10.13-14.2010 Broken Social Scene / Sea and Cake

Opening for both shows were Chicago based Sea and Cake. This band is probably best known for having Tortoise member John McEntire drum for them. I've never been able to get into Tortoise aside from a few songs. I could actually imagine myself being quite bored if I ever had to seem them live, much like how I was during the majority of Sea and Cake's set. Really the only aspect of their show I found interesting was McEntire's drumming. He's pretty good. To be honest, aside from the times when various members of Broken Social Scene would sit in on certain songs, I had trouble telling one song from another.



Even though I know I'll never see Feist, Amy Milan or Emily Haines sing with BSS in Vancouver, I am comforted with the fact that most of the other core members who wrote the early BSS albums are still touring. I thought that the first show was pretty long as it clocked in at around 2h 15. The second show proved to be even longer, pushing it to 2h 30. The setlist was quite varied, with songs spanning their catalogue. Thankfully, the two shows were different enough to make it worth it; not that 2+ hours of music is ever not worth it.

Maybe it's because BSS now has a few songs where Whiteman is the lead singer (and guitarist), but Whiteman was more vocal than I've ever seen him. During the first show he actually had something to say between songs. The most substantial being his support for the sex-trade workers and getting prostitution legalized a la Amsterdam. What can I say? He's a forward thinking man.

Fire-eyed boy had a pretty cool saxophone solo/jam in the middle of it. Not sure if they did this in the past as well. Guilty cubicles was a welcome surprise in the first night. I'm not really a fan of anything off 'Feel Good Lost', but it's nice to hear something they don't normally play. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Brendan Canning looks odd without his beard.

"Almost Crimes" was somewhat of a surprise as I could never see the laid back Lobsinger sing on such an upbeat song (she did do backups). Lead vocals were provided by Andrew Whiteman's wife Ariel. She's probably the least gifted of the BSS singers I've seen, but she definitely has the swagger needed to pull off the aforementioned song.

The biggest WTF moment of the 2 night stand occurred during the 2nd night. They brought out Neil Osbourne of 54-40 fame (you know "Every time I look at you... I go blind.." ...actually if you weren't listening to Canadian radio in the 90's you probably wouldn't know...) . After introducing it as the song Kevin Drew first made out with, they somewhat surprisingly launched into 54-40's "One Gun". I'm unclear if this was done ironically or unironically.

After seeing these two shows, I sort of feel stupid for thinking this show would be any less of a show just because a couple of divas (not my words) didn't feel like committing to touring well after a band got big (I should note that James Shaw of Metric fame flew in for the show). The mix of old and new songs were well chosen and really the only song I wanted to hear that they didn't play was "Major Label Debut". You really can't complain about a band when they play 2+ hours and vary their setlists. Now if only Kevin Drew could be less Bono-y...

$45/$45

02.21.2010 Broken Social Scene

One of the drawbacks of free shows is that you have to get there early in order to guarantee your entrance into popular shows. For some reason I figured since they'd only announced the show the day of, there wouldn't be that many people lining up. I got there at 7:30 (show at 10, doors normally around 8:30) . At this point there were about 400 people in front of me, at least 200 behind and probably 100 or so already inside. I was told at my position in line, it was unlikely I would get in before the show started. Still, I was hopefully because with the high odds of seeing Emily Haines, Feist and Elizabeth Powell, it would be worth the wait. So I did. Man I feel like a chump. I'm not sure it was worth it.



I got in. There were about 50 or 60 people in front of me when they cut the line off at show time. However, the people running the show left 200 spots open for vips and other guests. Unused spots would be given to the people in line, 3 songs in. My first indication that something was up was when 2 songs in they played Shoreline, traditionally a Feist song. She wasn't singing it, Lisa Lobsinger was. I don't dislike her singing, in fact I think she's gotten a lot better at filling the large role she's been thrown over the years. She still has that dazed like look on her face though. Was a little surprised Jason Collett didn't show up. Andrew Whiteman wasn't around either. Mid set, Julie Doiron was brought out to help on a Neil Young cover. I sort of saw this coming because she was pretty friendly with the BSS members at the Hal Wilner show a few days ago. Sam Goldberg also helped with the vocals. To my disappointment they played Anthems, without Emily Haines, who was in town (again). Instead vocals were handled by Lobsinger and Doiron.





Julie was brought out again to perform "Consolation Prize" backed by BSS. To be honest the rest of the show was pretty uneventful. They pretty much rounded out the set with less popular newer songs that don't depend on female vocals. Most of them from the "BSS Presents..." albums. I wonder why Elizabeth Powell, who should still be in town and has put in time with BSS, was oddly absent. By the end of the set I had to reluctantly let go of the hope that this show would be like one of the classic BSS shows that gave them the reputation they have now. In fact, I have a feeling that this is probably a new stage in the band's life, one that does not include Feist or Haines and probably others. I'd love to see Julie Doiron in more BSS shows, but if she's going to re-join an ensemble, I'd rather see her play in Eric's Trip. After 90 mins the show was all but over. The crowd wanted more, but Kevin Drew came out with bad news claiming there was essentially a curfew. He did lead the crowd into singing a few lines from U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."




$25/0 + 3 hours of my life

02.18.2010 Hal Wilner's Neil Young Project

I don't think I would have gone to this show had I not been offered a ticket at a veeeeery reduced price. I was told this show was sold out. A week before I was checking available seats and noticed that you could pretty much get any aisle seat you wanted on one of the sides for the second night.

Glad to see two Canadian ladies that I really like, have a large role in this event, namely Julie Doiron and Elizabeth Powell. Julie was as energetic as ever and Elizabeth sang "Don't Let it Bring You Down" near the beginning of the set, which was well received by the crowd. When they weren't doing main vocals, they were doing backup vocals for other artists, so they were pretty visible the entire night.

Sam Goldberg does a pretty good Neil Young impression.

Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw did a beautiful version of "A Man Needs a Maid" that would make Neil himself proud. Emily sung while Jimmy provided keyboard support.

People really liked Lou Reed. A lot of "Loooooouu" chants were heard every time he entered and exited the stage.

Elvis Costello was as expected, a crowd pleaser.

I've never really heard of Joan as Policewoman, but I was impressed by her violin playing. The one solo she did was electrifying.



I've never heard of the poet Eric Mingus, but it would be hard to forget him after seeing him. He did a song with a such a dirty roots-blues intensity growl, he had to remove his glasses mid verse. He also performed a spoken word interpretation later in the set.

For some reason I always thought Sun Kil Moon was a she, he's definitely not. There were a lot of highlights this night. Elvis Costello had a blistering guitar solo towards the end of the night that almost lead me to believe that his guitar would catch on fire. He actually received a standing ovation for that. I can't imagine myself paying the amount of money it would take to see Costello now, so it was nice to see him at the top of his game.

In another show stealing performance, Jason Collett (if memory serves me) got the crowd to participate in a musical version of the wave, using hand rubbing noises and thigh slapping and floor stomping.

Fucking Up was a group song which featured an intense playing James Blood Ulmer on guitar. His axe chops gave Costello and run for his money.

The night closed off with a sweet rendition of "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" featuring Kevin Drew and Julie Doiron doing a duet (with a handful of people and of course the audience doing backup). I'm glad they didn't decide to take the easy way out and use the almost cliched cover "Rocking in the Free World".





The whole gang



The man who brought it all together, Hal Wilner.

Oh yeah, the majority of Broken Social Scene is in Vancouver right now. The Ontario Pavilion is has a show that's TBA. My money is on BSS playing.


$50/30

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

07.25.2006 Broken Social Scene/The Stills/Jets Overhead

-deer lake park is actually a really cool place to see concerts. smaller than t-bird, better than the forum.
-helpful tip for ya. if you forget to bring your ear plugs and the vendors don't sell any, ask the first-aid ppl. i did and ears are very thankful.

-jets overhead -> *shrugs* meh.

-stills not too shabby. definitely in the top 20 canadian indie bands.

-at one point in time, you were almost garuanteed to hear bss close the show w/ lover's spit. i guess those days are gone? or maybe they don't do that during headlining shows. ended w/ it's all gonna break instead
-kevin drew looked pretty uninterested during the first 45 or so minutes. but later started to feel the music/crowd
-lisa l. still at the bottom of the broken social girls pecking order, just less annoying now as she looks more comfortable on stage than last time i saw bss. aside from julie penner she as the only bss chick there. (again)
-played about 80-90 min. standard fair.
-soundman fucked up the kick drum.
-hey bros, shut up.
-hey hos, shut up.
-where's k-os
-where's almost crimes?
-where's lover's spit

$27/50/$30

11.13.05 Broken Social Scene/Most Serene Republic

this was an all ages show. as a result of the same day evening show selling out, the promoter added a second show. all of commodore's matinee shows are non-boozer events.

most serene republic. they've played here like 3 shows in the last 2 months here. they played a 45 min of sometimes interesting sometimes 'meh' indie rock. i dunno i guess pitchfork was justified in giving them 6.8.

BSS: feist's last show on this tour was yesterday in seattle. so new BSSer Lisa L. had to handle the female vocals by her lonesome. she kinda sounds like amy milan w/ a narrower vocal range. easy on the eyes, but rather disappointing. i'm not sure if i'd rather hear her or kevin drew w/ a falsetto. they played around and hour and 40 min. played all their hits. and about half from you forgot it in people and half from their newest album. another disappointment was hearing a the slow version of major lable debut. maybe they found out feist played it the fast version here recently and wanted to mix it up. lastly, one of the cooler points of this show was hearing an unreleased song called 'where's your heart, where's your mind'. apparently they also played it last time they were here on their "no ladies, no horns" tour. that song... what a treat. it was single worthy. fast and upbeat. during almost crimes, they let 2 girls up on stage to dance. but of course in vancouver, if you let one person up on stage, you basically make an open call. everyone started jumping on stage until it was filled. after the song, they were all escorted out... i mean off stage.