Concerts

Concert Review: Caribou and Toro Y Moi, May 3rd, Phoenix

Posted on May 7, 2010 by sarahw in Concerts | 1 Comment

Toronto – First of all let’s talk about how much I love band names that are so obviously Canadian: Great Lake Swimmers, Rural Alberta Advantage, The Besnard Lakes, Bruce Peninsula, Metric (okay not Canada specific, but clearly NOT American) and the focus of this review, Caribou.

I recently fell in love with Odessa the single from Caribou’s second album Swim, it is a melodious departure from the first album. This likable tune with the funky bassline has been on high rotation on my iPod for the past couple of months.

Caribou announced a North American tour to be kicked off in Toronto with Toro Y Moi opening (I missed Toro in March when his equipment was stolen in Brooklyn). The show was at Phoenix so I thought, why not.

Toro y Moi

Toro y Moi had previously toured solo with Ruby Suns, on the Caribou tour he acquired a bassist and drummer. Toro is the hottest kid in the chillwave movement and has taken the industry by storm with rave reviews for his Causers of This debut album. Live, he was okay. The band admitted that they were nervous, as it was their first time playing together in front of an audience. They definitely nailed all the songs and rocked their funky hit Low Shoulder, but I must say this performance didn’t particularly activate my dance shoes like I thought it would.

Caribou

Caribou came out backed by a simple projected image of the Swim album cover, but their performance was anything but simple…

First sign of a good show, Dan Snaith (Caribou mastermind) began by singing and playing lead guitar, halfway through the song he hauls the guitar onto his back, sits down and starts playing the keyboard – still singing. This was how the whole set went down, not only did Dan rock lead vocals, guitar, keyboard and drums but during Odessa he busted out a recorder and wowed the crowed with that little white pipe!

Being an all ages show there was no one was standing near the stage (boozers were at the back), my friends and I took position at the front because I enjoy watching musicians in action. I suggest getting close at this show, watching Caribou play live is quite hypnotizing, both albums are instrumental-heavy so seeing what goes into each song was extremely entertaining.

The greatest part about this show was when Dan Snaith played drums along with the lead drummer (Brad Weber of Pick a Piper). In my mind, having two drummers is extremely difficult to pull off because of the precise timing needed. These drum duets were executed with such precision that it actually sounded like one drummer with astoundingly complex beats.

It is apparent that Caribou are meticulous about practicing because their show is literally flawless, every tune is impeccably tight yet very detailed. I came away from this show with two things: Leave House as my new Caribou high rotation tune and an extremely high regard for Dan Snaith, you’ve got to hand it to a musical mastermind that also has a PHD in Mathematics.

Concert Review: Sia, April 28, Phoenix Concert Theatre

Posted on May 6, 2010 by Brian in Concerts | 2 Comments

Toronto – There is a pretty serious side to Sia Furler. Her first love died in a car accident. She speaks openly in interviews and on her popular Twitter account about all the therapy she’s been through. She’s become an icon in the LGBT community after she came out about dating girls and being bisexual. Her best known tune, “Breathe Me,” is a real heartbreaker, and her first two albums, Healing is Difficult (2000) and Colour the Small One (2004) are deeply introspective.

None of this is really evident in her live show, as Sia is easily the cutest, most adorable stage presence I’ve ever seen. The Australian singer popped up onstage at the Phoenix on April 28 with what she called a “light up penis” on her head and proceeded to bounce through an hour and a half set heavy with tunes from her more recent and upbeat albums Some People Have Real Problems from 2008 and We Are Born, set to be released next month.

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Concert Review: Stars, May 5th, Mod Club

Posted on May 6, 2010 by Brent in Concerts | 6 Comments

Toronto – Security Lady: “Stars are on at 10:30pm”. It’s 9:30. Alright, we have an hour so let’s pop over to Il Gatto Nero for a quick one before going in. We drink up and head back over and make it in for 10:15 and Stars are already on. Of course. The sold out Mod Club was steamy with hundreds of us packed in like sardines. Even though we were standing at the very back by the soundboard for the first half of the show the heat still made you uncomfortable so I could only imagine what those poor poor bastards twenty feet in front of us were feeling. Man, I guess it’s not 1998 anymore and I’m a huge wuss.

The purpose of this tour is for Stars to showcase their new album The Five Ghosts by playing it from beginning to end (Release date is June 22). Going to a show knowing in advance that the band will be playing all new material may make the biggest fans pass, stay at home and watch the playoffs but Stars fans were out in full force. This only leaves me to conclude that Stars fans hate hockey. The day of the show I checked craigslist to see what people were asking for tickets just for the hell of it. Some guy was asking for $125 a ticket and even had the gall to say “no lowballers”. Douchebags continue to walk amongst us.

All in all, the new album sounded pretty decent with lots of synths and strong vocals shared between Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan. Torquil encouraged the crowd to buy the vinyl and then rip it on to their computers even though I didn’t see a merch table anywhere. Slightly ironic considering The Five Ghosts sounds much more electronic than their prior albums as well as the Mod Club having some insanely complicated-looking digital soundboard. In the middle of their first set Torquil put his white jacket on which I’m pretty sure he wore at Queen Elizabeth Hall last time I saw them. This puzzled me considering the heat. Amy was much more appropriately dressed wearing a small sparkly blue dress with high heels. Pretty hot when you add an electric guitar to the mix.

After they completed the first part of their set they took a ten-minute break. I went outside to get some fresh air and while walking out Jian Ghomeshi was walking in with a couple buddies. I only overheard him say “yeah, I’ve just been really busy lately”. In all fairness, he does work his tail off and he’s gaining more respect from me lately but mostly because of the musical guests he’s been interviewing (The Weakerthans, Los Campesinos!, MGMT, Broken Social Scene ,The National, Neko Case, Sonic Youth, etc.). I guess he doesn’t really book the guests though so maybe he needs to work harder to gain my respect. Also, he stole a cab from me once on Queen Street a couple years ago. True story. Jian must have only caught the second set though because of him being so super busy. Stars continued with my personal favourite song Your Ex-lover is Dead and played several other favourites like Elevator Love Letter and Ageless Beauty while throwing white flower petals in to the crowd. We were able to watch the rest of the show from the balcony which was less stuffy, crowded and closer to a bar and bathroom. Bonus. They played a one-song encore.

Setlist was as follows (courtesy of Wade):

First set:

“Dead Hearts”
“Wasted Daylight”
“I Died So I Could Haunt You”
“Fixed”
“We Don’t Want Your Body”
“He Dreams He’s Awake”
“Never Been Good with Change”
“The Passenger”
“The Last Song Ever Written”
“How Much More”
“Winter Bones”

Second Set:

Your Ex Lover Is Dead
Take Me to The Riot
Elevator Love Letter
Heart
Ageless Beauty
One More Night
Calendar Girl

Concert Review: Yeasayer, May 1st, Lee’s Palace

Posted on May 5, 2010 by sarahw in Concerts, Everything | 1 Comment

“One’s not enough, I won’t stop ‘til I’ve given you up” O.N.E – Yeasayer

That line was my motto for the entire Yeasayer concert, I wanted this show to go on forever.

I bought Yeasayer tickets way back in December as a partially last-minute, partially self-serving Christmas present for my two roommates and I. At that point only familiar with their first album, All Hour Cymbals which I’d classify as psychedelic experimental pop, I liked the band but wasn’t overly excited tosee them. Their second album, Odd Blood really stepped it up with the genre-crossing tunes which made the album more diverse, catchy, and pop-ish while still staying true to their experimental layered psychedelic sound. After a few listens I was now very interested to see how this album would translate into a live performance.

Arriving half way through the Sleigh Bells set (openers) I saw immediately that I didn’t miss much. The band consists of a guitarist, accompanied by the frontwoman screaming out their electric-rock tunes. Personally I liked listening to them on my iPod better than seeing them live. Too much screaming (I’m actually 24, not 95 as that statement implies).

Yeasayer came out, five members strong and opened with The Children and Strange Reunions, their slower more offbeat tracks from Odd Blood. The band consists of two vocalists, one on keys and guitar, the other on the mixer, a bass player who also does back-up vocals, a keyboardist/mixer/guitar player and a drummer.

About 15 minutes into their set, that distinctive and somewhat tribal Rome riff was played and by then Yeasayer had the crowd hooked. Song order to me is very important and I enjoy it when bands start off with their more obscure tunes and do a slow build to their more catchy, popular ones (this should be a given in my opinion).

They played a few older songs, Wait for Summer, 2080 and Tightrope which were good but Odd Blood is a lot more bright and upbeat so I’m glad they stuck to the new material. 75% of the way through the set they got to O.N.E., one of Yeasayer’s most recognized songs, the catchy chorus paired with a very eclectic and again, tribal sound re-energized the crowd. They continued their momentum by playing Mondegreen with it’s driving clap-like beat, Madder Red and ending with the very motivational and first single, Ambling Alp.

Listening to Yeasayer’s albums is one thing, but to see these guys do everything live themselves was amazing. Their songs are so complex, full of loops, layers and creative sounds (at one point a mariachi shaker was being used as a drumstick). Doesn’t get much better than this as far as live shows go and I would suggest being close to the front because it’s fun to watch all the action on stage.

When Yeasayer exited, the crowd immediately chanted them back out and they returned to play Grizelda and Sunrise. If could be so bold, this is one of the best concerts I’ve seen in Toronto.

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