BT: Architecture in Helsinki 05.26.2006

Architecture in Helsinki
05.26.06
Vancouver, BC
The Plaza

source: DPA 4061>IHP-140
transfer: IHP-140>USB 2.0>HD
lineage: WAV(m)>FLAC
editing: fade in/out

Setlist

Neverevereverdid
It's 5
The Owls Go
In Case We Die
Feather in a Baseball Cap
Frenchy, I'm Faking
Hot to Trot
Cemetery
Wishbone
Kraftwerk
Debby
Tiny Paintings
Heart it Races
Whats in Store
Maybe You Can Owe Me
Do the Whirlwind*

notes:
* w/ members of the opening band clue to kalo

download here

Foo Fighters Acoustic show

Was thinking of going to this. Thought the onsale date was monday. Its not.

05.26.06 Architecture in Helsinki / Clue to something....

Architecture in Helsinki played in Vancouver today at the Plaza. Early show, doors at 7 show at 8 and curfew at 10:30, sounds good I get to go home before 12. The first bad omen comes even before I can get through the door. About 3 signs are plastered in the entrance / vestibule. No Cameras / Filming. sigh (I later found out that they aren't very strict on this and it may just refer to the nightclub crowd). Regardless Plaza is a pretty decent club. About as nice as the Commodore i guess.

First band was Clue to something... Koal i think. Interesting band. Very arty rocky. Used a pelthora of instruments and samples. Was like 8-10 different instruments divided amongst 3 band members. Found them boring at times and at times had a very chill kinda vibe to them. Played about 30-40 minutes. Members of AiH played on the last song, doing some uh embellishments.

AiH played for more or less an hour. Played almost everything off of In Case we Die. 1 or 2 new songs i think were played. Didn't play the Degrassi intro to Wishbone. Crowd was pretty into the show. Was actually suprised at the turnout. Was expecting a lot less but ended up packing the place at the end of the night. One of the singers commented that it was like the Where's Wally (sic) book. I think she meant Waldo. It'll be interesting how they can follow up In Case We Die. At the end of wishbone, one of the singers left the stage with a plastic cup full of home made confetti, climbed the stairs to the balcony and poured it over the rail on to the crowd below just before a crecendo of the song/jam. unfortunately due to the size of the cup and the way paper flys, the overall effect was rather moot. can't blame her for trying I suppose. Didn't particualrly like the new songs. Kind of amusing seeing some band members try to exit the stage after whats in store, but were told not to due to the time constraints of the curfew. Overall a good night.

Setlist in Order:
Neverevereverdid
It's 5
Owls
In Case We Die
Feather
Frenchy, I'm Faking
Hot to Trot
Cemetery
Wishbone
Kraftwerk
Debby
Tiny Paintings
Heart it Races
What's in Store
Maybe
Do The Whirlwind


$13/$13

05.25.2006 Sam Roberts Band (acoustic) @ HMV robson

sam roberts and his band (well just his guitarist) decided to do an acoustic instore performance at HMV as part of local radio station, CFOX's 6 o'clock rock report. usually in these kind of things, 2-3 songs are played and a lot of gabbing is spewed out to fill time. as far as instores are concerned i'm game. public place means, audio/video is fair game. :)



got there a little more than an hour before. about 20 or so ppl were there before me. at this point i'm not too thrilled as on top of those 20 or so ppl there will be about 10-15 contest vip's who will skip the line entirely. they end up splitting the store's floor in front front of the stage more or less in half, diagonaly. hard to explain but a really weird setup. now at this point i'm thinking there's no way i'll be able to get an unobstructed view, and i don't film over heads. shortly after 6, they lead us in like cattle and to my suprise, there's a neat little spot just beside the divider between vips and non vips and the aisle. i sneak my way in and just like that, one of the better spots in the house is mine. my bro ends up in the balcony filming through a dirty window, not actually being able to make out if they're actually making music or not. there was a crusty-looking (he was mistaken for a bum earlier) guy from ontario who loved SRB, but not enough to buy tickets. he had a sign with him that begged for free tickets. if you're picturing a bum, you'd be correct.

ok so mr. robert's and his performance... although i respect what he does, a) his shows are too big for me to film b)i'm not thaaat big into his stuff. i.e i wouldn't pay to see him headline with a shitty opener. that said, he played 2 songs i've never heard of before today and did the whole radio interview speil for a total of 30 min. kinda cool to watch i suppose. but where's the hits??? (i can't believe i just typed that)



Video Clip:

05.14.2006 Pride Tiger

Sort of weird day. Decided to go see Pride Tiger (ex. 3 inches of blood/Goatsblood/S.T.R.E.E.T.S.), small venue, sounded like a good time. Doors were supposed to be 8pm with midnight dragon opening; so it sounded like short night. Both Cam and the other singer (whose name escapes me) from 3" showed up for the show.

Ukraine Center is a pretty much a scenster/DIY kind of venue. Situated in the heart of Strathcona, its about the size of a small house. It also has terrible sound, the good thing is that it has a pretty decent stage.

Get there around 8:30 to the sounds of You Say Party... playing the GAP, to a crowd of 15 people. Kind of suprising since they were supposed to play earlier in the day. Apparently one of the bands was late so they had to reshift some sets. ugh.

Our Mercury, a hold over from the afternoon show was okay but uninspiring. Like I mentioned before the acoustics of the room weren't that good.

Midnight Dragon went on stage around 10:30 and played about 40 minutes. Definitely had a 70's rock vibe to them. For some reason I got the impression they were heavily Zepplin influenced. I could also swear that their lead singer (with a handlebar moustache no less) was peddling a faux British accent. Not terribly into them.

Pride Tiger went on about 15 min afterwards. they certainly lived up to their hype. very fun boogie rock sound. Sunny does the majority of the solos in this band. Their drummer matt does the majority of the sing while backed up by their bassist and other guitarist bobby. they also played 40 min encore included.

Tragically Hip

Tragically Hip is playing at the commodore on the 26th. Would be a pretty decent show. Small intimate gig, plus the hip are usally taper friendly. Downside is that I really don't like the hip and that tickets will be about 75 dollars. That and the day will be a mess if you consider that Architecture in Helsinki will also be playing that day, albeit an early show. Well it ends up that tickets sold out pretty quickly, not that the ticket info was easy to find (I actually guessed the password: courage). Also I tried for tickets 10 minutes after sales started. oh well.

05.07.2006 Rainer Maria/Ambulette @ Media Club

got there to find about 15 people in the venue, 40 min after doors opened. there was so little action going on that there wasn't even a merch person attending the merch table. in vancouver's defence though, there were a bunch of other shows happening at the same time. though more ppl did arrive after they left.



ambulette who used to be bella lea opened and played about 40 minutes. their drummer or bassist wanted to know if they could actually buy pot in a store in vancouver. they're about 2 years too late. that establishment closed down a while ago. looks like a couple of new songs in there that weren't in released on their demos. i talked to maura after their set; asking for their contact info. she ended up making fun of me for not having myspace.



Ambulette's Setlist:
When i See you
bella lea
stay
the mess
save it
picture
seconds
if you go away



Rainer Maria suprised me by playing their (imo) best song life of leisure, second. at this point i thought it'd be a long rest of the set. but nope it wasn't bad. their guitarist is pretty charismatic when he plays. moving around. doing stuff on the guitar that i wish i could.

Rainer Maria's Setlist:
CAT
LOL
ART
SPIT
THOUGHT
BURN
MAKE
TERR
CT CATH
2X
A.L.
EARS R.
===
{a song or 2}
tinfoil? {yeah ppl requested it, and i think they obliged}



i think by the end of the night, only 25 people were left in the venue.

Rainer Maria Video Clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbZBQrbCUwI

rating:
$10.50/$12

Mesa Luna closes down.

Well looks like the Mesa Luna is no longer putting on shows. Islands is cancelled. This is a pretty big blow to the all-ages scene. As far as I can tell the next small all ages club will probably be WISE hall. On the plus side it has a better stage, but the sound system is not as good. Other alternatives I guess would be the Ukraine Center. Well whatever, I'm 21+ I can see shows wherever the hell I want. Besides I like going to shows where the stage isn't cluttered with girls jackets and kids aren't dancing on the stage.

bands i've seen at ML:
arcade fire, three inches of blood, blood brothers, isis, these arms are snakes, death from above 1979, comeback kid, figure four, converge, dillinger escape plan, terror, cursed, red light sting, murder by death, against me!, pretty girls make graves.

05.05.06 Dog Fashion Disco / Tub Ring @ Studio Seven

It was a friday so we decided to hit up the DFD/tub ring show in Seattle. Got there about an hour after doors, not exactly packed but not the 20 person crowd that I was expecting. Venue was better than I expected. Acoustics were pretty good and stage was decent, like the Meow Meow in pdx with better sound/lighting I suppose. Apparently turn out for portland wasn't so hot. Not really suprising but not good if it was lower than at studio seven. Then again, turn out for dfd during the prong tour in pdx was around 5 ppl and their headlining show in 2004 was aroudn 20ish.

First 2 bands were local and not very noteworthy. Actually they were horrible.

Karate high school was suprisingly watchable. I can't say they were musically that great or unique, but entertaining nonetheless. Even had some schtick where some girl in the audience asked some kid to the prom. He said yes. Definitely made the 4 guys in KHS shirts happy.

I found Look what I did boring.

Tub Ring played direct support and was pretty good. Sans vox, band members played with Mexico shirts (for Cinco de mayo I guess). Pretty good set. 40 mins almost without pause between songs. Pretty high energy with the keyboard guy jumping on the uh keyboard a lot. Played a lot of songs I don't know.





DFD hit the stage around 11:45ish. Overally decent set I suppose. The band is pretty much ever changing in terms of band members. Besides Todd, I don't think there are any returning members since the last time I saw them. Their new keyboardist and bassist were a good fit. Vertigo motel and acid memoires were a nice touch (reworked with keys), having never heard them before. Rebel yell was pulled off nicely.

setlist:
the sacrifice of miss rose covington
satanic cowboy
worm in a dogs heart
acid memoires
desert grave
vertigo motel
pogo the clown
love song for a witch
100 suicides
rapist eyes
rebel yell
9-5 at the morgue

overall: $10/$10... or $10/$60 if you consider how much it cost to get down to seattle....