Toronto – Simply put, the Sheezer show was a lot of fun. It was one of those occasions where the band onstage is having as much if not more fun than the audience. Part of the reason for that is that we all shared one thing – we were fans of Weezer … or at least the first two albums. And The Garrison was packed with people who wanted to hear these songs, making for a somewhat sweaty endeavor. I imagine that probably half the people here tonight (and quite likely more than that) would not bother coming to see the real Weezer if they were in town. Although that could change if Rivers Cuomo’s plan to possibly do a Blue Album/Pinkerton tour comes to fruition – he’s obviously taking a page from Sheezer’s playbook. This is the beauty of Sheezer – members of various Toronto indie rock bands play only the classics from Weezer. Seeing as how Rivers Cuomo lost the plot years ago, this satisfies those who would rather not hear “Pork and Beans” or “Hashpipe” (although I’m pretty sure they slipped a few seconds of each song into their set) and essentially plays to everyone’s sense of nostalgia .
Speaking of nostalgia, before the band took to the stage, a steady stream of ’90s alt-rock was played over the speakers – Pavement, Hole, Inbreds, Plumtree’s “Scott Pilgrim” – to get us in the mood. Once they took to the stage, it was fun times all around. Most of the room was singing along to tunes such as “Say It Ain’t So,” ‘In The Garage,” “The Good Life,” and of course “The Sweater Song,” complete with friends onstage completing the spoken word parts. There were a few minor lyric changes such as switching out the Green Day reference in “El Scorcho” for “I asked you to go to the Weezer concert,” or Laura Barrett singing “My name is Janice.” These were pretty clever and made me laugh a bit, but not as much as I laughed at the guy who unsuccessfully negotiated a crowd surf and had to step off the stage with his dreams unfulfilled. I’m sorry, dude. I know you were getting all caught up in the ’90s vibe, but no one wants to lift your ass up, they just want to enjoy the show.
Sheezer is now my favourite cover band made up of previously established Toronto musicians. Sorry, Horsey Craze.
Toronto – Win Butler’s haircut, dancing on picnic tables and Toronto island…what more could a girl ask for?
Timeline
2003 – Arcade Fire releases Funeral, an epic, brooding album with grandeur not often seen from a freshman effort
2007 – Arcade Fire releases Neon Bible, somewhat of a disappointment in my eyes, but Funeral was a hard act to follow
2010 – Arcade Fire releases The Suburbs, going back to their themed album roots, after 3 long years of waiting they produce a 16-track work of art
On to the details
Now, if you’re an avid reader of this blog (which you probably are) you will have noted my mention of how a certain (*cough* Collective Concerts *cough*) concert promoter ran the last island show (read: silly restrictions, long beer lines etc.). Knowing they also organized this concert I went in with low expectations. Beer lines were still long and I don’t think Janelle Monae was an appropriate opening act for Arcade Fire. In her defense though, Janelle put on a killer show complete with costumes, choreographed dances and a killer voice.
The Main Event
Organizational complaints aside, Arcade Fire went on at their scheduled time of 8:45 and opened with Ready to Start, a perfect upbeat tune to begin their set! From there they continued on with their 90 minute set only stopping to thank the fans for coming to see the show. They played about half the songs from The Suburbs, and a handful from Neon Bible and Funeral.
The energy from the crowd was amazing and contagious. I was standing in the beer area, equipped with picnic tables that consequently became dance podiums as soon as Arcade Fire took the stage. I think this was the biggest crowd I’ve seen at an island concert, which made it even better!
I’m a huge fan of Arcade Fire, their new album is nothing short of epic and they definitely did not disappoint in their live performance. I, along with the majority of the crowd sang along for the whole set. The voice combination of Win Butler and Regine Chassagne is pure magic.
Encore
Arcade Fire were chanted back onto the stage for an encore, they played Keep the Car Running and then Wake Up. When the initial chords for Wake Up were played the crowd went crazy and basically drowned out the band singing the “Ohhhh ohhhhh ohhhh” intro. I love it when bands end with an amazing song and Wake Up left everyone in an excellent mood even with the impending thought of never ending ferry lines.
Check out Frank’s and Melody‘s reviews of the show as well!
Toronto – I will be the first to admit that I’m a bit of a rockist at times. Sure, I enjoy a good electro/dance tune as much as the next guy (and I saw quite a bit of electronic stuff at this past weekend’s Lollapalooza), but I’m less likely to go out and see that stuff live. I had heard good things about DVAS however, and wanted to check them out. So even though it was a Friday the 13th, I figured I’d try my luck and see what they were all about. I was impressed.
Playing a brand of music heavily influenced by the ’80s and full of lots of hot synth action, they were a little reminiscent of Chromeo, but definitely had their own thing going on. Jered Stuffco is an engaging frontman with a strong voice that almost veered into falsetto territory on occasion. I found that he referred to the crowd as “y’all” a few too many times, but that can be forgiven when you introduce songs with lines such as “This song is about sex addiction!” Lo and behold, the song was about sex addiction. And it was an awesome song. DVAS played more than a few awesome songs, my favourites being “Questions” and “Watching You.”
Up next were New York’s Designer Drugs. Appropriately enough, some guy in the crowd approached me before their set and tried to sell me drugs – probably not designer ones though. “Yo bro, you lookin’ for anything?” “Um .. no. Please go away now.” Back to the music: Designer Drugs spun a great set of tunes that had the whole room going crazy. At times, it almost felt like I was partying with the cast of Jersey Shore – there was a lot of fist pumping going on. I’m not sure how many people in the audience caught the sample of Refused’s “New Noise” that they slipped in there, but I certainly did and it was appreciated, as was their use of Hot Butter’s “Popcorn” later in the set. All in all, a good night of music.
I have a very soft place in my enlarged heart for start-up musicians (and I suppose at some point, everyone is a start-up). Call me the equivalent of a patron-of-the-arts Flo Nightingale — there is something I can’t quite resist about people fiddling around in their parents’ houses, eventually graduating to blogosphere public release, and a gig at a dive bar. They might be the next big thing, and they might not. Life is full of randomness, and the thing I like about these music makin’ kids is that such successes or failures seem irrelevant, because either way there is some force within them that is compelling them towards creative expression. There’s a purity in that goal that I find refreshing because it is the very definition of artistic innocence.
Foxes in Fiction‘s Warren Hildebrand fits this bill to a tee, so it should come as no surprise that I was willing to slug it out on a late Thursday night. I wanted to see what this kid was all about, seeing as he’s garnered some attention from Pitchfork (an accomplishment that the relentless show promoter would not let go, but hey, he bought me a beer, so maybe I should let go of the fact that he sounded like he was promoting a liquidation sale in Brampton), and seems to be an all-round nice kid.
I have to admit though, I very much lamented the space that he had to play in. I don’t know if any of you have had the pleasure of going to Tiger Bar (whose name seems counterproductive, seeing as the upstairs part has a bar as well, though at least the bartender here actually responds to you when you call–more than I can say for the dickwad upstairs), but it evokes the feeling of standing in someone’s dodgy basement. Plastic lawn chairs are scattered everywhere, there is garden latticework stapled to the ceiling, and a smell that competes with the Boat’s overwhelming mustiness. On top of that, there is the serious design flaw of having the bar’s supply room smack dab in the centre of the stage, a feature that poor Warren had to compete with throughout his set.
As for the set itself, it started off pretty rockily. Warren is a one-man show, and I sincerely hope he reconsiders this set-up as he progresses, because as our friends from Zaza have commented, requiring one person to play a bajillion different band instruments eventually becomes akin to, “dancing around like a clown onstage”. The first song in his set started off with an oddly long sample that I think was supposed to sound like the beach, but maybe it was wind blowing (there were a couple of instances in which his sample was offbeat his actual guitar playing). Either way, I wasn’t sure what I had committed myself to despite liking the three songs I had skimmed beforehand. But soon after he started in on his guitar, I quickly realized that we had a homegrown next generation Bradford Cox (Deerhunter, Atlas Sound) on our hands.
You would think that I of all people would be receptive to any musician overly derivative of Coxy, and I am. It’s just that so many of the songs I had heard played on the du-woppy flavor of songs like Walkabout (Atlas Sound’s collaboration with Panda Bear), I was left wondering if the kid had any individual musical range whatsoever. He proved me wrong with his last couple of songs, though. One called Rainfall particularly stood out, which he awkwardly dedicated to his friend Ryan. His entire family was in attendance as well, and boy were they ever conspicuous. His mother, grandmother, and siblings attended with a carafe of red wine they were all sharing. Warren even dedicated a song to his “Nana”, and I can’t lie. That warmed the cockles of my heart (the support he enjoyed from his family almost made up for the fact that the band that went on before him were obnoxiously talking throughout his entire set).
I generally give a thumbs-up to the music. You can listen for yourself by downloading the album for free here, but as the Pitchfork review brings across, this is basically more or less an extension of Atlas Sound’s Logos. In terms of the actual stage presence / connection with the audience, I felt the kid was shortchanged. There were only about 15 people in the audience, many of whom I’m certain were personal friends, acquaintances, or blood relatives. In spite of his incredibly stilted awkwardness, he did make some attempts to reach out and touch something only to be met with a fistful of air.
All I can say to young Warren is that I see a lot of potential here. Keep your nose clean, keep making music you love, practice in public, stay humble, and give everyone reason to believe in what you’re doing beyond riding the Pitchfork wave. I want to see another B. Cox, not another Nathan Williams (Wavves).
