Rock, Valley Style

Every day I mean to get on here and tell you about a million different things, and every day I don't get a chance to and the running total of things I have to tell you about increases. So here's ONE THING that happened recently. I'll tell you another one tomorrow.

Two weekends ago was the Apple Blossom Festival here in Annapolis Valley. Very big deal. Everyone comes down from the mountains to watch the parade and take part in the festivities. We have some photos of the parade, but I haven't had a chance to choose and adjust a batch yet. The night before the parade, Friday, was the fireworks. We drove out to Kentville to check them out. It was threatening to rain but they said they'd be having them anyway.

There was a big baseball field with a small truck trailer on it and a large crowd of people sitting on the shallow slope facing it. Young, old; sobre, messed up; inbred, legally conceived... it was a pretty broad spectrum of humanity. The trailer was like a container that a big rig would pull, but was completely open on one side. It was the stage for Dirty Deeds, an AC/DC cover band. We had missed Dressed 2 Kill, the KISS cover band, but it didn't matter because Dirty Deeds blew our minds.

Maybe I'm just starving for rock out here in the land of two-strummed-acoustic-guitars-and-a-hippy-playing-bongos bands, but I thought these guys put on an excellent show. Most of the songs they did were from Brian Johnson era DC, so the lead singer wore a sleeveless jean jacket and a flat cap. He maintained a passable Australian accent throughout and had Johnson's shriek/rasp down to a T. Later in the show there wasn't much in the way of pitch left in his voice, but that didn't exactly spoil the illusion. He did an all right Bon Scott too. "Angus Young" played every solo note for note on an unlit platform in front of the trailer and got the head-bob and duckwalk just right. The other three guys were just fine.

There was a very crummy light show which looked even crummier on the back wall of the "rockquarium," but went well with the french fries and rain. Yes, it did eventually rain, sending us home before the fireworks began. But we stayed for all of Dirty Deeds's set. The people on the hill seemed oblivious to the fact that there was even a band playing, despite the deafening tinniness of the sound at that distance. Probably a good thing, considering the large number of children and the complete inappropriateness of most of the lyrical matter, not to even mention the in-between banter. But those down in front around the bleachers were pretty into it, so we went down and head-banged with them. Towards the end they did "TNT," which made me very happy. The young ones seemed to really enjoy "Whole Lotta Rosie," disturbingly enough.

The fireworks wouldn't have lived up to the excitement of that scrappy show, so we booted it back to our car at the edge of town as soon as the last song was over. But we could hear them popping and see the tops of them behind us as we walked and sang in the rain, and that made it just a perfect night.