Concert Review: Pinanhi, June 3rd, Besiktas Anadolu Lisesi

Posted on by Ricky in Concerts | Leave a comment

pinhani

Turkey – When you are on a business trip in a foreign country by yourself, it’s all fun and games until the local coworkers are all busy at night, leaving you to fend for yourself. This was the case Friday night. With no predetermined schedule and most of the country watching the Turkey-Belgium Euro qualifier, I decided to wander around the neighborhood to Besiktas, the area I was staying in. The previous night I had wandered around the more popular area of Taksim and had originally planned to see a Turkish rock band play, but when I got there, there was no one at the club. I had gone too early. Quickly realizing that staying around to wait for the band would cost me too much money In beer costs ( as well as being the only guy in the bar) I decided to abandon ship, missing what I thought was my only opportunity to experience a rock concert in Istanbul. I was wrong.

Waking around the neighborhood Friday night, I heard some rock music playing in the background. Naturally gravitating towards such noise, I stumbled upon some security guards who were at an entranceway to some large building with a large courtyard I went up to them and asked what was going on but they just waved me in.

As I descended down the pathway to the courtyard I saw a decent sized outdoor stage. On the stage was a band I later found out to be the Turkish rock band Pinhani. On their webpage, they say they are a slow grunge rock group. The band consisted of a drummer, two guitarist who also would play the occasional sax, and a few others I think. I finally got my concert.

Pinhani was a very interesting show. I think the best way to describe them would be a mixture of 80s rock with hints of traditional music sprinkled in there like paprika on lentil soup. The youngish crowd loved them and were jumping up and down on the rock numbers and on the power ballads rwere singing along word for word. The band loved their solos. Two solos dominated the night – a massive power chord guitar solo that seemingly ended every other song and a crazy saxophone solo that would start the more traditional songs. It was interesting to see the crowd adjusting their dancing to either the western or eastern influences that predominated each song. Say what you want about preconceive conservative notions about muslim crowds but I saw entire families dancin with each other at the concert and they all got rhythm. You would never see an entire family in North America go to a concert, see the kids form a dancing circle and then watch the dad dance his way into the middle and bust a move. Here, it just seemed like a normal occurrence.

The band played well over an hour and were fairly good. The musicianship was solid and the crowd loved it. Speaking of the crowd, it turned out the grounds I had stumbled into was a high school and the event was a high school celebration. I was asked if i was a foreign exchange student. The stuff that happens when u wander around.

Here’s a video!

De?irmendeki by pinhani

Song of the Day: Bishop Allen – Click, Click, Click, Click

Posted on by halley in Music, Song of the Day | Leave a comment

bishop allen

Washington – Remember when life was noisier? When dial-up Internet had a tone and analog clocks ticked and manual cameras clicked? Whether or not you remember, miss or never want to see those days again, chances are you will appreciate Bishop Allen’s ode to the long-silent sound of the shutter in “Click click click click camera” on their album The Broken String album.

The band’s song evokes a certain nostalgic feeling that is nicely counter-balanced by a lilting melody and lead singer Justin Rice’s calming, friendly voice. The premise is simple: a man ducks into a church for shelter from the rain and finds himself inadvertently inserting himself into a stranger’s wedding. The tune goes on to explore sensations of happiness and memory. Although complicated concepts, Bishop Allen does not get caught up in lofty, self-indulgent musings. Instead, the three-minute song is pleasantly devoid of personal angst and love stories. Besides one reference to a mysterious ‘You’ in Alphabet City, the singer directs his attention to describing his inadvertent participation in ‘Maria’s’ nuptial celebration and posing questions to the audience about their memories and place in life.

The song is definitely worth a listen for its own sake. Some of you may know it without knowing it – as a background ‘jingle’ in the film No Strings Attached or in TV show Greek, or even in the background of recent Sony advertisements. Do not dismiss it as a worthless sell-out. Let us not forget, as proud and self-proclaimed hipster-emo-alternative-quirky-uniquely-awesome music fans that our favorite bands must make money somehow (and god knows our generation’s aversion to paying for anything artistic does not permit most of our beloved musicians to do so). Additionally, for any of you YouTube fans out there, the video is definitely worth a look if you love horn- rimmed glasses, meticulously mussed hair, and old cameras. And let’s be honest, who amongst our particular crowd can resist that?

Click, Click, Click, Click / Bishop Allen by Lovemonkpro

Concert Review: The Rural Alberta Advantage, June 1, La Flèche d’Or

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

Paris – Seeing a band from home (Toronto, that is) in another country is an interesting proposition.  You wonder what the crowd will be like and whether the reception will differ.  As it turns out, the crowd for a Rural Alberta Advatage show in France is pretty similar to one in Toronto, the main difference being you could still buy tickets at the door on the night of the Paris show. 

As it so happened, this was the final night of the RAA’s tour, and as they stated numerous times from the stage, they couldn’t think of a better place to end their tour.  I can see what they mean.  Despite the fact that they probably never expected to be playing Paris in the first place (let alone playing it multiple times), the venue itself was fairly impressive.  Nothing too fancy mind you, it was a regular club, but the staff there seems to put a lot of effort into making sure the show runs smoothly.  They have a pretty efficient stage crew to help the bands set up and tear down and I noticed a very precise schedule they had typed up and posted by the sound board outlining exactly when each band should arrive, do sound check, when they changeover between bands should be and so on.  I’m sure many venues do this, but it seemed especially noticeable here.

As one might expect, there were a few Canadians in the crowd and when singer Nils Edenloff  introduced one song by saying, “I was born in Alberta,” one audience member interrupted him.  “Where in Alberta?”  “I was born in Edmonton.”  The audience member pointed out that Edmonton is in fact not rural, to which multi-instrumentalist Amy Cole added, “Nils got called out!”

As usual for a RAA show, they played a thoroughly enjoyable, totally high energy set.  They may be classified as a “folk” band by some by virtue of the fact that Nils plays an acoustic guitar and that the band got it’s start playing open mic nights, but only occasionally does the RAA slip into music that is more restrained or subdued.  They generally go full throttle, ploughing through their songs with the energy of a band that just consumed a gallon of amphetamine-laced coffee and tonight was no exception, thanks in large part to the always impressive drumming of Paul Banwatt.  Aren’t bands supposed to be tired and less energetic after they’re been on the road for three months?  Apparently not the RAA.  The city of Paris and I are thankful for that.

The Rural Alberta Advantage-Stamp by Canadian Blast

Primavera Sound Review: Fleet Foxes, PJ Harvey

Posted on by Ricky in Primavera | 1 Comment

Barcelona – After all the shenanigans of the first two days of Primavera, day three was the designates come down day for me. A nice afternoon was spent on the beautiful Barcelona beach with beer in hand, followed by a leisurely paella by the sea dinner. Needless to say, the tone was set for a nice relaxing evening.

If you look up “nice and relaxing music” in the imaginary encyclopedia I’ve created for this post, you might see the band Fleet Foxes there. The Portland group have come of of hiding this year with their sophomore effort Helplessness Blues and are now riding the festival circuit to promote this record. Playing against the lovely Barcelona backdrop, the harmonious group gently welcomed the Primavera crowd into the night. Forgoing any sort of front man stage tactics the band seemed content sitting there and letting their musicianship shine through. While that in itself seemed rather grand, I couldn’t help but feel that the concert just felt like the album turned up really loud.

Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues by subpop

The next two shows I saw included ambient rock band The Album Leaf and Philadelphia hard rocker Kurt Vile. I enjoyed the Album Leafs piano driven atmospheric rock although I was disappointed with their decision to forgo vocals for the time that I saw them, which meant the wouldn’t be performing Always For You, a track that I enjoyed. Kurt Vile brought his rock game to the Jagermeister/Vice stage. While I can appreciate his rock, it wasnt the right setting for me so I went to do what everyone else seemed to be doing, which was watch the Champions League game.

The Champions League final finished just in time for PJ Harvey. The last time I saw the English songstress, it was in 2004 and it was an early show and I had also the Libertines on my bill that night, so I don’t remember it well. By the time I found a spot, Pj Harvey was already in full swing. Dressed in a white dress with some head feathers, Polly Jean stood by her lonely self away from her band clutching an autoharp. The band itself were situated in a tight semi circle, which made for an interesting setup. Playing tracks new and old, you can say that the woman pleased all in the crowd. Her voice sounded as strong as effort and her dedication to not moving throughout the night make you focus solely on the tracks, which mUgur have been the goal of the night. The twenty song setlist ended with classic Meet Ze Monsta as did my time at Primavera. A classic way to end off a classic festival

PJ Harvey – The Words That Maketh Murder by VagrantRecords