Song of the Day: Alex Winston – Fire Ant

Posted on by Ricky in Song of the Day | Leave a comment

Much like Sufjan Stevens, Alex Winston is a singer-songwriter from the suburbs of Michigan. Her debut record King Con was released earlier this year but due to my sheer ignorance, I did not know about it until yesterday.

Like Zooey Deschanel’s characters in any show or movie, it’s quirky and all over the map and but comes off as natural and charming instead of sounding forced and annoying, like Nicky Minaj. The music is highlighted by Winston’s opera-trained voice. Like a homemade Jambalaya made from a Cajun grandma of at least sixty years of age, there are many elements introduced but it all comes together very well. The track sounds pretty refreshing, like a cool shower under an Amazon waterfall after a three hour hike.

“Fire Ant” is the first track of this record, and is a great example of the music that Alex Winston has to offer. If you were walking through Costco, and saw a free sample, you would take it, wouldn’t you? Do the same here.

Concert Review: Peter Gabriel, September 19, Air Canada Centre

Posted on by Allison in Concerts | 7 Comments

So 25th Anniversary Back to Front Tour

In an age where many acts come and go within less than five years, it’s difficult to imagine an artist with more interesting first, second, and third career acts than Peter Gabriel. 45 years after posturing Genesis as an art-house babe, Gabriel has managed to saunter through Britain’s new wave scene as a hero instead of a fringe scenester, he’s tinged popular music with the burgeoning world music scene, and done it all in 13 albums. That may sound like a lot, but when you consider his span as a solo artist of 35 years, it is apparent he has chosen to be precise and deliberate as opposed to a factory line. He’s also one of those rare songwriters who’s tread the waters of cult and legitimately broken into the charting mainstream without alienating his fanbase in the process (take a page from this, Bryan Ferry).

So could be classified as the definitive Gabriel album (with the untitled Melt a close second), so it should come as no surprise that what is rumored to be his last tour ever is being billed as a 25th anniversary celebration of the release. But Back to Front is more than than the ultimate kiss-off tour, or a nostalgic rehashing of the “most popular, definitive material” (aren’t we all just a little tired of this cash grab of a touring theme by now?). I was pleasantly surprised that what we got turned out to be so much more than that.

Much of this might be explained by his latest New Blood, in which he takes a cue from Mark Kozelek, using covers of other artists as a creative launching pad for re-visiting and re-creating one’s own material. The evening began this way–with what Gabriel explained would be the first third of the evening– “recording session-like” and acoustic as the audience continued to trickle in.

Gabriel opened with a self-described unfinished song that would sound unfinished:

He wasted no time by going immediately into Come Talk to Me, one of the best tracks off 1992’s Us (my favorite Peter Gabriel album). While Us is significantly less heralded than the first four untitled albums or So, it managed to reincarnate Sinead O’Connor as a talented vocalist instead of the bald girl who ripped up the Pope’s photo, made the teary-eyed effect of bagpipes cool, and spawned some of the most visually stimulating music videos of the era (Digging in the Dirt, Blood of Eden). It’s one of the reasons why the setlist is near perfect while managing to throw us some curve balls. Nearly every sprawling era was represented last night with the only gaping hole being the omission of Games Without Frontiers.

But let’s not quibble. The lounge-y version of Shock the Monkey gave us something we weren’t expecting (one of the values I have grown to most appreciate in live music), with Gabriel opting to hammer away the synth bits with his piano. I personally liked it, my companions didn’t, I suppose my main point is that it certainly elicited a reaction.

The next third of the set focused heavily on Us (Digging in the Dirt and the epically long Secret World) with Solsbury Hill finally rousing the somewhat sleepy crowd to its feet. I did find that once they realized the set wouldn’t just be spin-off renditions of classics but classics themselves, they loosened up quite a bit and allowed themselves to reel up to Gabriel’s efforts to drum-up enthusiasm. He did so by playfully prancing around the stage and joking that he’d been working on the choreography for “months” with a lot of circle dancing and light half-feigned can-can kicking (I shamefully admit that at 62, Gabriel’s dance moves are similar to mine). In the midst of all this, a more elaborate setup was being concocted with spider-armed white lights and geometric swirls. I wasn’t quite sure what he was up to, but I’m not what you would call avant-garde…and besides, the tongue-in-cheek tomfoolery was still there.

peter gabriel's tower

The last third of the set contained what most people were probably waiting for–the first ever “Back to Front” performance of breakthrough So. Red Rain opened things up with one of the strongest renditions of the night, nicely easing us into the album against a (you guessed it) red rain backdrop. Yet not everything was so literal in its visual translation. Yes, Sledgehammer brought down the house with a classic adaptation. Don’t Give Up closely followed in more ways than one–with Gabriel reenacting the second version of the music video (complete with suitcase in hand to signify the “moving towns”) with back-up singer Jennie Abrahmson. While powerful and well-received, Abrahmson’s voice grated me a bit as sounding a bit hollow, but perhaps at the bottom of my heart and mind I was secretly hoping for Kate Bush to appear.

Where things started to change-up was the highlight of the show for me–Mercy Street. At first I wasn’t sure where he was going to go…as he lay on the floor, I thought surely he wouldn’t sing the entire song that way (wouldn’t that effect the esophagus or something?)–but this is Peter freakin’ Gabriel after all. His raspy, distinctive voice was as good vertical as it was horizontal, with flying spider lights going in and out. Things had normalized again when it came to Big Time, which I didn’t mind in the least because it often gets overlooked as a categorical Gabriel song.

Nowhere near as categorical by comparison, to In Your Eyes, popularized to my chagrin byJohn Cusack’s Lloyd Dobler (Say Anything is my favorite movie–but the boombox scene is my least favorite scene…side note…as Cameron Crowe was writing that scene, he struggled for months with finding the right song to pipe into the stereo as Diane Court’s torch song, but came across an old mix-tape he’d made for a wedding he’d taken part in with the song on it). The song got an extended remix makeover in this version, with more African flavor and an extended sing-along introduction prominently featuring the deep booming back-up answers to the chorus parts.

As with the other dates, the same encores were given. The first, a controversial choice and fairly rocked out The Tower that Ate People. The second the legendary Biko, which Gabriel dedicated to “all the young people facing injustice”, going on to briefly describe Steve Biko’s brutal death in South Africa. What followed was an enthusiastic plea to sing and move along collectively, eventually ending as member after member exited the stage. His final words to us were, “It’s up to you”.

Setlist

Acoustic
Unfinished Song
Come Talk to Me
Shock the Monkey
Family Snapshot

Retro
Digging in the Dirt
Secret World
The Family and the Fishing Net
No Self Control
Solsbury Hill
Washing of the Water

“So” (as Josh noted, the performance followed the “remastered” CD sequence as opposed to the original LP track order)
Red Rain
Sledgehammer
Don’t Give Up
That Voice Again
Mercy Street
Big Time
We Do What We’re Told (Milgram’s 37)
This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)
In Your Eyes

Encore
The Tower That Ate People
Biko

Concert Review: Maximo Park, September 17, Schubas

Posted on by Celeste in Concerts | Leave a comment

maximo park

Is it fantastic when a great band gets booked at a small venue because you can get up close and personal with them, or is it just plain frustrating? Like you want to shake everyone you see on the street and yell, “Hey! These guys are great! Why don’t you have tickets? What else are you doing with your Monday night??” A little bit of both maybe.

Maximo Park played Schubas Tavern on Monday evening in Chicago, and while I was super pleased to be in such close proximity to the band in such an intimate setting, I was also bewildered by the fact that there weren’t about 50 more people separating me from the front of the stage.

Instead of pouting about the fact that his band is used to selling out amphitheaters in Europe (according to the German girl next to me anyways) the lead singer of the British band, Paul Smith, was a hugely good sport about it, and he made the most of the intimate venue, engaging in lighthearted banter with the one guy in the crowd who knew every single song and would not be dissuaded from calling out suggestions no matter how many times they got rejected (you keep on keepin’ on man. Every crowd needs a dedicated fan like you.) The frontman played with the energy needed to fill a much larger venue, but with the down-to-earth level-headedness appropriate for an intimate setting like Schubas.

There wasn’t a low point in the set, but I would say the high points were “hips and lips” and “take me home.” The set pulled heavily from the band’s new album, “The National Health,” released this past summer. The songs were by turn sweet, funny, introspective, catchy, danceable, and not one was disappointing.

So I guess the moral here is to not tell any of your friends about them, and go see Maximo Park when they hit your city. Then, after the show, tell all your friends to go see them. That way they fill up large venues as deserved, but only after you’ve gotten up close and personal with them. Done.

Concert Review: Glen Hansard, September 16, Danforth Music Hall

Posted on by jessica in Concerts | Leave a comment

glen hansard danforth music hall

Irish singer/songwriter Glen Hansard really paid his doting Toronto audience quite the treat on Sunday night. The man who’s clearly born to be a performer, hurtled through two hours and at the end, it seemed like he was only just warmed up.

But let’s take it from the beginning.

I sat down in my seat on the balcony at the Danforth Music Hall after Tony Dekker’s set. I noticed that the little wall in front of my row was practically at my eye level. Good, I thought. I’ve been meaning to work on my posture. (As I write this later, I am hunched over.) In comes the drunk Irish guy, who sat next to me. He carried a drink and started talking to me about how he wished he wasn’t there, that he was dragged along by a female and that he might as well be pissing into the wind. He moaned and groaned about having to sit through the show.

The lights went down, screams rang out through the hall and out walked Glen with a full band. As soon as they get through the first song, I think Wow. I wish his recordings included a full band. That would have made his new album a lot more interesting. The music sounds so full of life. I’ve been a fan of Glen’s music for years, seemingly one of my longest lasting musical interests in a time period that has me with a short attention span. I’ve loved him more with Marketa Irglova, aka when they were The Swell Season, or, that cute but melancholy couple in Once. He’s even one of the few artists I can still listen to after finding out he’s really not the super friendly person he seems all the time, especially after seeing the self titled documentary on The Swell Season that came out this year. Anyways, he’s human, and he put out his first solo album ever this year, Rhythm and Repose. It’s simple and showcases his great songwriting. If you want to know Glen as an artist, you have to see him live. And this was the most fun I’ve ever seen him have on stage. Drunk Irish Guy Next To Me was totally into it a few songs in, clapping ferociously, saying Wonderful! Classic! Wow, what a guy!

Glen played his new material with mostly with the band but he did do a few on his own in the middle of the set. He also played Swell Season songs, which I felt weird about seeing them performed without Marketa. A lot of the songs bleeds together, but each song has a recognizable chorus or charm to it that brings you right back, and it’s so lovingly haunting when he can get an entire hall to sing with him. There were eleven people on stage at the most, with horns, strings, the whole shebang. Glen did a great job as front man. He didn’t do much of his classic storytelling while introducing songs, but he did wittily answer a lot of shout-out questions from the audience who didn’t hold back, such as “WHO DID YOUR ALBUM COVER?” “An Irish painter, he came and painted me on a Saturday at 9 a.m. when I was hungover.” “FOUR MORE YEARS FOUR MORE YEARS” “[Goes on spiel about voting and how you have to vote for Obama.]” Et cetera. He’d joke and crack remarks about Toronto. He even invited a friend’s girl to come sing with him as well as Toronto singer/songwriter Peter Katz to come play a very personal song with the entire band. Glen did a few covers, including Van Morrison and Martin Gaye songs. At some point during all of this, Drunk Irish Guy Next to Me asked me how gay it all was and left to get more drinks/pee/smoke about a million times. But I know he still loved Glen. The show ended with the band playing while walking around the audience on the floor in a Canadian folk sing-a-long that truthfully, this Can-Am doesn’t know what song it was.

But I do know Glen’s music, and this was an amazing concert of his to see. I’m glad he went with the full band, giving his songs even more oomph. He’s got a boyish charm but for a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders, he’s always endlessly entertaining, and clearly won over one very drunk guy, so, job well done.