The Simply Saucer Touring Revue is not a tribute night. Nor is it simply a Simply Saucer show.

Pressed for a definition, we'd have to described the Revue as a "music inspired by and involving Simply Saucer." More than an homage, but not quite a reunion roadshow.

In many ways, the SSTR takes Wavelength back to our roots. The Wavelength series was started by a collective of Toronto independent musicians, who wanted to generate more excitement around the local scene - but also educate the public about the rich and undocumented history of music from the Southern Ontario region. And for those of us interested in the weirdo fringes of rock music, it doesn't get more fundamental than Hamilton, Ontario proto-punk band Simply Saucer. Here's a brief history, but to break it down: they emerged from the Hammer in the early '70s playing noisy music everyone hated, most of their shows ended in riots, they got swept up in the Toronto punk scene circa '77 but called it quits two years later as they had no luck developing a fan-based. But an amazing album called Cyborgs Revisited, recorded by Daniel Lanois of U2 fame, was released 10 years later in '89 - and reissued in 2003 on Sonic Unyon - and that album secured their place in worldwide indie music mythology. Though VU and Syd Barrett-inspired, it actually sounds like Guided by Voices 20 years before their time.

Cyborgs Revisited was inspirational and encouraging to many of the original wave of Wavelength bands, who started playing weird post-punk music in the isolated obscurity of Torontonian suburbia in the late '80s and early '90s, before "indie" became a household word. If we thought we had it bad, they had it 100x worse - despite no one caring, they were still an amazing band. The Simply Saucer Touring Revue is the brainchild of Derek Westerholm, musician with Karaoke, The Creeping Nobodies and Part Unknown, host/programmer of No Beat Radio on CIUT and one of the original founders of the Wavelength collective (alongside Doc Pickles, myself and a handful of others) in 1999.

The Touring Revue format will see each of the groups playing their own music as well as at least one song from Cyborgs Revisited. As I said, this is much more than just a tribute, as Saucer frontman Edgar Breau (pictured up top) will be a central participant - performing his own solo material (as heard on his new CD, Patches of Blue) as well as being backed up by the only and only psych-rock massive, Ghostlight (pictured here) on some Saucer jams. Karaoke, Westerholm's duo with sadoceanspacebear's Michelle Breslin and Hybrid Moments, my own guitar duo with This Mess' Matt Vocabulary, round out the bill.

If it can be defined as anything, the Simply Saucer Touring Revue is a tribute to the dogged and determined creativity that Simply Saucer inspired in succeeding generations of Canadian musicians. It's a message we're taking on the road: launching tonight (March 1) in Toronto at The Garrison, continuing tomorrow night (March 2) in Hamilton at This Ain't Hollywood - featuring a hometown super-set by the full Simply Saucer band Friday night only! - and wrapping up Saturday (March 3) in Guelph, for a Kazoo! co-presentation at Jimmy Jazz. Thanks to bands like Simply Saucer, Ontario music has its own distinctive identity that we're overdue to celebrate.

To bring things back to our roots once more, in the shadow of our mega-successful WL12 Anniversary Festival, tonight's show at the Garrison will have a door price of $10 OR Pay What You Can. Apologies to those diehards who bought $8 advance tickets, but we want everyone who wants to check out the show to have the opportunity to do so. Even better though... Saturday's show in Guelph is completely FREE!

P.S. Here's the Facebook event.