Toronto – Last week, on a dark and stormy night, I went to the Horsehoe to see ex-Pulp/ex-Longpigs member Richard Hawley perform a set to promote his latest album “Lady’s Bridge”. Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with Mr. Hawley’s stuff, his music is very lush and melodic. I guess you can say he’s a crooner.

The concert was packed, which surprised me. I guess the Horseshoe is not that big, the crowd was definately an older type, and I guess the music kind of plays to that crowd. They arrived on stage shortly after ten, looking very mature and all wearing suits. I guess this was expected. I wish I was in some sort of lounge, so I could sit down, but that’s life.

The band immediately went to the lead track off the latest album, called ‘Valentine’ and played it calmly and coolly. I must say, Richard Hawley has awesome, awesome guitars. They are really shiny. I like shiny things. They also look very, very expensive. Their set consisted of a mostly newer songs with a few from Coles Corner. They were very much the professionals, and displayed the British humor you come to expect from ..British people.

My only complain with the show was that they didn’t play “Baby, You’re my Light” off their late night final album. I guess you can’t have it all..sometimes. The show itself was stellar and professional, as you would expect from someone who’s been around for so long.

4/5

If you think Feist is overexposed and you wish that other girl would just go into rehab and stay there, then your ears might be ready for some Basia Bulat. Basia is from London, Ontario, signed to Rough Trade Records, and released her first full length, “Oh, My Darling” this past year.

Basia has played quite a few shows around Toronto this past year, so I was pretty excited to finally be able to see her play so close to my house. She was scheduled to hit the stage at 10:30, so grabbed my camera ready to snap some shots. I quickly found out that I was out of film. I had a quick look around my place and realized that the only film I had in my house was for my Polaroid 600. I thought what the heck, I’ll try out my Polaroid skills. Might be interesting. It wasn’t.

I got to Lee’s about 20 minutes early and was able to find a nice spot right in front of the stage behind Frank Yang (chromewaves). Basia took the stage supported by her two ‘we make our own dresses’ friends on the violin and ukulele, and her brother on percussion. To say that Basia is easy on the eyes would be an understatement. She is a cutie that’s for sure, but don’t let my physical description of her take away from her talent. She is a great song writer with a warm stage presence. Her alt-country twang and melodies will get you boppin’, but she can also slow it down to make you wish you were running bare foot through a field of wet dewy grass in the early morning. You know, kind of like a Tide commercial.

A couple songs in I figured it was time to snap a couple pictures. So I stepped in front of Frank and did the best as I could. As my camera ejected each picture with the oh so familiar ‘cha cha grrrrrrrr’ rythm, I set it on the stage to develop. I didn’t shake them. You’re not supposed to shake them.

Frank didn’t look impressed.

4/5 – Can’t wait to see Basia again

Video HERE

Toronto – I went to the Police concert. I bought the tickets ages ago despite the scrutiny of my friends who wondered if I was secretly stuck in the 70s or 80s – which I might be just a little. This was the third time they were playing in a span of a year as part of the reunion tour. The first two concerts had been sold out so I ended up at their 3rd of 4 shows. What’s interesting is that the first two shows were sold out when they performed earlier this year at the ACC but the shows in November were definately not sold out. The hefty price of $70 got me into the nosebleeds and had me considering selling the tickets and that’s how I found out that the tickets weren’t even sold out and that people were selling their tickets below cost. Anyway, I bribed my friend to come with me so I wasn’t going to the concert by myself.

I’m not a fan of the big venues as it compromises the intimacy with the band and the sound that I associate with a live concert but I gotta give it to Sting, he sounded amazing. The rest of the band looked a little tired and should definately consider lessons from their fearless leader and practise some Yoga. They played viagra no prescription a solid 2 hours and that’s probably reason enough for me not to be scrutinizing those old men. I was really impressed and surprised – I used to think that Sting is a bit too showy and having read interviews with him and seen some on TV as well, I thought he was cocky but he proved me wrong. He could have just stood there the entire night and he would still have given off an aura of cool not to be mistaken with my initial impression of cocky or arrogant. He really has an amazing voice that sounds fantastic live and I hate to admit this but he’s hot for an old man.

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