Coeur de Pirate(Béatrice Martin) was good. Jian Ghomeshi told all of Canada on his show that morning that they should head down to the Dakota Tavern to check her out. And they did. Jian showed up too. Funny how my friends were stuck in line, but once the show started, Jian Ghomeshi magically appeared in the crowd.
Coeur de Pirate is 19, covered in tattoos and from Montréal. Her coolness factor was pretty high before she even sang a note. This being her first time in Toronto, she didn’t seem nervous at all. Her music went from slow and somber to jazzy and bouncy. She talked to the crowed during her set and came of as really genuine. She did a cover of that “I kissed a girl and I liked it” song. If I had heard the original I might have appreciated her version a little bit better, but it was still good.
Now lets talk about some photography etiquette at shows.
Like I mentioned, the added spotlight of being on Q that morning put some added cameras in the audience for Béatrices’ performance. Here are some documentation strategies and etiquette that I observed during the show:
Good Photo Etiquette #1 – Frank from Chromewaves scored a sweet photo spot at the front of the stage but spent the entire set crouched down taking pictures so as not to block those behind him. Some other guy did the same thing.
Good Photo Etiquette #2 – Gary, our photographer, stood front row for the first song, then let two girls stand in front of him once it was over. Gary eventually ended up standing on a chair at the back/side to snap his pics.
Good Photo Etiquette #3 – The AUX.tv crew were there and they filmed their material crouched down in the front and left after the second song.
Lets talk about some bad etiquette:
Bad Etiquette #1 – There was this guy taking pictures throughout the entire Coure de Pirat set wearing a backpack and who had his camera on a unipod, moving around the stage at the Dakota like he owned the place. Stage left, stage right, up the middle. At one point about seven songs into her set he forced his way up to the side of the stage where I was standing and asked the girl standing in front of me if she would move so that he could take a picture. Hesitantly the girl agreed and stepped aside as he moved into her prime spot for about the duration of a song to take pictures. I wish he would have asked me for my spot as he would have gotten a response something like…
Dude, we are seven songs into her set. If you haven’t taken a decent photo yet, you need to reconsider your career/hobby choice. Bug off.
Also, taking pictures with your cell phone at a show isn’t necessarily bad etiquette, but you do look like an idiot while you do it, so don’t.