Toronto – Through the annals of time, many great philosophers, intellects and scholars have looked into our lives and asked many important questions
“what’s the meaning of life?”
“nature or nurture?”
“is there a higher being?”
however, in 2008, one Brandon Flowers pondered a question so deep, so profound, it blew everyone’s mind. The question being:
“Are we human, or are we dancer?”
In pure awe of this exercise in lyrical brilliance, I had no choice but to attend the Killers concert Sunday night at the Molson Amphitheater. I also attended because my friend D was able to score Pizza Pizza tickets for the show, which were 11 bucks and included tickets to the CNE, where i was able to sample bacon with chocolate on it. YUM!
I’ll be honest, I have not really paid much attention to the Killers since the release of Hot Fuss. I have heard some of the singles off Sam’s Town and I have heard one or two tunes off the new one, but if you asked me to name more then five songs since Hot Fuss, I would not be able to. However, I do quite like the first album quite a bit.
The Molson Amphitheater was packed when we arrived. It was an absolutely beautiful night and I assume most people had spent most of the day at the Ex digesting corn dogs, funnel cakes and other cholesterol delights. We had lawn tickets, so naturally, we found empty spots in the 400 and made our way there. I would say the place was 95% full. At around 9:30, The Killers strutted onto the stage, decorated in Tron-esque lighting and began with the aforementioned “Human”, much to the delight of the crowd.
What can you say about a Killers show? I think if you are a fan of their material (as most people at the Amp was), this was probably a great show. The stage setup was fantastic, there was confetti, they played all the hits and Brandon Flowers went to all sides of the stage so that the girls in the ga section can get a good look at his church boy meets preppy hipster look. For me, I thought the vocals were a bit loud (and grating at times) and frankly, very little of the new material appeals to me. I liked the fact that they covered Joy Division and even made it COMPLETELY OBVIOUS to the fans that they were doing that by playing control in the background during the cover. They also brought out Wolfmother for an Animals cover.
In conclusion, like Coldplay before them, and Kings of Leons after them, The Killers have made the successful transition from indie (and I use this term very loosely) buzz band to very successful “mainstream” band. They have a big stage, a big production and big songs. I got exactly the show I was expecting, and it wasn’t overly bad, and it wasn’t terribly great, but I got to hear the songs that I like, and that made me happy. I’m sure everyone in the crowd felt the same way.
Toronto – Monday nights are generally low key nights for yours truly. I usually sit back, watch my episodes of Entourage and True Blood and relax. I was thinking of continuing my season in Madden 2010 (great game, btw) and generally enjoying a low key atmosphere. However,the kind folks at Nevado Records informed me that The Paint Movement had an emergency opening slot for Brendan Benson at the Mod Club and invited me to show up .. so I did.
One of the things I love about the Mod Club is that it’s only around a 8 minute walk from my place. I guess this is irrelevant to the readers of this article, but just sayin, when you don’t have to trek a long way for a show (or anything in general), your mood is usually pretty good heading in. As expected, the place was pretty empty – it is a Monday night show afterall. I would say there was about 50-75 people in the audience when The Paint Movement took to the stage around 9.
The last time I saw TPM was at their cd release party (i think) at the Rivoli, so seeing them in the Mod Club was a definitely different experience – there was colored lighting, a larger stage and a sharp sound system. The strong sound system definitely benefited the band, as Jason Loftman’s saxophone came out razor sharp, lending a nice full sound to their BSS/Dears/Jazzy influenced music. Playing tracks off their debut LP “Our Eurythmy”, TPM were impressive and standout tracks like Knock Knock and Faults definitely pleased the crowd that was there. I’m not quite sure where the Paint Movement would go from here, but I can definitely see their time of music score big with a nice mature crowd, which fitted perfectly with the main act – Brendan Benson.
Once upon a time, before Jack White and the Raconteurs, Brendan Benson was one of the reigning princes of power pop. His albums “Lapulco” and “An Alternative to Love” were filled with heart felt, honest guitar driven songs that scored Benson fans all across North America. Having recorded and toured with the Raconteurs for a few years, Benson finally made his solo return to Toronto to promote his latest solo effort “My Old Familiar Friend”.
I’ve always thought of Brendan Benson as a hardworking and honest musician, and true to form, Benson and his band came on at a nice early time of 10:15. He probably realized that his fans are probably of the older variety and have real jobs to attend to the next day, so it was highly appreciated that he came on early. Either that or he wanted to get the hell out of town asap. I choose to believe the former. I’ll be completely honest, I haven’t listened to Brendan Benson much in the past five years so I won’t even bother trying to name any songs besides “Spit it Out” and “Cold Hands (Warm Heart)” both of which he played. What I can tell you is that he played a tight set of music, all of which had that Ted Leo-power pop guitar sound to it, and most of it was catchy. The crowd seemed to enjoy itself and Brendan Benson plodded through the show with an workmanlike efficiency. In fact, when he left the stage after what was his “last song”, I looked at my watch (on my phone) and realized that it was only 11. Obviously, BB did as well, and he promptly came back to stage, apologized for only playing 45 minutes and proceeded to play another half an hour worth of tunes. Closing the set with the appropriate “Feel like taking you home”, Brendan Benson nicely reacquainted himself with his fans and everyone was glad to see this old, familiar friend.
I realized the other day that while I’ve talked about the Sunparlour Players a lot, I’ve only written about a show of theirs once on this blog. Ricky reviewed their show at Pop Montreal a while back and I wrote about them as part of my Hillside Festival coverage, but that only had a couple of brief mentions. I’ve written reviews of a couple of plays lead singer/guitarist/banjoist Andrew Penner’s been a part of, The Book of Judith and Reesor, I’ve mentioned them in podcasts, I’ve written comments about them on other posts…but no full-on show review.
But at the same time…I really don’t know what I can say about these guys I haven’t said before. So I guess I’ll say this: Sunparlour Players are fantastic, and if you haven’t seen them play live you’re doing yourself a disservice. Especially if you live in Toronto, because that’s where they’re from too and they play around here a lot.
And their new album, Wave North, which came out in May and I picked up last month, is great, with at least as many really well-done songs as their first one, Hymns for the Happy.
And their live cover of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck must be seen to be believed.
The August 14 show at Theatre Centre, part of the SummerWorks music series, made it the fourth time in 14 months my partner and I had seen Andrew, bassist/keyboardist/clarinetist Dennis Van Dine and drummer/glockenspielist/accordionist Michael Rosenthal play, and they were every bit as spellbinding as the first time.
Featuring the same three kick drums as they did the first time I saw them in Calgary those many months ago, but a bit worse for wear, SPP came out and beat on all three of them as they started the show with “O’Captain” off Wave North. While they didn’t play the wonderful title track from Hymns for the Happy (though they did tease it at one point, singing the opening lines, then launching into another tune) or “Bless This City,” a great track they contributed to the soundtrack for This Beautiful City, they played very nearly everything else during a hot, sweaty set at the sweltering Theatre Centre.
A particular highlight was when, during “Talk It To Death,” the top screw of Andrew’s mike stand came loose, flipping the mike sideways, then upside down, then straight up in the air as he tried to butt it back into place. Instead of taking a break from the song at it’s rowdy “La-la-la-la, La-la-LALALALALOLO” chorus, Andrew instead cortorted himself in different ways while playing guitar to keep it going. He broke at least five guitar strings, he and Michael sweated buckets, and at one point the three of them were playing five instruments at once.
As good as their two albums are, this is a band that’s meant to be seen live. Go see them if you ever have the chance, you’ll be glad you did.
