11.30.05 Wintersleep/Sylvie

i didn't think i'd ever seen a weaker crowd that the one i saw at dredg in july of this year. wintersleep was hugely under-sold. i'd be suprised if the promoter came out even on this one. they closed off the balcony and even the floor was at 60-70% capacity by the end of the night.

sylvie. didn't hate them didn't exactly enjoy them that much either. not much else to say i guess. i'm still ok w/ the fact that i left before they went on stage last june.

while waiting for the show to start i chatted up jud from wintersleep. now the last time i spoke to him in july, he was feeding me stories about how back east they play like 2hr sets. i was hoping for something like this today. but it wasn't to be. apparently "the ladies and gentleman's" record label (apparently from vancouver as well as their drummer) really really really wanted them to close out the show. even the promoter had wintersleep set to play a headlining set. wintersleep being the nice guys that they are agreed. now this doesn't really make a lot of sense, as a) i've never heard of ladies and gentleman up until now and b) they're only capable of playing 30 min or 8-9 songs, encore included. jud also mentioned going back home to record a few demos.

well at least wintersleep got to play 50 or so min. not a bad set i guess. they played a nice mix of old and new songs. crowd was really into them. during one of the songs, one of the members of LandG played some guitar parts pratically offstage. and he seeming had problems w/ the guitar. good hustle. i do wonder how many ppl left after wintersleep got on.

11.21.05 Stars/Bontempi

bontempi, not bad. guy doing keyboard, girl drummer, girl singer guitarist = indie rock pop.

stars. first off a rant. omg vancouver shutup. this isn't the roxy. i don't even know how you can hear yourself talk in front of a speaker.

Going Going Gone
Set Yourself on Fire
Soft Revolution
Reunion
Elevevator love letter
Your Ex-Lover is Dead
Sleep Tonight
What I'm Trying to Say
Peak Hill
Ageless Beauty
The Big Fight
He Lied about Death
Calander Girl
===
What the Snowman Learned about Love
The First Five Times
Tonight

I don't recognize a few of those some from their earlier albums i don't listen to. I was try to figure out what "georgie" was on their setlist that appeared before calander girl. turns out it was he lied about death. georgie being bush. was also hoping they'd play death to death but no. The First Five Times done w/ members of the Organ, Moya (not godspeed), and someones mom, playing instruments which weren't mic'd up and there for not audible. they played 83 min, a little disappointing when curfew was set at 2am. and it ended somewhere around 12:45. overall though, great show. oh yea they were selling limited run t-shirts. $25.

rating: $23/$24

houston we have a problem..

my beloved dat has had an injury. after a few days of loading problems, i looked inside the tape area and noticed a loose part. shook it once and it came out completely. i'm gonna need to send this in to pro-digital. i'm not worried about that. i am worried about my next 2 shows stars (nov. 21) and wintersleep. omg the fates are conspiring against me. missed stars the last time they were around and really don't want to fuck this one up. fortuneately i think they only play 80 min sets encore included. soo looks like no tape switch for the md. wintersleep on the other hand, i remember jud bragging to me that when they do headlining shows they can play for up to 2hrs or something.

11.14.05 The Dillinger Escape Plan/Hella/Between the Buried and Me/Horse the Band

i'm glad someone set the curfew time at 12:00. weekday shows shouldn't end later than this. 8am classes suck.

anyways...

horse the band. they got a shortened set due to some sort of problem. their music was pretty spaz-ticy. in a low fi sense i guess. lots of keyboard/synth action. lots of energy and really funny. "this next song is now called horse the band equates to feces, which is what some have been calling us during this tour."

between the buried and me. a little suprised they weren't direct support, but oh well, all the openers got 30 min anyways. since last i saw them, it seems they've gotten a new bassist and drummer. bassist, doesn't seem as talented as the old one. or maybe new album has less technical bass parts. tommy rogers mentioned leaving an important cable in calgary, thus, no keyboards during mordecai and probably another song. as usually their guitarsists were money. i could watch them play for hours at a time.

hella. not bad i guess. they had a synth guy and a bass guy just jump in and out whenever a song called for them. didn't really do anything for me.

dillinger. as usually they hated on the filmers. friend asked the lead guitarist if we could film. got back a no. (lack of) taping aside. they can really put on a show. greg climbing all over the stacks, guitarists jumping off the monitors, just a crazy show. you really just have to see it for yourself.

11.13.05 Broken Social Scene/Most Serene Republic

this was an all ages show. as a result of the same day evening show selling out, the promoter added a second show. all of commodore's matinee shows are non-boozer events.

most serene republic. they've played here like 3 shows in the last 2 months here. they played a 45 min of sometimes interesting sometimes 'meh' indie rock. i dunno i guess pitchfork was justified in giving them 6.8.

BSS: feist's last show on this tour was yesterday in seattle. so new BSSer Lisa L. had to handle the female vocals by her lonesome. she kinda sounds like amy milan w/ a narrower vocal range. easy on the eyes, but rather disappointing. i'm not sure if i'd rather hear her or kevin drew w/ a falsetto. they played around and hour and 40 min. played all their hits. and about half from you forgot it in people and half from their newest album. another disappointment was hearing a the slow version of major lable debut. maybe they found out feist played it the fast version here recently and wanted to mix it up. lastly, one of the cooler points of this show was hearing an unreleased song called 'where's your heart, where's your mind'. apparently they also played it last time they were here on their "no ladies, no horns" tour. that song... what a treat. it was single worthy. fast and upbeat. during almost crimes, they let 2 girls up on stage to dance. but of course in vancouver, if you let one person up on stage, you basically make an open call. everyone started jumping on stage until it was filled. after the song, they were all escorted out... i mean off stage.

a little sumthin sumthin

looks like BDM has dumped both their drummer and bassist, resulting in cancelling their show on tuesday. i'm kinda glad, i should probably study that day i've got a midterm on wednsday and dillinger owns my evening the night before. hopefully bdm will be back soon. apparently BDM's bassist and drummer are easily replacable.

i also heard the mesa luna is now R.I.P in terms of doing live shows. sad.... that was my favorite venue for taping.

Broken Social Scene on sunday! hmm better get studying for that other midterm on monday. :/

11.02.05 Bad Religion/Anti-Flag

Got there about an hour after doors looking for a pair of ear plugs, so ended up missing Crowned King. Oh well. This was, by the way, night 2 of a 2 night stand.

Anti Flag was up first. Not too bad. Lots of politiclally charged songs (rolls eyes), albeit not exactly convincing. Had a very Good Charlotte/AFI kind of feel to their sound. Come to think of it, they may have dressed like them too. played for about 35 minutes.

Bad Religion hit the stage around 10:15. Opened up with Sinister Rouge into 21st Century Digital Boy. Pretty decent set with the band seemingly in a good mood. Lots of crowd banter and jokes. Was expecting a set with more older songs and less from Empire strikes back and Process of belief. oh well, they played You so I can't really complain. Set was about 90 min.

Songs Played (no order)
Sinister Rouge
21st Century Digital Boy
No Control
Suffer
Grey Race
American Jesus
Generator (small Sweet Child of Mine tesaser)
Kyoto Now
Supersonic
Anesthesia
You
Sorrow
Los Angeles is Burning
God's Love
Epiphany
Let Them Eat War
Recipe for Hate
+10 more i guess