Music

Concert Review: Quasi, April 18, Horseshoe Tavern

Posted on April 22, 2010 by Ricky in Concerts, Music | 1 Comment

Toronto – Quasi is a band from Portland, Oregon and have been around for many years. It features the former husband and wife duel of Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss along with bassist Joanna Bolme. You may be familiar with Janet Weiss, who is also part of the band Sleater-Kinney. They were in town on Sunday to promote their album American Gong which was released on February 23rd.

Normally, I wouldn’t go to Sunday shows, but I was running off the high of having the Penguins annihilate the Senators and so I felt like my energy level was pretty good. I had never heard of Quasi before but my friend had mentioned them as being good live and that the drummer was good. I’m a easy sell I guess. The Horseshoe was about 2/3 full when the band took to the stage at 9:50 and it was quite an eclectic crowd. Mostly, the people there were a tad older then say, a Hot Chip concert.

The show seemed to be divided up into two parts, the first half, when Sam Coomes was on the guitar, and the second half, when Sam Coomes was on the keyboard. The first half consisted of wailing on the borderline of jamming guitar sessions that blended nicely with Janet Weiss’s drumming. The lyrical delivery of Sam Coomes seems to be somewhat influenced by say, the Pixies, with it’s quiet / loud / quiet / loud sequences. It was definitely Portland/US college indie circa 1990s sound, whatever that is. You know the type. The keyboard portion, which according to my friend was more of their standard fair and was more theatrical, a little bit maniacal and somewhat more interesting. Coome really likes to pound on that keyboard, and that keyboard looks like it’s taken quite a beating. At times, you would think that he was just mashing shit up, but there is some method to his madness and somehow a song did come out of it. It was all pretty interesting. Janet Weiss’s drumming was also fantastic, and you could see why the lights of Stephen Malkmus and Bright Eyes would recruit her for drumming duties.

The show was well over an hour, and most people there were already fans of the band. The band had a fairly low key approach and were genuinely thankful for the crowd being there on a Sunday night. For the encore, they listened to some request and I guess played songs off that list. Good times were had.

Concert Review: The Morning Benders, April 14, Drake Hotel

Posted on April 16, 2010 by Ricky in Concerts, Music | 3 Comments

Toronto – If you read our blog on a regular basis (and why wouldn’t you), you will know that we kinda like The Morning Benders. For a quick intro, they are a band from San Francisco/Berkeley that uses harmonized vocals, shoe gazey guitars and nice slow buildups all wrapped up in a Grizzly Bear-ish calmness. Wednesday night marked their return to Toronto, and they were there to promote their latest effort – Big Echo. Me, Gary and a bunch of his lab mates showed up. I didn’t really talk to them though, because I find that when you talk to a bunch of people of the same discipline, they tend to all talk about the same thing, and it’s hard to make conversation, specially when you don’t know anything about whatever molecular neutron electro charge physics discipline that they are in. Sure, I could have made some overtly sexist/racist joke, and then amuse myself with the absolutely horrified look on their faces, but these are my friend’s friends, so I had to respect that.

The band took the stage promptly at 11:00. PROMPTLY. True sign the band is operated by Asians. The thing that still amazes me is how young these guys are. I swear to god most of the band is like 18 or so. I look at them and I imagine what it would have been like if I had stayed in my basement and learned to play instruments and write songs when I was growing up instead of playing ball hockey, watching 1$ movies and picking on my friend’s siblings. How different life would have been.

The Morning Benders played around 45 minutes, basically covering all songs on the album. Despite his best efforts, Chris Chu was unable to generate a dance floor for some of the more upbeat numbers such as Cold War (Nice Clean Fight), such is life playing shows in Toronto man. In terms of stage presence, the band is still clearly finding it’s groove. While lead singer Chris Chu is slowly learning the ropes of being a lead (playful interactions, carefully timed winks, grooving), the rest of the band more or less just stand there looking partially horrified like it’s Saturday afternoon and they have to recite a passage in mandarin to their teacher. Yes, Saturday afternoon. Still, the music stands for itself, The Morning Benders music is a slow tempo, low key sound that focuses on progression and layering instead of manic jangly guitar action so I guess it makes sense to just take it easy on stage as well. One thing is for certain, the band can do harmonics and they can definitely sing and hit their notes. Given their type of music, it’s a great talent to have.

The last song of the night was Excuses. Everyone knew this would be the last song, and when the Chris Chu said “this is our last song, it’s called ‘Excuses'” the whole crowd knew it was the last song and there would be no encore (which I am a fan of). This song is simply, awesome live. I am going to quote myself (from twitter) for this:

If the morning benders were the Cleveland cavaliers then ‘excuses’ is definitely Lebron James. that song kills

Is it lame that I just quoted myself? or is it awesome? I’ll let you decide. Like I mentioned last week, this song just slays the crowd. It’s got a dramatic buildup, a great sing a long and a wailing wall of sound guitar finish that leaves everyone in a daze. What was even better for this night at the Drake was that Chris Chu’s looping microphone broke. If you have seen them perform this show live, he usually uses a mic to record parts of his “da dum ba dum” parts live, and then sings over it (kinda like what Final Fantasy does with his violin). The mic was not working in this scenario, so instead he had to construct basically a 3 part choir (split into left of stage, middle and right of stage) and basically conducted the sing-a-long part. Awesome.

Overall a great song to end off a stellar show. Everyone left happy.

Concert Review: The Balconies, April 3rd, Haven Club

Posted on April 8, 2010 by guestwriter in Concerts, Music | 1 Comment

Edmonton – Ottawa’s The Balconies have been rising through the Toronto scene, as the last couple of Panic Manual plaudits attest. Now they’re poised to take over the rest of Canada and joining up with a trio of local bands, stopped by Edmonton this past weekend for the first of their two shows here this month.

Arrived at the Haven club around 8:00 while there was still a sound check going on. Was a bit unsure what to expect, since the club’s in a part of town that’s probably in one of the top five stretches here where you wouldn’t want to walk alone after dark. Turns out it’s a pretty cozy, relaxed place with the same kind of audience. I’d guess there’s room for about 25-50 people on the dance floor in front of the stage, depending on how many tables are set up and how many people are actually dancing. Further back are some larger tables, where most people seemed content to stay for the evening. Soon enough, The Translators took the stage. For a band who seems to be only a few concert dates past their “battle of the bands” days, they did fine. Solid mid-tempo folk-rock, with a couple of songs even reminding me of one of my favourite 90’s guilty pleasures, Toad the Wet Sprocket.

Yes Nice played next and were the pleasant surprise of the night. Formed in Edmonton, they relocated to Vancouver and are now .. back to Edmonton, or at least partly? I dunno, I lost track. In any event, they played about 7-8 tracks from their already prolific discography from the last two years (one EP and two albums since 2008.) What made Yes Nice stand out though, was the charisma of the band’s performance, especially from co-frontman Nathaniel Wong who seems to relish the role of raconteur. In between songs he would talk and joke with a straight face about mythical upbringings in rural Alberta and re-appropriated choruses from BTO tunes. The rest of the band seemed to be having a grand time too.

The last of the local bands was Whisker Kiss, who have been playing local shows at indie clubs for about 3 years now. By the time they hit the stage the audience at the front had really picked up, a group of their friends formed an energetic dance circle in front of the stage. It was pretty clear by then that a large part of the audience was here to see Whisker Kiss, as this was their last show together. Oddly enough it was a CD release party for their new EP as well, but perhaps they’re releasing it as more of a thank you relic to their friends and fans.

The Balconies capped the night off, taking the stage around midnight. By this time most of the patrons near the front cleared the dance floor, but if that discouraged them they never let it show. The trio launched into a blistering version of Ghost Fever, and covered a significant portion of their self-titled album mixed with gracious chatter thanking the other participants this night. Singer and guitarist Jacquie Neville took their performance to the next level as she danced across the stage without missing a note. I don’t think it was just the several drinks I already had that night either, but the band sounded even more cohesive live than they did on the record. After this particular performance, I expect that anyone remaining at the club was both thrilled at what they just saw and still wanting even more.

Concert Review: Matthew Good, March 24, 2010, Double Door, Chicago

Posted on April 1, 2010 by Tom in Concerts, Everything, Music, Reviews | Leave a comment

(photo from: http://www.queensjournal.ca/media/stories/v135/i18/matthew-good.jpg)

This was a show I wanted to see out of pure nostalgia, and is the first real concert I have seen since moving to Chicago last fall.

The nostalgia has its source from a show that the Matthew Good Band played at Red’s in Edmonton’s West Edmonton Mall…somewhere around 10 years ago (now I feel old).  The band entered to the Imperial March, and then stayed after the show to sign posters/t-shirts/cds etc.  I think I still have a signed poster (of the Underdogs album) somewhere in my storage closet.  Anyway, Matthew Good and his band were considered Canadian rock royalty back in the day (during the 90’s).

We arrived in time to catch the last 2 songs of the opening set by The Ragtones (the opener on the ticket was a band called Automatic Loveletter…not sure why they didn’t play).  I don’t have much to say about these guys…the music sounded alright, but the vocals were drowned out by the guitars.  Blame the sound guy for that one.  They all did wear really cool hats though, so there may be hope for them.

Enter now a 38-year old, slightly chubby, hipster-glasses wearing Matt Good.  I was a bit worried at first, since I had such fond memories of his music; however, despite his less-than-rocker appearance, once he stepped up to the mic and started singing, my worries were assuaged.

He played a spirited set featuring songs mainly from his new album “Vancouver”, with old favourites like “Apparitions” and “Load Me Up” from earlier albums mixed in.  Crowd involvement peaked for “Weapon”, a popular song from the “Avalanche” album, with many people singing along to the lyrics.  While I can’t say that he was as energetic as before, he still can belt out the vocals.

What amazed me most from the set, however, was not the music.  It was the late 20’s/early 30’s groupie who stood at the front of the stage, trying to get Matt Good’s attention.  At first it was funny…she had a couple of patches that were sold at old Matt Good concerts and had sewn them on a jacket.  He played along for a bit, but it was clear he was mostly amused by this woman.  Apparently, she has been following him along on his US tour, and was going to see the next show in Detroit.  I thought that this groupie was at once both amusing and pathetic, but at least it shows that Matthew Good still has some of the attributes of star performer.  I think once you lose your groupies, it is an inevitable sign of your decline as an artist.

So, for a solid set and for the nostalgia, this show gets a Panic Manual rating of:

P.S. The Double Door is a venue in Wicker Park, and is famous for being the music club that was featured in the movie “High Fidelity”…pretty cool place! (although the drinks are expensive – $6.50 for a beer).

« Previous   1 2 ... 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35   Next »