Concerts

Concert Review: Andy Kim Christmas Show, December 14, The Phoenix

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Paul in Concerts, Everything | Leave a comment

Toronto – The holiday season is an interesting time of year, one in which one’s usual resitance to things that might be considered slightly corny or cheesy are in fact actually embraced.  Christmas specials we’ve seen dozens of times over, albums by Mariah Carey, all of them are kind of OK at this time of the year.  When this tendency to like Christmassy stuff is combined with a solid lineup of Canadian talent, it turns into something very much like the Andy Kim Christmas concert.  The annual charity event, now in it’s seventh year, was raising funds this night for Julliette’s Place, a shelter for abused women and their children and the lineup included such notables as Ron Sexsmith, Sarah Harmer, Sam Roberts, Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning and of course, Andy Kim, famous for his hits “Rock Me Gently” and “Sugar Sugar.” 

As I entered The Phoenix, Lights was just making her way to the stage.  After delivering a solo acoustic song, she welcomed Kim’s band onto the stage to back her up for a pretty decent cover of Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight.”  You can’t really go too far wrong with that song.  Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew came to the stage later in the evening to offer up some weird banter as they “killed time” before Honeymoon Suite came on.  For a bunch of old guys, Honeymoon Suite rocked pretty hard, playing their classic hit “New Girl Now,” then following it up with a pretty sweet cover of Greg Lake’s “I Believe In Father Christmas.” 

One of the stranger things (besides comedian Sean Cullen’s tribute to Bing Crosby)was when Steve Anthony and some other guy in a checked shirt who were doing mc duties introduced Jian Ghomeshi.  For a moment, I was confused.  The Arkells were setting up behind him and for a moment it seemed like Ghomeshi was going to sing.  He then went on to talk for a while, shoehorning in an awkward reference to Justin Trudeau’s recent outburst of profanity in Parliament before he went on to introduce the Arkells, who went on to do a 3 song set that included a surprise cover of Hall And Oates’ “You Make My Dreams,” which sounded eerily close to the original.  The question still remianed in my mind though: why do you need to introduce a guy who’ll just be doing more introduction?  Do not get it.

The night ended as I imagine it always does, with Kim inviting a bunch of the night’s performers to join him for a performance of “Rock Me Gently” that had many in the crowd singing along.  All in all, a good night of music for a good cause.

Cover of the Day/Concert Review: Anna Calvi, December 8, Lee’s Palace (Wolf Like Me, TVOTR Cover)

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Ricky in Concerts, Covers | Leave a comment

Anna Calvi can play guitar. She can play it really really well. From the set opener Rider to the Sea to the set closing Edith Piaf cover, the English singer songwriter set the bar quite high for future shows with some blistering guitar solos to accompany her Mercury Prize nominated tracks. You know a singer has control of the room when the entire place is in silence as they sing. This was Anna Calvi on Thursday – confident, radiant (especially in her red and black assemble) and entirely engrossing, the singer made good promise on the large amount of hype bestowed on her this year with an impressive performance at Lee’s Palace.

One of the tracks she performed was this cover of TV on the Radio’s classic track Wolf Like Me. As you would expect, it’s completely different from the original, but still rather good. Have a listen.

Anna Calvi “Wolf Like Me” by Anna Calvi

Concert Review: The Gift, December 8, Lee’s Palace

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Ricky in Concerts | Leave a comment

Thursday night’s bill at Lee’s Palace was one that featured two artists with extremely contrasting performing styles, making for a rather interesting night. Opening the show was Portugal’s The Gift. Never heard of them? Me neither. However, there were a few people who have. Probably Portuguese. The Gift has been around for seventeen years, financed and recorded five albums and won a MTV Europe award before. There show here was probably a long awaited one by a small legion of fans here in Toronto, which meant the crowd for the Gift won the following:

The Panic Manual Award for Highest Percentage of People in the Crowd Taking Pictures of Themselves at the Show

Seriously, the few people who were there all took pictures of themselves at the show, you know, the one where they have their back to the stage, and then have someone take a picture of them at the show with the band in the background. Kind of like when you go to the zoo, see a panda, and want you and the panda in the picture.

The Gift’s stage show was something else. Sónia Tavares is one of the more unique lead singers I have seen on stage. Maybe it was because she was visibly pregnant, but her combination of 50s style here, shiny black dress, sneaker pumps and tattoo’ed arms made her look like no other. Sonia, whose voice reminds me of a more feminine Brian Molko, sang her songs with an absurd amount of facial expressions and arm movements. Sometimes it seemed to slide into camp territory, but maybe that’s just how they are. It was a lot to take in at once. The rest of the band remained rather stoic for most of the set, until the conclusion (Race is Long), when the keyboardist decided to play air triangle and made a bunch of invisible karate chops. It was a sight that needed to be seen.

Musically, the Gift’s sound ranged from 80s power balladesque tracks to upbeat eurosynth pop songs. I think I will have to listen to their album more to really pick apart their sound, because their show had so much going on visually it kind of distracted me from the music. Still, when they left the stage shortly after ten, I had a large smile on my face.

My Sun by The Gift Official

Part 2 of the review comes tomorrow.

Concert Review: Animals As Leaders, December 7, The Phoenix

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Paul in Concerts | Leave a comment

Toronto – Animals As Leaders are one of those bands whose name I had seen, but I had never really paid them any mind.  That changed this past March when I happened to randomly stumble upon a show by bandleader Tosin Abasi’s other band T.R.A.M. at SXSW.  They played an intriguing mix of metal and jazz fusion that even featured a flute on one tune.  I enjoyed their set, but didn’t write about it at the time, mostly because I wasn’t really sure what to make of it.  After that show, I was curious to see what Abasi’s main band was all about.  And they were also pretty impressive – Abasi can shred, that’s for sure.   

Bands on the heavier end of the spectrum generally tend to inspire two kinds of fans – those that go totally crazy with the moshing, stagediving, and other such behaviour and those who stand there with their arms folded watching the band intently and perhaps noding approvingly.  With Abasi’s virtuosity and status as something of a guitar hero (sample t-shirt at the merch table: a Shepard Fairey-esque pic of Abasi with the caption “Tobama”), I’d expected more of the latter, but was surprised to see that this crowd was the former, and very much so.  There was lots of cheering, moshing, stagediving, and even impromptu bursts of handclapping.  The band seemed pretty surprised at this too.  Totally stoked, but surprised.  I get the feeling they don’t always see crowds quite that enthusiastic and they were totally digging it.  Keep in mind the fact that these guys were one of the opening acts on the bill too.  You don’t generally see that level of energy for the openers.  As the band ended their set, the drummer sprung up from behind his kit and launched himself into the crowd.  When the crowd actually inspires the band to crowdsurf, you know it’s a good show.

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