Chris Belsito "The Bothersome Things About Madness" Chris Belsito was born (as many of us are) but was always a little different from the other kids. We could say that this was because of his latent artistic abilities brewing just below the surface, but more likely it was because he was raised in the jungles of Papua New Guinea and had a cus cus as a pet. After his Papua New Guinea experience, the young Belsito was relocated to northern Manitoba (as if that would help) where he was impressed by the rugged Canadian wilderness, and by the Catholic Church (who have maintained a presence in Manitoba for quite some time, we understand). Fast forward a few years, and skip over a Northern remote town with a population of less than a thousand, and we find a teen-aged Chris living in Laird Township, just outside Echo Bay, Ontario, which is just outside Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, in a house that was built to look like a boat, deep in the woods and going to high school at CASS. His only friends were the cows in the farmer's field "next door" (about a quarter of a mile away through a thick of trees), and his pen pals in the Kiss Army. Then he picked up his father's guitar... Well, what did you think would happen? Sure, he eventually got a University education, and bought a car and all that, but it was far too late by then. The jungle, the wilderness, his parents collection of folk records (a la Leonard Cohen) and Ace Frehley's guitar work on Alive! all left an impact. A terrible, terrible impact. Yes, yes...he has a good job. He's had a few actually. To be fair he has tried to be a contributing member of society and be grown up. But you don't shake off Ace's influence that easily. You write songs. Then more songs. Then you join bands and then quit them. In the end you have a lot of band friends (from all the bands you have left) and a boatload of songs (shaped like houses). The only logical choice left to you is to do what Chris did. To record albums. Chris's music is like Chris. On the surface it seems nice, orderly and friendly, but when you look a little deeper it's kind of weird. Have you listened to the lyrics to "Sweet Sera"? So today, he has a band made up of good musicians, and he writes good songs, and has a good job and if you haven't checked out one of his shows you should, because they're really good. At least I didn't say "nice". He would hate that. Chris finds the word "nice" to be "bothersome" (a word he rather enjoys). He especially hates the word "nice" when it is said about him. Don't get me wrong, he enjoys using the word "nice," but only when he is using it himself. Such is the duality of Chris Belsito.