03.12.2007 Bloc Party/Final Fantasy/Smoosh @ The Orpheum

at this point in time i do believe the orpheum is vancouver's #1 venue. such a nice place to see a show. has a way better atmosphere than the commodore, and it's run better too. shows actually start when they should and they even tell you over the PA when bands are about to begin. I'll also give their ushers/security credit, while normally annoying, today they actually did their job and kept the number of people who rushed the front to a minimum and kept the aisles cleared.

smoosh are 2 teenage sisters from seattle, singing dreary pop songs, i guess. the first impression of them was "that's cute..." but after that wears off, you sort of notice that the drummer is pretty good. i guess thos drum lessons from death cab's drummer has paid off. the keyboard/sining sister complements the drumming well. the little crowd that did see them seemed to enjoy it. i wonder how man dudes felt weird taking pictures for their blog.

owen pallet aka final fantasy was as charming as ever. steph the projectionist was with him as well. same slides as last september, but still quite enjoyable. he also performed a new song 'louis takes off his shirt' or something like that, which he claims to be hard to play. he's just so good at what he does. (loops violin and keyboards while singing and playing over them)

so i missed out on bloc party last time they were here. the first time at richards, i couldn't decide whether or not i wanted to go before it sold out. the next time at the commodore, it sold out and i couldn't justify $40 for a scalped ticket. both of those had average openers. this time around the openers are better and the venue is a bonus, so i thought hell why not. they opened with (predictably) song for clay which got the crowd shuffling in their seating area. then another new one and then a whole lot of bangers from 'silent alarm.' i checked my watch around the time they played banquet. at this point it was 30 min or so in. uh oh... here's where i got worried. i love 'silent alarm', but as for the new one, i think it's pretty 'meh' aside from 3 or so songs. well since the first half of the show was primarily old stuff, the later half was filled with new songs and for me, quite boring. the encore had 3-4 songs and during the last song, kele invited a bunch of people on stage. in true vancouver fashion, if you invite one person on stage, you invite them all. overall a fun show, but the pacing really sucked.

$40/46 (should have been $30/46, but final fantasy was worth an extra 10)

01.23.2006 Lang Lang

Ah where do I begin with this one... Normally I don't see too many classical music shows, not so much because I don't like it, moreso that I don't like them enough to spend xx.xx amount of dollars. As a cavet, my classical palette isn't anywhere close to where my rock/indie/metal is. With that been said, I am not a complete philistine. I have listened to Lang Lang before. Beyond the numerous accolades and awards, Lang Lang was probably as close to a true piano prodigy that I'll see.

The show took place at the Orpheum Theater, one of Vancouver's older venues. The crowd was about 90% capacity with a rather odd seating on stage. The solo pianist would be playing in profile. The first set of the show I found to be very introspective yet slightly on the tedious side. The Mozart piece was played well as was the Schumann piece. The second half of the show was where things really picked up. In particuar, the Liszt pieces showcased much of the technical prowess that he was known for. However, as well as the pieces were played you do get a sense of criticism that has been with Lang Lang being overly flamboyant with heavy phrasing and lacking sensitivity. The 6 traditional Chinese works were a welcome suprise and quite enjoyable. The 5 encores made everything worth it in the end. I don't think I've ever witnessed that many encores before. I can't remember the last time I felt that much anticipation as to whether or not there would be another encore let alone 5 times.

Setlist:

W.A. Mozart (1756-1791) Piano Sonata No. 13 in B flat major, K. 333
Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Fantasie for piano in C major, Op. 17
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Traditional 6 Traditional Chinese Works
Enrique Granados (1867-1916) Goyescas, H. 64 No. 1: Los Requiebros
Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Isoldens Liebestod: Schlußszene aus Tristan und Isolde, transcription for piano (after Wagner), S. 447
Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody for piano No. 6 in D flat major, S. 244/6
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Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) Etude Opus 10 No. 3 in E major
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) Flight of the Bumblebee
Waltz from "The Painted Veil"
Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody for piano No. 2 in C sharp minor



$20/0 It was free but it was 2+ hours well spent.