Concert Review: Lee Ranaldo, Wilco, July 18, Wolf Trap, DC

Posted on by halley in Concerts | Leave a comment

Seeing Lee Ranaldo Band (of Sonic Youth) and Wilco play at Wolf Trap last night was like watching an anthropological documentary on ‘how bands deal with growing old.’ I don’t mean to imply the show wasn’t enjoyable– but I absolutely DO mean to imply these men are getting on in their years and that they have all employed a wide variety of tactics to deal with the inevitable phenomenon of aging.

Let’s begin with the venue as the first strategic component in a band’s attempt to deal with age gracefully. This was my first time at Wolf Trap, which is an outdoor arena that seats 7,000 in the Virginia suburbs of DC. The ambience is bucolic and mellow; concert-goers are encouraged to bring their own picnic and alcohol; the lawn is well-groomed and pristine. In other words, even if you don’t love the band or can’t see the stage that well – you’re going to have a good time eating and drinking with your friends. This takes considerable pressure off the actual performers.

Even given the lax and lazy atmosphere at the show, Lee Ranaldo Band (of Sonic Youth) was not only punctual but a little early to take the stage. Second ‘aging gracefully’ tactic: cater to your equally aging audience. No one wants to be out past midnight. There are babysitters to pay and early morning meetings to attend. There was nary a college kid in the mix at this event as far as I could tell. And the third tactic: leverage your past. At first, I found it a bit sad Lee Ranaldo had to include the (of Sonic Youth) parenthesis after his name, just to be sure people knew who he was. But on second thought, why not take advantage of your past success? The man worked hard to be an 80’s rock star. Why let that slip away?

And to be fair, Lee Ranaldo Band played a great and relevant set. They were only up on stage for thirty minutes – but rocked out (gently) the entire time, even including a song about the Occupy movement and the rise of the new left. I didn’t exactly ‘want more’ when they made their exit, but I thought the half hour performance was quite nice.

Wilco came to the stage right around 9 PM and more than made up for Lee Ranaldo’s short set by playing a full two hours. Given the band’s long history, they had more than enough material to fill the time, including Born Alone and I Might – but honestly I felt that they overstayed their welcome a bit (thus violating strategic tactic 2). However, the band did employ some amazing stage set-up tactics that made the show a bit more interesting. The band had festooned the stage with knotted white ropes that looked a bit like those ghosts kids make at school during Halloween. They had then choreographed a phenomenal light show (including moving bird and animal shadows, spinning rainbows, strobe lights, and glitter effects) that bounced off the hanging white ‘bodies’ to make a truly spectacular kaleidoscope-like backdrop. Also, for the win, they had a man-sized wooden owl sitting on stage that did nothing but blink calmly at the audience the entire time. If I remember nothing about the somewhat underwhelming music at this concert in a few months, that owl will stick with me. So I guess the fourth ‘aging gracefully’ tactic we can learn from this is: hire a great stage manager. It can make all the difference.

Concert Review: Andrew Bird, Basia Bulat, July 19, Echo Beach

Posted on by jessica in Concerts | Leave a comment

In what had to be one of the loveliest shows Toronto will see this summer, Basia Bulat and Andrew Bird melted hearts in their respective sets on a day when Torontonians were, for once, not melting from heat. Even though there’d be rain while we’d be on a pseudo-beach at the waterfront, and armed with umbrellas and the like, it was as if these musicians warded off the storm as we watched a pink sunset and were treated to a nice breeze.

Now, if you haven’t been to Echo Beach, let me tell you a bit about it. It’s actually kind of nice, but it’s also kind of weird. Things that were nice: the stage and set-up for people to stand, having food vendors there (if Big Fat Burrito is anywhere, I’m happy) and being by the water. Things that were weird: having to walk all the way around Exhibition to get there because of a dumb gate that must have been from the car races a few weeks ago, being quite a ways away to begin with, port-a-potties and the whole big pit of sand in the middle of concrete and a tiny hill thing. Overall though, I was way more pleased with seeing a show there than I ever thought I would be, but maybe that’s because the music had me in such a content mood.

Basia Bulat took the stage saying it was her first hometown show in a year. The five musicians effortlessly glided through the entire set, appearing calm and collected but also quite giddy. Basia mentioned a few times how happy she was to open for Andrew Bird, one of her favourite musicians, and how happy she was to be there. They warmly pursued through their two albums worth of bubbly folk material and likely made a lot of new fans. Here’s hoping Bulat and crew pop up more often in the near future, as their presence really does a lot to Toronto, making things feel softer, generous and sunny.

Armed with fantastical twirly wooden spirals dangling from the ceiling of the stage, a large rotary speaker that gave the violin a wonderful woosh and even a sock monkey, Andrew Bird and his band had a friendly and whimsical presence in the night. Bird is the people’s people with his dark and quirky lyrics, crooked smile, cool demeanor and loving tunes. He seems to embody a number of voices in the way he writes his music, and for all these reasons, I think it’s easy for people to identify with him. It seemed, at least from where I was standing, everyone was eating up almost everything he did and watched with adoration.

Bird has an impressive catalog and included tunes from all alongside his most recent album, Break it Yourself, although I sorely missed tracks such as “Imitosis.” He even announced they’re halfway done working on an “old time” record, and played a song called “Railroad Bill,” which was the only time people seemed quite quizzical about him (and by god, so many off-beat claps). Bird seemed thankful to be in Toronto, saying “things are looking up” frequently, despite revealing he had his bike stolen underneath his hotel’s awning in the morning. The quartet played for almost two hours, even covering Townes Van Zandt. Andrew Bird fits quiet and loud moments perfectly in pieces, flirts with the darkest ideas and all in all gives off a genuine appearance, and for that, his music is beautiful and his live show even grounding. This show was even better than I expected, as one who is not usually a fan of outdoor shows especially for bands I would assume would be even nicer indoors, but everything seemed to come together right last night. Andrew Bird doesn’t come around often, which is probably another factor as to why everything felt so much more important, as he’s quite the treasure.

Concert Review: Iceage, July 18, Horseshoe Tavern

Posted on by Paul in Concerts, Everything | Leave a comment

Danish punks Iceage have had a decent buzz going for the last little while. They’ve received accolades from Pitchfork and Maximum RocknRoll, played the Roskilde festival twice, and attracted more and more fans out to take in their intense live shows, all while still teenagers. Now just barely out of their teens, the band was back in Toronto for another go. The band played a brief set (less than 30 minutes by my estimation and not much more than 20) but made up for the brevity with intensity. Full on intensity. If a band could get by on attitude and energy alone its Iceage. As testament to their intensity, I will offer up a conversation I overheard outside of The Horseshoe after the show. “They’re so intense,” said one. Her companion agreed, but added that they seemed “too pretty to be angry.” Yes, the sullen looking Danish youths seemed not to crack a smile throughout their set, but that’s not to say they weren’t into it. Vocalist Elias Rønnenfelt is an engaging frontman, coming across as a cross between Ian Curtis and Henry Rollins and getting right into it, crowd surfing at times and occasionally touching audience members on the heads as if he were blessing them or something. Not to harp on this intensity point or anything, but the band also inspired a fairly serious moshpit during their set. I can’t really recall if I’ve ever seen a moshpit at a Horseshoe show in the past, so kudos to them for that.

Perhaps because the headlner’s set would be so short, there were four openers for the show, giving it a nice old school hardcore show vibe. I didn’t have the stamina to take in all four but did arrive in time to see locals Odonis Odonis, themselves building up a bit of a buzz. Having seen and enjoyed the “industrial surf-gaze outfit” once before, I was eager to check them out again and actually found them more enjoyable and better than the last time. They’ve also added a second guitarist/vocalist to the band and having an extra body onstage seems to add a little something extra to their sound. Also on the bill that night were Olympia’s Milk Music, who impressed with tunes that had more than a hint of Neil Young and Dinosaur Jr. in them. All in all, a good (and intense) night out.

Song of the Day: Sparkadia – Mary

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

Sparkadia is an Australian rock outfit and the brainchild of some guy whose name is Alexander Burnett. I’m not sure what else there is to know about them aside from they are somewhat popular in Australia. Speaking of Australia, I was watching BBC2’s Secrets of our Living Planet yesterday and found out that feral cats and dogs are ruining the ecosystem in Australia because there were no cats native to Australia and so they have become killing machines of native Australian animals down there. They HATE cats down there. I wonder if Australians get sick of pictures of kittens everywhere these days. Check out this clip

Waaaaay off course. Anyways, Sparkadia released a single last year called “Mary” off their sophomore record The Great Impression and it’s pretty good. The track reminds me of something Muse would have wrote in the early part of last decade – a bit overly dramatic with a definite rock touch that doesn’t derail into a parody of itself. It’s definite got an stadium rock anthem feel to it, if anything.

Check it out.

Also, if you want a description of this song that solely comprises of comparisions to other bands, check out this link.