02.19.2010 Stars / Hey Rosetta

I should preface this review by saying I suppose the fact that the guy who I bought the ticket from sort of dicked me a around and wound up meeting halfway through Hey Rosetta's set, whom I really wanted to see. I think the worst part of it was that while I was waiting, a scalper tried to sell me a front row ticket for the same price.

From what I saw of Hey Rosetta, I was pretty impressed. They've got a pretty good live sound with a nice layering of sound complimented by a string section. Well a cello and violin player. The crowd was really into it, especially their radio numbers. Suffice to say much like Two Hours Traffic and Said the Whale, there is good number of up and coming Canadian indie bands.

I've Stars a good 6-7 times in the last 3 years or so. I suppose I really shouldn't feel the need to be surprised, I was hoping for something special about this show; this being the olympics and all. Unfortunately, I suppose when you hit a market so many times, the surprises become less and less. Most of the setlist were standard Stars staples from the last couple of years. I think "Ageless Beauty" was reworked a little with an addition of an extra guitar from Evan Cranley, which left the song with out a bass part. I wouldn't exactly say it was an improvement. Actually, what I was most disappointed in were the handful of new songs that were played. Granted "In our bedroom after the war" was a pretty good album, the new songs far from memorable. In fact, aside from "Dead Hearts", I don't think I can recall what the other new songs sounded like. Negativity aside, I'm sure 99% of the crowd left happy, so what do I know.

$35/$50

01.29.2010 Great Lake Swimmers / Jon Rae Fletcher

I first saw Great Lake Swimmers about 2 or 3 years ago when they were opening up for Final Fantasy. At the time, Onigara had just came out and I was pretty big on their single "Your Rocky Spine". To my chagrin, the crowd was being too busy having a conversation with themselves to care. What a difference a couple of years make. Despite playing in a much larger venue, the crowd was almost silent throughout most of the set.

Opening the set was Jon Rae Fletcher. He played a 45 minute set of mostly folk, roots and rock. The crowd loved him. While this is probably due to the fact that he is from BC, his performance was engaging. In fact, he even got a 1 song encore from the crowd.





After a quick change, Great Lake Swimmers hit the stage with "Everything is moving so fast" from their new album Lost Channels (which is very good by the way). Drawing from their previous works, the Swimmers played a pretty varied set. At about the halfway point of the show, singer Tony Dekker, played 3 songs acoustically. Not surprising to anyone, and not taking anything away from the rest of the band, it's Tony Dekker who is the real star of the show. Playing stripped down versions of some of these songs, really punctuated how good they really were.





Towards the end of the show they played a trio of their best known (radio hits) songs, "Pulling on a Line" and "Still"; which I suppose is the main reason why they sold out the theatre. As an extra special treat, during their 3 song encore, they played "See you on the Moon". Aside from being rarely played, it was a song that is most well known for being in the style of a children's song and yet not patronizing. This was obviously the icing on a superb night.


$30/0

06.27.2009 Hiromi Uehara Workshop

I really don't review too many non-rock/indie/metal music. In fact, the last non-indie/rock/metal show was probably the Lang Lang show that I saw a year or two ago. That doesn't mean that I don't have love for the classical or jazz genres; quite the contrary, Bill Evans still ranks in my lifetime Top 5. I suppose one reason why I find newer jazz/classical live acts harder to get into is just due to the fact that there is so little promotion/press on it. Case in point, by the time I heard of Hiromi's Sonicbloom show at this years Jazz Fest, it was already well sold out. Luckily, Tom Lee was putting on a solo Hiromi Uehara Workshop at their downtown location.

Despite getting there early, there was already a line up formed in front of the Music Hall on the 3rd floor of the building. Seating was on a first come first served basis, with the audience most comprised of piano and jazz enthusiasts, Japanese ex-pats and the odd hippie. Not that I didn't expect a large following, but the small venue was rather packed from the seats to the aisles to the floors with a unnumbered amount of people waiting outside the door.

Hiromi show up to her workshop dressed casually and without the makeup or hairstyle that she is usually presented in - casting a more intimate slant on the event. Much like the seminars that I've seen in the past, the format was half playing half chatting/question and answer. Hiromi started with a piece dubbed "Shoe a la Creme"(?), which was apparently inspired by pastries in France. Her playing was quite engaging and at times mesmerizing. There were a couple of distinct idiosyncrasies in her playing. While playing she would often hum to herself and seemed to play almost in a trance during most of her playing. At one point, towards the end the first piece, she would reach into the grand piano and, I assume, manually tap on the hammers. This resulted in a more percussive muted sound.

After the first song, she spoke at length mostly about her background. She seemed to dwell on the theme that while she was hardworking and had a strong work ethic, there was a great deal of luck associated with her success. From her surprise meeting with Chick Corea, being mentored by Abdul Jamal and hooking up with Stanley Clarke, her career was built on a lot of chance encounters and fortuitous opportunities.

Afterward, she performed a rousing rendition of Bach's "Air on the G String" before taking a round of questions. Most of the questions were pretty standard fare and some bordered on either redundant or pedestrian. Overall the workshop was quite entertaining and well worth the lengthy lineup to get in. Hiromi ended the session by taking a request, the "Tom and Jerry Show", to the delight of everyone.

06.14.2009 Julie Doiron / Dog Day

We've done a write up on Julie Doiron pretty recently, so this will be a bit of a shorter review for the Vancouver Biltmore show.

Dog Day started out the night with a blend of rock not so much unlike Eric's Trip. Boy/girl vocals and post grunge like sound. Their set seemed a little rushed, but I think they were under some time constraints. They played well, but I wouldn't say they rocked out like what other people have described. I'd probably still check them out again. Maybe a headlining show.





I don't know why I'm mentioning this, but during the set change I went and tried to play some of the arcade games at the Biltmore. To my chagrin, after about 2 minutes trying to fish out my quarter from the busted money slot of the Marvel vs Capcom machine, I decided I probably won't be doing that again. The other writer of this blog tells me that the pinball machine has a sketchy launcher.

Similar to the Waterloo show, Julie hit the stage with 2 or 3 solo songs. After that the rest of the band came in and rocked out. I'll try not to repeat the previous review, but this show was a little longer. Usual Julie Doiron fun banter and overall charm was present. Actually there was one point in the show where she sort of implied feeding her kids wine. At the end of the show, one thing was fairly obvious. Julie's backing band is incredibly talented. As mentioned before, her shows don't really use a setlist, but instead are based on what she wants to play and usually will entertain some requests. This night was no different. Some in the crowd requested a song from one of her side projects. She obliged, which resulted in her band fumbling through the song. In fact, I get the feeling the lead guitarist pretty much just improvises all his solos. Which leads me to a whole new appreciation for her live show.



$20/$17

09.15.2008 Bad Religion / The Bronx / The Rebel Spell

Say what you will about Bad Religion, but you can't really deny the fact that it is almost guaranteed they will put on an amazing show at small venue like the Commodore. Having sold out 2 nights in 2005, it was a wonder why only 1 show was set up this time around. The night started off with locals The Rebel Spell. Ok band. Sort of reminded me of Against Me!. At least, I think so; the vocals were a little low in the mix. After a short set change Los Angeles' the Bronx hit the stage immediately stirring up the crowd. Although much suited for even smaller DIY venues, the Bronx were a wealth of energy, especially frontman Matt Caughthran, who was more than eager to have the audience on the stage. Both openers played a standard 30 minute set.

At around 10:30, Bad Religion hit the stage with little fanfare or even intro music. Instead, they played straight into fan favourite "21st Century Digital Boy". The setlist was fairly balanced towards a couple of songs off of their latest release New Maps of Hell and the rest from their previous efforts. Notably absent were songs from How Could Hell..., however their golden era albums (Suffer, Against the Grain, No Control) were well represented. Almost all the fan-favourites were played and for the most part casual and long time fans were happy with the setlist. As usual, singer Greg Graffin and company treated the audience to their witty banter. Most amusing were quips toward Canadian/American politics. Perhaps deviating slightly from a regular Bad Religion show, the writing section of Bad Religion came out for an encore featuring couple of acoustic numbers. The song "Won't Somebody" was also played, for apparently the first time, and not on the setlist. Of note, there was this one lady (and I say this sarcastically), who decided she it would be enduring to accompany Graffin on one of the acoustic numbers. Not only was she completely tone-deaf, (and more than likely inebriated) but she also decided to do add some additional vocals (wailing like a dog would be more correct). Seriously, what is with Vancouver audiences and yapping over acoustic songs? It's probably the most self centered and inconsiderate thing you can do at a show. End rant. Overall the setlist was better than in 2005, just going to show some bands do get better with age.


21st Century Digital Boy
New Dark Ages
Suffer
I Want To Conquer the World
Let Them Eat War
No Control
Stranger Than Fiction
Anesthesia
Epiphany
Punk Rock Song
Come Join Us
God’s Love
News from The Front
Requiem for Dissent
Honest Goodbye
You
A Walk
Big Bang
Before You Die
Flat Earth Society
Recipe for Hate
American Jesus
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Won't Somebody
Dearly Beloved
Bored and Extremely Dangerous
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Generator
Infected
Sorrow

$50/$42

03.25.2005 MONO @ Media Club Vancouver, BC

With Explosions in the Sky on hiatus this year, mono will be the closest i get to seeing them this year i guess. The show itself was great. they played just under an hour of powerful instrumental crazyness. I noticed that for some songs both guitarists play sitting down. If i have a band, i think i'll do that.