Toronto – I went to see Elephant Stone based on the fact that Vik liked them and also because they were named after a Stone Roses tune. The band consists of Rishi Dhir (of the High Dials) and some guys that may or may not be from the Besnard Lakes. Considering their nomination for the Polaris Prize, there might have been all of 50 people in a crowd, which is a shame since they put on a great show. Coming across as a mix between Cornershop and Kula Shakur (according to Patricia), the band played an impressive 45 minute set of what I think sounded like britpop, with eastern influences. This is good drug taking music, I think. There was even a sitar! Anytime you have something like a sitar at a show, it takes it up a notch. The band was also super chilled which suited nicely with the music vibe. I highly recommend you checking them out.
Toronto – I don’t even know where to begin. This show was absolutely insane. There is no way any show at NXNE will top this. Matt and Kim would have to burn down the Whippersnapper and then stab a bunch of 905ers in Little Italy for me to even consider them to be on par. Patrick Wolf was in town for the Nylon tour which also features The Plasiticines, Jaguar Love and Living Things. I will have a review on the Living Things later. As you probably know, Patrick Wolf was touring to promote his very excellent record “The Bachelor“. After the disappointment that was the Passion Pit show last night, I was ready for something good. Well, as most people witness, the show was absolutely ridiculous. Gary pretty much summed up his performance as “a maniacal theater on legs” which is pretty accurate.
It’s pointless trying to explain the show. Highlights were the duel violin battle on “Damaris”, the intense delivery of “Count of Casualty” (where Patrick Wolf asked the crowd “You think thats funny? TEN THOUSAND LIVES! Think of YOUR MOTHER!” ) and many others. I guess it should be noted that he progressively took clothes off during the show. I swear, if he played during pride week I think his record sales would shoot thru the roof.
During the show he was always complaining about the monitor, then about an hour in, he sang “I’m still singing even with these monitors!” then proceeded to throw the microphone stand off the stage and threw a fit and left the stage. It took about fifteen minutes before a stage hand came out apologized to everyone and then the show began. A lot of people left since it was about 12:30 at this time, but when he returned (wearing only a frickin thong) he proceeded to sing his popular tunes which included “Hard Times”, “The Magic Position”, “Accident/Emergency”, “Vulture” and then invaded the crowd for the set ending “Battle”. Some singers invade the crowd and then run back on stage, this guy invaded the crowd and stayed there for the whole time..had everyone jumping up and down and I was personally wondering if the floor was going to cave in.
Nevertheless, everyone who stayed til the end left the show in a “what the fuck just happened” mode. That’s always a sign of a good show. Gary took some photos at the show, some of them are NSFW but check them out here.
(Toronto) Ah yes, an early Saturday night show at the Mod Club. There is something weird about going to a concert when it is still light out and it’s too early to be drunk.
First up was Toronto band Boys Who Say No. I liked them. They have a kind of quirky shouting, talking and singing over strong riffs. Kind of like Los Campesinos!. As I was watching them I thought that they kind of sounded like the Lovely Feathers, then they announced that they were playing a show with them on June 6th at Lees. Makes sense.
Up next were Oh No Forest Fires. Now I know my mother told me not to judge a book by its cover, but I am going to anyway. So Oh No Forest Fires takes the stage and I see three dudes, wearing crappy jeans and plaid shirts, you know, the typical slacker rocker indy outfit. No problem. But over on the corner of the stage on guitar is a fourth dude who I can only describe as Ian Ziering-esk. Brock Swanek took the stage wearing a freshly pressed white V-neck T-shirt, a fake-n-bake tan, new white Italian sneakers, fancy jeans and a faux-hawk-mullet hair don’t. It looked like he was on his way to meet his girfriends parents for the fist time. I didn’t get it.
Musically, I’m not that into Oh No Forest Fires. Not yet at least. I’m sure they are all fine musicians and others seem to like them, but on this night I was so distracted by the glare off of Brocks’ shirt and shoes, I couldn’t focus on the music. Visually, the band had no coherency. Visual coherency is important.
You would think that at some point the other three members of the band would be like:
“Hey, dude, do you have to get a manicure, shave, and whiten your teeth before every show? And why do you smell like a pina colada?”
OK, I made the pina colada thing up, I didn’t get that close, but if I had I am pretty sure that Brock would have been all coconuts.
On another superficial note, lead singer Rajiv Thavanathan has a lovely head of thick black bushy hair. If I could grow it like him, I would. Now I must admit that I did find some pictures from an Oh No Forest Fires show that happened at the Horseshoe earlier this year where Brock looks much more respectful. HERE too. Maybe the Mod Club show was a one off for the guy?
The last band of the early evening was Five Blank Pages. This was billed as their last show ever. I thought that they might just be saying that as a publicity stunt to get more people out, but when all the band members parents and grandparents started rolling in half an hour before their set, I knew that the ‘last show’ claim must have been legit. We didn’t stick around, there was an hour of daylight to get out and enjoy.
Toronto – Thursday night was a big concert night for the city of Toronto – The National were in town and the Over the Top festival was in full gear, including a Dinosaur Bones/ Sebastien Grainger show at the Whipper Snappe gallery. So I guess it should be to no surprise that Brooklyn’s Au Revoir Simone played to a sparse crowd at Lee’s Palace. The band was in town to promote the release of their new album “Still Night, Still Light” which came out on Tuesday. I reviewed the album here.
All I can say about the show is that the girls from Au Revoir Simone are fricking cute. Vintage dresses, charming smiles and witty banters all added to the show’s laid back fun vibe. They apologized for not being able to party afterwards because of an interview with Q the next day. The band had a minimal setup, as you can tell by the photo. The music was mostly from the new album, with a few tracks from their previous one. I guess the only disappointment from the show was that they didn’t sing “Stars”, a single from their previous album. I guess it was okay because the bands excuse was “we don’t remember the lyrics”.
Au Revoir Simone is touring thru out North America, if you want to see three cute ladies sing some chilled out tunes and have a good time doing it, then I would suggest you check out the show.
29 May 2009 20:00 Music Hall of Williamsburg Brooklyn, New York
30 May 2009 20:00 Rock and Roll Hotel Washington DC, Washington DC
31 May 2009 20:00 Southgate House Cincinnati, Ohio
1 Jun 2009 20:00 The End Nashville, Tennessee
2 Jun 2009 20:00 Hi Tone Memphis, Tennessee
4 Jun 2009 20:00 The Cavern Dallas, Texas
5 Jun 2009 20:00 Walters on Washington Houston, Texas
6 Jun 2009 20:00 Mohawk Austin, Texas
9 Jun 2009 20:00 Plush Tucson, Arizona
11 Jun 2009 20:00 El Rey Los Angeles, California
12 Jun 2009 20:00 Velvet Jones Santa Barbara, California
13 Jun 2009 20:00 Bimbo’s San Francisco, California
15 Jun 2009 20:00 Wonder Ballroom Portland, Oregon
16 Jun 2009 20:00 Neumo’s Seattle, Washington
17 Jun 2009 20:00 Richard’s on Richards Vancouver, British Columbia
19 Jun 2009 20:00 Kilby Court Salt Lake City, Utah
21 Jun 2009 20:00 Fox Theater Boulder, Colorado
23 Jun 2009 20:00 Waiting Room Omaha, Nebraska
24 Jun 2009 20:00 High Noon Saloon Madison, Wisconsin
25 Jun 2009 20:00 Logan Square Chicago, Illinois
26 Jun 2009 20:00 Grog Shop Cleveland, Ohio
27 Jun 2009 20:00 Bowery Ballroom New York City, New York
14 Jul 2009 20:00 Be Cool Barcelona
15 Jul 2009 20:00 El Sol Madrid
16 Jul 2009 20:00 Nocturama Festival Sevilla
17 Jul 2009 20:00 Dour Festival Dour
18 Jul 2009 20:00 Lovebox London
21 Jul 2009 18:30 Pure Groove Records in-store London
22 Jul 2009 20:00 Bungalow & Bears Sheffield
23 Jul 2009 20:00 Night and Day Manchester
24 Jul 2009 20:00 Indie Tracks Festival Derbyshire
25 Jul 2009 20:00 Be At @ Proud Galleries London
26 Jul 2009 20:00 Secret Garden Party Huntingdon
7 Aug 2009 20:00 Astropolis Festival Brest
8 Aug 2009 20:00 Nuits Secretes Festival Aulnoye-Aymeries
