07.25.2009 Hillside Festival Day 3 (Guelph)

The first 2 days of the festival had bearable amounts of rain. I don't have any waterproof shoes, so I walked around in flip-flops all weekend. My feet were muddy at the end of most days, however I didn't have to endure the pain of walking in wet socks/shoes. On the ride over to the festival grounds we had so much rain, I thought we were driving under a waterfall. It was a pretty spectacular sight. The good thing about the rain on this weekend was that it usually only lasted about an hour max, and would come and go. But when it came, boy did it pour. Oh yeah and we got thunder too, more about that later.

I went to the Island tent first to check out the annual Sunday Gospel Session. Not surprising, It was packed. I guess people wanted to be in church on a Sunday morning. Amongst the assembled gospel singers, acoustic instruments and such were these 3 intense looking (they were wearing sunglasses) African's playing traditional African instruments. Those instruments made some really unique and interesting sounds, however my attention span is short and the rain had stopped so I made my way to the Lake Tent.



Being that I interviewed them, I figured I should probably see Dehli 2 Dublin play. They were playing with FRED and Eccodeck as party of "Kick out the Jams". The attendance at this tent was pretty low, however most of the people there were dancing it up. It was funny seeing the deadhead hippies dance it up. Dehli to Dublin are a pretty fun band to watch. Kytami knows how rock it out on the fiddle. Andrew their sitar player looked like he was handling bass duties today or maybe it was an electric sitar, he was also wearing a slayer shirt plus a kilt. lols.

I had to drop by the mainstage, and while I was waiting, I saw a bit of Sam Bradley's set. Weird, he's from Vancouver, though I've never heard of him. Standard acoustic guitar singer-songwriter type of stuff. He had a row of fans (maybe 4-5 ladies) with signs near the front of the stage. Vish from CBC radio 3 made a comment about the sign. He read it out but didn't get it. Some sort of inside joke or something.

I ended up at the spoken word tent to find open mic going on. One of the acts I saw was, well of "open mic" quality, and the other was someone telling a heart wrenching tale about finding inner strength and a (sigh, almost cliche) terminally sick boy in a hospital with a feather from a pillow, blah blah blah something about an angel blah blah, well you know how it ends, person is inspired and the boy, well he's terminally ill. Anyways, there was a Fresh Prince of Bel Air episode that was pretty similar. Crowd was very moved though. Saw more than one person with wet eyes and not from the rain.



I went down to a the Island stage to find another packed tent. This time Dancehall Free for All was inhabiting the stage. I was a little disappointed to not see some sort of "Dancehall" band from the Caribbean. They're local, so they had a lot of crowd support. I wasn't really into it and decided to check out the spoken word stage again.

I got there to see C.R Avery do a spoken word story about a boxer. Throughout the story, he did some beat boxing. It was pretty captivating.



What I saw of the Witchies I didn't really care for. I thought they were alright, but I just wasn't really into it and probably would have left to see something else had it not been a thunderstorm in mid swing outside. There was an announcement made by the organizers after the Witchies' set to stand away from the metal support poles that kept the tents standing, as essentially they were giant lightning rods. At one point during the storm between sets, lightning struck just outside the tent behind the stage. I don't think anyone was struck dead on, but I overheard people talking about being able to feel it come down near them. One girl claimed she was struck a couple hours after during the Julie Doiron/Patrick Watson workshop. She's probably a robot.

I know my other writing partner was sort of lukewarm on Clues, from Montreal, but I found their set to be pretty good. My set was probably shorter than his so maybe I had a more refined view of their live show. Clues is Alden Penner's (ex-Unicorn's) new band, I think it also boasts a former member of the Arcade Fire, though definitely before Arcade Fire was touring cross Canada. Clues really had some bad luck going for them. First their soundcheck went way over time causing them to have a shortened set and secondly they seemed to be having trouble finding their drummer as their set time drew near. Someone told me later, it was because he hurt his back from a lightning strike. (Another robot?) I'll have to see how they are with a full set.

Knowing that I had very few breaks from this point on, I went to grab lunch. Wanting to try something new, I opted for an African peanut stew form the food tent. Very tasty, however, I would have liked to had some meat with that. I topped it off with an organic Maple Crunch ice cream cone from another vendor.

So the Andrew McPherson/Julie Doiron/Sam Bradley/Patrick Watson Workshop (entitled Brand New Day) was one of the highlights of the festival for me. Patrick Watson played host and mentioned that Eric's trip was the first show he ever saw as as a kid. Sam Bradley, Andrew McPherson and Julie Doiron each got to play one of their own songs, and then it was improv time. You could tell it wasn't rehearsed because during McPherson's set, you could see Doiron and Bradley looking over at McPherson to try and find the chords to play. Julie Doiron was initially hesitant about the improv idea, but Watson kept pushing for it, as a good host would do. Doiron, mentioned that her daughter Rosey was better at the improv thing so Watson suggested she sing a song about Rosey. And that's what the song was about. Chorus was basically "Roooseeey, Rooooseeey", etc. Pretty cool. Doiron dedicated the song to her kids, the ones not named Rosey. Watson created the next improv by asking the crowd for a song name. I think they settled on "Radical Sock" or "Radical Shoe" something like that. One of Doiron's backing band decided a reggae jam was what it would be. Each performer took turns on the verses. Overall this was one of the cooler acts I saw at Hillside, musicians doing what they do best, creating music.

The previous stage was running later than schedule so by the time I left, it would have been pretty late into The Rural Advantage's set. I reluctantly decided to skip it, because I had to get to the main stage and my stomach was growling at me again. In case you're interested, and I know that you are, I had some yellow Thai chicken curry. Like everything I at this weekend, it was delicious.

I caught Great Lake Swimmers next just as the sun was coming up. They were a lot better than the last time I saw them. Maybe it was the location, but they seemed to have more of a stage presence outdoors. Oh yeah they attracted quite the crowd as well. The front of the stage was elbow to elbow in terms of space. They played a mix of new song and older songs like "Your Rocky Spine" which kept me happy.

You know a couple of years ago I was a little disappointed when Patrick Watson was announced as the 2nd Polaris prize winner, not because I didn't think he deserved it, but I thought others were more deserving. Well after seeing him live, I'll have to retract my disappointment. He really is a gifted song writer. His stage show consists of a drummer, violinist, bass and guitar with himself handling the vocal and piano duties. He seems to find the right balance between folk and rock. In a way it reminds me of the mellower Radiohead songs.

Because this was a festival show, Final Fantasy today was just Owen Pallett, without the projectors. Actually I prefer his show without the projectors, because I find them a little too distracting. Pallett hasn't had a proper studio album in a while so most of the songs he played today were new songs off his upcoming album "Heartland". The highlight of the night during "Lewis Takes off his Shirt". It had started to rain a few songs before, but it really started to come down during this song. I'll let this video explain the rest:



and here's another new song:



The Skydiggers were introduced by one of the organizers as a band that played the Hillside Festival 20 years ago. They're sorta folk/country/bluegrassy. I wasn't really impressed because it's not really my kind of music. Though they seem to have a following that thought standing in the rain/mud was worth staying for. I was pretty bored until one of the guitarists introduced a song about North Vancouver. They I was back to being bored.

And there we have it, 3 days of Hillside Festival. I for one, had a blast this weekend, you know, aside from all the rain, mud, more rain, more mud, thunderstorms, etc. With a strong sense of community, solid Canadian indie rock lineup and overall chill atmosphere, I could see myself coming out to this next year as well.


$50/$0

07.25.2009 Hillside Festival Day 2 (Guelph)

I started day two in the Island stage. The first act of the day at this stage was a collaboration between two of the better (imo) up and coming Ontario bands: Bruce Peninsula and The Rural Alberta Advantage. I think Bruce Peninsula was a few members short from the last time that I saw them. I don't remember hearing any Bruce Peninsula songs, but they did jam on Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain". Afterwards they joked about covering Stairway to Heaven. The two bands seemed to be having a good time collaborating. I think The Rural Alberta Advantage played and had Bruce Peninsula jam on a few of their new songs. Pretty cool stuff.



I figured I would walk over to the next stage and try and get a good spot for Julie Doiron. To my surprise, the tent was pretty packed for the band "Green Go". I later found out their a local Guelph band, so I guess most of the crowd knew them before hand. They were pretty entertaining, playing a sort of electro-dance /rock sort of sound. They reminded me of You Say Party! We Say Die!, but instead of punk influences, electro synth.



The sucky part of festivals are that you sometimes get two or three bands you want to see playing at the same time. Case in point, I had to miss Bruce Peninsula playing in order to see Julie Doiron. The latter played a set filled mostly with lower key fan favorites. She was still great though, but with time restrictions she didn't have a lot of time for between song banter.



I checked out a bit of Treasa Levasseur next. Wasn't really too into it and took the time to have lunch after a few songs. Yeah I don't remember too much about this set.



Wanting to get a good spot for Ohbijou, I wandered into the tent to find 'Bahamas' finishing their set. I think Bahamas is just a drummer and a guitarist/singer. People seemed to like them as the tent was filled up. The last song saw them bring up a few friends to help out with extra vocals. The names of those friends have since slipped my mind, however, I do recall seeing members of Great Lake Swimmers, possibly Tony Dekker, and possibly Owen Pallett.



I've heard good things about Ohbijou through other media outlets like cbcradio3. I can't really say they blew my mind though. I enjoyed a few of their songs, however found that were kind of boring live, especially in this sort of setting. However, I did get the impression that they would be more enjoyable in a small club with nice lighting.



I made my way down to the Sun stage next where they mostly had spoken word and workshops. Final Fantasy, Buffy St. Marie and Notre Dame de Grass were doing a workshop entitled "Yes we Can". This slogan was also used throughout whenever any of the artists showed any insecurities onstage. Owen Pallett mentioned that he gets nervous on stage, to which someone shouted "Yes we Can". Anyways, the workshop basically consisted of each of the 3 artists taking turns playing a song. Not really familiar with Notre Dame de Grass, who are a Bluegrass act or Buffy St. Marie, but Owen did do a Buffy St. Marie cover, "The Dream Tree" which was kind of cool. That must have been nerve racking, since he mentioned being a big fan of hers.



The workshop ended a bit late so I arrived at Attack in Black's set midset. The room was pretty filled. Towards the end of the set, they brought out none other than Julie Doiron to sing on a few songs. I enjoyed what I saw from Attack in Black



Everytime I see the name "Hey Rosetta", I also think of "Hey Ocean". Anyways, they're an indie rock band from Nova Scotia, and they're pretty cool. They were one of the better acts I saw today. After seeing them live I'd have to say that they are totally deserving of their Polaris prize nomination. They played a good mix of slow mellow songs and rock out jams. I really wish I saw them with Two Hours Traffic now.



While waiting for the next band on the main stage, I saw the tail end of Buffy St. Marie's set. I suppose you could consider her a Canadian institution as she's been doing her thing for a while now. Not really my thing, but if you don't already know, she plays native/aboriginal influenced folk. So yeah there are songs with the Indian chants drums.



Tokyo Police Club had one of the longer time slots of the day. However due to technical issues, they didn't really make good use of it. I've stated before that I found their songs to be too similar sounding. I don't disagree now, but I will admit to having a much better time seeing them this time around. Along with their regular material, they also snuck in Tom Petty's "American Girl". It was nice to see a band looking like they genuinely like playing with each other as they seemed to had grins on their faces their entire set.



Caught the end of Woodhands' set. The place was packed. I think this was the Volunteer afterparty show this night. I'm pretty surprised, I wasn't aware of their popularity. Anyways, they're a duo that are dancey and the crowd loved it.



I don' think anyone left after the Woodhands set, as the Arkells set was also packed. The latter put on a really good rock show and the crowd was eating it up. I think they're local or something because on the ride over we passed "Arkell" street in Guelph. This show actually had a lot crowd surfing at it. I saw a bunch of beach balls and toilet paper flying around. I don't really remember much about their songs, but it was pretty standard rock out stuff. Actually come to think of it they sort of remind me of the Trews.


$60/$0

07.24.2009 Hillside Festival Day 1 (Guelph)

Since this is kind of a Vancouver blog, I'll start with a short description of this little festival. Hillside is what Under the Volcano Festival in Vancouver would be if it grew to be about 3 times what it is now. A medium to large festival with a sense of community, or as I've been told by some people one of the biggest "hippie festivals" in Canada. They have a food court area, which has all local food vendors. Some of the dishes I ate their included Thai curry and African Peanut stew. If I wasn't worried about public "daily weight loss", I probably would have had a lot more than I did. Also another cool thing they had was re-useable dishes, which were washed by a dish washing staff. Water was also freely available by a company in guelph.



The first "act" I saw was billed as "Let's Get this Party Started". This featured Ambre McLean, Kristin Sweetland, members of Rock City Plaza, Josh Gabriel, Zack Leighton and others. From what I remember, they put on a pretty tight jam.

I caught a bit of Birthday boys afterwards. It might just be the singer, but I left with the impression that they sounded like Nickelback. I strolled over to the the Lake stage mid set to check out Kae Sun who I believe is from Africa or Ghana, but grew up in Ontario. I remember he had a very captivating voice.



There were only two bands I really wanted to see on day one. One was Coeur de Pirate and the other being The Grates. Unfortunately they conflicted time wise. Seeing as how Coeur de Pirate doesn't really play much outside of Quebec and Ontario, the choice wasn't that hard. Days leading up to the festival I was a little worried because I heard she had cancelled her appearance at the Dawson Music Festival a weekend earlier due to exhaustion. I guess a week is long enough to recover. Today Coeur de Pirate was a 3 piece. Beatrice Martin doing vocals and keyboard, a guitar player and another keyboard-er. She doesn't disappoint, as she was quite entertaining. She spoke in both French and English between sets, because afterall, we are in Canada as she pointed out, in French. Her set was at about half capacity not bad for a predominately French singing chanteuse. She introduced "Commde des Enfants" as the song that got her known. Aside from her album material she also played a new song, which she described as a sad song. At the end of her set she also snuck in 2 covers, one by fellow French singing language barrier breaking Montreal band Malajube (Étienne d'Août) and Rhianna's "Umbrella's."



Rock City Plaza pulled in a pretty packed crowd. They also have quite the following. Lots of really drunk people watching their set. One girl did a possibly tongue in cheek proposal to the drummer, which was kind of amusing. Same girl and her friends later danced on stage during the set. RCP reminds me of Neutral Milk Hotel, most notably during Joyful, which sounds a little like "King of Carrot Flowers."



Someone told me that the last set at the Island tent was the one where all the volunteers went to unwind. Makes sense, because it was ridiculously packed for USS. There was actually a huge lineup to get into the area. As you would expect the audience was full of modern radio rock aficionados and college kids. USS is probably best known for their radio hit "Hollowpoint Sniper Hyperbole." I was a little surprised to find out that the band is basically just a DJ/hype-man loading beats and scratching plus a guitarist singer. The guitarist might actually be a gifted song writer, but I just found that any sort of refined musical substance that he might have was pretty much hidden under the dance beats that ran throughout their set. I mean yeah sure it was totally entertaining and the hype man did his job very well, but at the end of the day I just wonder what the band could be if they didn't use dance beats, a hype man and had a full band. Well I guess they'd have to fire one of the members. Oh they had a blender on stage with some fruit. During the last song they mixed in Orange Juice, some blueberries, and a banana and blended it. Then drank it when they were done their set. I'm sure there's a deeper meaning in there somewhere, or maybe not.

$20/$0

07.25.2009 Virgin Festival Day 1

Normally I'm not really a fan of festivals. Packed crowds, all ages (not that that's a bad thing), generally high ticket prices and short sets are all things I could do without. However, if you wait long enough, usually secondary market ticket prices usually drop by the time the date rolls by. The weeks leading up to said show, I even recall a 2 for 1 promotion somewhere. This usually means the show was undersold, but it also means I was able to snag a ticket for $30.





I get there around 3pm just in time to see Mute Math. Two or three years ago, they had a bit of an indie level hype about them. Somehow I never really got into them. Live, they're not too bad. Decent stage presence; they sort of had a Filter vibe to them. Actually I recognized one of their songs from somewhere, I think it's called 'Typical'. To close their set, they did a pretty cool 3 person percussion thing during the outro to "Break the Same".









After their set, I walked over to the second stage, (or bands they put on so they can set up the mainstage) to find out that it's none other than Vancouver's own Elizabeth. I think I've seen them 4-5 times now. Can't say they've up'd their game too much.





K-os followed up on the mainstage. Much like the day one headliners, the Roots, K-os had a full band back him up live. Having never seen K-os perform live before, I was kind of impressed by his captivating live show. Some of his songs actually used excerpts of classic rock tunes (Rush - Tom Sawyer, Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven) to which he would put lyrics over. 'B-boy Stance' wasn't played, but mega-hits "Man I used to be" and "Sunday Morning" were represented. Much like any dynamic artist, his live renditions were quite a bit different than his album versions, adding more dimension to his work. Was a little disappointed I didn't see Emily Haines make an appearance during this set. Would have liked to have seen 'Uptown Girl' live with her. Of course her absence here can only mean more disappointment later on...

I don't recall who was next on the secondary stage because I was a)finding water b)contemplating whether or not I should shell out for an overpriced Jamacian patty (I didn't).





Broken Social Scene was the last band that I saw. Having to compare this set to the one they did in Toronto would really be unfair. Although this show really couldn't compare (I doubt any show could), the V-fest set was pretty good on its own right. Today lineup was very male dominate.





Hometown resident and Stars frontman Torquil Campbell was included, as well bandmate Evan Cranley. James Shaw of Metric was present, however Emily Haines was not. How peculiar.





Lisa Lobsinger handled all of the female vocals that day. The crowd seemed somewhat into it. It was hard to say. Definitely different than most festivals that I've been to. A pretty good mix of new and old songs were played.





k-os even did a verse or two on one of the songs. The set was about 45 minutes and seemed to end just while things were starting to take off. I actually took off after this. I really don't know if I could sit through another Our Lady Peace set.

Normally this is where the review would end, but as luck would have it, it rained in Vancouver. Actually thunder and downpoured. Ends up the organizers pulled the plug before the Roots got on stage (I later found out that they're planning on doing a free make-up gig in the near future). The also let day 1 festival goers use their tickets towards day 2 (not me, I had other plans). So... I guess those tickets that scalpers were desperate to get rid of, are going to be worth something after all. I guess everyone wins. Well except the organizers I suppose. I've got pretty good odds on there not being a V-fest Vancouver next year.

$30/$30

07.11.2009 Broken Social Scene / Rattlesnake Choir (Toronto)

My original plan was to stay in Ottawa after Wintersleep because Blues Fest was going on and Matisyahu was playing the next day, however, my credentials were taking a little longer than expected to come through. This posed a problem because I was hoping snag a cheap flight home, which is difficult if you don't know when you're leaving. For some reason, it slipped my mind that the Broken Social Scene show, which was put on to make up for the cancelled Olympic Island Festival, would be happening on the same day. When I finally remembered, my problem was solved. Well it was too late to get a cheap flight, so I chose rail instead. which is by far a more expensive way to travel when compared to greyhound, but cheaper than a last minute flight and a billion times more comfortable than the 'hound.'

I arrived at the Sirius stage a little over 2hrs prior to "doors". Surprisingly the seats were already about half packed, and there was already a band playing there. Upon further inspection it was BSS soundchecking. Very nice.. They jammed on one song I didn't recognize. They also played "Where's Your Heart, Where's Your Mind", which I remember them playing at a show I was at in 2005. Kevin Drew also interacted with the crowd a bit hinting that it would be a long set and that they'd go all the way to the curfew time of 11 pm. He mentioned that the real reason they cancelled the Olympic Island was due to the strike. No ferries were going to Island where the festival was to take place. Towards the end of the soundcheck, after playing Soul Unwind, he brought out Feist to soundcheck the acoustic guitars, dropping a hint of a duet. Oh yeah, it was fairly obvious the show was being recorded for something. There were 2 large camera rigs at the back and 3 cameras on stage, all of the pro broadcast variety. The +$5k kind.



The organizer came out prior to the Rattlesnake Choir's set to introduce a certain Bruce MacDonald. He's a Canadian director best known for "The Tracy Fragments" and "Hard Core Logo." He mentions that they're filming for a feature film, probably called "This Movie is Broken," and that you can upload photos of people kissing to www.thismovieisbroken.com .....ok.

The Rattlesnake Choir are a country, maybe alt-country band from Toronto, and from what I understand are the house band for the Dakota Tavern. Apparently this is also where Kevin Drew and his posse like to hang out. Not really a fan of country, but they did do a bit of Johnny Cash's "Walk the Line" during their soundcheck. They didn't really change my opinion of their genre of music. The fiddle solos were kind of cool I guess.

To be honest, I really liked the two BSS albums after Feel Good Lost, but sort of lost interest a bit with the Broken Social Scene Presents: thing. Now I've seen BSS a couple of times back in Vancouver, and it always frustrated me to no end that I never got to see BSS with Amy, Emily or Feist doing vocals. For the record, I'm not a fan of Lobsinger, and would rather have Liz Powell doing vocals. I sort of wish she was invited to this show... Anyways, as luck would have it, BSS started with a song I didn't recognize, but it sounded ok, I just considered it a long intro theme. It only took 3 songs before they brought out Feist for 7/4 Shoreline. Midway through the set, time was given to each of the ladies to do a song. Amy did a song solo with Evan Cranley and someone else dual drumming. Emily sang "Give me a Sympathy" and Kevin and Feist did a heartwarming duet of medley of Safety Bricks/Past in Present/I Feel It All. The highlights of the night of course would be the gang-vocaled-filled rocker "Almost Crimes." The band kept leaving the stage after thanking the crowd, but kept coming back until curfew had arrived. "Major Label Debut" ended the night with a bang. After the show, the organizer said the band would be sticking around to autograph their new book.

To sum up, yeah this show was ridiculous. Made me forget about not seeing Explosions in the Sky this summer for a night....


Kevy Key Jam (Untitled 2)
Fire Eye'd Boy (Lisa on backups)
7/4 (Shoreline) (Feist
Love is New (Lisa on backups)
Frightening Lives
Chameleon (Lisa on backups)
Day to Day (Amy)
Safety Bricks/Past in Present/I feel it All (Feist and KD)
Gimme Sympathy (Amy and Feist on backups)
I'll Bring the Sun (Jason Collett)
Soul Unwind (Andrew, Lisa and Amy)
Almost Crimes (Feist, Amy, Emily)
Meet Me in the Basement
New Country (Feist, Amy, Lisa)
Anthems for a 17 Year Old Girl (Emily, Feist, Amy)
Bandwitch (Feist, Amy, Emily)
===
Pacific Theme
===
KC Accidental
===
Major Label Debut (Fast)

$100/$0

07.10.2009 Wintersleep / Mothers Children (Ottawa)

The Ottawa BluesFest is a bit of a misnomer, since it's hardly just music of the blues genre. However, it is a pretty wicked festival. spans almost 2 weeks and brings in all sorts of awesome musical acts. In addition to Stages on the streets of downtown Ottawa, they also have other venues doing smaller regular shows. Anyways, it appears Ottawa has the same problem with live venues that Vancouver does. Apparently this the second incarnation of the Capitol Music Hall. The first one met it's demise when someone decided to build condo's in it's place.



First up was Mother's Children. Possibly without the apostrophe. They were kind of a garage rock band. Lots of energy. However, substance wise, I wasn't really feeling it. Actually the people around me thought the same. As the someone around me pointed out, "all the songs sounded the same." Yeah more or less. Really not the worst opener I've ever seen.



Wintersleep took the stage at around 12:15. Yep past midnight. The crowd was really good. Less of the drunk 'agros' and more of the 'sing along' types. Wintersleep debuted 2 new songs. From the setlist I snagged, it seems like one's called "Experience the Jewel" and "Blood Collection" or "Cat Power", depending on which setlist you have. (My friend's setlist says "Blood Collection", mine says "Cat Power". Paul did say it was tentatively called "Blood Collection" though. The first new song was sort of a down tempo tune, that starts out slow then builds into a nice noisy breakdown where Paul makes a lot of noise on his guitar. Man that sounded like an awful description. I'm not even going to bother trying to explain "Cat Power", only that it sounds like a mid tempo Wintersleep song. They finished their main set with Orca. Sounded really good and really heavy. The encore included one of the new songs while Danse Macabre closed out the night.



Miasmal Smoke & The Yellow Bellied Freaks
Archaeologists
Caliber
Drunk On Aluminum
Astronaut
Weighty Ghost
Murderer
Experience The Jewel
Oblivion
Laser Beams
Jaws Of Life
Orca
===
listen [listen, listen]
Blood Collection
Danse Macabre

$30/$0

06.27.2009 Hiromi Uehara Workshop

I really don't review too many non-rock/indie/metal music. In fact, the last non-indie/rock/metal show was probably the Lang Lang show that I saw a year or two ago. That doesn't mean that I don't have love for the classical or jazz genres; quite the contrary, Bill Evans still ranks in my lifetime Top 5. I suppose one reason why I find newer jazz/classical live acts harder to get into is just due to the fact that there is so little promotion/press on it. Case in point, by the time I heard of Hiromi's Sonicbloom show at this years Jazz Fest, it was already well sold out. Luckily, Tom Lee was putting on a solo Hiromi Uehara Workshop at their downtown location.

Despite getting there early, there was already a line up formed in front of the Music Hall on the 3rd floor of the building. Seating was on a first come first served basis, with the audience most comprised of piano and jazz enthusiasts, Japanese ex-pats and the odd hippie. Not that I didn't expect a large following, but the small venue was rather packed from the seats to the aisles to the floors with a unnumbered amount of people waiting outside the door.

Hiromi show up to her workshop dressed casually and without the makeup or hairstyle that she is usually presented in - casting a more intimate slant on the event. Much like the seminars that I've seen in the past, the format was half playing half chatting/question and answer. Hiromi started with a piece dubbed "Shoe a la Creme"(?), which was apparently inspired by pastries in France. Her playing was quite engaging and at times mesmerizing. There were a couple of distinct idiosyncrasies in her playing. While playing she would often hum to herself and seemed to play almost in a trance during most of her playing. At one point, towards the end the first piece, she would reach into the grand piano and, I assume, manually tap on the hammers. This resulted in a more percussive muted sound.

After the first song, she spoke at length mostly about her background. She seemed to dwell on the theme that while she was hardworking and had a strong work ethic, there was a great deal of luck associated with her success. From her surprise meeting with Chick Corea, being mentored by Abdul Jamal and hooking up with Stanley Clarke, her career was built on a lot of chance encounters and fortuitous opportunities.

Afterward, she performed a rousing rendition of Bach's "Air on the G String" before taking a round of questions. Most of the questions were pretty standard fare and some bordered on either redundant or pedestrian. Overall the workshop was quite entertaining and well worth the lengthy lineup to get in. Hiromi ended the session by taking a request, the "Tom and Jerry Show", to the delight of everyone.