04.30.2010 Red Sparowes / Caspian

I was rather bummed to find out that Fang Island, who was on this tour, wouldn't be making it out to the Canadian dates due to a passport issue. (always a passport issue...) At least we got a longer Caspian set.

Caspian's front man, Phillip Jamieson is a tall dude, which came in handy because the Biltmore has a low stage. Anyways, they started their set with a couple of tunes from their latest album Tertia. If you like post-rock you'll like these guys. Their style of post-rock is similar to Explosions in the Sky and Mono. While their songs don't tug at your heart strings quite as hard as Mono's does, they do do the genre justice and can rock out with the best of em. Since they had a longer set than usual they were able to bring out an oldie, Brombie from their first album. Their last song, Sycamore,

Admitted, I'm a bigger fan of Red Sparowes' early albums than their later releases. They still do bring get the job done though when it comes to moody brooding soundscape-y post rock. Looks like they've replaced one of their guitarists since the last time I saw them. I know this because one of the guitarists is now female. They're still doing their projections if you're wondering, which a few people in the crowd were using to play with their silhouettes. The setlist contained some older songs, but was generally dominated by newer ones. I don't think Red Sparowes have worsen over the years, but to be honest, I really don't recall the newer songs being that memorable. For those who stayed until the end of the set, there was no encore, but I'm sure most were happy to get their post rock fix.


Caspian's Set:


01) La Cerva
02) Malacoda
03) Moksha
04) Quovis
05) Further Up
06) Further In
07) Brombie
08) Sycamore

mp3s: http://www.archive.org/details/caspian2010-04-30.flac



Red Sparowes' Set


01) Intro
02) "A Hail Of Bombs"
03) "Giving Birth to Imagined Saviors"
04) "The Great Leap Forward Poured Down Upon Us One Day Like a Mighty Storm, Suddenly and Furiously Blinding Our Senses"
05) "Buildings Began to Stretch Wide Across the Sky, And the Air Filled with a Reddish Glow"
06) "A Swarm"
07) "A Message of Avarice Rained Down Upon Us and Carried Us Away into False Dreams of Endless Riches."
08) "In Illusions of Order"
09) "As Each End Looms and Subsides"

mp3s: http://www.archive.org/details/redspar2010-04-30.flac

$15/0

05.05.2007 Explosions in the Sky/Eluvium

Around mid-June I realized I never posted this entry. At the time it was too late to post this, but now I have a reason to post this because I've got audio up from this show. Although the first paragraph is now a little irrelevant, I kept it as I like the band and I'm still disappointed I had to choose between 2 great bands that night.



First let me say this, I love the band Murder By Death and wouldn't think twice about seeing them if they ever came to town. However, when I found out they were coming to town (yay!), opening up for Rev Horton Heat (uh....), I was rather disappointed. Why? because it was on the same day as Explosions in the Sky. EITS wins this battle because they're headlining.

After at least 2 botched attempts at coming to Vancouver, Texas' beloved sons, Explosions in the Sky finally made it to the upper Westcoast. The venue itself was somewhat surprising, not only for locals (when was the last time an established post-rock band played an all ages venue?), but also the band themselves, as they remarked how big the room was. The venue was far from sold out, yet was rocked as if it were. I got to the venue about an hour or so before doors to meet up with fellow music blogger and one serious EITS fan, Brian from iamserio.us (He also has his recording from this show + a couple other from his northwest "tour" with the band.) Very nice guy.





Eluvium from Portland, opened up with half hour set of guess what, instrumental music. Eluvium is actually a one person band who plays post-rock like music, using keyboard, guitars, loops, delays and distortion. For me, his music ranged from brilliant at times to tedious. Lots of distortion and delays when needed, but also a lot droning mundane noise at other times. It didn't really help that he hid behind his keyboards half the time. Still, for a one man band, he's very talented.





Explosions is everything you want in a post-rock band, beautiful melodies, crazy crescendos and a wall of sound for those times when you want to be blown away. They played a near perfect 70 min set, mixing new songs with old songs, transitioning each into the next seamlessly. Yep, no breaks. They even played my favorite song off of "The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place" (and the Friday Night Lights Soundtrack), as Michael Smith traded in his bass for a guitar for "Your Hand in Mine." The whole night was just amazing. The way EITS plays, with so much heart and emotion, you can't help but just stare and lose yourself for that 70 min.





If you've ever seen an EITS show, you'll know that they don't do encores ...
...and today was no different. Munaf came out thanked us for coming, but apologized for not playing anymore. They do this at every show, but that's ok, their longer sets make up for an encore-less show. Encores are stupid anyways. I don't want to wait when I know there's more music coming.





Explosions in The Sky
2007-05-05
Croatian Cultural Center
Vancouver, BC

source: DPA 4061>DIYBB>IHP-H140
location: stage lip right
lineage: WAV-M>FLAC

01.) Introduction
02.) First Breath After Coma
03.) Welcome, Ghosts
04.) With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept
05.) Your Hand in Mine
06.) Greet Death
07.) Catastrophe and The Cure
08.) The Only Moment We Were Alone

you can d/l .mp3s here.
space courtesy of LMA.

or check out brian's source here.

$25/$25

*UPDATE 1/2008*
video up, check the "DOWNLOAD VANCOUVER SHOWS" link on the right.

08.15.2007 Pelican / Clouds / Gargantula

It's been a while since I've made an update, and even longer since I've even seen a show (which also reminds me that I have to put up an Explosions in the Sky review eventually). Luckily post-rock stalwarts Pelican are rolling through town again, this time to a much larger room at Richards on Richards. Having seen them twice already, I was almost hesitant to make it a third. I'm glad I did.

The night started off with Gargantula, a band that I've never heard of before. After hitting the stage with little fanfare and even less of an audience (I should note that I wondered why they even opened the balcony), Gargantula launched into a 4-5 minute little instrumental bit full of riffage. At this point, my interest was peaked, until... their singer showed up. After hearing 10 seconds of his vocals, I think I headed outside, catching the tail end of a confrontation between staff at Richards and this... uh guy. I didn't catch the entire conversation, but I think it stemmed from the guy (who was caucasian) calling the staff (who appeared to be East Indian or South Asian or possibly persian) racists and nazis.



Anyways Clouds were up next and were a pleasent suprise. Having only heard one song off myspace and a knowing a little about their pedigree, I wasn't too sure about this band on the onset. Things didn't seem to get any better with the band starting late due to technical difficulties, so much so that they introduced themselves as "Technical difficulties" and "Having a really bad day." However, when they did play, they were definitely were a entertaining. The four piece consisted of 2 guitarists and a bassist, each with a mic for vocals. The band kind of had a psychadelic hardcore sort of feel to them, and the guitars did shred. Pretty entertaining band, and full of energy, hair in their faces and singing their hearts out. I'm guessing the fact that they had so many technical difficulties and car problems stoke the proverbial fire. I really shouldn't be suprised with how well this band turned out, I mean Adam from Cave In does play in this band.

08.08.09 Update: Clouds had this to say about this show:
Vancouver BC: None of us had ever been there. We got lost for three hours and realized one of our tires was on the brink of explosion. The show was probably one of the best of the tour. People got into it and a friendly stranger gave us a whole free bag of mind expansion while we changed our tire outside. Loved Vancouver.



Finally closing out the night was Pelican. As I mentioned in a previous review, prior to 2005, Pelican would've been an OK band to see live. However, it wasn't until last year that they were a great band to see live. Even in interviews, their members have remarked on the apparent apathy towards playing live. Thankfully, as evidenced by last year's show, things have changed and their live shows are markedly better. They seem much more confident and look to be having more fun. Trevor, one of their guitarist, even asked people in the seats to get up and stand closer. Musically they were spot on. Most of the tracks were taken from their latest album City of Echoes. Curiously, I also heard from someone mention that Laurent plays snippets of whatever would be on the setlist during his pre show soundcheck/tune up right before he gets on stage. There was one qualm however. For a band that has 3 solid albums, it was kind of disappointing to only hear 60 minutes. Even Explosions in the Sky have pushed their shows to the 70 mark.







Setlist

Introduction
Bliss In Concrete
City of Echoes
Sirius
Lost in the Headlights
Dead Between the Walls
Far From Fields
Aurora Borealis
Red Ran Amber
===
Mammoth

links courtesy of LMA, mp3 d/ls also here.

______
$20/$20

ps: shout outs to Steve the photo guy for confirming that people actually read this.

Trail of Dead on Archive

upped my recent trail master to archive.org you can d/l it here.

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead
05.20.2005
Commodore Ballroom
Vancouver, BC

source: DSM-6S/L>PA6LC3B(250)>M1
taped by: Jeffrey Mew (jeffmew@gmail.com)
lineage: DAT-M>WAV>FLAC (no DAE)
transfer: DAT-M>sony pcm-M1>Coresound 7pin out>Coaxial to Optical Converter>Optical cable>Zoltrix Nightingale optical in>HD
Downsampling: 48khz -> 44.1khz via cool edit pro 1.2 High Quality Pre/Post filter 999
Editing: normalized, fade in/out

01. Intro (Ode To Isis)
02. Will You Smile Again
03. It Was There That I Saw You
04. The Best
05. Worlds Apart
06. Days of Being Wild
07. Caterwaul
08. Aged Dolls
09. A Perfect Teenhood
10. Heart in the Hand of the Matter
11. Totally Natural
12. Another Morning Stoner
13. Mistakes and Regrets
14. Richter Scale Madness