The sweatbox known as Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern isn't exactly the most enticing place to spend an evening this week. But tonight, I really don't have much choice but to stop by. After all, one of the bands gracing the stage did save my wedding a couple of months ago.
OK, that's not true; it would have gone on regardless. But they did help me save face a bit.
Early in the planning process, it was established I was useless on most fronts. Our meeting with the florist just made me sneeze. I found the table settings impossible to envision. The best I could do when it came to making invitations was stuff envelopes.
But in one area, it was reasonable to expect me to carry the ball. After all, I write about music. The least I could do was find a suitable DJ and pick the appropriate music.
While it somehow took me almost a year, the DJ search culminated in a decent choice - a young guy (Michael Presswood of Sound Dimensions, if you're looking) who seemed to dislike Euro-beats as much as we did. But when it came to specific songs, I was stumped.
Not unreasonably, my bride found my original choice for a first dance, Johnny Cash's cover of Bridge Over Troubled Water, a little morose; we eventually settled on an acoustic version of Oasis' Slide Away. For the father/daughter, mother/son dance, we finally played it safe with Ben E. King's Stand By Me. But our entrance music for the reception was my chance to pick something fun and lively - which should have been easy, but somehow wasn't.
A couple of weeks before the wedding, we were set to settle for Love Me Do - not exactly breathtakingly original, and truth be told I'm not even that big a Beatles fan. And then inspiration struck.
Fittingly, I was waiting around as my wife-to-be picked up her dress when I gave the debut album by Newfoundland's the Novaks a first proper listen. And when I heard I'll Give You a Ring, I knew I'd struck gold.
There was the title - pretty fitting for a wedding, even if it's out of context. There were the upbeat, inoffensive lyrics, which are surprisingly difficult to find in decent songs. But best of all, there was the perfect sound for a wedding guest list.
On one hand, I'll Give You a Ring - like most other Novaks songs - sounds like the Stones (if they were fronted by the love child of Joel Plaskett and Tom Petty). This made them a good fit for the older crowd. But they're not the Stones - they're an independent Canadian band that plays shows at the Horseshoe. This made them a good fit for the younger crowd. (As for the hip-hop crowd, they'd have to make do with Kardinal Offishal's Feel Alright - the entrance music for our wedding party.
Courtesy of the Novaks, I actually made a valuable contribution to my own wedding. The least I can do in return is sweat at the Horseshoe.
