The Vaselines at Lee’s Palace

Photographs by Sarah Rix.

Ask anyone who’s known me for a long time what song represents me most, & most would say “Rory Rides Me Raw” by the Vaselines!

Kurt Cobain’s favourite Scottish couple returned to Toronto last night to plug their V For Vaselines, their second album since re-activating in 2009.  More of you know the band than you probably think, as Nirvana made famous a few of their songs: “Molly’s Lips”, “Son of a Gun” and “Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam”.

The Vaselines are Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee, two filthy, randy almost-50 teenagers stuck in the bodies of two teenagers, which is a huge reason I love them so.  Another is their simple but catchy pop sensibilities.  There are no added accents to a Vaselines gig other than their sleazy garage blues and even sleazier banter between McKee and Kelly.  Last night was no exception.

Flanked by three additional members including Scott Paterson from Sons and Daughters, the Glasgow band kicked the night off with “The Day I Was A Horse” before tossing off new song “High Tide Low Tide”.  From there, they offered a handful of songs from each of their albums since reforming and a very healthy chunk from their The Way of the Vaselines compilation, including set highlights “Monsterpussy”, “Hairy” and a particularly rousing “Sex Sux (Amen)” that followed the relatively somber “Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam”.

The banter between McKee and Kelly was priceless!  At one point McKee referred to Amanda X, the opening band from Philadelphia as a cocktease when asking them to provide the horns on “Molly’s Lips”.  At points I couldn’t help burst into laughter with a large part of the banter revolving around face sitting and dandruff.

Other than Kelly being slightly off tempo with his vocals on set closer “Son of a Gun”, the band were just as one would expect at a Vaselines gig.  Although there were a few re-starts to songs, the band wasn’t too loose or sloppy and everybody seemed to have fun.

Sadly there was no “Rory Rides Me Raw” or their twisted cover of Divine’s “You Think You’re  A Man” but I still grinned my face off all night.