Concerts

TO Jazz: 2010 Lineup Announced

Posted on April 20, 2010 by Mark in Concerts, Toronto Jazz Festival | 1 Comment

Toronto – The Toronto Jazz Festival lineup has been announced and its solid. This year blends exciting young talent with a number of old masters. It’s interesting is to see some acts combining the old guard with the new generation. Jazz is a music built on tradition and continuity. The music of today is built by standing on the shoulders of the giants of yesterday. It’s cool to see the baton being passed. Here’s a sneak-peak:

Stanley Clark Band featuring Hiromi – June 28

There is little doubt that bassist Stanley Clark is a huge name in the jazz world. His work in the 70’s with Return To Forever helped pioneer the rock-fusion movement in jazz. He’s pairing up with 30 year old Hiromi Uehara, one of the most inventive young pianists around. Hiromi’s style is rooted in blues and jazz, but she uses those roots to explore the music of her generation on her own terms.

Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock & Jack DeJohnette – June 30

Now Keith Jarrett is no longer a member of the young up-and-comers club. He’s one of the most celebrated pianists in the world. But the important thing to remember is that he used to be. There are very few child prodigies in any given field (music, mathematics, celebrity chefs) that grow up and actually fulfill the expectations heaped upon them. Keith Jarrett is one of those rare cats that not only met, but blew away all expectations. He’s playing with long-time collaborators Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette at the Four Seasons Centre.

The Roots – June 29

The jazz festival serves up more than just straight-ahead jazz. Years past have included performances from soul Queen Sharon Jones, and funk legend Maceo Parker (also playing this summer). This year hip hop band The Roots will be bringing their influential music to the mainstage at Nathan Phillips Square.

There’s so much more to talk about: Taj Mahal, Dave Brubeck, Herbie Hancock, and African Guitar Summit. Stay tuned for more previews as the summer heats up.

The Toronto Jazz Festival runs from June 25 to July 4. Check out the full lineup here.

Concert review: Miike Snow, April 3, Phoenix theater

Posted on April 20, 2010 by Gary in Concerts, Everything | Leave a comment

Toronto – I’ve always thought that anything with an antler looks slightly more angry than necessary. You’ll never see a doe on shields or emblems. And you’ll always assume that a stag party has nothing to do with a silent night even if reindeers might run through it carrying a fat man in red-white-trim to said party. So when I saw that rabbit with it antler hanging on the back wall of Phoenix, I assumed that Miike Snow’s show will be like a synthesizer-Rob-Zombie. From what songs I heard prior, I expected them to have a fairly self-involved air. We ran late and missed Delorean, the opener in the early evening, so there was no lead up or contrast. As we stood in the Phoenix theater, it was increasingly clear we were waiting for some snow – it must have been 30C in there. By the time the smoke was puffed out for the laser effects, I was sweating and not about to jump around despite the nature of the music.

Miike Snow came out, not just 3 but 5, each of them sporting a whole piece phantom mask, opening the set with Cult Logic. So I was dead-on, I thought: I feel like I’m listening to horror film villain electropop. The mask came off some time around the 4th song. Andrew Wyatt’s performance reminded me more of Matt Pond… composed but shy and aloof. Their less electronic songs, like Black and Blue and Faker, saw Wyatt singing quite intently – I think he might be more comfortable with the mask on. The electronic duo, though, did not have that problem – they were jumping from beginning to end. So no, I felt that they don’t really take themselves as seriously as the masks suggest, which was comforting in a sense – your ticket money (or a large % of it) wasn’t spent on the stroking of egos. Live version of Silvia had a 2 min long synth extension, a very nice touch that got a lot of crowd appreciation. Long stretches of it didn’t work quite as well though, between other songs. Some times it gets in the way of the vocal and I did have some complaints against. At least there were songs like Burial, which one can just shout out loud. I don’t recall hearing A horse is not a home, which was a bit of a bummer. Together with the smoke effects, the lighting was a new side of the Phoenix theater that I have not seen before – it’s always been “hanging at the bar to the left-hind side because the balcony is too busy”. This time it was “trippy psychedelic blinding laser in my eyeball”. One guess which song they finished the set with? That answer was so clear that by the time first 4 beats were struck the whole room was moving up and down… I seem to remember someone crowd surfing. Yet given Animal’s catchy rhythm I was really disappointed that Toronto did not match the Swedish trio’s enthusiasm. Maybe it’s because they cordoned off the drinking/19-under areas into two. And also I think because it was 9pm at this point, and most were waiting for Phoenix’s 10pm Saturday night party before getting sufficiently drunk. Either way, I’m just happy that they didn’t wear their mascot rabbit, or a taxidermy of one – that would have been one angry-looking rodent. Overall, it was an impressive show with the right type of lightning/ambiance. Sorry, though, that it took me weeks to come up with this review…

Concert Review: The Wedding Present, Girl In A Coma, April 14, The Horseshoe Tavern

Posted on April 17, 2010 by Paul in Concerts, Everything | 4 Comments

The Wedding Present

Toronto – I was feeling pretty tired this night, so it was perhaps appropriate that Girl In A Coma was playing since I felt semi-comatose.  Based on their name and the video that Ricky previously posted, I was expecting something laid back and acoustic based.  I was definitely wrong.  They had more of a punkish sound that at times had a bit of a 90s vibe.  Even their footwear was a bit 90s.  I noticed Doc Martins and canvas sneakers on stage.  Why was I looking at their feet?  I’m not sure …

Instrumentally, they were pretty tight.  Then singer Nina Diaz started singing.  “Well, that’s a bit different,” I thought.  She has a powerful wailing dramatic kind of voice that reminded me of … someone, not sure who.  Maybe Joan Jett or even a little bit of PJ Harvey.  The Joan Jett comparison is probably pretty valid since they are actually signed to Joan Jett’s record label.  Each line she sang was punctuated by her overemotive facial expressions, which actually worked quite well.  They had a lot of stage presence and were very talented musicians, although the most memorable song they played was a cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Femme Fatale,” which I suppose bodes well for their new covers album, Adventures In Coverland. 

I will admit that before this show, all I knew about The Wedding Present was that they were a British band who had been around for awhile and were highly regarded by some.  The band took to the stage to a rapturous response from a crowd of diehard fans.  “You’re a noisy lot, aren’t you?  Blimey!” said frontman David Gedge.  Yes, he actually said “blimey.”  More than once.  This proves that he is indeed a Very British Man.  The band was pretty intense and totally impressed me (as I said, I really didn’t know much about them before this).  Starting off with a few new songs (which Gedge prefaced by saying “you’ll probably love them in 3 years”), they then launched into a song by song recreation of their 1989 album, Bizarro.  As I said, the crowd absolutely loved it.  Speaking of the crowd, I believe this show had the highest concentration of madly dancing, old-ish bald dudes I have ever seen in one place as well as some guy who chose to remove his shirt and wave it around.  I think shirtless guy may have been affiliated with the guys who brought a blow up doll with them for whatever reason.  Said doll was later tossed into the crowd like a beach ball or something.  I’m guessing these guys don’t go out to that many shows anymore and wanted to make this one a really special one or something.  Regardless of that, it was a pretty good show. 

Concert Review: The Morning Benders, April 14, Drake Hotel

Posted on April 16, 2010 by Ricky in Concerts, Music | 3 Comments

Toronto – If you read our blog on a regular basis (and why wouldn’t you), you will know that we kinda like The Morning Benders. For a quick intro, they are a band from San Francisco/Berkeley that uses harmonized vocals, shoe gazey guitars and nice slow buildups all wrapped up in a Grizzly Bear-ish calmness. Wednesday night marked their return to Toronto, and they were there to promote their latest effort – Big Echo. Me, Gary and a bunch of his lab mates showed up. I didn’t really talk to them though, because I find that when you talk to a bunch of people of the same discipline, they tend to all talk about the same thing, and it’s hard to make conversation, specially when you don’t know anything about whatever molecular neutron electro charge physics discipline that they are in. Sure, I could have made some overtly sexist/racist joke, and then amuse myself with the absolutely horrified look on their faces, but these are my friend’s friends, so I had to respect that.

The band took the stage promptly at 11:00. PROMPTLY. True sign the band is operated by Asians. The thing that still amazes me is how young these guys are. I swear to god most of the band is like 18 or so. I look at them and I imagine what it would have been like if I had stayed in my basement and learned to play instruments and write songs when I was growing up instead of playing ball hockey, watching 1$ movies and picking on my friend’s siblings. How different life would have been.

The Morning Benders played around 45 minutes, basically covering all songs on the album. Despite his best efforts, Chris Chu was unable to generate a dance floor for some of the more upbeat numbers such as Cold War (Nice Clean Fight), such is life playing shows in Toronto man. In terms of stage presence, the band is still clearly finding it’s groove. While lead singer Chris Chu is slowly learning the ropes of being a lead (playful interactions, carefully timed winks, grooving), the rest of the band more or less just stand there looking partially horrified like it’s Saturday afternoon and they have to recite a passage in mandarin to their teacher. Yes, Saturday afternoon. Still, the music stands for itself, The Morning Benders music is a slow tempo, low key sound that focuses on progression and layering instead of manic jangly guitar action so I guess it makes sense to just take it easy on stage as well. One thing is for certain, the band can do harmonics and they can definitely sing and hit their notes. Given their type of music, it’s a great talent to have.

The last song of the night was Excuses. Everyone knew this would be the last song, and when the Chris Chu said “this is our last song, it’s called ‘Excuses'” the whole crowd knew it was the last song and there would be no encore (which I am a fan of). This song is simply, awesome live. I am going to quote myself (from twitter) for this:

If the morning benders were the Cleveland cavaliers then ‘excuses’ is definitely Lebron James. that song kills

Is it lame that I just quoted myself? or is it awesome? I’ll let you decide. Like I mentioned last week, this song just slays the crowd. It’s got a dramatic buildup, a great sing a long and a wailing wall of sound guitar finish that leaves everyone in a daze. What was even better for this night at the Drake was that Chris Chu’s looping microphone broke. If you have seen them perform this show live, he usually uses a mic to record parts of his “da dum ba dum” parts live, and then sings over it (kinda like what Final Fantasy does with his violin). The mic was not working in this scenario, so instead he had to construct basically a 3 part choir (split into left of stage, middle and right of stage) and basically conducted the sing-a-long part. Awesome.

Overall a great song to end off a stellar show. Everyone left happy.

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