The devil and
Mr. Jones

>>Danko Jones matches wits with
Trigger Effect in advance of the
Fistful of Rock ’n’ Roll fest

ROCK HARD AND HARDER:
Trigger Effect (L) and Danko Jones

By JOHNSON CUMMINS

The first Fistful of Rock ’n’ Roll Festival at Saints Showbar this weekend, organized by the crew from Katacombes with Generation Overdrive, is a stacked bill for sure, but probably the most impressive component is the return of Toronto’s king of rock, Danko Jones. It seemed only natural for the Mirror to arrange for misanthropic local punks and fellow fest participants Trigger Effect to cook up some questions for the Mango Kid—they’re such rabid fans that their offshoot band Rock Hard cites Danko Jones’s turbo-charged rock as their sole inspiration. Trigger Effect’s Sergio Da Silva slung the questions over the phone to Jones, at home in Toronto, from a tour stop on the West Coast.

Sergio Da Silva: Are you aware of how awesome you are?

Danko Jones: Not really, but just you asking that is making me feel awesome. Thank you.

SDS: On a scale of one to 10, how much of a pussy is Jonas?

DJ: Who is Jonas?

SDS: He obliterated that Stevie Nicks song [“Edge of Seventeen”].

DJ: I’ve never heard of him. Now let me ask you a question—who do you think is more annoying, Stevie Nicks fans or Evanescence fans?

SDS: That’s a good one, I would say Evanescence. My whole band went to the last Evanescence show and it was hands down the most hilarious show ever.

DJ: Do you know that movie Heavy Metal Parking Lot [a documentary featuring Judas Priest fans gathering in a parking lot in 1980 and being uh, Judas Priest fans]? I would love to do a movie called Evanescence Parking Lot. That would be amazing.

SDS: That would be rad! Okay, back to the interview. You lost a Juno to Sam Roberts, Our Lady Peace and Matthew Good. If you could take a tire iron to any of them, which one would it be?

DJ: I don’t know, really, but I will say this. At one point, there was this weird synergy going on with Sam Roberts, the Trews and Kevin Drew [of Broken Social Scene] where they were all the same person. It seems everybody has a fucking beard now, and shaggy hair, and reads Pitchfork Media. Y’know how everybody wore spandex in the ’80s? Well, shaggy hair and beards are like the new spandex.

SDS: You worked in a sex shop before the band took off. Was this musically inspiring?

DJ: Oh yeah, you’re surrounded by pornography all day, it’s going to eventually crawl into the music—and I guess I do sing about sex a lot. I know that there are a lot of pretty slick sex shops now but this place was utterly disgusting.

SDS: If you could punch any pre-1980 rock star in the face, who would it be?

DJ: Hmm, I don’t know—Styx, maybe? Actually, I like some Styx songs, and meeting somebody like Dennis DeYoung and punching him in the face would be kind of psychotic. I would probably just say, “You’re Dennis DeYoung, cool” if I met him.

At Saints Showbar on Friday, Dec. 7 (Electric
Frankenstein, Turbo A.C.’s, the Brains, Million
Dollar Marxists, the Shifters, Cobra A.C.’s)
and Saturday, Dec. 8 (Danko Jones, Trigger
Effect, Adam West, Nicky Vivid Effect, Maximum
RnR, the Arson), 6 p.m., $16 (two-night pass $30)

Fist fest faves

>> Other acts to watch for this weekend

By JOHNSON CUMMINS

On Friday, the big ticket at the Fistful of Rock ’n’ Roll festival is New York punk vets Electric Frankenstein. Sporting members of Adrenaline O.D. and others, the band’s lineage can be traced right back to the first wave of punk rock coming out of CBGB’s. With umpteen releases on as many labels, these New Yawk goombas have transformed into a more standard rock band, but the raunchy howls of singer Steve Miller (nah, not that one) are still full of piss and vinegar. The gutter sleaze of New York is further represented on Friday night by the gas-guzzling trash punk of Turbo A.C.’s.

On Saturday night, Montreal gives the out-of-towners some serious competition with the psychobilly of Gutter Demons, while the underground rock ’n’ roll stalwarts of Washington, D.C., Adam West, finally make it to town. Yet more rawkers from the Big Apple represent when Nicky Vivid Effect recall the glory days of New York’s Coney Island High and the Continental Club, while Toronto’s Maximum RnR will mark their first appearance here since flooring a packed le National when they supported Turbonegro a couple of months back.