Earlier this year, Wilco released their new CD, Sky Blue Sky. As you have probably noticed, Volkswagen has been featuring many of the songs from this CD in their latest TV ad campaign. They are your typical consumer obsessed, I can’t live without my VW, I gotta set my alarm so that I can drive it in the middle of the night because I just love it soooooo much, kind of advertisements.

If you are a 30 year old dude who has a condo, a wife, a golden retriever, and went to a Dave Matthews concert this past summer and got high wearing a hoodie and a pair of underwear with the letters AE stitched into them, then I am sure you love these commercials because you also own a Jetta. Hell, if I had to by a car, I’d probably buy a Jetta too…

… but I don’t like these commercials.

Now you can go to any number of sites and read the typical “Wilco, I used to love you, but now I hate you for selling out” argument, but that isn’t why I hate these spots so much.

I listened to Sky Blue Sky all summer and as far as a chill out Wilco album goes, it is pretty good background music for driving. Now really, I didn’t mind the Volkswagen commercials when I first saw them. It was only after the one-billionth time that I had to sit through them that they really got annoying.

OK, I fucking get it Volkswagen; you are a cool company that makes some stylish, fuel efficient cars. I get it. Now please lay off.

And while I’m at it, Mr. Apple, you can lay off the Feist. The bitch knows how to count to four. I get that too.

Toronto – Monday, October 15 was shaping up to be one of the best days of the year to catch some good music. For the old geezers in the sleeveless leather vests, you got Bruce Springsteen at the ACC. No better way of reliving the past then shotgunning some labatt blues while listenin to glory days. For the New York hipsters, there was !!! at the Opera House, coke not included. For the hard rockers , there was the Queens of the Stone Age, rocking some venue that I am too lazy to look up. For the rest of us, there was a little band called Spoon.

Spoon has slowly become one of those bands, where, if you listen to a song, you’ll be like ‘damn, thats spoon’. They have a sound thats pretty much their own ( despite robbers on high street’s best efforts). Ive spent time figuring out what it is that makes a Spoon song Spoon, but really, I can’t come up with it. Tonight, on October 15th, Spoon was at the Kool Haus touring in promotion of their newish album Ga-Ga-Ga-Ga-Ga, which was released on the internet in May, and in shops sometime after, if it has been released already.

Luckily for me and my friend Jeff, the ticket said that Spoon will play at 10:15, so naturally, we arrive at 10:12 or so, and then pushed our way to the middle of the crowd. Man, sometimes, in life, it pays to be kind of tall and tonight (and every concert) reminds me how blessed I am to be above average asian male height (5’3?) . It was a sold out show, and it was freaking hot inside but we were ready to spoon.

Haha, anyways, the band came on at around 10:15 and instantly went into one of their songs. Now as I was explaining to my friend, I can’t really name many Spoon songs because whenever I play some Spoon, I play their entire album so individual songs are mostly lost to me. Hence, this is not a blog post to read if you want a set list. But why would you want one anyway? Heading into the show, I had figured Spoon was one of those really professional bands that just plays. I was correct. It wasn’t until the band finished their hit single (one of the few song titles I know) “The Way We Get By” that Britt Daniels actually said something. The banter did not deviate much from “thank you” and ..well “thank you”.

For the next hour and a half, Spoon pretty much went thru their extensive catalog of music and near the end, decided to play all their hit songs in a row, which was pretty awesome. They sounded really crisp, and Britt Daniels has a good voice, even if it’s a bit raspy. I think the last song of the first encore was “Two Sides to Monsier Valentine” and the last song they played in the second encore was “I Turn My Camera On”.

Overall, the concert was pretty damn good. They played all the songs I liked and they didn’t waste any time. It was one of the quicker 90 minute concerts I’ve been to and I think everyone at the show enjoyed themselves. My only complaint was that the Kool Haus is too far away, and it’s not really that cool to begin with. It isn’t really a haus or a house either. Also, the band shouldnt really call itself ‘Spoon’ cos its so hard to explain to someone who hasn’t heard of the band that you are going to spoon with person x tonight. they might think its weird.

Review: 4/5

Toronto – It is not often that I go see a band twice for the same album tour (off the top of my head .. Franz Ferdinand … The Pipettes .. the Rapture). So when I do go, it is often because the first show was awesome. Such was the case with the Klaxons. A lot has happened to this band since I last saw them in April, more specifically, they won the Mercury Award, which is the most prestigious award to win if you are an UK band. It is like the HGH for the music scene. Once you get it, its all home runs baby, all home runs.

So naturally, when they returned to Toronto, they played a much bigger venue – The Opera House (capacity: 850) which is significantly larger then Lees. Wikipedia lists Lees capacity at 600, but I highly doubt that. I would say 350 max. Anyways, so point is, they played to a much larger crowd this time around.

I am not the biggest fan of the Opera House, it is far away, there is realistically only one bar to pre-drink and they got those black guys in the bathrooms. I HATE that. Okay, maybe those guys aren’t always black, saying that would be racist. I hate the bathroom attendants they have at various night clubs. Its like dude, i might be drunk, but i can wash my own f’n hands and dry myself off. I just don’t see why clubs have to be like that, and the people who do that, is that really the best they can do? Wash the hands of drunken people every friday and saturday night? Might as well end it right there buddy, life is certainly throwin ya to the gutter.

I guess its more of a social problem, because maybe if those guys arent washing our hands and giving us towels, then they are on the street and maybe they might mug people and stuff, so on second thought, perhaps its not that bad. I can deal with not tipping them once in a while.

Onto the show. Man was it completely different from last time. Last time, as you can read in a previous post of mine (here) was pure shenanigans. Glow sticks, surfers, stage divers, people dressed like they were colorblind..everywhere. This time around, typical Toronto crowd. I don’t even think people knew what the first tune was (the bouncer) because it wasn’t on the album. So basically, this was a ‘lets go to this hyped up band and check them out’ kind of crowd. The person standing besides me was just obsessed with taking pictures with his dinky little point and shoot camera, from quite a bit away. I wanted to tell him to give it up, but I’ll let him soak in his disappointment when he loads the crappy pics he took on his imac. Him and his girlfriend were both wearing earplugs too. Man, if you are gonna wear earplugs at a concert, it just proves that you should be seeing rod stewart or clay aiken or something. Get out of there.

musically, the band was solid, and the concert was pretty solid. but it didn’t have the same energy level as the first time. I guess that can be expected, as the venue was bigger and the crowd was definitely different. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I have noticed a trend – the second time around, not always as good. I still enjoyed the show however, my only real disappointment (other then the ones i’ve mentioned) was that there really isn’t a good chinese restaurant near the place, as I was craving congee after the show (soul food for us china mens).

Review: 3/5, if I had not seen the other show, probably 4/5. so depends.

PS: I WISH they played this song, which is a cover of one of my favorite 90s tunes