Toronto – Impromptu concerts are always fun. By impromptu, I mean, knowing about the show for awhile, not really deciding as to whether to going or not, and then finally deciding to go because 24, Prison Break and Heroes was all done for the year. Lucky for me, I found someone else as excited-but-not-excited-enough-to-get-advanced-tickets as me to drag along to the show, and on the streetcar, I bumped into another two meeps. What do you know, theres a party of four going to the show (if only we had one more…). The Rosebuds are a indie rock outfit from North Carolina. The main two members are the husband and wife, that do a majority of the vocals. There are some songs that definitely have some sourthern-esque influence . Here is the wiki article about them.

The Rosebuds came on about a quarter past eleven, I wasn’t paying attention to the stage when they came on..and much to my amusement, the lead singer was sitting down with a guitar! Instantly, I was intrigued. I couldn’t see why he was sitting since there were a bit of people in front of me. I was thinking..is he just lazy? Because if he was sitting down, at a rock show and doing it just cos he was lazy, he’d pretty much be my hero. ‘fuck you rockstars and your jumping around..im just gonna sit in this rocking chair and play the geee tar’.

After a song, I had come to the conclusion that he was not lazy, as he wanted to ‘tear the house down’. This lead me to two other conclusions: 1) He was a paraplegic or 2) He had no legs. Either way, As I thought about it, I began to feel really happy for this guy. I was like ..dude, this guy is pretty happy for a dude who can’t walk, good for him! Wondering why the lead singer was sitting down preoccupied my mind for the first 20 minutes of the show. He eventually said he got injured playing some sport and walked around with a cane a few times.

The show lasted about 75 minutes, and its to nice some genuine enthusiasm from a band . They played all their hit songs, such as ‘boxcar’, ‘leaves do fall’ and their current single – ‘Get Up, Get Out’. It was a good set, although you kinda noticed how many times the band uses ‘ooohs’ and ‘whooaas’ in their songs after a while. They also had some good crowd banter going, and even let some overly enthusiastic fans play some instruments for their song ‘bluebird’. That’s always fun. The best part of the show , besides the lesbians making out, was when the dude in the chair said ‘well, thats the end of the set. How about we skip this encore bullshit and we’ll play a few more songs’. That was awesome. I hate encores.

3.5/5

Toronto – Since I am someone who grew up in Western Canada, I have never been too familiar with Joel Plaskett or Thrush Hermit, for that matter. I was pretty much too busy rolling in Oil and receiving free handouts from the government to listen to some East Coast rock. Really, I have never been to the Maritimes, but I would believe its probably night and day. I think the West Edmonton Mall is probably the size of PEI, but whatever, that would probably sound ignorant or something.

Basically, what I am saying is that I didn’t really know what the show would be like. Joel Plaskett is from Nova Scotia, and I’ve heard good things about him, so I expected a good show. I also expected a lot of ex-maritime people at the Opera House. I don’t know why, but I would expect them to be there ‘representin’ the east coast, much like how if there’s a scottish band playing, half the crowd would be ex-pats from scotland, and would yell out their township name halfway thru the show. Of course, I couldn’t really tell who was from the maritimes and who’s not (i would assume all non-white people are not from the maritimes).

the show itself was pretty good, catch canadian rock-pop. everyone seemed really into it and he played a really long set too, which kinda cut into the post-party kegger i was attempting to visit. it’s all good though. for someone who’s heard maybe five songs prior to the show, I enjoyed the show quite a bit and that’s saying something. joel plaskett is pretty skinny, Im pretty sure if I lived in Halifax, i’d probably eat lobster every day, and get really fat.

3/5

Toronto – What can you say about Arcade Fire that hasn’t already been said about Jesus? Just kidding… yesterday nite, the Arcade Fire played one of their two Toronto shows and I was lucky enough to be able to score a few tickets to attend this show. The show was at Massey Hall, which is always a plus. Me and my peeps (which I will refer to as Meeps) had tickets in rows D and H, which is pretty good, only they were way off to the side so the speakers were in the way. That became a moot point though, because as soon as the Montreal band took the stage, Win was all like ‘yo, get yo asses out in the middle’ and then all the people on the floor with crappy seats made a beeline for the front. Using a combination of size, speed and amazing football moves courtesy of flag football/madden 07, I was able to maneuver me and my friend to pretty much the middle of the stage, about five feet back.

Anyone who’s a fan of their music will know that Arcade Fire rules live. They rule hard. The band started off with Black Mirror, then whipped thru a bunch of their newer songs, all of which sound great live. The only complaint I’d have is that some of their slower songs don’t really translate as well. I mean, their powerful songs are so intense, its a bit of a let down when they go to their more mellow stuff.

They played for slightly over an hour…maybe 80 minutes or so, going back to their older (and more popular songs) as the concert progressed. My big complaint with the show was that they didn’t play Wake Up. Last time I saw them at the Danforth Music Hall, they ended the show with that song and invited peeps on stage. I was totally anticipating that, and I was looking forward to rushing the stage at Massey, but that didn’t happen, which kinda sucked.

+ massey hall
+ freaking intense show
+ five feet away

– no Wake Up
– person in front of me kept on backing up, instead of moving forward. why move up to the stage, if you gradually plan to move away from the stage as the show progress?
– rain outside
– forgot my crappy camera

show rating 5/5

some other persons review