09.24.2009 The Gaslight Anthem / Murder By Death / The Loved Ones / Frank Turner

I think opener Frank Turner almost stole the show from well, everyone. He's a singer songwriter type from the UK playing just an electric guitar. He sings with a lot of passion and energy. At one point he asked for someone in the crowd to play harmonica. (I don't think he cleans it between shows) The volunteer was some scruffy looking guy with a hat and leather pants. That's right leather pants, and no he didn't have long hair, nor was he wearing a matching leather vest to go with it. Weird my calender says 2009 on it. His must say 1983. Fashion police aside, he was fairly decent on the harmonica, even had a pretty good solo when called upon. I'd love to see him play a small venue show.

The Loved Ones followed, with a set of pretty much Warped Tour friendly pop-punk songs. Wasn't really a fan of the music, but they did have a lot of energy despite being one guitarist short. During their set someone was texting (in the front row), which caught the attention of the lead singer who announced he would take the phone away if he caught her doing it again. He later recanted, stating she should do whatever she wants, it's her life. Awww.

Murder By Death was next, and were awesome as usual. They played a few songs each from their entire catalogue; Self described songs about "the apocalypse, whiskey, shitty people and the devi." I don't think there were any off of their first album though. Near the end of the set, Adam played "Bang, Bang" solo. That got most of the indifferent folks in the room interested. They ended their set 40 min set with 'Comin Home.'

As for The Gaslight Anthem, I kind of discovered this band pretty recently. Initially I wrote them off as more emo/pop/punk. Now I wouldn't go as far as calling their stuff any sort of ground breaking or even cutting edge, but I do find their newest album to be a very fun listen. And so is their live show. Their sound does have a throw back sound to it, almost a Springsteen-esque vibe, which would explain this video. Damn the boss is sooo intense. Anyways, lots of energy at this show. Quite a few crowd surfers too. There was no barricade at this show, which meant the roadies and techs spent a lot of the show trying to keep the crowd surfers away from the equipment. After coming back from the encore, lead singer went out of his way to show is appreciation for everyone coming to the show, mentioning that it was a whole lot better than his roofing job in New Jersey. The band played nearly every song off their latest album and a few tracks off their first. There were more than a couple of songs that had false endings. The band sounded great and I think everyone had a lot of fun, audience and band included. I know I did

$25/$34

Awards.

Have been a little lazy on updates. Have a review and maybe some interviews in the future.

Also Congratulations go out to....



Dan Mangan for winning the XM Verge award for Artist of the Year. Mangan takes home $25k as does Alexisonfire who also won for Record of the year, except they have to split the cash 5 ways.

Speaking of Dan Mangan, he and Hey Ocean! can be seen covering Wintersleep's Weighty Ghost at the Western Canada Music Awards here.

And speaking of the WCMAs



Delhi 2 Dublin won for winning the Western Canada award forWorld Recording of the Year. CBC broadcasts the ceremony for the East coast version of these awards. Apparently Western Canada isn't a ratings draw.

09.17.2009 Sunny Day Real Estate / The Jealous Sound

photo credits: Tommy Au
more photos here

So sometime in 1999, I was in Sam the Record Man on Granville looking for CDs to buy, when I came across the section on the first floor with the heading "EMO". Perplexed, I asked the sales associate what it meant. She threw around the word 'emotional' but had trouble further explaining it beyond that. She then went on to name a few bands in the genre. The only 2 of the ones she listed that I was familiar with were Sunny Day Real Estate and Dashboard Confessional. I'd heard of DC, but never heard of SDRE. At the time I was pretty heavy into Nu-metal, and bands like DC was far from what I wanted to hear at the time, so SDRE would have to stay in the "haven't heard anything by them" band pile in my head. Many, many years later, I began to regret this decision, as they're band that I know I would have enjoyed at that time. Actually they sound almost like the nu-metal I was listening to at the time. The only difference is that their sound is unique enough that it's stood the test of time after all these years.



First up was the Jealous sound. I guess Jealous means emo, because they sound like a stereotypical emo band. So much so that it was almost ironic. They played a new song, if you're a fan of them I guess you'd want to know. The lead singer looked like a the villian from the 4 season (the awful one) of Heroes. This guy.

Although billed as their first show since breaking up or hiatus, in reality it's actually just their official first show. They actually played a secret show in Tacoma the night before. I kind of felt ripped off after hearing about it afterwards. They started their set with Friday, which got the crowd warmed up for their awesome hit "Seven" which they played next. The rest of the set was a mix of their earlier albums, and a new song. The new song they just called it "New Song" and was apparently a week old. It was an upbeat number with not as much distortion. More of a rocker I guess. The singer revealed a few songs in that he was suffering from a cold or something which affected his voice. He didn't sound 100% but managed to pull off a decent job all things considered. This however seemed to the reason for a shorter set compared to the night before. The band actually left the stage before the encore after about 50 min and came back for a 3 song encore. The first song after coming back was 'In Circles' which left me pretty content. Oh yeah you would think that this show being so close to their home state of WA would be pretty packed especially for their "Reunion" show. Nope, well undersold. In fact, they even closed off the balcony, which you don't see very often. They should have put it at Richards... oh whoops.

Setlist:

Friday
Seven
Red Elephant
Song About An Angel
Grendel
Shadows
Iscarabaid
"New Song"
J'Nuh
Sometimes
Encore:
In Circles
48
Spade And Parade

$25/$38

09.04.2009 A Textbook Tragedy / Sights & Sounds / Party at the Moon Tower

photo credits: Tommy Au
more photos here


I haven't been in the Media Club in almost a year, but man, they've really changed it, and probably for the better. The sound booth is now located behind the merch table and the bar tables have been taken out, opening up the room for more dancing I guess or maybe lounging. In place of the sound booth is a booth for will call. I think the stage is a little bigger too.

Never heard of Party at the moon tower. Don't recall that much but I believe I the singer had a pretty good screamo-type voice.



Never heard of Sights & Sounds either, but was surprised to find out that this was Andrew Neufeld's (from Figure Four/Comeback Kid) new band. Someone said it was his "prog-rock" side project. I tend to disagree. They remind me of Thursday, and I don't really consider them prog. Useless genre pushing aside, I didn't find their set to be that bad, just not what I would normally listen to. I'd describe it as post hardcore with spacey effects thrown in. Not sure why they played the spacey effects from a tape though, I would have liked it more if it was done live. They had a pretty cool light setup, and seemed to have at least some of the crowd interested.

I'm pretty sure I saw A Textbook Tragedy play on the same show as Stutterfly about 5 years back. I don't remember too much about it though. I haven't really paid much attention to this band over the years mainly because I thought they jocked too many Dillinger Escape Plan riffs. After seeing the show I'm happy to find out that their current repertoire doesn't invoke the same feeling. Looks like they have gained a pretty nice reputation for high energy shows over the years. First song had the crowd moving for the first time in the evening. The crowd was really into it. Even had hardcore dancers doing their thing in the middle of the dance floor. I think I even remember seeing one stage dive as well. Unfortunately, this was an early show show they only had an 8 song set, with no encore. Still it was good while it lasted.



Setlist

White Lightning
What's Pit Beef?
Intimidator
Destroyed In Seconds
If You Want Blood...
Lincoln City
The West Coast Answer
Dude, I'm On Alesse


$8/$12