11.02.2007 Wintersleep / Wooden Stars - Vancouver

I've seen Wintersleep a handful of times now. I've even seen them at Richards on Richards, the same venue that they were playing the show. But as the saying goes, that was then and this is now. 2 years ago, they played to a half capacity crowd, so much so that they closed the balcony. They even had their headlining spot stolen by the band The Ladies and Gentlemen, who later became Small Sins. Fast forward 2 years and Wintersleep has now had 2 major radios singles on the radio and have recently put out a remarkable third album, "Welcome to the Night Sky". To top it off, I'm informed that the show is well sold out with about 35 media people on the guestlist.

The Wooden Stars were the opening band for the nights show. Interestingly, the band has been around for over ten years. In fact, they even had quite the media buzz back in 1999 when they won a Juno award for best alternative album. Having recently reunited in 2005 after a 5 year hiatus, the Wooden Stars sounded good and showed a definite sense of maturity in both their music and live playing. Most of their songs were up beat and had a decent groove to it. Although, I wasn't blown away by them,
they certainly warmed up the crowd.





There have been a couple of changes to Wintersleep since I last saw them. Jud Haynes their former bass player has moved to handle more of the website and behind the scenes duties. In his place is Contrived and sometimes Holy Fuck bassist, Mike Bigelow. Incidentally he was also a touring member playing keyboards and whatnot during the last Dependent Music Tour. Jon Samuel looks to be a permenant member as well. Immediately starting the set with "Drunk on Aluminium", the band set the tone for the night. The sold out crowd was very much into the music. Pretty much every song off of the new album was represented at the show. Despite the overwhelmingly large crowd, the band seemed very humble in regards to interacting with the crowd. Musically, however they rocked the show with as much confidence as any band that I have seen. Songs from their older albums were also well recieved, especially "Jaws of Life". The band finished the night with a 3 song encore that included "Nerves Normal, Breath Normal" and "Danse Macabre". Both included extended jams, the former featuring the exquisite drumming of Loel Campbell. Although both of the aforementioned songs were crowd favourites and finely done, having two 10+ minute songs, back to back I might add, seemed almost too over the top and self indulgent. Regardless of all this, nothing could have spoiled this fantastic show.



SETLIST
Drunk on Aluminium
Archaeologists
Calibre
Jaws of Life
Dead Letter and the Infinite Yes
Weighty Ghost
Murderer
Orca
Astronaut
Search Party
Faithful Guide
Laser Beams
Miasmal Smoke & the Yellow Bellied Freaks
Oblivion
--------
Migration
Nerves Normal, Breath Normal
Danse Macabre






As an aside, the entire show was filmed by a 3 person crew for what appeared to be, according to a piece of paper taped to the wall in a few places, a dvd release. From what I gather, the people(s) responsible was 'Transmission.' Maybe related to the Transmission festival in December? I doubt it will be in wide public release however, as production seemed stripped down. If I had to guess, I'd say the footage would be used as some sort of promo type material for the Transmission Festival.



$25/$15 SOLD OUT - So good I may have to see it again...