Concerts

Concert Review: The Mountain Goats, April 3, The Opera House

Posted on by Paul in Concerts | Leave a comment

Toronto – After The Mountain Goats played their first song, I heard a fan behind me shouting out for “Going To Georgia.”  Seriously?  Shouting out requests at a concert is a dubious activity at the best of times, but this was a demonstration of some serious overexuberance and/or impatience.  Not to mention a serious misjudgement of how good John Darnielle’s hearing was. Still, his enthusiasm could be forgiven, seeing as how The Mountain Goats had not been through town since 2007. 

Despite the long gap between visits, Darnielle and co. made a great impression on the packed crowd.  They entered to the strains of Morbid Angel’s “Where The Slime Live” (Best. Entrance music. Ever.), a nod to Darnielle’s metal fanhood and an obvious tribute to Eric Rutan, who produced several songs off their new tarot card themed album, All Eternals Deck.  Darnielle apologized for taking so long to come back and noted that they have since acquired a drummer, the great Jon Wurster of Superchunk and The Best Show fame.  The man resposible for bringing us The Gorch added some nice touches on the kit, but sadly, did not attack anybody with a chain.    

This was my first time seeing the Mountain Goats as a full band and while the band does add quite a bit, when it comes down to it, The Mountains Goats is all about Darnielle’s songs.  Lyrically, the songs are quite evocative and usually an example of fine storytelling.  Darnielle also proved to be a fine storyteller between songs, telling stories that were both amusing (anecdotes about his admiration for Amy Grant and how she inspired him to not wear shoes onstage) and insightful (the story behind a song that was inspired by a time when he broke up with a girl … by mailing her a letter!)

Of course, I couldn’t quite hear all of these stories.  Such is the case when you get a large group of people together in one space, some of whom are a tad too enthusiastic about their love for the band.  It just so happened that I was situated for awhile near a group of young, drunk fans who were a bit too loud and talking throughout the set.  Apparently another, more silent fan had been either telling them to be quiet or giving them the stinkeye or both, but it erupted at one point into one of them yelling at this guy and getting angry over him telling them to shut up.  Now, I am not a huge fan of talking at shows, but was not overly troubled by their talking until the yelling started, at which point, I turned and said, as politely as possible, “Yeah, but could you please shut up now?”  (I did say please …)  I don’t begrudge them their chance to have a little fun and don’t think there was any malice or disregard for the band in their behaviour.  They did seem to be Mountain Goats fans in their own way, but I got the impression that perhaps they’re more accustomed to going to punk shows.  I tell you this though; if this had been a Mark Kozelek show, Kozelek would’ve come down off the stage and eviscerated them for daring to talk during his set.  Still, regardless of any shenanigans happening in the audience, it was a solid set from a solid band.  Now please don’t wait another five years to come back to town.

The Mountain Goats – Damn These Vampires by Indiespot

Concert Review: The Joy Formidable, April 2, The Horseshoe Tavern

Posted on by Paul in Concerts | Leave a comment

joy formidable

Toronto – The Joy Formidable exude an incredible amount of energy and intensity in their live performance.  One might even say it was formidable if one was given to making cheesy references to the band’s name in their reviews.  Guilty as charged, I suppose.

Opening with The Everchanging Spectrum Of A Lie, they played their first number as if it were their last.  Starting out full throttle with an epic number, they pretty much maintained that level throughout their performance.  Several songs descended into waves of noise and feedback bolstered by powerhouse drumming that occasionally reached an almost death metal/grindcore level of intensity.  Drummer Matt Thomas is one of the hardest hitting drummers I’ve seen lately.

Speaking of hard-hitting, bassist Rhydian Dafydd was literally hitting a drum onstage during one song.  With his fist.  Very hard.  Several times.  I chatted with the band before the show and mentioned how I had seen him taking out his aggression on a drum in a similar fashion during their SXSW Fader Fort show.  He claimed not to remember punching a drum that night, yet here he was doing it all over again.  So either he does this on occasion when the mood strikes or I planted the seed in his head, convincing him that he must pound the hell out of that drum.  I’ll go with the latter as it makes me feel very self-important, like I’ve got a lot of influence.

Vocalist/guitarist Ritzy Bryan is full of kinetic energy, often moving about the stage in spontaneous, jerky movements.  It was interesting to watch her eyes during the performance as she had an intense kind of stare going on much of the time.  It was the best use of eyes to convey a certain mood/effect since James Callis played Gaius Baltar on Battlestar Galactica.

During a live performance, bands will often build up momentum during a set, but when you start off as strong as The Joy Formidable did, it’s hard to build up to anything.  In fact in some ways, each song felt a bit like a mini concert, building to a head each time.  Yet by ending their main set in an orgy of distortion, smashing/beating on stuff, and playing with their effects pedals, it really did have a sense of finality to it that made the encore almost seem like an afterthought.  Yet after a brief break wherein their crew (which included one guy who amusingly sat in the back corner of the stage during their entire set) re-tuned their instruments, they did return for two more songs, capping off the evening in a satisfying way. 

Joy Formidable – The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade by The Drift Record Shop

Concert Review: Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, March 31, The Horseshoe

Posted on by Mark in Concerts | Leave a comment

Toronto – Last Thursday Austin-based Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears brought their energetic brand of horn-infused blues rock to the Horseshoe. There were sweet red guitars, badass brass, sing-a-alongs, and beer swillin’. It was a supremely fun show, despite the fact that I lost my earmuffs shortly after arriving.

“This may very be one of the best shows of the year” – Panic Manualer Paul (just recently back from the SXSW extravaganza)

As a lover of the blues, it’s so refreshing to see bands from America’s south ply their craft up here. They are steeped in the culture of the blues in way that we northerners aren’t. They grew up with it, and Joe Lewis’ confidence with this kind of music was palpable. The Honeybears are attempting to avoid the term “soul revivalists”, but the blues-infused rockers do have a sharp brass section. When you throw them in the mix, the result is music that’s both great to listen to, and groovy something fierce.

If there was one weird part of the show, it occurred approximately 27 minutes into the set. The brass section took a break, and Joe and his band slid into some harder straight-up rock. I’m not sure if Joe was experimenting with some new sounds, or playing some really old stuff before he had his horns. It was a little edgy, and it seemed like the crowd didn’t know what to think of it. Thankfully, the horns came back soon after, the groove resurfaced and everything was as sweet as, well, honey.

Concert Review: Miami Horror, DVAS, April 1st, Mod Club

Posted on by Ricky in Concerts | Leave a comment

Toronto – The Mod Club was home to one massive dance party on Friday night and the club crowd have Toronto’s DVAS and Australia’s Miami Horror to thank for it. I’ll be frank, I wasn’t even aware of Miami Horror until two months ago. Clearly, I was the only one as the Mod Club was sold out and there was a healthy lineup at the venue when I arrived there at midnight.

Making their Toronto debut Friday, Miami Horror wasted no time in living up to the lofty expectations the sold out crowd had for them by delivering an energetic rock star worthy show that had me thinking that this may be the last time that they play a small venue like the Mod Club. Miami Horror started out as synthesizer-obsessed producer Benjamin Plant, and has since grown into a full band. Anyone who has seen electronic music played out in concert with a live band will agree that it’s a way better solution then a bloke on a laptop. Armed with a guitar, Benjamin provided the vocals for all the tracks while delivering several rock star guitar moves. Clearly this man has taken lessons from other front men, for a band who is only one year old, Miami Horror played their set like veterans.

In a live setting, the songs from Miami Horror’s debut record Illumination jumps out at you with a relentless beat and just plain out dirty synth lines. Tracks like Holidays (originally sang by Alan Palomo of Neon Indian), Moon Theory and I Look To You provided worthy dance soundtracks for the very clubberific crowd, who for my money, was one of the best crowds I’ve seen in awhile. They danced for the openers, they danced for the in-between set DJs and they definitely danced for Miami Horror. As the set progressed and the band started delivering it’s singles, the dance floor turned out some crowd surfers, which for me is a rarity for any non hard rock acts. That’s a pretty good sign of a job well done.

Opening for Miami Horror was Toronto’s own synth loving duo – DVAS. A band that I’ve managed to miss seeing all of last year, DVAS’s two man act was a great way to start off the party vibe. Playing tracks off their 2010 debut record Society, DVAS provided a healthy dose of energy to the crowd although I thought some of the 80s guitar riffs on the tracks would have been better off with a live guitarist. I have since read that they do employ a guitarist on stage for shows, so maybe being an opening act on this particular night dissuaded the band from doing so. The band finished off a short five song set with their hit single Society which sounded as good as it does on album.

Armed with a solid debut album and a ridiculously fun and energetic live act, Miami Horror are well on their way to bigger things, check them out when you get the chance.

Holidays by Miami Horror (Official)