1. Fever Ray – Kool Haus – 10/02/2009
“The set that followed was probably the most intense (in a good way!) concert I have ever witnessed, dark, a bit chilling but overtly enjoyable. Karin stayed in “character” the entire set, did not speak or take part in any stage banter, which added to the performance. I guess you could say that it really wasn’t just a concert, but a performance art piece, every sense what stimulated, the music could be felt in your bones, the visuals (lazers, lighting, costumes) and I will always remember the dense smell of dry ice that was forever being pumped into the venue.”
“Last but not least Think About Life took the stage at 11:30pm, and launched into Havin’ My Baby, the second track on their new album. Perfect song to start their set. High energy, fun, and totally danceable. Their set was super upbeat and got the room going. They played pretty much all ofFamily including Johanna, Sweet Sixteen, Young Hearts, The Wizzard and Set You On Fire. The material is even better live than recorded. They finished with Paul Cries (from their debut), which saw a good chunk of the audience take to the stage for a full dance party invasion. In convinced that their set last night will be one of my favourite shows of the year. It was near perfect.”
3. The XX – Phoenix – 12/02/2009 – The most hyped band of 2009 delivers a set so strong that anyone doubting the British threesome’s sheer talent were automatically converted. Stark, simple and using a drum machine instead of a drum kit, the band worked their way through their debut starting with the gorgeous Intro climaxing with the dead-sexy Shelter, everything was perfect. Except for all the frat boys there to see Friendly Fires.
4. Patrick Wolf - Mod Club – 06/17/2009 – Nylon Magazine’s Summer Tour brought Patrick back to Toronto in support of The Bachelor and with a slew of “up and coming” indie bands. Painfully terrible sets by Jaguar Love and Living Things were endured by the pay off was magical. Wolf has transformed himself into an indie gay icon, a camped-up diva who threw more than one fit during his set due to the poor sound system in the venue. But when he was on, it was near perfect. Playing songs from his entire back catalogue, he ran through a set that brought out his many different personas, the tortured artist, the sad indie boy, the campy sexed-up pop star. The show finished with Patrick clad only in a leather g-string, dancing on the floor of the venue in the heart of the crowd. This was one show that shouldn’t have been missed.
5. Antony and the Johnsons – Queen Elizabeth Theatre – 02/17/09 – Antony is one of our generations greatest artists. Period. On the heels of the release of the brilliant The Crying Light, Antony brought his Johnsons to the Queen’s Elizabeth Theatre for a magical evening of music and laughter. Antony is a great performer and tells really funny stories about each song, little antidotes about their origins. The set features songs from all three albums including Epilepsy Is Dancing, Aeon, Kiss My Name and crowd favourite Cripple and the Starfish.
Vampire Weekend/The Postelles
The Horseshoe Tavern
Thursday October 8, 2009
I almost wet my pants when this show was announced. I know its probably no longer cool or hip to love this band, but I do, and I will scream it from the rooftops. Their debut is perfect in every sense of the word, poppy, upbeat, summery and fun. And I was dying to see them in a small venue (last time I saw them was at Rogers Picnic, in the pouring rain with 4000 other fans).
As mentioned earlier, Vampire Weekend have confirmed details for their second album titled Contra, slated for release on January 12th in North America. The band are doing a string of dates as warm up gigs for the release of the record. Toronto and Montreal were lucky enough to be included as their only Canadian stops.
Got to the venue mega early , met up with Mark, Raj and Kathy for dinner at Fresh prior to. The venue was empty and stayed that way through most of the opening band’s set. Said band was NYC’s The Postelles. I find that quite often I’m not a fan of opening bands (unless I know who they are). I was pleasantly surprised how amazing these guys were, think Vampire Weekend merged with the early 00′s Strokes-like garage rock with a little 50′s pop thrown into the mix. Their set was really great. Their debut album should be out in the next 6 months or so (according to on-stage banter).
By about 10pm, the venue was packed, although I thought there would be more people there, I guess they didn’t oversell the venue. Vampire Weekend began their set with two new songs, the wonderful White Sky (which has been kicking around since the last tour) and Holiday. The new stuff is similar to their existing recorded material but has a looser, California pop feel to it. They played a string of old songs which the crowd ate up and sang along to then went into more new material. Highlight in the new material was definitely California English. The Campus/Oxford Comma set closer was also quite great, the two songs merged was really fun. The band encored with their new single Horchatta (listen to it below) and Walcott (another crowd favourite). Set list below:
White Sky
Holiday
Cape Cod Kwassa
I Stand Corrected
M79
Cousins
California English
One (Blake’s)
A-Punk
Run
Campus/Oxford Comma
————
Mansard Roof
Horchatta
Walcott
It’s great to see a young band on the verge of releasing their second album having so much fun. They really seemed to be enjoying themselves and it’s nice that they treated their Toronto fans to such an intimate gig. I’m sure they’ll be back in the new year to play a much larger venue.
Listen to their new single Horchata below.
Photo via there are no words. Check out the site for some great video also.
I think I still have dry ice and laser dust in my lungs. Fever Ray’s first and maybe only North American tour ever, (see OMG Blog’s interview here) has been highly anticipated by fans and critics. Their debut dates in NYC have been covered by almost every good online music site (Stereogum, BrooklynVegan, Pitchfork), and now its my turn to weigh in.
Got to the venue at 9pm, Katie was tied up longer than anticipated at the dress rehearsal of her Nuit Blanche project. Vuk began her set, I listened from the lobby, not terribly my thing but sounded okay. Katie arrived, grabbed a drink and headed into the thick of the crowd to get a good front/centre standing spot. It really surprised me how empty the venue was, maybe 65% sold out tops (photo). They had even made the venue smaller by putting up a curtain blocking off the right hand side of the venue (when looking at the stage).
Fever Ray began their set shortly after 10pm, and from moment 1, I knew we were in for something really special. The venue was pumped full of dry ice, more dry ice than I have ever seen used in a concert setting. It was so thick I could taste it. As the house lights went down, the most beautiful lazer light show began, as did a thunderous eerie heartbeat-like bass line began, the opening to If I Had A Heart. Antique lamps scattered across the stage pulsed to the beat, while a heavily costumed Karin Dreijer Andersson crept out of the bowls of the darkness to the mic. She looked like a cross between a Jim Henson character and something from Labyrinth. Her entire band were also in costume, one was dressed as a werewolf, another wore a long red veil over her face. Until the show, I didn’t realize that the deep, man-ish v ocals on the album were actually Karin, I always thought it was her brother (from the Knife).
The set that followed was probably the most intense (in a good way!) concert I have ever witnessed, dark, a bit chilling but overtly enjoyable. Karin stayed in “character” the entire set, did not speak or take part in any stage banter, which added to the performance. I guess you could say that it really wasn’t just a concert, but a performance art piece, every sense what stimulated, the music could be felt in your bones, the visuals (lazers, lighting, costumes) and I will always remember the dense smell of dry ice that was forever being pumped into the venue. Set list was as follows:
If I Had A Heart
Triangle Walks
Concerte Walls
Seven
I’m Not Done
Now’s The Only Time I Know
Keep The Streets Empty For Me
Dry and Dusty
Stranger Than Kindness
When I Grow Up
Here Before
Coconut
Their big single, When I Grow Up was the highlight of the set, it’s their most dance-friendly track and really set the mood and got the crowd going.
OMG Blog has some great pictures here (site NSFW).
Santigold w Amanda Blank and Trouble Andrew
Phoenix Concert Theatre
June 3, 2009
It’s taken a bit of time to actually nail down this review. Things have been busy. Not the hugest fan of “dance party” type shows mid-week. Maybe it shows my age, but its hard to get super pumped for a show when you’ve worked a 10 hour day and have to be up the next morning to do it all again.
Trouble Andrew opened the show. Didn’t know much about him other than that he’s Santi’s boyfriend, and after witnessing his set, realize that that’s the only reason he’s on the tour. The set was….interesting. He looks like he should be in some Epitaph punk band, but he moves like a dancehall star and poses like a rapper…all this would be fine if he had the songs to back it up. But he doesn’t, his music is terrible. I guess he’s aiming to be the punk male version of Santi, but it just doesn’t work.
Up next, Spank Rock MC Amanda Blank. I was super surprised by her set, I hadn’t heard any of her solo material prior to the show and expected it to be similar to Spank Rock….pretty much dirty hip hop, which is always great, especially coming from a woman as beautiful as her. But her solo work is not typical dirty party hip hop, it’s more danceable electro and she sings. Her set consisted of songs from her upcoming solo record which is slated for a late July release. Sounds really promising. Oh and Spank Rock joined her on stage for a song. It was bananas.
Santigold is a natural performer. She started her set promptly at 11pm and launched into Hold The Line (a new track taken from Diplo and Switch’s new project Major Lazer) and then went straight into the wicked Switch remix of You’ll Find A Way. I must comment on her stage show, she had her band all dressed the same and had two amazing dancers positioned at the front of the stage to her left and right. Her dancers were soooo amazing, fully choreographed to the music. She played all the hits including re-worked versions of her songs from her Top Ranking mix (including my favourite version of I’m A Lady featuring Amanda Blank). She was joined by Trouble Andrew for a tune as well as Spank Rock for another. Overall, a good set, high energy and fun.
Think About Life/Tune Yards/Bayonets
Over The Top Festival
Polish Combatants Hall
Friday May 22, 2009
Last minute concerts always turn out to be the most fun. While being bored by the National, I received a message from Jen asking if I wanted to check out Think About Life at Eric Warner’s Over The Top Festival. I had been wanting to check out the show due to the fact that I am completely obsessed with their new album Family, not to mention that I’ve always heard wicked things about their live shows. I messaged her back to arrange a ticket pick up and meeting time and began getting excited.
Family will likely get tons of comparisons to TV on the Radio, which isn’t a bad thing and is entirely true. It’s a pastiche of styles, borrowing elements from hip hop, indie, dance and punk. I really believe that this album could make them huge, and after witnessing them live, can honestly say that they deserve to be.
Arrived at the Polish Combatants Hall at 9:15pm, earlier than needed, the venue was pretty much empty. The venue is great, it’s a typical legion hall, but feels cozy and intimate. The bar staff are super nice and they serve North American and Polish beers. First band up was Bayonets from Edmonton. Wasn’t familiar with them at all, they were….noisy and kinda funny. Jen said they reminded her of The Mae Shi. Their set was short about 30 minutes, people seemed to enjoy it. Up next was another artist I wasn’t familiar with. Tune Yards is a solo project by Merrill Garbus, and her music is quite hard to explain. I guess you could compare her to Ariel Pink, super lo-fi indie rock. Her live show is spellbinding. She does the Final Fantasy recording/looping thing, but also plays the ukulele, drums and sings. Her voice is her greatest asset, she sings, chants and does wondrous gargling/throat noises. Layering these different sounds, she creates soundscapes that sound frail at first then build into these room-filling masterpieces. I was completely floored by her set. Check a video from her performance at Pop Montreal last year below.
Last but not least Think About Life took the stage at 11:30pm, and launched into Havin’ My Baby, the second track on their new album. Perfect song to start their set. High energy, fun, and totally danceable. Their set was super upbeat and got the room going. They played pretty much all of Family including Johanna, Sweet Sixteen, Young Hearts, The Wizzard and Set You On Fire. The material is even better live than recorded. They finished with Paul Cries (from their debut), which saw a good chunk of the audience take to the stage for a full dance party invasion. In convinced that their set last night will be one of my favourite shows of the year. It was near perfect.
Ps. The picture above is not from last night, I have stopped carrying a camera to shows, I want to be able to enjoy it and not worry about getting good photos. The picture is actually taken from an old show in Brooklyn (via BrooklynVegan).
Somehow I’ve missed The National every time they have played Toronto in the last couple years. Other commitments, be it shows, work or family events has plagued my attendance. I kinda wished that I had other plans Thursday night. It’s funny, I had a conversation a couple weeks ago with a friend who travelled to Chicago last summer for Lollapalooza and she said that one of the biggest disappointment of the weekend was The National’s set. I thought maybe it had something to do with the sheer size of the venue, but maybe not.
I must first say that I love this band’s recorded output. Their two full length albums have been in constant rotation for years, and I never bore of lead singer Matt Berninger’s voice and smart wordplay. Thursday night’s show for me was completely mediocre, the band were a tad sloppy, the venue seemed to swallow their music, and as a live band, The National were painfully boring to watch. Matt’s voice during the first few songs was really great, but then he seemed to lose it and relied on a Ian Curtis-eque yelp for the rest of their set. I couldn’t engage with what was happening on stage, I felt myself drift from the music and ended up people watching for the bulk of their set. Another leading factor to my disappointment was the fact that they seemed like background music, there was a ton of audience noise during their set and it seemed like many people we’re paying attention. On a positive note, the addition of a live horn section was pretty awesome.
Mark put it best, we’ve all seen way too many mediocre straight ahead rock shows in the last 15 years of attending shows. If I’m going to pay money to see a band, I need to see something interesting and new, the band needs to be able to offer an actual show or spectacle. Shows like Thursday just don’t cut it anymore, even if the band’s recorded material is quite fantastic.
