Toronto – So last week, my buddy Pike visited our great city from Edmonton. He was pretty hell bent on seeing some shows and went to see the Cinematic Orchestra, Common and Ulrich Schnauss. He offered to take me to one of these shows. I couldn’t go see the Cinematic Orchestra because I was at the cottage and I wasn’t really keen on seeing Common (despite liking his new album) because I have a propensity for saying something like ‘ni**a whaaaa’ when I get excited and really, I just didn’t want to get stabbed in case I said that at a show. Also, I had a ball hockey game.

So, by hook or by crook, I was going to see this german dude named Ulrich Schnauss. I had no idea what he played or what his music was, so this was definately a new experience. I even resisted the urge to download his entire discography before the show. So I was going into this show fresh. and clean.

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Vancouver – This being my first foray into the Vancouver indie scene, I really didn’t know what to expect from this concert not only from a musical standpoint, but more so the experience. Attending 60+ shows while living in Toronto, the whole concert-going process had become second nature to me – hitting the bar early enough to get a couple of drinks in, timing it perfectly so I wouldn’t have to listen to a shit support band and only to wait another 30 minutes for the roadies to set up the headliner and of course, taking the piss out of Flyerman (man I wanted to punch that dude in the face after watching his movie, what a selfish fucker). Anyways, the experience itself ended up being status quo. The Commodore as a venue is probably one of the nicest I’ve been to, lots of room to dance, plenty of barspace, great sound and sightlines throughout the entire venue. The capacity of the venue is around 1000 and would say it was only 70% full, which is good because the last thing I want is a sweaty indie chick in a tight skirt rubbing against me…gross. Oh the only thing that drove me nuts about the venue, they kept turning the house lights on after every song, what’s up with that Commodore? It kinda took away from the experience.

My concert timing was rusty because when we thought we arrived at the time we expected the Klaxons to come on stage, we actually had 3 more songs of the Mystery Jets to watch. They’re a decent enough band but I’d just throw them in mix of ‘typical’ British indie bands like The Paddingtons, The Harrisons, The Mccabes, The Holloways etc…Lot’s of families are playing in bands together these days, good for them.

Klaxons get on stage around 9:40, at this point I’m expecting ‘quite a show’ as per Ricky’s review but after watching their set, I’d just like to add ‘fuckin’ after ‘a’ and before ‘show’. Those kids are amazing. Right off the bat they had people rush to the floor to hip-shake to the ear bleeder ‘Bouncer’ and kept the dancefloor masses consistently moving throughout the entire gig. In order to avoid writing a duplicate review I’ll just kindly ask you to refer to Ricky’s, which pretty much expresses my sentiments, although I felt the crowd slightly more subduded, maybe because it was sparse or the BC bud was more primo than usual.

4.5/5

Here is the setlist:

Bouncer
Atlantis to Interzone
Hall of Records
Totem
Golden Skans
As Above So Below
Two Recievers
Magick
Gravity’s Rainbow
It’s Not Over Yet w/Mystery Jets
Isle of Her
Four Horsemen

Next show: Shout Out Louds, October 12th

Toronto – So around this time every year, Toronto becomes this huge festive town. First, there is obviously the Toronto International Film Festival (more on that later), then as of last year, Richard Branson decided to throw a big music festival at the same time (no doubt, to make his presence known in the city at the time). Who am I to complain? Anyways, this year, I was lucky enough to get Vfest tickets for my birthday and here are the acts I saw. Since I did not manage to see that many acts, I will keep encompass everything into one show

MIA – I really, really wanted to see MIA, however, a football game, forgotten ticket, extra ticket and general laziness prevented me from seeing them. Really, who can make it to a music festival for 4? That’s ridiculously early. Anyways, I was MIA for MIA (ha!) but I heard she was fantastic.

Arctic Monkeys – Last time I saw the Arctic Monkeys, it was at Lees Palace in October 2005 or something, and the hype was just beginning. Its funny to see how big they have become, mostly because of myspace and the internet. I remember downloading their demos and trying to find whatever I could, mostly because I loved the song fake tales of san francisco and mardy bum. Of course, nowadays I can’t even name two songs off their sophmore album. I am always surprise to see the type of crowd that enjoys the same music I do, and it seemed like a lot of people enjoyed the Monkeys. I guess they are pretty popular now. What about their set? it was decent, very professional, almost run of the mill, the lead singer didn’t really interact with the crowd like he did at Lees Palace and there was no Mardy Bum. Once again.

3/5

Interpol – There is nothing I can saw about the Interpol act that I haven’t said already in my review of their concert in june – read it here. I think they might of worn the exact same outfit. It’s really hard to tell. They kinda looked bored, but maybe they always look bored. Still, I like them, so its hard to not enjoy a set of theirs. I have seen them four times and NEVER have they played the specialist, which is probably my favorite Interpol song behind evil.

3.5/5

Bjork – how the hell do you follow up two indie-rock bands with bjork? but then again, what could you have that could lead into bjork that would seem appropriate? Anyways, you can tell right away that Bjork knows how to rock a festival. First of all, the backup singers were dressed like a combination of a teletubbie and some kind plants. That’s trippy. Then she comes out and theres confetti everywhere and she shoots frickin confetti out from her arms, and of course she is dressed up as some kind of big bird meets enviro ninja get up. Nevermind the fact that I can probably name five or six Bjork songs, when she came on .. you knew this was the main event. She also had this green beam of laser that probably shot out like five hundred yards, maybe it was to signal her alien buddies or something I dunno. Considering that I am not familiar with her stuff, it was pretty good, she has an amazing voice, although it all kinda sounds very similar after awhile. I will just chalk that up to unfamiliarity.

4/5

Editors – So I only saw two acts on the Sunday, because a certain TIFF film took priority (more on that later). I arrived in time to see the Editors at the Future shop stage. The stage is huge, but the crowd was small, most of the people were probably at the main stage watching Brandon Flowers trying to imitate Morrissey. Come on, the Killers suck live, more or less. The Editors, were awesome. They were very crisp and very sharp, and their music really comes alive at the festival. The lead singer has a very deep voice, much like Paul Banks of Interpol..or Ian Curtis. I thought they put on an excellent show, too bad hardly anyone was there to see it.

4/5

Smashing Pumpkins – the main event. Honestly, I only saw them cos I missed them in high school. I guess a lot of people did too, and a lot of people there were probably in high school. Lucky for me, I was able to move to fairly close of the stage. Well, theres no luck there, I guess theres two types of concert goers, the type who are satisfied where they are, if they are far away, and there theres people like me, who want to get as close as possible, and will pretty much take a feet everytime you give an inch. Anyways, yeah so the Pumpkins came on and everyone cheered, then they played some new song everyone didn’t know and everyone was like err what is this. Then Billy decided to do some kind of guitar solo for about five minutes and I heard some jeers. After another song, they went to ‘Bullet with Butterfly wings’. From then on, it was a decent mixture of new and old. Billy can’t really hit the high notes that well anymore and well, the new stuff, I no likey. I will say, of all the songs I heard at V-Fest this year, ‘Tonight, Tonight’ was the best. It was pretty awesome. There was also an acoustic version of 1979, and the set finishing Today. No Disarm though, overall, more or less what I expected. Too bad they didn’t do a greatest hits thing, that would of satisfied everyone, so obviously, that would never happen.

3/5

Overall, I wish I got to see some of the earlier acts, as I bet Stars, MIA, Blonde Redhead, Clientele would have been great to watch, but that is life, I guess.