Concerts

CMW: 2010 Festival Highlights

Posted on March 29, 2010 by Mark in Canadian Music Week, Concerts | 1 Comment

Toronto – Well the dust has settled on another Canadian Music Week. I’ve had an opportunity to take a step back and have a good think about the shows I’ve seen, so I’m ready for my recap.

Best show:
It’s a tie between Plants & Animals and the last 20 minutes that I saw of the Handsome Furs set. I’m going to go with the Handsome Furs because it was so intense and energetic.

Best show from a band you have never heard before:
Bahamas. He is a solid guitar player and singer. Of the Jason  Collett/Zeus/Bahams trifecta, it was the aesthetic of the Bahamas songs that I was most drawn too. In terms of musicianship, he seemed like a cut-above his band mates.

Worst show:
The angry music during the middle of the Constantines set at the Indie music awards had me high-tailing it out of the Royal York before they were finished.

Best CMW moment:
The Handsome Furs encore. Because encores are so rare at music festivals like CMW that have strict set times, and because it was so good.

Worst CMW moment:
There are two worst CMW moments. The first would be showing up early to see Joel Plaskett, only to wait in line for the better part of an hour in the cold windy rain. On top of that, they were running behind so the doors opened late.

The second is a vicarious moment. I met a young woman who was so discouraged about the Plants & Animals lineup that she decided to forego that show to make sure she got to see the Handsome Furs. She arrived at the El Mocambo early but accidentally went upstairs instead of downstairs. When she realized her mistake, they wouldn’t let her in downstairs. This was a shared culpability situation, but better handlers at the door could have easily avoided this problem.

Here were Paul’s moments at CMW

Best Show: Parlovr @ Sneaky Dee’s. It was 2 AM. They seemed totally drunk, off the cuff, and a little bit goofy, but still blew me away with their songs and their stage presence (which was actually probably due to the apparent drunkenness) and proved that they were more than just another band of Montreal hipsters.

Best show from a band you have never heard before: A tie between The Atlas Moth And P.O.S.

Worst show: Nothing totally sucked, but Homicide @ The Comfort Zone was a bit of a letdown. Mind you, I only caught like 1 or 2 songs.

Best CMW moment: Separado! That movie just made me feel good.

Worst CMW moment: The mandatory coatcheck at The Phoenix. I’m fine with keeping my coat on, thank you very much.

Concert Review: The Wave Pictures, Maylee Todd, White Suede, March 25, Drake Hotel

Posted on March 29, 2010 by Ricky in Concerts | 3 Comments

Toronto – On Wednesday night, at Royal Albert Hall in London, England, my favorite band ever, Suede was playing some charity show for cancer or something. It was the first time they had played for seven years or something, and I wasn’t there. Did you know it costs $2500 to fly to England for one night and then come back the next night? Seriously. I know. Too expensive. As I laid there on the floor in a fetal position crying, I realized that I would be watching a band called Suede this week anyway. This didn’t make me feel any better, but that’s the way life goes I guess. The band was actually named White Suede, who were playing a triple bill at the No Shame showcase on Thursday night, also featuring Toronto singer Maylee Todd and British band The Wave Pictures.

White Suede – I didn’t know much about this band going in, so I’ll refer to the PR email for an introduction. According to the email, White Suede “is the latest incarnation of a collaboration between songwriter Daniel Bedard, guitarist and band leader Adrian Traub-Rees and soulful diva extraordinaire Kritty Urinowski”. I don’t know they are, but it so happened that Thursday night was the band’s first performance ever. A band’s first public live performance is always interesting..everything either goes right, or everything falls apart. Luckily for White Suede, it was the former and not the latter. A large 7 piece band, White Suede consisted of drummers, synth player, bass, guitar and three vocalist – two of them females. Joe from Mechanical Forest Sound likened their appearance to that of the Commitments, something I didn’t realize at the time, but is completely true. The fourty minute set consisted of energetic music that is influenced from 70s rock mixed with some soul and Motown vibes. All the songs seemed very radio friendly and had a classic innocent kinda vibe to it. There was synchronized dancing moves between the two female singers and overall, it was fairly entertaining – especially for a first show ever.

Maylee Todd and Pegwee Powe – Next up on the bill was Toronto singer/songwriter Maylee Todd. You may know her as the singer on various Woodhands songs. I would classify her set as a smorgasbord of sounds and genre. A real bass, harp, accordion and various other instruments were used throughout the set, which features elements of pop, jazz, soul, motown and funk. One constant among all the songs is the use of Maylee Todd’s voice – which is powerful, clear and sharp. I really like songs that were more soul/funk oriented and to me, that might be the best use of Maylee Todd’s talents. It seemed like she was dabbling in many different genres in order to experiment or maybe she gets too bored if she consistently does one thing, but to me, her soul/funk stuff is definitely the best. Either way, the set was once again, energetic, sometimes disorganized but all in all very pleasant. The lyrics didn’t really make sense sometimes and the banter was a bit awkward at times, but I still enjoyed the set.

The Wave Pictures – I think the Wave Pictures takes the award for the shortest sound check/setup time ever. I swear, they did it in 10 minutes. It was impressive and made me happy. I guess this is one of the benefits of having a simple drum/guitar/bass setup. It’s a real shame that only 50 or 60 people were in the audience for their set because the Wave Pictures delivered a really honest, catchy dose of folk rock with clever lyrics and observations. Casually talking about the Queen, shopping for vinyl at Rotate this and problems crossing the borders, the band seemed to engage the audience as old friends rather then people who paid to see them, making the show quite intimate. There were definitely some hardcore fans in the audience who seemed to know lyrics to every song and I am sure they are quite happy with the set. The 40 minute set consisted mainly of songs off the recent albums Instant Coffee Baby and If You Leave It Alone. All 3 members of the band shared vocal duties including drummer Jonny Helms, who much to the delight of the crowd, sang Now That You’re Pregnant as the set closer. Good times all around.

All in all, a pleasant night of pleasant music.

SXSW review: Maps and Atlases, March 17, Peckerheads

Posted on March 26, 2010 by Gary in Concerts, Everything, South By Southwest | 2 Comments

Maps and atlases, SXSW, March 17
Austin, TX – Peckerheads was relatively empty when I strolled in after a hectic Morning Benders set in the always crowded Emo’s Jr. A rock trio was on stage. And after they’ve finished I wondered why no one was preparing for the next gig. It turns out that they have 2 parallel stages, and I had almost missed Maps and Atlases‘ opener when I found out. They drew out a good number of folks considering it’s a Wednesday afternoon. Easily 150 people packed into a room 25’x60’ to see Dave, the furry frontman (our nickname for him is now teddybearman) and the rest of the band play. Similar to (maybe even more so than) Ra Ra Riot, Maps and Atlases hardly follows a lead-in, chorus, repeat recipe. Instead their tunes consist of small guitar/bass and vocal pieces that you might arrange as you like. They follow into each other nicely, but doesn’t sound like any order is necessary. The melody is also not in accord with your expectation, which is very cool to listen to… but being the choir boy I’m at a loss of what to hum when I’m listening to them… it creates a little frustration. My labmate’s favorite from them, the Ongoing Horrible, can literally be played on repeat forever (and is actually the only one I could sing to). Live, they sounded very clear and crisp. I think their strong suit must be the guitar scores. Witch might be everyone’s choice. Their CDs, however, can be difficult to track down. I tried twice to find it without success. Apparently way too few were made in the first pressing – this is from teddybearman’s manager who took a break from dancing vigorously to speak to me. Always a good sign to see that people are into their work! Go and see Maps and Atlases – they are coming to Toronto again in May. Let’s hope they bring that CD pressing machine with them.

Maps and atlases, SXSW, March 17

SXSW review: Temper Trap, Dr. Dog, March 19, Cedar street courtyard

Posted on March 26, 2010 by Gary in Concerts, South By Southwest | 1 Comment

Temper Trap, SXSW, March 19, Cedar Courtyard
Austin, TX – Ricky has already mentioned how the panicmanual crew are consistently impressed by Cedar street’s ability to host awesome parties. We saw some of the best shows there last year, including White Lies. Obviously that’s not solely our opinion, so when we reached the tree-lined courtyard, the lineup was 150 strong, past the Truluck restaurant – which really make one wish he/she made reservations for seafood and can just drop into the courtyard afterward. After some baking in the sun, we were ushered in via the backdoor (thank you Filter!) and directly to the front of the house. Delta Spirits had almost finished and the set went quiet for awhile. It erupted again when a Philippino-dude strutted down the side-stairs. I had no idea, initially, who these guys are. And they started playing Sweet Disposition:

sweet disposition,
never too soon
oh reckless abandon like no one’s watching you

a moment, a love,
a dream, a laugh,
a kiss, a cry,
our rights, our wrongs

The Temper Trap, Filter Party, March 19, Cedar street courtyard, SXSW 2010

I might add that you can clearly hear these lyrics – which is rare at a rock concert. I think the crowd melted on the spot, and the rest was really history. Temper trap displayed all the right characteristics of a larger-than-life rock band, including just enough theatrics and attitude. The Australian group had already been well-received – 500 days of summer featured the song above, and their songs have had more plays than a lot of the indie bands featured here, also evident by the fact that they’ve sold out at an upcoming show (Mod Club) in Toronto. I guess they’re a Killers kind of band? Their myspace mentioned they are melodramatic – I don’t know about that, but they’re definitely catchy and can be mood-building. Drums are a clear constant in their tunes – the intermissions are often just solo vocal/guitar with drums. In fact there’s a number called “drum song” – which the vocal (who, btw, has a thin falsetto that’s quite good) used as a showcase to wow the crowd – dumping water on the drums and creating something of a taiko moment. When I listened to the album afterward there were a few snippets here and there that I could link to other famous songs – there’s one riff that I can swear is from Hotel California, and I kept wanting to compare their hooks to Thievery Corp., although I don’t know if that’s really appropriate. Also showcased at SXSW was: Love Lost, Down River, and Resurrection. Overall, Temper trap was definitely the surprise hit of SXSW this year for me.

Dr. Dog, Filter Party, March 19, Cedar street courtyard, SXSW 2010
Dr. Dog came on after Local Natives, as the anchor of the Filter party. I had listened to them prior to SXSW and expected them to a bit mellow – obviously I was mistaken. The guitars and the bass were constantly wriggling on the stage! Many of their songs actually have a heavy Beatles feel. The Breeze, and Hang on, for example, for me draws parallel with  and Mother Nature’s son and Hey Jude. Far from being unoriginal, however, Dr. Dog has their own brand of lifestyle rock; you’d want to: first sing along, then change your outlook on life (regret, break-down, and cry optional) and then go live on the Californian coast with copious amounts of mushrooms. Ok, maybe only I do and I’m projecting. I had doubts that some of the songs can be played while totally rocking out instead of the polite proper rock of Beatles. I guess it works fine. The crowd really enjoyed their energy – evident from the number of people who streamed in to see them. But my pet-peeve is an incongruity between their song and stage presence. Their music deserves a listen aside – there are suppressed tones that suggest good o’times passed, and other quirks that just didn’t come to me while live. Their myspace will give you a very good idea of what I’m talking about. I’m looking forward to Dr. Dog recreating their album’s feeling on stage. That will be very good times indeed.

Dr. Dog, Filter Party, March 19, Cedar street courtyard, SXSW 2010

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