Toronto – I’ve noticed people texting at concerts before, but never before have I seen a performer texting onstage. Well, there’s a first time for everything, and the Jim Bryson show at The Horseshoe was that time. Granted, this happened while the band was still setting up, but I still found it a bit weird to see guitarist/trumpeter/keyboard player Rusty Matyas texting while his bandmates plugged in their gear.
That wasn’t even the oddest use of technology I saw onstage – opener Andrew Vincent started off his set by singing along to a prerecorded backing track for his first song, which made for a weird karaoke vibe. He did this a few times throughout the night, alternating between solo folky stuff on the ukulele and his more beat driven, kinda hip-hoppish karaoke adventures, which made for a somewhat awkward performance. These songs were not bad per se, but definitely weaker than his more folk-oriented tunes. He ended out his set with a decent cover of Kate Bush’s “Hounds Of Love.”
Jim Bryson seemed pleasantly surprised at the crowd turnout as he took to the stage, remarking, “Thanks beforehand for showing up in case you don’t like the show.” Bryson was here celebrating the release of his new album, The Falcon Lake Incident, a collaboration with Winnipeg’s The Weakerthans. Much of the crowd was obviously there because of the presence of The Weakerthans as Bryson’s backing band (and let’s face it, the fact that it was a free show sure didn’t hurt). Bryson definitely benefited, both in terms of elevating his profile a bit and in terms of acquiring an excellent backing band. I saw The Weakerthans act as the backing band for Bad Religion’s Greg Graffin on his solo tour a few years ago and drummer Jason Tait has collaborated with tons of Canadian musicians on various projects so these guys are known for their chops. Bryson admitted as much a few songs into his set, stating how usually he’d only be on his second song by now, but that these guys were so good he wanted to play as many songs as he could with them. Perhaps he adopted this “less talk, more rock” (or more folk-rock, anyways) attitude as a roundabout tribute to Weakerthans frontman John K. Samson’s old band Propagandhi. OK, probably not, but any excuse to link to a Propagandhi song.
When Bryson did finally begin to launch into some storytelling, relating a tale about watching Oprah, a woman in the crowd actually fainted. I was pretty much standing right next to her when this happened so it was a bit weird. While this could have stopped the show dead in it’s tracks, luckily she seemed to be OK, and after a brief interlude, the band started up again.
Speaking of the band, The Weakerthans definitely looked like they were enjoying their collaboration with Bryson. They haven’t released any new stuff in awhile, so maybe the prospect of playing new songs, plus the addition of Bryson into the mix, has invigorated them. Samson in particular was obviously relishing the opportunity to just hang back from the frontman position, sing a few harmonies and occasionally play a little tambourine. When not doing either of those (or playing keyboard, as he did a bit on the last song of the set), he would often take a seat onstage or sip from his drink. It was obvious to most that this was not a Weakerthans show, but there were a few people who felt the need to shout out request for some of their songs. Bryson’s response? “Oh, those songs, you’re gonna have to ask him about that”, to which Samson responded with a dismissive wave of his hand. After all, it was Bryson’s show. By the way, request-shouting dude, the name of the song is not “I Hate Winnipeg,” it’s “One Great City.” Do you really expect a band to play your request when you can’t even get the name right? Geez …
There are a few bands in this world that can do no wrong in my eyes. One of them is Atlanta’s Deerhunter, being headed by the most prolific songwriting duo since, well, maybe ever (Burt Bacharach and Hal David?). What I like about the Bradford Cox / Lockett Pundt songwriting partnership is that they let each other exist, nurture each other’s independence, and support the band’s collaborative creative growth. Most of all, they don’t appear to take themselves too seriously at all, the key to anyone’s affability.
Let me just start off by saying that even though I have been looking forward to this concert since the end of August, I had once again overbooked commitments and had to rush back from a week in Ottawa, cabbing it to the Opera House with all of my bags in vain hope of catching the band’s entire set (I would’ve liked to have seen Real Estate and especially Kentuckians Casino Versus Japan, but it just wasn’t in the cards). I have to give props to my gracious cab driver at this point, who floored it all the way down Queen to get me there in ample time. I had a duffel bag and backpack with me, and after enduring searches more thorough than anything I ever get flagged down for at Pearson International Airport, checking both bags looking like a traveling transient, and grabbing a beer, I still had about five minutes to spare before grabbing a prime spot on the floor for the sold out show. Again, happy to see them selling out larger venues now as a headliner even if it must’ve been a slowburn.
Ladies and gentlemen, I think I have finally mastered the art of perfect show timing. It seems that if you bank for a 20 minute block inbetween openers, and after the door time, maybe a 30 minute block before the headliner, you should be golden. Of course you can always skip all of this guesstimation by simply calling the venue ahead of the time, but I had forgotten my cell phone at home. The universe was either self-aligning itself to absorb my lack of foresight or it was just plain dumb luck. Either way, I guess my determination paid off.
When the band took stage, it occurred to me how shocking it is to see Mr. Cox live and in person if you have never seen anyone with Marfan’s Syndrome before. It’s a natural reaction to seeing anyone that thin/gangly and a guy in the group standing beside me had remarked “He looks like a scarecrow.” True enough. Good thing it doesn’t matter what he looks like, since it’s always been about the music. The band’s wide appeal should be obvious to anyone taking a cross-section of the crowd from last night as well as folks looking for extra tickets outside. BROAD age range, dress, look, and feel, all enjoying consistently excellent music.
As for the music itself, I’m going to do a play-by-play recap of the setlist from last night:
Desire Lines (Halcyon Digest) – I was hoping they’d open with this one based on other setlists I’d seen from previous dates on this tour. It’s the best thing off Halcyon Digest, and that instrumental jam that starts at the 3 minute mark was one of the highlights of the show for me. That guitar line is, for lack of a better word, “sick”. Everything about the long ending and its progression is a reminder of how good this band is at build-up execution. Not too much in the way of variation from studio performance, but again I go back to hearing the long ending live. Even though the acoustics at the Opera House were kind of shitty that night (at least close to the stage), it still sounded amazing.
Hazel Street (Cryptograms) – Glad they are still incorporating this one into all of their setlists. Pleasant surprise for me. Has always been one of my favorites off one of their best albums (though it is becoming more and more difficult for me to rank them in order). Again, no ambient reorchestration going on at this point, but these shorter, punchier numbers were needed to balance out the long, drawn-out noisy reworkings.
Don’t Cry (Halcyon Digest) – One of the best off the new album and got a bit of a vocal makeover as many of the more duwoppy numbers did. Although my short-term memory is fading, I think it sounded more energetic than what we heard in the studio, if nothing else.
Revival (Halcyon Digest) – As many other fans have remarked, I wish this song was thrice the length that it is. It is the best Cox penned song off Halcyon Digest and you never want it to end. The same goes for their performance of it.
Never Stops (Microcastle) – Another upbeat number to keep the flow going. Not as good as I remember from their October show at Lee’s in 2008, but this is a different tour and a different year.
Little Kids (Microcastle) – Part of me wishes they had done a variation on this by performing the demo version (my favorite of all of their demo versions, and may have softened the crunchiness we heard in the venue). No matter though, this one was a crowd favorite that actually got heads bopping.
Memory Boy (Halcyon Digest) – This one got a slight vocal makeover; couldn’t hear if there were any back-up vocals coming through but this is a pretty prominent feature of the song that kind of got lost.
Rainwater Cassette Exchange (Rainwater Cassette Exchange EP) – By far, the highlight of the show for me, and one of the reasons you go to see bands like Deerhunter live. WOW. The 80’s patina gave this song a complete makeover that pretty much blew my head off to smithereens. Completely unexpected, and an awesome gift.
Fountain Stairs (Halcyon Digest) – Unexpected crowd fave–another Pundt song that has hopefully cemented him as one half of the songwriting duo.
Nothing Ever Happened (Microcastle) – Probably the highlight of the evening for the rest of the crowd, and indeed it brought the house down. Bradford really got into the distorted guitar jamming at this point and just when you thought it might never end, it did…and you wish it hadn’t.
Helicopter (Halcyon Digest) – I heard someone complaining outside that this was an “Atlas Sound song, not a Deerhunter one.” While I could see his point, I think this was also one of the best performances of the evening due to the extended remix treatment it received.
He Would Have Laughed (Halcyon Digest) – The last song in the main setlist, and I can understand why they would’ve chosen it to end things off on. The extensive layers and ambient noisiness = license to experiment, and the last third of the song where it morphs into a ballad gave them a nice clean ending to walk off to.
ENCORE
Cover Me (Slowly) (Microcastle)
Agoraphobia (Microcastle) – Two of the best songs off Microcastle that again served as a nice break back to shorter pop songs, although all of the encore songs were along those same lines.
Spring Hall Convert (Cryptograms) – Bradford dedicated this song to the Opera House and I thought it would bring the house down. Probably their best song period, and just damn fine rock ‘n roll music.
Wash Off (Fluorescent Grey EP) – Kind of surprised they chose this one to end off on once and for all. It’s a fast, punchy song, but I was sort of really hoping for something mindbogglingly majestic, like Calvary Scars II/Aux. Out.
Some general notes about the show. Bradford did a better job than most connecting to a local audience by describing his day in the Annex shopping at Honest Ed’s, Sonic Boom, and eating at Pizza Pizza (I am guessing they either know someone from Toronto or loved exploring the area all of the times they have played at Lee’s Palace). While people loudly applauded the first two stops, he noted far less for Pizza Pizza, which he told us we should be proud of. It’s good, cheap pizza, and better than Domino’s. Thank you Mr. Cox. As a loyal Pizza Pizza customer I feel completely validated and think the Bloor/Bathurst shop should have a signed black and white glossy with your endorsement.
He also shone the spotlight on Pundt a couple of times, but he seemed quite a bit more wallflowerish. It must be tough not to make Cox look gregarious onstage, but I can appreciate that bantering with the audience just isn’t really his thing. Cox jokingly referred to Pundt as George Harrison, Joshua Fauver as Paul McCartney, and Moses Archuleta as Ringo Starr; instructing them to “stop gossiping!” They just looked like they were having a good time for the most part, and in a sudden fit of rock ‘n roll impulse, Bradford slapped down the microphone stand. His stagehand jumped right back up to reset it.
While the acoustics up front left that familiar ultra-crunchy nails-on-chalkboardish sound sometimes, it was still a great show that I’ll remember.
If anyone has reviews of Real Estate or Casino Versus Japan, post ’em here.
Toronto – My month of SXSW revisits (Temper Trap, The Drums..) continued Tuesday night as LA five piece band Local Natives took the sold out stage at the Mod Club. The anticpation was high, as this was the first time the band has visited Toronto since their debut album – Gorilla Manor was released. There was actually some doubts as to whether or not the band could make it as it was reported via the twitter that their bus had broken down earlier that day. Luckily for the crowd, they found a way.
I think I should give the concert four stars just based on lead singer Taylor Rice’s mustache alone. I don’t think it was as fully realized when i had seen them in march but now it appears to be in full bloom and in all it’s bushy quality, totally would make him a good candidate to play some sort of dastardly villain in some sort of western. As the sometimes focus point of the band, he put on a good show, rocking out on the guitar when need be and making a half hearted attempt to interact with the crowd. It was a late show, so I think most people didn’t mind that the band just sprinted through their hour long set.
As expected the band played most of the tunes off their debut album, wooing the crowd with an excellent blend of vocal harmonies (hello Fleet Foxes!) and dual tribal drumming. A Spinal Tap moment occured when multi instrumentalist Kelcey Ayer said “Hello Vancouver!” I wasn’t sure if that was a joke or not but the fact that he curled up on the Mod Club stage immediately afterwards seemed to indicate it was an honest mistake.
I was impressed with how much punch the band packed considering their album is a rather laid back affair. The use of double percussions added an extra ounce of intensity and combined with gang vocals, the band definitely made the songs of Gorilla Manor much more lively. Songs like Camera Talk and Shapeshifter surely benefited from the extra oomph and became soaring crowd pleaser’s as a result.
Taking a cue from “setlists for dummies” book that should be given to every band, the band ended their set with am explosive version of the song Sun Hands, arguably their most popular song. The song whipped the crowd into a frenzy and left them wanting more. One kind of wonders whether the song should have been used earlier in the set to get the crowd amped up, but you can’t deny the lasting appeal of exiting with your most popular song.
Toronto – Disclaimer: I am going to quote the chat between me and Ricky just prior to this show. The purpose of this is to make fun of ourselves… and highlight the trend of band names these days:
me: You told me to see Active Child… so which is it?
Ricky: oh, haha its Child Actress.
me: This is semi-hilarious, if not for the fact that i just wrote the freaking wrong preview…
Ricky: Its like watchmen/walkmen… my mistake.
me: Man I was excited too… I want to see Active Child live.
Ricky: Well time to check out Class Actress.
me: CHILD ACTRESS; OK i give you 3 options
a. active child; b. child actress; c. class actress… which IS it?
Ricky: Hahaha; its Class Actress; S**t! Is there even a Child Actress band?
me: No. I just did a search… but that would have been freaking funny.
This is the time when you realize that calling the band Veckatimest, Horchata, or some other portmanteau word might not be such a bad idea. I don’t suppose that randomizing the English alphabets and coming up with something barely pronounceable will become a trend in the near future and I don’t promote it. It’s just an observation: with the number of bands out there today, using common words and ideas will lead someone (yes mostly us clueless media types) to blunders one of these days.
Prefuse 73 was also supposed to play this night. But apparently the Canadian immigration officers gave them some insurmountable problems (I am fighting so very hard against the word “refuse”). So the crowd was made to wait until 10:05pm for a show with doors at 8:30pm. Luckily for all, Class Actress and Neon Indian were let go. Perhaps because of the delay, Lee’s camera/flash rules seemed to have been relaxed. There were flash tests going on behind me like fireflies on a summer night. Toronto’s music-lovers displayed their timid side again – even while they were annoying everyone with flashes, there was still a huge void where the mosh pit should have been. Class Actress must have been a little disappointed, having pulled through the customs earlier. The music is a little like Feist’s, but replace the backdrop with a synthesizer. I think they only played one song on guitar and the rest on synth. Elizabeth Harper’s voice is true to the recordings, but the nature of the melody always made her sound melancholy. They managed to play most of their good tunes on myspace like Careful What You Say and Broken Adolescent Heart. Being the long-awaited opener, they were effective – Harper didn’t talk to the audience. But then again she didn’t need to – there were legions of bald men snapping pictures with flash…
I’ve mentioned before how it’s weird that I have managed to dodge all of the Neon Indian shows at SXSW. I finally saw why they are popular – because by this time there WAS a mosh pit. Not only is Neon Indian the up-beat version of Grizzly Bear, they seem to collect similar polygonal album covers, and enjoy swapping personnel and tunes. I know they both have some Brooklyn connections, but case in point – Neon Indian has at least two remixes of Cheerleader – both of which I liked better than the original. While Grizzly Bear is strung together by well-paced but lonesome bass and piano notes, Neon Indian is made of a single vocal and double synthesizers. It ensures that the latter always has a sense of urgency attached. They often introduced their songs with a ear-drum popping discord buzz, and polished with Alan Palomo’s singing. The synthesizer beats has to be the main draw, though. Deadbeat Summer and Terminally Chill, for instance, has some very catchy opening sequences (sure it repeats, but it’s good regardless). I always felt like I’m listening to a fast-tracked version of electronic music – you don’t have to wait 80 bars for the new development to come through. That condensed satisfaction is the best part. They also played Local Joke and the title track Psychic Chasms – both of which had very grainy vocals, but did not sound as expansive this night at Lee’s. But I doubt that most people noticed as they were shaped into a flowing TO pulp by Neon Indian. Overall, aside from the border-crossing issues, both Class Actress and Neon Indian put on very solid performances.
