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
