Summerworks Music Preview: Aline Morales, Evening Hymns, Buck 65

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Ricky in Summerworks | Leave a comment

The beginning of August usually means a few things – heat, Blue Jays being officially eliminated from playoff contention, trips to cottages and Summerworks Performance Festival.

This year marks a bit of a comeback for Summerworks (the largest juried festival in Canada), who had their funding cut in 2011 due to criticism over Catherine Frid’s terrorism-on-home-turf play Homegrown. I guess this was why my nazi-al-queda-tamil-tiger-terrorism-genocidal-spaghetti-western-kung fu play based on the U2 song “A Beautiful Day” got rejected.

The festival originally started out as a theatre only event but has gradually included music elements as well. This year’s festival will feature a host of musical acts and we are here to preview them.

Aline Morales

I’ve always wanted to go to Brazil – gorgeous beaches, gorgeous women, the Amazon rainforest and what is probably amazing food all add up to a pretty wicked trip in my head. However, I am now rather poor and out of vacation days so the only time I can travel to Brazil is in my head. While I am travelling to this exotic locale (in my head), I can’t think of a better accompanying soundtrack then the music of Aline Morales. The Brazillian born singer had a highly revered solo debut record Flores and it’s basically summertime in a box. I hope they serve fruity drinks at the Theatre Centre on Thursday August 16th, because that would be highly appropriate for the tropical flavors of this lady. Buy tickets to this show here

Evening Hymns

In case you come out of the Aline Morales showcase a little too happy, you can always drag that down by attending the Evening Hymns showcase the following night. The Toronto based band has new album Spectral Dusk coming out in late August and by all appearances, it is a devastatingly sad album that lead singer Jonas Bonnetta wrote to deal with the loss of his father three years ago. A decidedly less jovial but equally good show, I suspect. Get tickets here.

Buck 65

Hip Hop artist Buck 65 has probably been fighting the moniker “hip hop artist” for a better part of a decade now, seeing how some of his releases in the mid 2000s incorporated many other genres of music. Whatever musical genre you choose to paint Richard Terfry with, you probably realize that the opportunity to see him in a theatre setting is a rare opportunity. I say seize the day and grab some tickets and see what goes down at the Theatre center on Wednesday. Buy tickets here. I’ve been fond of Buck 65 since I saw him on MTV’s Cribs, and he showed MTV just normal apartment. That, my friend, is keeping it real.

Finally

I took part in the Summerworks Soiree earlier this summer and it was a fundraiser dinner. A good time was had by all and I met both food AND livestyle bloggers. I feel so enriched now. The food was graciously provided by chefs Mark Cutrara (from Cowbell) and Alexandra Feswick, who will soon be opening up the restaurant Samuel J Moore inside the Great Hall later on this fall. It serves food, so you should go eat it. A lot of donations were made to the Summerworks cause and if you feel somewhat left out, you too, can donate to this cause by clicking on this link.

Lollapalooza Day 2 Review: Doomtree, JC Brooks and Uptown Sound, Neon Indian, August 4, Chicago

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Celeste in Concerts | Leave a comment

Winner of Lollapalooza Saturday: JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound.

Whoa. I got to Lolla early this morning so that I could see Doomtree, my pick for best Midwestern collective hip hop group, and I happened to catch the last half of JC Brooks’ set. Brooks has a fun, funky, retro, post-punk, R&B sound going on, and the leading man has the charisma necessary to pull off this odd mixture in spades. My favorite song of the set was “I Got High” which came complete with Brooks’ “weed dance.” Also, unless I was entirely mistaken, I think his Mom was onstage with him playing the tambourine. Love.

Best Midwestern collective hip hop group of Lollapalooza Saturday: Doomtree

Doomtree is a 7 piece hip hop collective that hails from Minnesota. I like the group entirely based on their song “bangarang” which is a reference to the lost boys in the movie Hook. I’m not really sure what else there is to say.

Most “meh” act of Lollapalooza Saturday: Neon Indian.

Neon Indian is a solid synthpop band with a lot of songs that I really enjoy – Polish Girl and Deadbeat Summer being my favorites – but their sound didn’t come across all that well in the live setting for me, and I think this was true for a lot of fans, as quite a few people left the set about three songs in. Their recorded material is crisp and vibrant but live all the songs sounded muddled and a little vague. To be fair though, things were starting to pick up halfway through when Neon Indian had to leave the stage because of thunderstorm warnings.

Loser of Lollapalooza Saturday: Me.

Really Lollapalooza? Really?? If you evacuate Grant Park for a thunderstorm and then at 6:25 tell us that you’re starting again at 6:30 you know what happens? I end up missing Fun. and my day is ruined. First world problems.

Concert Review: Florence And The Machine, The Walkmen, August 2, Molson Canadian Amphitheatre

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Paul in Concerts | Leave a comment

Walkmen singer/guitarist Hamilton Leithauser has got to be one of the more unassuming frontmen around. While he and the band certainly perform their songs with a lot of gusto, between songs, he seemed very casual and genial as he addressed the crowd, putting forth an everyman sort of demeanor. For example, instead of bellowing out a “Thank you, goodnight!” at the end of their set, he opted for a simple, “We’re The Walkmen, we’re gonna get out of here now.” Simple and straightforward. They may not have been playing to their usual crowd but let’s hope they converted a few new fans that night. I am a bit disappointed that only about half the band was wearing suits though.

Of course, the performer the crowd was waiting for soon took to the stage. much to the enjoyment of the (largely female) crowd. Yes, Florence And The Machine may be the name of the band, there’s no denying that Florence Welch is the star of this show. And with her increasing popularity and a few big festival gigs under her belt, Welch is certainly looking comfortable with her star status. An assured performer, she definitely knows how to work a crowd. Plus it’s not just any performer who can pull off wearing a cape onstage (though James Brown and Rick Wakeman come to mind), let alone run a full lap around the Amphitheatre while wearing said long, billowing cape. “It is the Olympics after all.” she joked. Despite the many dramatic gestures in her performance, Florence also comes across as fairly down to earth, as evidenced by the moment when she and her keyboard player ran down to the side of the stage to acknowledge a young fan who wore a t-shirt (presumably homemade?) that featured all of her lyrics.

One quibble I do have with this show is that she focused mostly on material from her latest album at the expense of numbers from the band’s debut Lungs. I was disappointed by the absence of “Kiss With a Fist” from the set. Maybe she feels it’s inconsistent with the direction the band’s going in, who knows? Regardless, it was a solid, confident performance, and songs like “Shake It Out” and “Dog Days Are Over” sounded good live and definitely satisfied the packed house at the Amphitheatre.

Lollapalooza Day 1 Review: m83, Dr. Dog, The Shins, Yellow Ostrich, August 3rd, Chicago

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Celeste in Concerts | Leave a comment

Superlatives for day 1 of Lollapalooza:

Best hair of Lollapalooza Friday: Dev

Dev is fabulous – pure and simple. Girl came onstage wearing an adorable denim dress and rocking a ‘do that looked straight out of the 90’s: huge curly waves of bleach blonde hair coming straight sideways out of her head. Her superlative could also read: most gravity-defying hair of Lollapalooza Friday. I only caught half her set because I was stage hopping to The Shins, but she was full of energy and the crowd fed right off it (she also gave the crowd instructions, which I super enjoy when bands do, like “now put one hand in the hair” “now shake your booty”). I would’ve stayed for her entire set and ditched The Shins, but unfortunately the girl in front of me had quite a head of hair herself, and when she started whippin’ her massive ponytail in my face I decided to peace.

Most “meh” act of Lollapalooza Friday: M83

To be fair, before I hate on M83, the band came on at 7:30pm when things started getting crazy and the crowds were animal print pants out of control. Also to be fair, my love for this band is based solely on the first 20 seconds of Midnight City, so I probably shouldn’t have been surprised that the set was a bust for me. My problem with M83 is the same problem that I have with Gotye – the vocals aren’t powerful enough. Both bands have these amazing beats behind them, but once the vocalist opens his mouth it sounds like a shy kid mumbling through gauze. Pass.

Most adorable act of Lollapalooza Friday: Yellow Ostrich

Yellow Ostrich receives the honor for most adorable act of Lollapalooza Friday for a couple of reasons: 1) their lead singer, Alex Schaaf, looks like he’s 12 and is super cute, and 2) they interrupted their set so that one of their fans could get onstage and propose to his girlfriend. She said yes which was great, although as Schaaf mused afterwards, had she said no it might have become a viral video which would have been excellent press for the band. After hearing their set though, which included my favorites – stay at home, whale and marathon runner – I have full faith that this band is going to succeed on their own merit, viral vid or no.

Most chill act of Lollapalooza Friday: The Shins

I love The Shins. Their cover of We Will Become Silhouettes is always on repeat on my itunes during times of high stress (like when I had to choose between my Lolla conflicts this year. Chairlift or Neon Indian? Fun. or Tuneyards? Franz Ferdinand or Calvin Harris? #First world problems). They were one of the bigger names at Lolla though, and I was a little nervous about how they would come across when I was half a mile away from them, as opposed to being up close and personal. I should’ve realized that really isn’t a problem for The Shins – The Shins’ music isn’t made for crowding near the stage and rocking out, The Shins’ music is made for sitting down in a field, closing your eyes and absorbing.

Winner of Lollapalooza Friday: Dr. Dog

I have a very particular downfall when it comes to concerts in which I only know one song by a band, but I really enjoy that one song. Then, when the band comes to town, I go to their concert and they don’t play that one song, at which point I come to really dislike them. I fully expected this to be the case with Dr. Dog, as the only song I know by them is Get Away, and in fact they didn’t play that one during their set at Lolla. Nonetheless, Dr. Dog ended up ‘winning’ Lolla Friday for the following reasons:

1) I loved every single other song they played so much more than Get Away that I would’ve honestly been pissed had they wasted time on it.
2) Scott McMicken and Frank McElroy had the most enthusiastic and awesome dance moves of the night
3) They have great lyrics: “I put my clothes on like a bodyguard”, “I don’t wanna fight/but I’m constantly ready/and I don’t rock the boat/but it’s always unsteady.”
4) They had the best cover of the night –Architecture in Helsinki’s “heart it races” (although to give credit to AIH that’s some excellent starting material)
5) They win for best outfit – I love it when bands sport their own merch. Done and done.

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