real structure. We just open it up and let it happen.

?We could screw it up, but that?s part of the thrill. Every show, I wonder: ?Are we going to pull this off? I know we?re going to try.? I don?t think you see that at a Stones show nowadays. I think the Stones are more constrained. Don?t get me wrong ? I?m not trying to slag them. They have affected everything in my life in some shape or form. But we get to do something that they don?t get to do.?

Along with Raymond, the Brides include rhythm guitarist and co-founder Paul Martin, lead guitarist James Green, drummer Sascha Tukatsch and bassist Matt Greenberg. The band was founded in Montreal, and Raymond and Green still live here.

?Paul came up to me in 1978, shook my hand and said, ?I want to make a band with you.? Thirty-five years later, we?re still playing together.?

Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/music/Blushing+Brides+honour+Rolling+Stones+music+fans/8294069/story.html

Cyber Monday Deals 2012 Sasha McHale Boy Meets World elizabeth taylor cam newton FedEx Gabriel Aubry

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.