Concerts

Concert Review: Snow Patrol and Ed Sheeran, April 17th, Massey Hall

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Wade in Concerts | Leave a comment

Ed Sheeran
(written by guest contributors Emma Blanche and Shalini Nanayakkara, two 16 year olds from Ottawa, who make the trip down the 401 to catch this show)

Massey Hall was grooving a couple of Tuesday nights ago in the presence of Irish alt-rock band Snow Patrol.

But it seemed most of the younger crowd had gathered for the opening act, a short ginger-haired acoustic bloke from Suffolk, England by the name of Ed Sheeran. He stepped on stage with only his guitar and a loop-peddle. Despite the fact that his debut album, +, isn’t released in North America until the summer, his understated “Hi” was met with many screams as he walked on stage. The young artist clearly had not expected such a boisterous crowd, asking repeatedly for his fans to “Sing don’t scream,” saying that “If singing replaced screaming the world would be a better place.” His set list included his UK hits, Give Me Love, and The A team, a moving ballad telling the story of a young woman struggling with a drug addiction. After managing to break the string on his guitar after an extended performance of his hit single You Need Me, I Dont Need You, he encouraged the audience to help him out with the rest of the song in the form of a ‘gospel choir.’ Ed later joined Snow Patrol in a performance of the band’s recent single, New York.

Here’s an Ed Sheeran video where he gets drunk with his cat.

The crowd matured considerably as Snow Patrol entered the scene – but the enthusiasm picked up after their first number, Hands Open, when Gary insisted everyone stand. The audience complied, save for a couple of boring concert goers who don’t like anything anyway. Once the show got moving, we were pleasantly surprised to find Lightbody’s voice richer and more expressive than the band’s recorded album work. His stage presence was fun and easy-going, jokingly flirting with lead guitarist Nathan Connolly and advising one surly-faced man, “If you’re happy, tell your face.” He warmed the audience by having the entire hall repeat the haunting line “shut your eyes and sing to me,” in chorus, creating a more intimate atmosphere. Adding to the band’s rich acoustics were epilepsy-inducing light sequences that accentuated the upbeat moments of the songs, as well as background graphics showcasing fitting images of eagles and snowy landscapes. The whole concert was energetic, moving, and well worth the trip down from Ottawa.

Concert Review: Miike Snow and Penguin Prison, May 1, 2012, Sound Academy

Posted on May 4, 2012 by lauren in Concerts | Leave a comment

Last time I saw Miike Snow was at Wrongbar. Hands down one of the sweatiest dance parties I have ever attended, as Miike Snow churned out the dance music that made our bodies unable to stop moving. Tuesday night at Sound Academy, with a much, much larger crowd they managed to pull it off again. The ability to turn the entire crowd at Sound Academy into a collective sweaty dance party is no easy feat. I was a little worried going into the show, as reviewing a show at Sound Academy can be a pretty daunting task. Whether or not the band plays perfectly, the sound is usually off and the venue set up makes it difficult for concert goers to truly experience the music from more than 30 feet away from the stage. Thankfully, Miike Snow managed to make me forget that this was the venue that had previously ruined a slew of concerts for me.

Penguin Prison, the touring opening act, from New York, also label mates with Miike Snow, warmed up the crowd with their electro-pop hits, especially winning favor with their cover of Lana Del Ray’s ‘Blue Jeans’, and their closing song ‘Don’t Fuck With My Money’ off their self-titled album.

The wait for Miike Snow was close to putting the crowd to sleep. Waiting to soothing ambient music, I was almost wishing for bed. As the lights dimmed, as ominous looking Miike Snow emerged. Donning hoods and gold masks, they knocked us over with ‘Enter the Joker’s Lair’ off of their sophomore album Happy to You, followed right by ‘The Wave’. The stage set up was futuristic and impressive, the space station-esque centerpiece, with their trademarked jackalope lighting up in sync with the music, took the crown as visual highlight. Instruments were literally scattered across the stage, with the band jumping from instrument to instrument, almost like a musical relay race. The hits of the night that really got the crowd going (and one guy throwing napkins as if they were confetti) were ‘Sylvia’, ‘Burial’, ‘Bavarian #1 (Say You Will)’, ‘Devil’s Work’ and ‘Paddling Out’. For the encore, they performed the slower jam ‘Sans Soleil’ off of their acclaimed self-titled debut, and then brought the house down, leaving us wanting more with crowd favorite and single ‘Animal’.

The formation of Miike Snow is like that science experiment gone right. With the combination of Andrew Wyatt’s pitch perfect far-ranging vocals and addicting, infectious song-writing by revered producers Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, the chemistry just works.

Concert Review: Lambchop, April 24th, Lincoln Hall

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Ricky in Concerts | Leave a comment

I was lucky enough in my freshman year of college to have a roommate who was not only not psycho, but was probably half the reason I made it through my first year of school. Besides the fact that I would occasionally walk into my room and find a chocolate bar on my pillow, Maria also just looked after me. Case in point – my first couple of months into the school year a friend gave me Johnny Cash’s album “American V.” Since we lived in a room the size of a shoebox, Maria knew when I was listening to it. Immediately upon hearing it for the first time, she laid out the rule that I was only allowed to play it once every two weeks because, as she put it, I would go into a “coma of sadness” if I listened to it more than that.

This rule will also be applied to Lambchop. That’s not to say, in the slightest, that I didn’t enjoy Lambchop’s music Tuesday night at Lincoln Hall – the Nashville, Tennessee-based band’s music has an exquisite sadness to it that grips you. My concert-mate assessed it as “music that makes you want to cuddle.” You could just as easily swap out the word cuddle for huddle. Front man Kurt Wagner has a voice that resonates between a croon and a mumble, bringing to mind a combination of Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and maybe a hint of Bob Marley. If you listen carefully though and decipher the mumble, there are lyrical gems waiting – if phrases like “the wine tasted like sunshine in the basement” rolled off my tongue, I’d quit my day job and hit the road touring as well. All of this is to the backdrop of an eclectic mix of old-school genres ranging from smooth jazz to country to orchestral to lounge music.

If you’re looking for a taste of sweet melancholy, give “Mr. M” a listen – but remember, just a taste – no more than once every two weeks.

Concert Review: The Drums, April 26, Phoenix Concert Theatre

Posted on May 1, 2012 by guestwriter in Concerts | Leave a comment

Perhaps the most intriguing element of The Drums’ charm is the intriguing discord between the dense, emotional subject matter of their lyrics and the consistently sunny sonic package they’re delivered in.

It’s a trend we have witnessed since the moment the Brooklyn indie-popsters first appeared on our radar with “Let’s Go Surfing,” that timeless ode to hopeless hedonism. Is that now-ubiquitous chorus lyric (“Oh mama / I wanna go surfing / Oh mama / I don’t care about nothing”) a gleeful affirmation of beachside liberation, or a tongue-in-cheek condemnation of wasted youth? The genius of The Drums is that it’s impossible to escape the notion that there’s something sinister lurking not far below the surface.

Singer Jonathan Pierce has claimed many times that the mixture of personalities in The Drums is too combustible for the band to survive long enough to build a true legacy, and as a healthy throng of fans found out last Friday night at Toronto’s Phoenix Concert Theatre, the band’s mercurial attitude extends into their live show, where, at various moments, it’s tough to gauge whether or not the band members view touring as their one true calling or a tedious chore.

Their decision on this world tour (in support of 2011’s lukewarm sophomore disc Portamento) to bring in two new lead-footed guitar players, relegating Pierce’s songwriting partner Jacob Graham (he of the swooping guitar theatrics) to back-of-stage keyboard duties, has drained much of the fun out of the band’s stage presence, and left Pierce’s (possibly) ironic, ‘80s-inspired dance moves as the sole star of the show.

The Drums’ lush and melodic catalogue is readymade for sing-alongs, yet Pierce has continued to fall victim to one of pop music’s most damning cardinal sins by failing to get over his penchant for deviating away from his golden vocal melodies. His constant vocal riffing spoiled the melodic payoffs of both “Me and the Moon” and “Book of Stories.”

Yet somehow, even if The Drums weren’t having any fun, you certainly couldn’t tell from the all-ages crowd, who boasted a seemingly never-ending supply of energy that kept them bopping wildly in unison throughout the 90-minute set—that is, when they weren’t taking brief timeouts to text updates to their friends (“I MISS YOUUUU!”) or capture videos of Pierce swaying alone on his private dancefloor.

Fortunately, The Drums saved their strongest moments for the set’s latter half—and most of them were the band’s darkest musical portraits. Steely, understated rocker “Days” and the gloriously minimalist power ballad “Down By the Water” were the main set highlights, and they combined to create just the right atmosphere for Portamento’s centerpiece, the stark and emotional synth-ballad “Searching For Heaven.”

And in the blink of an eye, the band kicked into the whistled intro of the set-closing “Let’s Go Surfing,” and it brought the house down: by sending us all homehappy, any frustrating affectations were instantly forgiven. Whether or not The Drums are happy themselves, well, that seems far less important when all you want to do is whistle.

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