It just seems like yesterday when David Vertesi was in Lethbridge. Well he was, as  he was in town, Oct. 29 playing bass with one of his other bands, Hey Ocean!. But he will be back at the Slice, Dec. 3 as a solo artist with By Divine Right drummer David Joseph plus Aidan Knight.

He has also been in Lethbridge as bassist for the Topless Gay Love Tekno party, sometimes tours with Hanna Georgas and as a bassist with rapper Shad K.

“No, I don’t get tired of it. It’s a necessary part of my life and it’s a lot of fun” he said from Vancouver, where he is busy producing the next Hey Ocean! CD, which is a bout two thirds completed.
Having three vastly different projects allows him to explore different sides of his personality.
“I do a lot of different things. I’m the kind of person who needs a lot of different projects, or  I feel I’m not doing enough,” he said.

One of the biggest shows of the week, not to mention loudest was Nov. 23 with Austin based blues rock behemoth, the triumvirate known as Grady.

Unfortunately I missed the Motorleague and Lustre Creame, who were opening, but arrived in time to get blown away, almost literally, by Gordie Johnson, bassist Big Ben and pint sized drumming machine Nina Singh.

Singh was dwarfed by  her double bass drum equipped kit, Big Ben towered over the stage, blasting out grooves and full on chords through a double bass rig.

And Johnson was a force to be reckoned with, blasting muscular Texas fried slide powered blues rock through  a variety of Gibson Explorers, SGs and his famous double necked SG through a twin amp combo.

 In addition to playing deadly slide guitar through an almost two hour straight set, he sang along with almost every note he played, delivering Grady’s soon to be classics and even a couple Big Sugar hits, like “Digging a Hole,” which was included in the encore, as the good sized crowd screamed for more.

 You had to see, not to mention hear, this show to fully appreciate it though people could probably hear it a couple blocks over.

 The old school delta blues influence was undeniably omnipresent as Johnson was fingerpicking almost every amped up note he was sliding into, though it was tricked up, amped up, whiskey and octane fueled and polished for the twenty-first century.

They played some old trucking songs as well, and “Digging A Hole,” segued into a few bars of ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man,” sung beautifully by Singh, who added some superb vocal harmonies as well throughout the set.

Johnson beamed throughout the set and didn’t say much other than to talk about partying in Lethbridge when he was in high school and asking the crowd if it was all right for hims to play some tracks form the new DVD/CD set.

 I was impressed with his voice as much as I was with his guitar playing, especially on “Devil Got My Woman,” a highlight from their CD “Good As Dead,” especially when he sang along, scatting style, with some of his solos.

Popular Victoria based pop/ rock band Maurice returned to the Slice on Monday as well.

 But first a respectable crowd, though it mostly consisted of band members (There were four on the bill including Leigh Doerksen) saw a whole new side of acoustic folk duo Broken Down Suitcase, Ben Caldwell and Eric Laroque with the addition of bassist Todd Menzies explored their dirtier, more garage rock inspired side and renamed themselves Stellar Radio Choir.

They struck with the intensity of a brain wave frying laser beam from  a distant alien race, with a wave of psychedelic distortion, but still held on to the melodies and harmonies of Broken Down Suitcase.

I didn’t want to miss an excellent set of mostly instrumental blues at the Slice, with Winnipeg’s Chris Carmichael, Nov. 20.

 I caught the tail end of a revamped Blues Sensashun featuring Shawna Romolliwa, who were opening the show.

 Romolliwa sounded great as she sang a beautiful set of upbeat blues. David Renter sat behind the keyboard  and played several tasteful saxophone solos.

Former Perpetrators member Chris Carmichael and his trio began their first set around 11 p.m. with  a couple tasteful bluesy instrumentals.

He dug in and played tasteful leads, his face fixed in an aura of concentration while 

Then he played and sang a couple of songs from his CD, which were more alternative country. But he shone on his instrumentals and ended his first set with a country tinged Duane Eddy style instrumental.