A girl eating blackberries out of an Amsterdam glass with chopsticks, a tambourine player reading the lyrics off a piece of paper and throwing sparkles on audience members, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and Superman being projected on stage and finally, a trumpet and kick ass drums that you can clap along to. To say that Rich Aucoins’ music gives me goose bumps is an understatement. For the thin crowd at Clintons for the evenings opening 9:00 slot, Rich definitely pleased those of us who came out.
Rich is a multi-instrumentalist pop artist from Halifax. Last summer he biked across Canada, playing shows along the way. On his current tour, he is running half marathons in each city to raise money for the Heart & Stroke Foundation. For those who don’t know, a half marathon is 22km.
Me:Hey Rich, use Panic Manual in a sentence. Rich: Ummm…When things get tough, consult your panic manual?
Yah, I know. It was a stupid question. I’m no rock journalist.
He is currently making his way out west. You can catch Rich in Vancouver at the Railway Club on June 19th and at the Peanut Gallery on June 20th. Ohhhh…and at the Marquee in Halifax with DEERHOOF, July 19th. Nice.
I stuck around for some of The Superfantastic set. The two of them rushed in 10 minutes before their set and got right down to business. Their set wasn’t nearly as cute and personal as their set at CMW, but they kicked out Tonight Tonight which made me smile.
(Toronto) For those who don’t know, every few months the Steam Whistle Brewery hosts a concert series called Unsigned, where, you guessed it, bands who are not signed entertain the Pilsner happy beer crowds that gather. Although the location of the show (The Steam Whistle Brewery, right beside the CN Tower and SkyDome) is a bit out of my typical Annex walking show radius, I decided to make the hike downtown to check it out. A couple of things I learned about this Unsigned series:
1. It is only $5, and that one payment at the door goes to charity, gets you a drink ticket and if you are fast enough, a free slice of pizza. Plus, additional drinks are only $4. Those are east coast booze prices.
2. The charity is the Artists’ Health Centre Foundation(AHCF). This foundation helps artists who have been injured and who might not be covered by OHIP. Since most artists are self employed, they don’t have health plans. For example if you make your money as a dancer and some jack ass runs into the back of your foot with their cart at Loblaws and injures you so that you can’t dance, the AHCF will help you out. By dancer, I don’t mean stripper, but I suppose even they could get help from the AHCF.
First up on the bill was Hexes & Ohs from Montreal. A pretty impressive looping, drum playing, girl bass busting two piece outfit from Montreal. They cranked out Whadaya Know?, which I was really looking forward to. I was familiar with this track since it has gotten some recent CBC3 airplay over the past couple of years. It rocked and left me with warm fuzzies. The rest of their set was tight with Edmund switching between instruments and Heidi sticking with the solid bass lines.
Next up was Bocce. I missed most of them. I was busy getting beer and more ice.
Headlining the show was Gravity Wave (The). I first heard of Gravity Wave about a year ago when he played at Sneaky Dee’s. A friend of a friend had told me that Gravity Wave (Ken Farrell) teaches little kids how to play hockey and that he makes music with his Nintendo. Cool. Ken started his set off this night with an interactive video rap-off which didn’t really hit with the crowd. It required people to shut the fuck up and actually pay attention for more than 5 seconds. Which they didn’t.
The Gravity Wave stage show and sound has definitely changed over the last year. The most obvious difference would be that Mr. Wave has added a full band to back him. Even a trombone. This has given him a bigger sound. Although bigger, I feel like the subtleties of his sort of electronic music were lost in the shuffle. Songs like Princess where you are waiting for the Jump, Fireball sequence lost their catchy, cutesy, admiration. Even Footprints seemed to blend into the other songs, where on his Maytr’s Brrigade CD (available for download on his site) is a stand out track. Ken has a great unique voice and a stand out rock star confidence about him when he performs, rubber boots and all.
The night was caped off by a couple of Steam Whistle yahoos who introduced the bands and hosted the evening. At one point I think they threw T-Shirts into the crowd as if it was the seventh inning stretch at a J’s game. Whatever. Still a good night and worth the trip downtown.
Toronto – Ah The Rex.For jazz lovers, the Rex is a Toronto institution.It’s a great place to soak up some live jazz in a casual atmosphere.I highly recommend it as the first destination for would-be jazz aficionados.The laid-back ambiance will make you feel comfortable chatting with friends over drinks, or just sitting back and listening to the music.
But the times, they are a changing.With a huge new office building glowering down on it, I wonder if The Rex is a remnant from an earlier age?An age when the Rex was just one of many vibrant jazz clubs in downtown Toronto. Fortunately for us, the Rex remains a guardian of live music in the city. It’s time to take a moment to remember the great jazz clubs that have left us in recent memory.
The first casualty was the Top O’ The Senator.Conveniently located on top of the Senator restaurant on Victoria; this sleek little club was the place to check out top jazz artists from Toronto, New York, and beyond.The long narrow room provided an intimate setting that was just, well, cool.Especially when the 1st setters would leave and the vultures would descend upon the remaining tables in front of the band. Top O’ the Senator closed down a few years ago and I still lament the loss.
The second casualty was the Montreal Bistro on Sherbourne.The Montreal Bistro first opened in the 80’s and the coolest thing about it was that they hadn’t changed a thing.The cutlery, the plates, the coffee cups, the bar, the tables, everything was authentically vintage.The last time I was there, I was happily sipping on my coffee from those old coffee cups you find in the basement kitchen of churches.Anyway, I thought to myself, “This place hasn’t changed a bit, and it never will!”Sadly, the Bistro closed its doors not two weeks later.
Anyway, the good news is the Rex is very much alive and kicking and it’s still a great place to check out live music.Mike Murley is a Juno award-winning sax player and he got together with his old quintet to rock it old-school.The good news about jazz shows is that there are at least two sets.A lot of people leave after the first set.This confuses me, because the 2nd (and 3rd) set is always better.The musicians have loosened up and are ready to dig in, and there’s nothing quite like it.
Anyway, this was a great show with his old Quintet.Just solid straight-up jazz best served with a glass of white wine, or a dry martini.It’s too bad that Murley wasn’t playing with his protégé, Tara Davidson.Because seeing both of them play together at the Rex is a treat that can best be had whenever they both play at the Rex together.
Vancouver, A warm spring night, not ideal conditions for Goth’s children to creep out of the shadows in order to attend the return of The Cure after a 10 year, 7 month delay. This was my first time seeing The Cure and not being an uber fan I had mixed feelings as to how it would be. Based what what I read and was told, The Cure performs epic set in excess of 3 hours with multiple encores, but people I know who have seem them live would always say the show was ‘Amazing’. I pressed on though, The Cure is just one of those bands I had to see, more so because they’ve been such a huge influence on many of my favorite bands.
We arrived at GM place early to pick up my tickets at the will call window. Staying true to my lazy nature, I waited until the last minute to pick up the tickets even though I purchased them 1 year ago. We decided to skip the opening band 65 days of static as they seem a bit too industrial for our taste. Arrived back at GM place at 8:30 only having to wait 10 minutes for the lads to make their appearance – quite surprising seeing as I’m usually terrible predicting the start times of bands. After a rousing reception from the crowd as if they were collectively thinking ‘Took you long enough!’ personifying it in the form of applause. They kicked of the set with a 5 song intro with – Falling Down, Fascination Street, The Walk, Love Song, and Sleep When I’m Dead. They sounded good, but personally I felt the show kicked off as soon we heard the haunting thump and twinkle of “Picture of You”. This made more than half the crowd to jump to their feet, couple that with swaying and clapping, it made the atmosphere absolutely eclectic. The set continued on with a mix of some new tracks and a few old. I didn’t recognize most of them (but you might, here’s the setlist). I was just enjoying the great atmosphere and it seemed like Smith and Co. were as well:
Simon Gallop on bass keeled over this guitar in the classic shoegaze pose (my cohort Ryan mentioned he looked exactly like the bass player in Guitar Hero). Porl Thomson on lead guitar was dressed up in what looked like a vinyl jumpsuit with glittery red platform boots. Jason Cooper was pounding perfect beats that many in the crowd were air drumming along to. Robert sounded fantastic, seemingly enjoying himself by hopping, shimmying and swaying around the entire stage.
The set hit it’s climax three quarters of the way through when Smith and crew pulled out – Friday I’m In Love, Inbetween Days, and Just Like Heaven with no breaks in between, needless to say we ate it up, licked our lips and rubbed our tummies. They capped off their first set at around 10:30 after playing at least 20 songs. Staying true to form they came back on stage after very little coaxing from the crowd. I unfortunately only stayed for the first encore which included – Love Cats, Let’s Go To Bed and Close To Me. After a little research I found out the last 2 encores included – Boys Don’t Cry, Jumping Someone Else’s Train, 10:15 Saturday Night and Killing An Arab.
To sum the entire Cure experience, it only takes one word: ‘Amazing’.
