Basia Lysak

Rock N Roll Heaven
Toronto, Ontario
July 25, 2008

Last time I saw Basia Lyjak perform was back in November 2007 opening for the “Support the Troops” benefit concert. I was immediately impressed by her unique and beautiful voice. Her band was tight and experienced. What impressed me most was her fan appreciation. Even this early in the game, she had a crowd of supporters that the rest of the acts that night wished they had. As soon as she left the stage she came around front and walked through the crowd thanking people, including myself, for being there. It wasn’t a robotic, I gotta do this type act. It was for real. It was an eye contact thing. She said thank you to you, not at you, and she meant it.

I was invited to the show by the Practically Hip tribute band, so it was by fluke that I caught Basia’s show that night. Damn glad I did though cuz this little ball of fire lit that place up good. Not only were the tunes tight and catchy, but I really took notice of her looks, being a photographer first and foremost. The most fitting word I could think of to describe my initial impression of Basia would have to be “potential”. Cuz potential she had in spades.

A lotta girls out there can sing, I mean REALLY sing, but how do they look? A lotta girls look great, I mean really fuckin yummy, but can they sing? A lotta girls out there can sing and look great but they have no style or stage presence. Some girls have all of the above, but can they pen their own lyrics? The only thing I noticed slightly lacking from Basia Lyjak at the time was confidence. Maybe not so much confidence, but ego. Basia had no ego. Her movements seemed a little unsure as if she didn’t seem to know what to do during certain parts of her tunes but I kept in mind that this was real early in her career and she’d surely fix that after jamming a few more shows under her belt.

Sure enough, there was something different about Basia this night at Rock n Roll Heaven. She seemed a little nervous or frazzled even. She looked phenomenal, but underneath it all something wasn’t quite right. She hadn’t noticed me yet so I hung back and watched the scene to see if I could figure out what was up. She kept disappearing to the bathroom and emerging just as agitated, if not more. I thought surely a visit to the bathroom would change her mood but no…

It was getting close to set time and I could see that her guitarist, Ron Bechard, was on the same page as Basia. All agitated and moody. I could see Ron was going through the same withdrawal for lack of a better word and something really had to be done before the night was out or God only knows what kinda shit could happen. I watched Ron down a couple beers and steamroll through an order of mozza sticks in an attempt to change his disposition but he still wasn’t quite right even after fueling up. Finally Basia saw me lurking around in the background and came over to say hi. She gave me a hug and thanked me for coming out to see her. Then she came in a little closer and whispered in my ear “got any?”.

I thought she was genuinely happy to see me but it turns out she only needed to feed her fucking addiction. I had nothing to help her out with and I wasn’t going to let this spoil my evening. With 5 minutes left before set time, Basia took off looking for Glenn Nash, her drummer, surely he could take care of the situation and set everyone straight, but where the hell was he? I hadn’t seen him in at least a half hour.

A couple minutes later the band emerged from the back door and took the stage. I could tell nothing had been remedied in that short amount of time but like true professionals, Basia, Ron, Glenn and Dave Carreiro, bassist, surged forward with a riveting set, nailing down their “Writings on the Wall” album as well as the latest single, “Don’t Talk”, which has been nominated for best song at the TIMA awards happening on July 31, 2008. Ending the set serving up total justice to Pat Benatar’s 1978 hit, “Heartbreaker”, the crowd got their dose of straight up rock n roll that, sad to say, wasn’t delivered by the headliner, the “metal queen” herself, Lee Aaron.

Billed as her “return to rock” tour, Lee Aaron set expectations higher than she was willing to deliver. A quick look at the people in Rock n Roll Heaven that night would tell you something loud and clear… these people want their metal. These people at least want some hard rock. The most Lee delivered in that category was the big hits like “Whatcha Do To My Body”. Don’t get me wrong, what Lee does and how she does it, is great. She’s a wicked singer with a killer body and a face that can stop traffic, and she’s super nice on top of that but her tour shouldn’t have been billed as the “Return to Rock” tour. She didn’t even play “Metal Queen”, arguably her biggest/most memorable tune.

It was clear to me that there was a major change in Basia’s confidence level. Her moves were completely fluid and natural this time around. She effortlessly hypnotized the crowd with her moves like a sexy little cobra moving in for the kill. Every second of her time on stage was made use of and not in that choreographed, phoney kinda way. Despite her apparent Jonesing for the baggie earlier on, she truly stepped above that and did not let it mar her set one bit.

After a couple hours of autograph signing and schmoozing, with her fans, Basia signed almost as many CDs as Lee Aaron that night. Still, her craving was heightening and we had to leave. Glenn, who owns and operates his own studio and candy company “Candy Hammer”, rounded us all up and took us to his van. I wasn’t going to go but I had to see how this was going to end up. We all got in and he announced that he would stop at his house to pick up the stuff and calm everyone the fuck down, but upon arrival, Glenn emerged from the house empty handed. Apparently he had a big bag at the studio.

Off we went again… just around the corner from his house, he carefully backed in to the studio’s loading bay. Ron and Basia’s intensity had grown to the point of a palpable thick black cloud hanging over their heads. Emy, Basia’s best friend tried in vain to console either of them and we all hoped, we were at the end of the journey.. it was late, like 4 am and as we entered the studio I saw Glenn reach into a box and pull out a huge freezer bag full and hand it over to Basia. She quickly unzipped and dug in.. we could all hear her sigh of ecstasy as she scooped a HANDFUL towards her face.. I’d never seen anyone actually dig in grabbing huge hands full of the shit before. She’d finally gotten what she’d been Jonesing for all fuckin night. Then, ever the generous sweetheart, Basia turned and offered us the biggest bag of Mike n Ike’s I’d ever seen.

Rock for the Troops
Downsview Park - Toronto, Ontario
November 11, 2007

I've always been a big supporter of going and kicking ass where it needs to be kicked. All the bleeding hearts out there can go fuck themselves cuz war is inevitable. War's always been raging throughout time for all the right/wrong reasons and all I can say is that I much prefer being on the winning end of it. Or at least the relatively untouchable end of it. While we lounge around comfortably in our cars bitching about gas prices and the weather, cuz quite frankly that's all that a lot of us have to bitch about, there are whole countries full of people who don't even know how to drive, let alone ever have the hope of OWNING a car. The reason we DO have all the shit we do? Cuz we kick fucking ass, that's why. We don't sit around, turning a blind eye, waiting for some asshole to build up a monstrous fucking army and walk all over us. We're PROACTIVE. We cut the nutsack BEFORE the motherfucker breeds. If people are naive enough to think we can just pack up our weapons and leave dictators alone to do what they want in their own countries then we're naive enough to think nobody will try to come over here and take what's ours. Cuz they will. It's a fuckin fact Jack. You let power go to the wrong people and they will bend over and fuck anyone or anything they can. Just ask someone who comes from these countries. Ask em why they're HERE. Ask em what they think of having the freedom to walk around in a foreign country being able to do, say or look however they want? Try taking your wife downtown in Muslimland. Get her to show off her lovely cleavage busting out for everyone's pleasure and see how long it takes for some asshole to come running at her with a Burka to cover up with! Go downtown Baghdad and announce at the top of your lungs that Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden and all the rest of em are a bunch o' fuckin cocksuckers. See how long you LIVE. I can march around here calling Dalton McGuinty a squinty eyed little prick if I want and nobody's gonna say shit. I can call Stephen Harper a knob gobbler on the six o'clock news and nobody would flinch. In fact, I'll probably attract a crowd of fuckers who think the same way and we'll write some repetitive chant to go with our feelings.

Hey, we'll even pull out a fuckin megaphone and repeat it over and over again at full volume for all to hear! Just remember the reason we have that right in the first place, is cuz we kicked ass for it. They had a big Canada flag hanging up for everyone to sign as it was to be sent to the Troops somewhere out there showing our support. I wrote on it, "Thanks for the freedom to be able to say whatever the fuck I want". Cuz that's what it all comes down to. Now look what poor Basia gets. A rant from some miserable son of a bitch on her page of the Rebel Reviewer site. I should have a disclaimer for her saying this is more than likely NOT her opinion! Sorry darlin... I had to get it all out somewhere!!! ; )

So the turnout was piss poor and it definitely wasn't Basia's fault. If the promotions focused on the fact that Miss Lyjak was gonna be there, I think the troops would have shown up fer sure. Hell, if they mentioned the lovely Betty from Metal Queen Management was gonna be there, the turnout would have tripled!!! ; ) I got to the show kinda late, I had only intended on shooting one band, Practically Hip, but I looked up at the stage and saw this sweet little thing belting out some pretty cool tune so I fired up the chainsaw and head to the stage. It was her last 2 or 3 songs so I didn't have much time to do her justice. What you see here is the equivalent of the hand-drawn facsimile compared to what I COULD have shot. I mean Basia looks real good and I didn't exactly capture her essence here but I'm sure I'll get another chance some day. Hard to review someone based on 3 songs and how cute they are but it's been done before. A visit to her web site, see below, will give you the opportunity to spin a few of her tunes and you can make up your own mind. I honestly think Basia's got a good chance at making it cuz the world seems to love our talented Canadian girls... Basia's got the full meal deal, she just needs a solid band lineup to compliment her fully and she'll be taking off from an airport near you. Good luck girl!

Basia Lyjak Official Web Site

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