10.03.2010 Land of Talk / Suuns / Rah Rah

I actually remembered to bring my camera to this show, but apparently the band had requested no photos at the show. huh..

Anyways, Rah Rah, the first band, is not the same as that other band Rah Rah Riot. I'll confirm this when I see the latter in November. They're a really fun band. You could file this band under the indie label. Their singer has a sort of country-ish feel to it. Biggest surprise with this band was their drummer. She spent most of set behind the kit, but in the latter half, she did some singing and played bass as well. She could probably front her own band.

Suuns ("Sooons") is a band from Montreal that's very hard to classify. For the most part they reminded me of Maserati, but noisier and with more of dynamic sonic range. Their guitarist uses a lot of delay and distortion. They kind of drifted between lofi electronic music to catchy dancey indie rock. Like I mentioned before, hard to classify.

One thing that doesn't surprise me about Land of Talk after seeing them through the years, is that the lineup is pretty flexible. Case in point most of the older songs featured the power trio formation of Liz Powell on guitar/vox, Joe Yarmush on bass and Liam O'Neil (replacing Andrew Barr for a couple of shows). Despite the short notice and being only the second show that he was playing, Liam O'Neil filled in very well and didn't seem to miss a beat (bad pun). This is not the same Liam O'Neil from the Stills, though apparently Liz Powell knows em both. The new songs (and even some of the old ones for that matter) featured members of Suuns adding extra guitar and synth. In addition, a lot of songs also had Liz's friend and artwork contributor Corianne Tate as a backup vocalist. The setlist favoured heavily on songs from their new album Cloak and Cipher. While almost all the other albums were represented, I wouldn't have minded hearing either "Corner Phone" or "Give me back my Heart Attack", both of which slayed me last time I saw them. I will say this, I really can't say that Land of Talk's shows are predictable. The last 3 times that I have seen them, all 3 of the shows were quite different from each other. Tonight not being an exception.

$15/$15

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

11.07.2009 Land Of Talk / Machu Picchu

The show billed as an early show with doors at 7, which is when I got there. Doors opened an hour later. I don't normally do this, but I actually went to the venue without a ticket thinking it would be undersold and usually tickets are cheaper at the door. This turned out to be a mistake as, the lineup for non-ticket holders had to wait until the ticket holder's line disappeared. As my luck would have it, there was a line up to get in, which I've never had to do at the Biltmore. This was probably due to most people thinking that doors were earlier. It didn't help that everyone who brought their big cold weather rain jackets had to have them coatchecked.

I had a chat with Joe LoT's bassist when I got in. He said to expect a totally different show later in the evening. I shrugged it off thinking it would be just new songs. I had a chance to ask him if they ever played "2 Ships" and "Dark Nature Places" live. It looks like they did, around 2007 for a short period of time. The aforementioned songs, for those who don't know, appeared as bonus tracks on the European version of their 'Applause Boo Cheer Hiss EP', in order to bring it closer to "LP length". There's also a possibility they'll be reworked for a later LP.

I think Machu Picchu is local, but I'm not quite sure. They do sound familiar, I just can't place from where. The drummer was wearing a Cobalt T-shirt. One of the guitarists, I know I've seen him before. Plus I'm pretty sure they're associated with My!Gay!Husband! somehow. I think my overall impression of them is mixed.



This marks my 6th time seeing LoT in one form or another. Admittedly seeing a band this many times makes it harder and harder to leave the show impressed. Fortunately, the show was quite a departure from any of the previous shows. The Biltmore's stage has a curtain that they use to hide the change over. I never would have expected to see a fourth person on stage when they opened the curtain launched into a blistering version of Corner Phone. It took me a minute to realize that Joe was handling guitar duties and the fourth person, who turned out to be their guitar tech, covered bass. This would be the case for a couple of the songs, but most of the set they were still a trio. I should make note that Land of Talk were also using some onstage visuals as well. Most of it consisted just visual background noise, but it still upped the stage ambience of the show. The rest of the setlist varied from the usual staples to include lesser played songs such as, "Troubled" and "Corner Phone". Overall, you couldn't help but be impressed by how tight the band sounded, especially drummer Andrew Barr (which shouldn't surprise anyone seeing as how he also plays in the Slip). Towards the end of the night, frontwoman Elizabeth Powell mentioned how packed it was at the Biltmore and how there was only 120 people last time at the Media Club. Unfortuanately, judging from the crowd of disinterested clubby looking people talking behind me, I've got a feeling they were already letting people in early for the "Dance Party" after the show. Still another good night for one of Canada's best kept secrets.

$30/$10

11.12.2008 Land of Talk / Josh Reichman

Josh Reichman, is apparently known for being in a band called "The Tangiers." I seem to recall hearing about the latter, though I can't remember from where. Oh well. Reichman, reminded me of Pete Doherty, at least in dress. Anyways, I was rather indifferent with their overall performance. They were doing the indie rock thing, and they did ok.



Despite their show being riddled with technical difficulties, Land of Talk played a pretty solid set, mixing both new and old material. Since the last time I've seen them, the band itself has gone through a few changes, with the replacement of both the Eric their drummer and Chris their longtime bassist, who I believe now plays in the Dears. Both new additions fit in well, if not better than their replacements. Liz is sporting a new haircut. It sort of resembles Karen O's haircut. Not even one song in, the band seemed to be having problems with their monitors. Later on we find out that the vocal monitor that Liz was using turns itself off whenever there's a lull in the vocals. Liz also had other equipment problems, needing to switch guitars mid song due to a broken string. Impressively, they didn't have to completely stop the song. Liz mentions she got a new amp. Looks to be a midsize Orange combo amp. All My Friends was played by request, not that the band had a written setlist. The nice thing about seeing Land of Talk headline, was that people were polite and attentive the whole set. It was so refreshing to actually hear just the band playing a slower number like "It's Ok" and not have to mentally block out chatter from the crowd like the last couple times I've seen LoT play. They ended their main set off with "Young Bridge", which included a nice extended outro. They encored with "Got a Call" from their new album and the familiar "Breaxxbaxx" from their first album. Overall a pretty fun show, though I would have liked to have heard more new songs. Aside from "Got a Call", I've heard all the other songs live before from previous tours. Oh well, there's always other shows.

Yuppie Flu
Summer Special
Sea Foam
Magnetic Hill
Some Are Lakes
Give Me Back My Heart Attack
All My Friends
Death By Fire
It's Ok
Young Bridge
===
Got a Call
Breaxxbaxx

$13/$13

CBC Radio 3 also has pictures here.

Land of Talk - Breaxxbaxx (live 11.14.2007)

11.14.2007 Land of Talk / Said the Whale

Said the Whale is a local Vancouver indie pop/rock band. Recently, they were flown in to Toronto for a youtube.ca launch party after having one of their videos profiled or something on the youtube.ca front page. I know all this because I happened to be talking to one of the singer's dad. How about that for unexpected street teaming? As for the performance, I thought it was just ok. There's potential in there though.



I really really like Land of Talk. So, I can't really see myself ever saying anything bad about them. Today is no different. The band seem to be having a real string of bad luck as they had their gear stolen last month, and most recently Elizabeth's guitar pedal "crapped out." In place of the latter, she was using a borrowed blues driver, which they referred to as the "Blues Traveler." It was funny seeing Chris abandoned his bass to adjust the settings on the Blues Traveler during the solo in "All My Friends". There were also a couple of new songs that I've never heard. There's one they were calling 'Speed', and well ... it kills. I talked to the band before the show a little bit and was told their "new album" has been recorded (twice) and is being mixed or something. They also recorded "Applause..." acoustic when they were in London.







I left before Cuff the Duke.

$14/$15

06.09.2007 Land of Talk/Love and Mathematics

The Rosebuds were headlining, but I was too sick to check it out. About a week ago Land of Talk mysteriously disappeared off both The Rosebuds' and the promoter's website. At that point I was rather relieved as I didn't buy a ticket yet and wasn't really that into the Rosebuds. Fastforward to the day of the show and I'm sick with an annoying (and probably somewhat contagious because i know who i got it from) cold; sore throat, runny nose and all that fun stuff. So a couple hours before the show, I'm surfing the net and I come across a new post from Quinn's blog (blog tag), essentially saying Liz from LoT will be playing solo due to more border crossing problems. Damn, sometimes Vancouver's geographical location brings about some interesting shows (ie final show of the tour, festival off-dates). Sick or not, I can't pass this one up.

Love and Mathematics. In terms of local bands, I like this one. They aren't really heavy, and they're not really that poppy either. They have a post-rock meets indie pop sort of sound. When I say post rock, i mean like explosions in the sky without the distortion and thus without the "blowing up"/air plane taking off.... well if you listen to mogwai/mono/godspeed you know what i mean.

I've heard of Liz from Land of Talk doing solo shows before when LoT was touring with The Slip, but I never thought I'd get to see one. It turns out it's somewhat of a bittersweet experience. She admits it herself, it's not like she's doing her own songs, it's just her doing Land of Talk songs without the rest of band. So you don't get the rock'n out vibe you would normally get unfortunately. However, we did get a taste of how awesome the new songs will be. The new songs are great, I can only imagine how good they'll be with the rest of the band playing.

Setlist

Young bridge (New Song)
New Song (a slow little number, similar to Street Wheels)
Breaxxbaxx
Magnetic Hill
Summer Special
Yuppie Food (or Yuppie Floo/Foo/Flu I couldn't really tell)
Sea Foam






$15/$15 (i feel like i should say $10, but who am i kidding, 10 times out of 10 i'd do it again and pay $15 for a 30 min. solo set)

04.12.2007 Pride Tiger / Land of Talk - Arts County Fair

Arts County Fair, the University of British Columbia's annual music festival, is as much of an institution as it is an excuse of for students to get drunk. Thank being said, the music is usually pretty decent, with respect to the bands that they bring in and the price that you pay. In past years, they have brought such acts as: Tea Party, Metric, Stabilo, New Pornographers and Bare Naked Ladies. This year was sorta average compared to recent years, though not as bad as about 5 years ago. On the plus side, I didn't have to pay (and don't recall ever having to pay for various reasons over the years) and all I wanted to see were Pride Tiger and Land of Talk; so that made for a short day.





Vancouver's pride and joy (har har) Pride Tiger started the day first. At 2pm in the afternoon, only about 10-20 people were in attendance, which after talking to drummer Matt Wood, I found out was about double what they had during the back to school barbeque. Despite this, Pride Tiger rocked out like it was a packed Saturday night at the Cobalt. Playing a mix of new songs and old songs from their indie release, there were solos a plenty. Suprisingly they played for about 40 minutes.



After a quick stage change an a very overpriced pita (no free BBQ this year to my chagrin), Land of Talk playd. During their set, a smoke machine was used. That, in conjunction with the colourful stage lights, sort of made me feel i like was watching an 80's hair metal video. The last time I saw them, they were opening for Holy Fuck. I would like to say that they were playing for more people this time around, but once again it was pretty close. Regardless, the band seemed to be in good spirits and cracked a few jokes during their set. Most of the set consisted songs from the Applause, Cheer, Boo, Hiss. They did play a new song, whose name escapes me at the moment. After a short set 20-30 minutes I went backstage where I was disappointed again to find out there was no free food backstage.

$8/$0