1 of 2 2 of 2 The vibe couldn’t be more perfect for a late-May stretch that’s pretty much felt like every lead up to summer in Vancouver in memory. David Vertesi’s “Age of Celebrity” has arrived in the spring, but the song and video are more something you might squirrel away for a fall playlist. The local alt-pop veteran’s voice has a beautiful tobacco-cured warmth to it, with the acoustic guitars and drums are like November rain on a West Coast cabin roof—there, but only if you really listen for it.
Speaking of rain, before endless lazy afternoons at Second Beach, late-night patio sessions in East Van, and backyard barbecues everywhere, you gotta get through June. And this year the worst West Coast month not named November has come early. It’s been full-blown Juneuary in May, complete with the endlessly grey monsoons and temperatures that have kicked the living shit out of the basil plant you stupidly stuck on the balcony after dropping $9 on it at Wing Wong Nursery.
As always, the jorts and flip flops are going to have to wait. So it makes sense that Vertesi shows up in “Age of Celebrity” wearing a fresh-from-the-Scottish moors sweater. As for the wood-panelled library, the only thing it’s missing is a roaring fireplace and a bottle of peat-bombed Ardbeg Scotch.
It all seems not only from another season, but also of another time, when men and women wore three-piece suits, pipes made you look more sophisticated, and smoking was actually good for you. Br.
