Concerts

Concert Review: Massive Attack, May 9th, Sound Academy

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Brian in Concerts | 8 Comments

Image courtesy B. Mayer’s Flickr Photostream, licensed under Creative Commons. Taken during “Teardrop” during Massive Attack’s Melbourne, Australia show. It looked pretty much the same in Toronto.

You know, I’d never seen the same band in quick succession during a single tour before this weekend. The list of bands I’d even consider going to two shows in, say, the same weekend is pretty short.

But Massive Attack is at the top of that list, so after attending Friday’s Massive Attack show at Sound Academy with a select few members of the Panic Manual family, I ventured to Sound Academy again on Sunday, alone, to see my favourite band of the past 12 years or so for the second time in three days as a kind of pre-30th birthday present to myself.

Before I give my thoughts, you’d best read Ricky’s review of Friday’s show first. Look at the set list he gives for sure, because it was the same on Sunday. And now, since I’m not very into paragraphs today and can’t really organize my thoughts coherently after two late night shows in three days (I am about to turn 30, after all), here’s some loosely connected observations and opinions of Massive Attack weekend:

– Everything Ricky says about how bad Sound Academy is is true. I’d actually never been to this venue before, and it’s everything Ricky’s frequent bitching about it says it is. The sound system is good, and at least on Sunday the fire alarm didn’t go off repeatedly like it did Friday. But it’s an awful venue.

– I personally think Ricky’s 4-rating of Friday’s show was generous. I felt for whatever reason the band didn’t really hit their stride until “Angel,” which was only two songs from the encore break. Considering my sky-high expectations going in I probably would’ve given it a 3.

– That said, Sunday’s show seemed a lot tighter for two reasons: Martina Topley-Bird was better, and Robert Del Naja (aka 3D) was more engaged early on. Even during tunes he wasn’t singing, 3D was dancing, moving around the stage like the de facto frontman/conductor that he is, and was generally a lot more lively than on Friday. I still found there was a lull in the middle of the set before the band exploded into “Angel,” but it didn’t encompass the whole first half of the show like it did on Friday night.

– I fully believe that Massive Attack playing “Angel” is perhaps the greatest concert experience I have had and will ever have. Horace Andy just kills this song live. The way this dark, brooding tune builds and how loud the guitar riff comes in and hits you full force…it’s magic, it really is. They could play this song at the beginning, middle and end of their set and I would love it every time.

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Concert Review: Broken Social Scene, May 9, Sonic Boom!

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Brent in Concerts | 1 Comment

Toronto – To show appreciation for their fans a few days after their fifth album Forgiveness Rock Record was released, Broken Social Scene came up with the clever idea of four in-store concerts Sunday at Criminal Records (2pm), Rotate This (4pm), Soundscapes (6pm), and Sonic Boom (8pm). The album was coincidentally released on the same day as New Pornographers’ Together album.

One could call it an east coast vs. west coast indie super-group rivalry or just some fictitious marketing ploy done up in an article a couple weeks ago by New York Magazine. Either way, one of the hardest working bands in Canadian rock today were still full of energy after a long day and able to plough out a set of just under an hour in the sweaty basement of Sonic Boom. Two lines snaked throughout the store with the “non-ticket holders” line being far longer. The band’s crew was in the back room entertaining themselves with friends and family all out in support. It’s always a family affair at a BSS show and this was no different tonight with Kevin Drew bringing his parents along to celebrate Mother’s Day, even singing his mother a slightly satirical ballad to thank her for all the support over the years. Along with Drew, Brendan Canning, Charles Spearin, Andrew Whiteman, Justin Peroff, Lisa Lobsinger, and Sam Goldberg rounded out the main lineup. As well, Julie Doiron was invited on stage to sing with Lobsinger on Anthems for a 17 Year Old Girl and their horn section on several other songs. Broken Social Scene begin their European tour in London this Thursday.

Concert Review: Shout Out Louds, May 9, 2010, Mod Club

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Ricky in Concerts | 1 Comment

Toronto – After the political drama known as Massive Attack on Friday night, I was ready for something more simpler, more fun. Luckily, The Shout Out Louds were in town. The Swedish bands put on a show Saturday night at the Mod Club in promotion of their new album Work. Being a large fan of their sophomore album Our Ill Wills, I was definitely excited for this show. I honestly haven’t had the time to fully submerge myself into their new album yet and so I figured this show would be a good introduction to it.

Before we get to the show, let me question the masses – how do you feel about early shows? It seems all weekend shows at the Phoenix or Mod Club are early shows. I guess concert goers don’t drink enough to warrant a club to have people there on a weekend night, so they always make the show end at around 10. I’m not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, you can have a show and still go out on the town if it ends at 10, on the other hand, it feels kinda crappy to have to be in a club at 8 pm. That’s usually dinner time!. Also, if the show is crappy and it ends at 10, then you are in a crappy mood for the rest of the night. I guess it’s a mixed bag. Ideally, I think shows should end at say..11 – 11:30. This still leaves you with ample amount of time to go to bars or clubs and get into trouble.

Finding the show started at 8:30 kind of changed up my game plan quite drastically. I was hoping to catch all of the Penguins/Canadiens game before slowly going for pre-drinks and then hitting the show as the final act. Instead, I was at the Mod Club during the Penguins game, which left me in a distracted state.

The distraction soon left shortly after the band took the stage. Sharply dressed in white dress shirts and black pants, the Shout Out Louds took the stage and quickly launched into 1999. For the crowd, it was pretty much the start of a 90 minute dance session. The Shout Out Louds are a tight band and I was impressed with the variety of instruments they used to generate the indie-pop-with-some-twee-elements anthems they were singing. Bebban Stenborg, the lone female, was especially impressive, going from accordian to drums to keyboards to other devices, all while look mildly bored. We were wondering if she would crack a smile the entire night. Gary might disagree, but I had no idea the Shout Out Louds had this many indie pop anthems. It seemed like every song they played had an epic sounding chorus, one that would reach for the skie and lift the hopes and dreams of the swooning fans with them.

The show was well over an hour and I was very impressed. The energy the band gave out in the live setting definitely is something I didn’t expected since a lot of their songs on the album are a bit more subdued. Obvious highlights for me were the hits The Comeback, Tonight I have to Leave it (featuring a crowd invasion) and Impossible. I was actually getting worried that Impossible was not going to get played, as it wasn’t played on the first set. Luckily, it was the first song of the encore and it was great. Even though the new album hasn’t gotten as much love as the Our Ill Wills, it seemed to mesh pretty well with the other two albums in a live setting.

All in all, a good show and left everyone all pumped up and ready to roll on a Saturday night, so maybe an early start wasn’t that bad.

Concert Review: Massive Attack, May 7th, Sound Academy

Posted on May 9, 2010 by Ricky in Concerts, Everything | 8 Comments

Toronto – When Massive Attack last toured Toronto, they played what I thought was the best show of 2006 at the Carlu so it’s fair to say expectations were high heading into Friday night’s show. Dampening those expectations were the fact that the show was taking place at the Sound Academy, a venue I despise. People often (never) ask me why I hate this place so much, so lets list the facts:

1. It’s in the middle of nowhere. Unless you have a car, this place is pretty much a cab it there and cab it back place, adding to the overall cost of the show. It’s practically impossible to get a cab after the show too. Shows at the Sound Academy are never cheap either, so this just makes it an expensive night in general. Well I’m cheap so I guess to me it’s an expensive night.

2. It’s narrow. The Sound Academy basically is a long narrow rectangle, with the stage at the end of a the end of the long part of the rectangle. It becomes super congested at a sold out show, because there is little ways to move left and right, and everyone is always pushing forward. While this long and narrow formation may have worked for Napoleon in war, it’s awful to be anywhere but near the front at Sound Academy.

3. The stage is low. Problem #2 would be less of a problem if the stage was about 5 feet higher, the sight lines are awful since the stage is raised only a few feet above the ground. These two brown girls behind me had to keep on tippy toeing to see the band. Totally felt sorry for them, but I wasn’t gonna offer up my spot..haha.

4. The fire alarm doesn’t know the different between smoke machine and fire. The fire alarm went off at least 3 times during the show, distracting for sure.

Having said all that, the Sound Academy does have a fantastic sound system, so I guess that’s why a band as meticulous as Massive Attack would want to play there.

Originally, I had practically written an essay about the show, but my computer decided to freeze before I could save it and my heart is a bit broken at this point so I’ll just do a capsule of what I wrote.

The light show was fantastic. It was usually synced up to the song and the bars of light dominating the stage gave the band a great visual aspect to the show that only enhanced each song played. Some people might complain that the amount of political text, quotes, anti war/us sentiments and other words showed on the screen during the song might be a distraction, but if you know Massive Attack, you know they aren’t ones to just idly play a show without pushing forward some of their own ideologies. I think most of the crowd was super high anyways, so it was just a collage of colors.

Angel and Safe from Harm were amazing. Angel is one of the best songs you can see live – it’s got an extremely slow , tense buildup. I think it’s one of those songs that best exemplifies dread. As Horace Andy sings the song and it builds to its eventual payoff, the lights grow dimmer and dimmer and then BAM. A blast of light and the wailing guitars. Definitely one of the songs live that you get the chills from. With Shara Nelson long gone, Deborah Miller has definitely made Safe from Harm hers. Her strong pipes lifted this song to epic proportions with an extended outro that featured bass lines so dirty you felt like you should take a shower afterwards.

One of the things I loved about Massive Attack concerts are the extended intros and outros to each song. Most people might write off Massive Attack as trip hoppy chill music, but in a live element, there is nothing chilled about it, it’s an electro-rock spectacle.

The new material sounded decent live, but clearly they were still fleshing it out as a live band and while there were good responses to Splitting the Atom and Atlas Air, Pysche, featuring Martina Topley Bird, got less of a positive response.

Overall, the show was good considering it was at the Sound Academy. 3D, Daddy G and Horace Andy have insane stage presence and Daddy G and Horace Andy definitely come off as two of the coolest cats in the land. It goes without saying that Massive Attack is a must see live.

United Snakes
Babel
Risingson
Girl, I Love You
Psyche
Future Proof
Invade Me
Teardrop
Mezzanine
Angel
Safe From Harm
Inertia Creeps

Splitting The Atom
Unfinished Symphony
Atlas Air
Karmacoma

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