Concerts

CMW March 12: Sirius Satellite Showcase, El Mocambo

Posted on March 15, 2009 by guestwriter in Canadian Music Week, Concerts | 3 Comments

Toronto – Canadian Music week is in full swing in the heart of the city this weekend. Although sparse in the early part of the evening, the Elmo soon filled up on Thursday night for a French Canadian extravaganza hosted by Sirius Satellite Radio.

Duchess Says

Duchess Says

We arrived in the midst of the cacophony of Duchess Says, where singer Annie-Claude was serenading the crowd with her unique brand of intense scream-singing metal and dance punk. Thankfully the set was a mix of anger metal and dance-punk, which was a much more head-boppably well received. Extra points for her stage presence, but this girl is one crazy version of Peaches. Instead of hurling obscenities, she spits a melange of beer and gum.

This girl is one crazy version of Peaches. Instead of hurling osbcenities, she spits a melange of beer and gum.

Extra points for her over-the-top stage presence. At one point we thought there was some crazy drunk in the midst of the crowd causing a ruckus by hurling beer with abandon. We were expecting the bouncers to come in and deal, but then realized it was little wrath-of-Annie herself; dancing and rolling on the floor, grabbing innocent bystanders and showering them with dance punk and beer. Well done. There were no chewing-gum-hair casualties during the making of this set.

Radio Radio

Radio Radio

Next up was Radio Radio—an electronic rapping foursome from New Brunswick, recently coming of a performance at the East Coast Music Awards. This Acadian troupe sang in Chiac, a uniquely Canadian dialect of English and French—a little something we’d like to call Franglais. Although full of energy, we found the whole enchilada to be frat-boyish. One of the pledglings, Timo, sported a handlebar moustache and regaled us with stories in French about birthday parties at strip clubs. This Little man was not unlike a small horny Chihuahua that’s humping your leg that you just can’t shake off. The thought occurred to us even before he fulfilled prophecy by humping the stage. Timo, small doses only please.

We Are Wolves

We Are Wolves

From hip-hop, we moved to the music of Montreal based We Are Wolves. This band appeared on the very same stage last summer for NXNE where they were plagued with technical difficulties that caused several false starts. Thankfully this time around the absence of sound issues allow them to bring their A-game.

It was minimalist electron-rock at its best. Judging from their albums, you’d never guess that this complete sound was emanating from a three-piece. They keep it real with a simple setup: a sparse drum-set with a nary a stool to sit on, a lone guitarist/bassist, and keys. The band’s happier mood definitely made for a better performance. However, not much else seemed to be different between this and their NXNE showcase. There hasn’t been much new material since then, but that didn’t detract from a solid set.

It was minimalist Electron-rock at its best.

Malajube

Malajube

Closing out the night was French Indie starlings Malajube. This band has garnered a lot of attention since their debut album, Trompe-L’oeil. There was a musical lyricism that was missing from the night until the opening of this set. Their sound was reminiscent of a blend of Quebecois Trucker meets 80’s progrock reborn into these little indie adorables.

Big thumbs up on the grandiose sound, however thumbs down on the epileptic light-show. It was out of place for this intimate venue. Their sound and musicianship was all that was needed to attract the attention of the media and music aficionados looking for the next up and coming Canadian darlings.

Overall the showcase was strong, diverse, and well-assembled.

Unapologetically French.

Duchess Says: 3.5/5

Radio Radio: 3/5

We Are Wolves: 4/5

Malajube: 4.25/5

(Covered by Patricia and Mark)

Concert Review: AC Newman, March 12, Lee’s Palace

Posted on March 12, 2009 by Brian in Concerts | 7 Comments

newman

Walking into Lee’s Palace on Wednesday night, it was all I could do to not walk right back out upon seeing four somewhat geeky-looking dudes on stage with the lead singer playing a ukulele. I find it hard to take ukulele rock seriously. I’m just prejudiced against ukuleles, I guess. It’s a personal failing. I’ll work on it, I promise.

In this case, however, I was able to suppress my natural instincts and managed to sit back, get a beer from the bar, and patiently await AC Newman without charging the stage during Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele’s set (actual band name) and beating the lead singer to death with his own ukulele. My ukulele prejudice may be stronger than I originally thought. May was ok, it was kind of cute when he climbed up on the bass drum and jumped off during his last song, but I wasn’t disappointed that we arrived halfway through his band’s set.

Newman arrived promptly at 10:30. You may know Newman best for his work as one of the voices and the primary songwriter for The New Pornographers, Canada’s favourite 8-piece musical outfit (or second favourite, depending on how many people are actually in Broken Social Scene at any given moment). Newman has also just put out his second solo album, Get Guilty, the follow-up to 2004’s The Slow Wonder. His solo band is also almost as big as his other band; Newman’s set last night featured seven musicians on stage, occasionally with as many as five singing at once.

Clearly, Newman is a songwriter who likes the harmonies and instruments you get with a larger group. His show featured a violin player/backup singer, a keyboardist/trumpeter, and a backup singer/tambourine player, alongside the more traditional two guitars, drums, and bass.

Read more

Concert Review: Asobi Seksu, El Mocambo, March 3, 2009

Posted on March 4, 2009 by Allison in Concerts | 15 Comments

10 bones can get you a pretty big boner in this city.

Case in point, ultimate babe Yuki Chikudate made her way through the El Mocambo last night for an all-out noise-fest with shoegaze darlings Asobi Seksu (you know, the band that was backing her–the three white guys). Asobi Seksu is one of New York’s most prominent indie rock acts right now it’s easy to see why…Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser and  MBV’s Kevin Shields could pass for their long lost music parents and Chikudate could pass for a Japanese spokesmodel.

But c’mon now, it’s not always about how pretty the lead singer is, is it? It was maybe Yuki that left us all slack-jawed, silent, and motionless throughout the show. At least that would explain why the applause had the viscosity of cold molasses–didn’t notice if it slowed down after she stripped down to her tanktop though. Anyone? Anyone?

More noisy than ethereal, I would say the ElMo (or any small venue for that matter) is sort of the last place you want this type of shoegaze to be played at because no matter how ambient your guitars sound you can envision even Grandpa Simpson’s eardrums exploding. More than a few people ran for the hills once the set started and even seasoned show-going veterans could kind of feel their ears’ cilia hairs dying. This is not to say that it wasn’t beautiful music–the gentler, dreamier stuff off 2006’s Citrus sounded lovely, particularly Thursday…it was just that much of the noisier stuff off Hush, which I have yet to listen through, seemed much too loud for a club show.

One last thing…I might be alone on this one but it felt like the pace at which they tore through their set was unprecedented. I think what they were going for was a seamless sound without audible transitions from song to song–a noble shoegazey intention that ended up sounding like it was just another day at the office, at least to me.

Concert Review: Thievery Corporation, Kool Haus, Feb 22 2009

Posted on February 23, 2009 by Mark in Concerts | 6 Comments

Toronto – The Washington-based duo Thievery Corporation came to Toronto last Saturday to share their unique fusion of solid beats decorated with musical styles from the world over. The heart of Thievery consists of duo Rob Garza and Eric Hilton. They filled out the stage by bringing a veritable posse of over 10 other musicians, including a Brazilian songstress, a sitar-player, horns, and assorted percussionists. This is the 2nd date of a new tour helping to promote their latest album, Radio Retaliation. You can check out an excellent review of this album by my fellow Panic-Manualer Brian here.

Sure the bass drums may sound “great” if they’re literally shaking your chest, but if it’s doing so at the expense of the vocals, the horns, and the sitars, then all you’re left with is some muddy-ass drum and bass

I will say that I was looking forward to this show for months. Thievery is one of my go-to groove bands when I just want to get in the zone and stay there. It’s good music to listen to when doing stuff; like polishing shoes, or ironing, or working/studying. Radio Retaliation is by far their most political offering to date, but it still contains the main elements of Thievery that I love; killer beats and an atmospheric sound. While the show was great, I think my expectations were probably a little unrealistic given the venue that is Kool Haus.

I don’t want to be a one-trick pony where all my live reviews consist of an intense critique of the venue, but the more concerts I attend, the more I realize how important the venue is. It is a critical element that will colour the entire concert-going experience, for better or worse. I have to say, I do try to avoid the Kool Haus (and the affiliated guvernment) at many costs, and will only be persuaded by my favourite bands. To Thievery’s credit, they are one of those bands. That being said, after this experience at Kool Haus, the bar for “what bands I will go see at Kool Haus even though I hate Kool Haus” has just been raised a couple notches.

I think if we spent more time making sure that a band is properly heard, then the crowd will concentrate on making sure that it’s being properly felt.

Now, I know that getting a live band to sound good is no easy feat. Any sound engineer worth their salt will tell you that working a big cavernous concrete box like Kool Haus is no simple task. But I do feel that sound engineer’s today could learn a great deal by discovering that special button known as the “master volume knob”. Sure the bass drums may sound “great” if they’re literally shaking your chest, but if it’s doing so at the expense of the vocals, the horns, and the sitars, then all you’re left with is some muddy-ass drum and bass. I think if we spent more time making sure that a band is properly heard, then the crowd will concentrate on making sure that it’s being properly felt.

So, despite the sound and feedback issues, I would say that Thievery made the best of the situation. They started at 10, but things really got going about 20 minutes into the set when they started to dust off some well-known material from their 2002 album, The Richest Man in Babylon. The beats were solid and got the crowd shaking for most of the 2 hour set. Despite the sound issues, it was still impressive that an electronica-duo would tour with so many musicians. How cool is it to have an electronic band playing live with horns, a real sitar player, and two beautiful songstresses? One highlight was hearing the song “exilio” set to female vocals.

So overall, I’m glad I went to see Thievery Corporation. I would have preferred to see them in a less crappy venue. Although Thievery is a fairly popular band, the $50 price-tag combined with a place as thoroughly underwhelming as Kool Haus makes for a questionable transaction. A band like Thievery can only command a price like that at a place that actually sounds good, like the Mod Club or the Phoenix. Sadly, after this experience, the list of bands that I’m willing to go see at the Kool Haus for this kind of dough just got a whole lot smaller.

Thievery Corporation: 4/5
Kool Haus: 2.7/5

« Previous   1 2 ... 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 ... 508 509   Next »