03.22.2007 Lily Allen/The Bird and the Bee @ The Commdoore

I wasn't originally planning on seeing this show because there was a midterm the next day. However, as luck would have it, the planets seem to have aligned and not only was the midterm moved, but i won tickets via cord magazine. As a result on monday, i received a call from EMI music Canada. Yep, I thought the same thing, but I stuck around long enough on the phone to receive the good news.

The EMI guy told me LA's the Bird and the Bee would hit the stage at 9:30. So at 9:25, 3 fem-bot looking ladies, a drummer and guitarist walked onstage. A band starting earlier than scheduled (and not later than)? wow. Anyways, they played the same sort of music you would expect from The Pipettes. Not suprising since they seem to have the same gimmick going on. Though i doubt the Pipettes actually did the actual fembot routine. It was forgettable from my vantage point.

Lily allen sung quite well despite claiming to have a sore throat. She also found the time to indulge in a smoke and some booze. ..must be a British home remedy. She played an hour of songs from her debut album, pretty much all of them except one or two. Her album isn't longer than an hour, thus the rest of the set was filled with a couple b-sides (nan you're a window shopper) and a bunch of covers (keane, blondie, kooks). The most impressive part of the night was not Ms Allen herself. Her band was pretty impressive. The brass section especially. In fact the highlight of my night was the extended outro 'Alfie' where the brass section did their own little jam.

$15/0

BT: Final Fantasy (Owen Pallett) 03.12.2007

Final Fantasy (Owen Pallet)
03.12.2007
Orpheum Theatre
Vancouver, BC

source: DPA 4061>SP-SPSB-1>IHP-H140
lineage: WAV-M>FLAC
editing: fade in,fade out

01.) Adventure.exe
02.) This Lamb Sells Condos
03.) Many Lives -> 49 MP
04.) Lewis Takes Off His Shirt
05.) This is the Dream of Win and Regine
06.) The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead
07.) Paris 1919 [John Cale]
08.) Song Song Song

Download Torrent here.

03.21.2007 Red Sparrows / Born of Ashes

The first time I saw Red Sparrows was maybe two years ago in Portland at Sabalas, pretty much double headlining with Pelican - Big Business opened for you that care. That was a very good show. Definitely a good night of post rock. Then again, a band with members of Isis and Neurosis in their pedigree is probably bound to be worthwhile.



Get there to the venue about 8:30, doors are already open. (Oh I should mention this show got moved from Pat's Pub to Richards on Richards, so I guess that says something.) Get inside, pretty barren - guess people found out that it was just local support for the night (more later). Initial impressions: Looks like Red Sparrows brought their projector/visuals again and pretty good shirts at a decent price (15 CDN).



Local nu-metal act, Born of Ashes, hits the stage first to a fairly empty floor. Suprisingly this isn't the first time that I've seen them. They were actually on the cheesy cable-access metal show "Revolution 2K or something" and even before then, they opened up for Darkest Hour. Someone out there must really like them. Someone who must value their association with them more than their interest in BoA's music. In fact it really re-enforces the stereotype that local bands from Vancouver suburbs (*cough* Surrey *cough*) are really behind music wise. Their sound is rather dated and almost laughable at times. Actually it was outdated back when i saw them in 2004 with Darkest Hour.



After a short break, Red Sparrows hit the stage and begin with a wall of noise and effects. They quickly launched into Buildings began to stretch... from their first album, At the soundless Dawn. For the most part there was little banter that disrupted the 5-6 song set that they played. Most of the material was pulled from their latest album, but there were 2-3 that were off of the first album. The experience of the 3 layers of guitars definitely separated the band from other post-rock bands of the genre. The new album doesn't really do it for me as much as the first album, but then again I still need to listen to it more. The new songs did sound alright live I'll admit. And not to beat a dead horse, but the visuals were once again stunning to say the least. Probably the best use of visuals in a small venue setting that I've seen in a while. Overall I was definitely not disappointed, nor was I blown away, just satisfied with a good night of music.

$15/$15

03.12.2007 Bloc Party/Final Fantasy/Smoosh @ The Orpheum

at this point in time i do believe the orpheum is vancouver's #1 venue. such a nice place to see a show. has a way better atmosphere than the commodore, and it's run better too. shows actually start when they should and they even tell you over the PA when bands are about to begin. I'll also give their ushers/security credit, while normally annoying, today they actually did their job and kept the number of people who rushed the front to a minimum and kept the aisles cleared.

smoosh are 2 teenage sisters from seattle, singing dreary pop songs, i guess. the first impression of them was "that's cute..." but after that wears off, you sort of notice that the drummer is pretty good. i guess thos drum lessons from death cab's drummer has paid off. the keyboard/sining sister complements the drumming well. the little crowd that did see them seemed to enjoy it. i wonder how man dudes felt weird taking pictures for their blog.

owen pallet aka final fantasy was as charming as ever. steph the projectionist was with him as well. same slides as last september, but still quite enjoyable. he also performed a new song 'louis takes off his shirt' or something like that, which he claims to be hard to play. he's just so good at what he does. (loops violin and keyboards while singing and playing over them)

so i missed out on bloc party last time they were here. the first time at richards, i couldn't decide whether or not i wanted to go before it sold out. the next time at the commodore, it sold out and i couldn't justify $40 for a scalped ticket. both of those had average openers. this time around the openers are better and the venue is a bonus, so i thought hell why not. they opened with (predictably) song for clay which got the crowd shuffling in their seating area. then another new one and then a whole lot of bangers from 'silent alarm.' i checked my watch around the time they played banquet. at this point it was 30 min or so in. uh oh... here's where i got worried. i love 'silent alarm', but as for the new one, i think it's pretty 'meh' aside from 3 or so songs. well since the first half of the show was primarily old stuff, the later half was filled with new songs and for me, quite boring. the encore had 3-4 songs and during the last song, kele invited a bunch of people on stage. in true vancouver fashion, if you invite one person on stage, you invite them all. overall a fun show, but the pacing really sucked.

$40/46 (should have been $30/46, but final fantasy was worth an extra 10)

03.05.2007 Do Make Say Think / Westfallia

About a month ago, I find out that Do Make Say Think (DMST) is booked to play at Richards on Richards. While this does get my interest level up, it doesn't terribly excite me. For some reason or another, DMST has never been up there with my favorite post-rock bands. I mean, I would admit they were good at what they do, but I would never put them up with Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Explosions in the Sky or Mogwai. Then again, at the time, I also didn't think A Silver Mount Zion would blow me away, and yet they did. So, Monday night comes, and I hope that I am pleasantly surprised.



Getting to the venue around doors, I'm almost shocked that they let people in at advertised doors. Not much of a line up, but the place would eventually pack right up. 80-90% I think at the end of the show. I wander around killing time before the opening act. One thing that impressed me was that the shirts that DMST were selling looked pretty nicely made. Tagless, uh tags with DMST on the shirts were a nice touch, although the design wasn't subtle enough for me to buy.



Opening the show was local(?) Laptop extraordinaire Westfallia. The premise of his act was dance/trance beats on his MacBook and Midi Controller. His sound wasn't too bad. A couple of catchy beats, but nothing that really impressed or amazed me a great deal.



DMST hit the stage about a half hour later. By this time Richards was pretty packed and growing with anticipation. Onstage were 8 members on stage. It was a pretty packed stage with 2 drum kits on the stage and 2 members of the horns/brass section standing on the drum risers. Most of the drum parts I don't think needed 2 drummers per se, but did add to the spectacle I suppose. Pretty good mix of songs from their albums, they definitely played longer than I thought they would have. Total show clocked in at about 110 minutes with 3 song encore. Decent crowd banter and both crowd and band seemed to be into it. They even made a crack at how they were actually singing on one of their songs and that somehow led to a joke about them doing Journey covers. Still for some reason, DMST doesn't do it for me. I'm sure there were lots of people who left the show in awe. But for me, they're still "good at what they do", which I guess isn't a bad thing

$15 / $20