Vancouver, Perhaps my final show of the year and my first visit to the legendary Richards on Richards. I gotta say, for what Vancouver lacks in decent shows, they definitely make up for it in nice looking venues. I expected RNR to be a large dingy venue, much like the Phoenix in Toronto. I was pleasantly surprised to find a well maintained venue with great sightlines (floor and balcony) and a unique layout. The stage is tucked away into a corner with plenty of room for people who want to stand/dance/sway or just sit and talk. We got there in time to catch the last few song of the opening act The Mohawk Lodge. They sounded okay, typical Canadian indie rock. They had a cool looking t-shirt on the cheap so I picked one up.
I gotta give props to opening acts man. For the fans that are just there to watch the headliner, most come in with the preconviced notion that the opener isn’t that good and just talk loud and don’t pay attention when the openers are playing, as was the case with The Mohawk Lodge. Didn’t seem to faze them though.
After a riduculously long 40 minute sound check, the young lads from Athlete sauntered onto stage (side note, I think a ‘roadie’ mini game in Gutar Hero or Rock Band would be cool, sound check all the instruments within a time limit) and busted open with ‘Tokyo’. Great tune too get the crowd primed. I’m not a big fan of their latest album, it sounds like alot of pop rock being released nowadays (*cough* Keane *cough* Coldplay). It’s tough not to assume bands go this route in order to sell records as opposed to playing what they want to play. ‘Vehicle and Animals’ however, was fantastic as it did have a unique sound for it’s time. In particular I was looking forward to hearing ‘El Salvador’ but instead got ‘You Got the Style’ and ‘Vehicle and Animals’ which was still nice. The 600+ crowd was well into the entire show and singers onstage bono-esque antics, which he manged to pull off considering the stage was probably only 10ft x 10ft.
Despite Athlete recently releasing a new album, it was nice to get a mix of all their entire catalogue throughout the set.
Oh, and the drummer looks like Kevin Smith
3.5/5
Setlist-ish (I’m going off memory here):
Tokyo
You Got the Style
Tourist
Airport Disco
Hurricane
Yesterday Threw Everything at Me
Best Not to Think About it
Half Light
Westside
It’s Not Your Fault
Wires
Shake Those Windows
Vehicles and Animals
24 Hours