They're back!

Once upon a time a group of Fruheads gathered in Toronto's Opera House for the dreaded "last" show. Little did they know that they were about to discover a little band called The Supers, who would quickly make their way on to many of their favourite band lists....

They took us through the powerpoppy sounds of their first album "Spklanng" and later the quieter tunes of "Mystery on Pop Mountain" and then...the music stopped...

After several awesome live shows in the years after the infamous Opera House show Maury, Graham, Mark and Tim all took alternative projects respectively and joined the ranks of Jann Arden Ron Sexsmith, Sarah Harmer, k-os, Jason Plumb, Sho Mo & The Monkey Bunch, Danny Michel Starling, Great Atomic Power and the like, putting their Supers endeavors on the back burner. BUT...after 3 years, last night they came back!! Last night at the Rivoli they released their long awaited third album "Rearrange". Sadly it seems that Tim has been permanently kidnapped by Ron Sexsmith and didn't return. However, we got a pretty good replacement...the album's producer, Ian Lafeuvre of Starling, Major Maker etc. And so The Supers are once again a full-on rock band! They've got a bunch of pretty new guitars and Maury's even traded the upright for a snazzy white and blue electric bass. That's going to take a little while to get used to after so many years of his uber-cool upright though. Unfortunately the sound in the Riv last night was iffy at best. It's not really the best venue for loud rock shows and "The science of the Rivoli" as Danny Michel has dubbed the guitar buzz was very evident and the bass was way too loud. Oh well, It was still a great show. We can't exactly criticize too much on their first real show back. I'm sure they'll iron out the glitches. I can't help but add a little criticism though. Were *2* openers really necessary guys? Dustin Bentall's twangy countryish sound was pretty cool and the fact that he's Ridley Bent's Roommate made him even cooler. But though Valery Gore's Sarah Slean-like vocals might've held my attention on a Sunday afternoon or something, at 11:00 when I just wanted to see The Supers and go home, she wasn't makin' it. Her extream nervousness and constant mention of the fact that her clothes were too tight was just annoying. Why would anyone wear two pairs of nylons anyway?

The highlight of the night was Graham's antics though. It wouldn't be far fetched to mistake him for being on something, the pointless ramblings went on so long. At one point they included him wondering if Maury and Mark were standing behind him checking out his butt while he was singing, which turned into several minutes of a Graham butt show. SO funny! I can never tell if the stiffness of Maury's banter is intentional or not, but that's quite funny too.

For some reason they skipped two songs that they had set for an encore, but they did Turn!!! Aw man Spklanng is a good album! I've just come to the last song on "Rearrange"and after hearing them play through it live last night and then listening to it straight through today, I can honestly say that it has it's very strong moments but they still haven't managed to top Spklanng....it's kind of a sound that's a mixture of "Spklanng" and "Mystery on Pop Mountain. I particularly like "Tin Man", "All About You", "Man in the Alley" , "Something about You", "Can't Stop", "Any Idiot", and "Hometown". Don't get me wrong. Spklanng is going to be a really hard one to top in my books. Rearrange is pretty darn good.

Oh, did I mention that I couldn't help noticing that Maury was sporting a new piece of bling? Yes, it's true, after 16 years, Maury and Shoshauna officially tied the knot in June. SO COOL! Next thing we know there'll be a little monkey bunch to follow...aww=).