Toronto - One of my roommates favorite bands, Brooklyn’s Bishop Allen took the stage at Lees Palace on a cool summer night (til i got into my apartment). I was there, and here is the review.

Well, before the show I had to go for drinks and dinner with my soon-to-be-married former coworker, so a bunch of us had some dinner at some random pub. Tell me this, my Eastern neighbors, why is it that every pub seems to have brown cooks? I swear, almost every pub I have been in this side of the Mississippi has at least one or two brownies cooking the food. I think this is a grossly underused stereotype, I mean we all associate brownies with taxi cabs and convenience stores, but really convenience stores seem to be runned by koreans or something these days, and cabs are just operated by any sort of immigrants…but pub cooks? always brown. I have no idea why. Maybe its cos of the British colonial thing, most pubs have some sort of anglo menu, like Sheppard’s pie and fish and chips (even though its fries). Anyways, whatever.

Lees Palace was about 1/3 full when we got there, maybe. Maybe 1/4 full. This is a nice change. We was able to get seats along the side of the stage and so I was able to sit down for once and enjoy the show. The air conditioning in the place was pretty good, and that enhanced the show quite a bit. In case you don’t know, Bishop Allen is an indie-pop band from Brooklyn. They are releasing an album in a month. Actually they said that during the show, and my friend josh speaks in a not too quiet voice ‘which you have already stole’. haha.

It was a pretty good show, the vibe was really laid back and the banter was kept at a minimal. They played songs mostly from their new album, but also played some stuff from their 2003 or 2004 or 2005 release, which is called ‘Charm School’. They did NOT play ‘things are what you make of them’ which was disappointing. That was my favorite bishop allen song, although ‘Like Castenets’ is rising on my list.

They played for around 50 minutes, then did a quick encore. Then i went and ate a falafel.

Review : 3.5/5

4:00 monday

I go into the kitchen to get water. Hmm, water cooler is out of water.

Okay, this can be remedied.

I take the new water cooler container, and slam it on top of the water cooler. Awesome.

coworker: “Aren’t you suppose to take the tab off before you do that?”

Both of us look at the cooler, as the plastic tab floats to the top of the water cooler.

hahaha

According to Last.fm

1. St. Vincent

she plays guitar for Sufjan and Polyphonic Spree, and now she has released a pretty good LP. I
think she opened for Arcade Fire earlier this year too, and I missed that show.

2. Kula Shaker

Former brit pop darlings return with a cd that could be from the Britpop era. Less Indian-music influence on this one though

3. Bishop Allen

Brooklyn indie popsters finally come out with an album after forcing their fans to get 12 EPs last year (one for every month). They play Lees Palace on Thursday for 10 bucks!

4. The New Pornographers

New album is definately growing on me, I guess they have focused more on the ‘pop’ aspect of their sound on this one, but it’s all good.

5. The Cure

Downloaded the acoustics greatest hits cd, and its good. I think its pretty old cd. The Cure play the ACC on September 27.

6. Vitalic

I don’t know why it comes up as ‘Various Artists’ but this is off ‘This is the Sound of Citizen’ cd that will come up soon. Pretty good remixing stuff from this group.

7. The White Stripes

Listening to Icky Thump in preparation of the show next week. It’s okay, not as good as their old stuff.

8. Ryan Adams

This guy seems to put out an album every 6 months, but his most recent is pretty strong.

9. Page France

New York popsters are opening up for Bishop Allen in july, but not here. Which really sucks, since this album is one of my favorites this year.

10. Club 8

Swedish Twee band, downloaded their debut album and have been listening to it since.

Full Listings Here

Toronto - Wait a minute..didn’t I see Voxtrot a mere 13 days ago? Why yes. Voxtrot returned to their favorite city last night for a taping of the show ‘Beautiful Noise’, which will be aired at 7 pm on Sun TV in Fall. Because this was a television taping, the show was free and the thought of watching a band I like in a church while drinking some beers was too good to resist.

Note to people: Parliament street is not close to Young street. I had to drag my poor friend from Edmonton all the way from Yonge street to get to the venue, and pass by some nice community centers, and crazy black people along the way. I told her it was a ‘keepin it real’ tour. Man that stretch of the city is sketch.

Berkeley Church is kinda small, kinda old and pretty nice. I am surprise that they have a bar inside a church, but I guess it probably makes sunday processions go by a lot faster. Photoderek.com was already outside not enjoying grace potter and the nocturnals. We all decided to hang out in the basement of the church while this band played. Lucky for us, Voxtrot was down there already, doing a photoshoot for something I guess. They didn’t seem too eager to take these photos.

on a side note, photoderek went to apologize to the lead voxtrot dude (ramesh) about trying to sell him tickets to his own show the previous week. so they are all cool now and the feud is no longer there. All in all, they seem to be nice people who are just dealing with the rigors of becoming popular.

the show started out kinda late. there was about 5 cameras , including one on a crane that would go thru the crowd. This was a dangerous camera, and i worried about getting decapitated by it. The show itself was similar/same as the one from a few weeks ago, only with really good sound and crazy lighting. Crazy lighting. I guess it will be on HD TV, so that is necessary. The person who was running the thing made us cheer like crazy so they can do a pan or something, I guess this is where you will see me if the show is on.

3.5/5

To: The White Stripes
Date: 20/06/2007
Subject: Toronto July 5 -> Montreal July 6
Body: Hey

I am going to be attending the July 5 show at the Amphitheatre.

I noticed that you guys are playing the next night in Montreal.

I am also going to Montreal friday, for the Jazz festival.

Stupid question, would I be able to hitch a ride?

Thanks

(I know its a long shot)