Concert Review: Wilderness of Manitoba, The Garrison, October 29

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Ricky in Concerts, Everything | 1 Comment

Toronto – When I think of the Wilderness of Manitoba, I think of cold winters, barren wasteland of leafless trees and polar bears everywhere. Think Fargo. So when I’m listening to the band The Wilderness of Manitoba, that is exactly the thing that pops up in my mind. Am I making any sense? Is this too meta? I don’t even know. Anyways, the band the Wilderness of Manitoba is a five piece band out of Toronto. They are so new, no obsessive fan has bothered to make a Wikipedia page for them yet. Their sound is folkish harmonics, I guess similar to Fleet Foxes. It’s for the most part, mellow stuff that is quite suitable for winter time hot chocolate sipping situations.

The show at the Garrison was part of the No Shame series and in promotion of their recently released debut EP – Hymns of Love and Spirits. I actually think I was at their cd release party a few months ago, at the lead singer dude’s house. Strangely, he’s almost my neighbor now if I think about it. Anyways, the show is at the Garrison, the new hotspot of the town and the new home for the Toronto music series Wavelengths. So basically, if you want to meet (or stab) your favorite Stillepost poster, there’s a good chance that the person is at the Garrison on any given night.

The Garrison is right in the middle of the hipster hot spot known as Dundas and Ossington. This area needs a name, how about Soconoquwoba (South of College North of Queen West of Bathurst). Isn’t that how the New Yorkers do it? Fellow PMer Paul noted that this used to be a sports bar and definitely, the interior of the Garrison while repainted (into blood red) and decorated, still looks a bit like a sports bar. I can imagine a bunch of old Portuguese men in the back room doing some offtrack betting, eating Sardinha chicken and swearing or something. The music area is quite large, and the dimensions of it is definitely more inviting then the bottle necking feel of the Sneaky Dees area. The stage is slightly elevated, which is nice as well. There was a pool table on the side of the room that everyone put their jackets on. It’s a nice feeling to know that I can throw down my jacket there and no one will steal it. Very community feeling.

The interior music area had some cheap beers and I picked up a bottle of PBR for 3.75 or something. After taking a sip of this beer, I pondered to myself – “why the hell am I drinking PBR? has my move to the ossington area rendered me a hipster? am i buying into the marketing? whats going on?” After this brief, yet important self analysis, I concluded that it was because my rent is a lot higher now, and thus, I am cheaper. It’s not a horrible beer, but definitely not something I should regularly consumed. I think hipsters drink PBR because they are poor baristas/used book store cashiers/green peace volunteers/working in a struggling vinyl store types who don’t really have the necessarily the means to buy beers that are like six bucks a pop on a regular basis. American Apparels is pretty expensive these days, gotta save up for that.

The band came out around 10:45. There were five people on stage, one of which was a female vocalist. Three of them were wearing plaid, which I guess, goes well with the band name. They looked like they could have just stepped out of the Wilderness of Manitoba. I was impressed with all the instruments the band used through out the set – guitar, bass, cello, banjo, a midget guitar, drums..and a FREAKIN BOWL. That’s right, for at least two songs, either one of the guys or the girl (named Melissa) used the bowl as an instrument. Either that or they were making breakfast for later on in the night. The band started off, appropriately with track #1 off their album – Bluebirds. It’s a quiet song that nicely blends a cello with the harmonies of the three singers. It’s a good song for a band to start off with, since it’s an instant ‘shut the crowd up’ song due to its quietness. The annoying thing about the show was the crowd kept getting louder and louder as the show progressed to the point where you wanted to turn around and tell everyone to shut the f up. The 40 minute set consisted of songs off of Hymns of Love and Spirits and might have a track that wasn’t on it. I’m not sure, the last track was a bit of a rocker that was a departure from the bands usual quiet, slow pace song and I quite enjoyed it.

The Wilderness of Manitoba is a bit of a departure from what I usually listen to (electro/indie pop/brit rock) but I did enjoy the show. Now if only the people behind me would stop talking.

Concert Review: the Selmanaires, Atlas Sound, Broadcast, October 24, Lee’s Palace

Posted on October 26, 2009 by Allison in Albums, Concerts, Everything | 21 Comments

Every once in awhile, a show comes along and completely blows your mind by the sheer randomness of it. When I saw bauhaus back in 1998 at what was once known as the Warehouse, a muscle-bound freak started random fistfights with everyone around him (women included), a future boyfriend’s watch was smashed in, and management confiscated the camera I had smuggled in. Last night’s Atlas Sound show had a few medical emergencies, a beyond sold-out crowd, and most memorably, my encounter with Bradford Cox.

The evening started off innocently enough. The Selmanaires, another Atlantan outfit invited out to support and back Cox in his Broadcast leg, opened up the show right at 10:00. Having known nothing about them prior to their set and contemplating skipping it altogether, they impressed me with their Primal-Scream-esque dancey psychedelia beats. The only thing they have to work on now: vocals and choosing other Georgian bands to cover (hey, the B52’s were great but everyone was sort of puzzled as no one could recognize the tune they chose). Also, this is another up and coming band that has an Asian…and Ricky, I believe he’s of Chinese descent. Tommy Chung sings and provides bass guitar, so there’s another one to add to our list. The real draw for me however (and there is absolutely no surprise here), was their Colombian ultra-babe percussionist Mario Schambon.  This guy ripped up those bongos and you could just tell he exuded a genuine joy in being able to percuss onstage, toothily grinning to his bandmates the entire time.

http://www.atlantamusicblog.com/.a/6a00e55007daf08834010536fe8d11970c-320wi

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Concert Review: No Age, October 22, West Germany, Berlin

Posted on October 25, 2009 by Allison in Concerts, Everything | 1 Comment

This review comes from my friend Evan, who’s currently traipsing through Western Europe. Right now he’s in Germany and decided to see No Age in Berlin.

“Ist dieses die Anordnung für No Age?”

“Yes, and you’d better get in there now, as I believe it will sell out.”

“Thank you, man.”

The queue that was only about eight-deep outside this unmarked (save the multi-layered graffiti mosaic) entranceway to Kreuzberg’s renowned yet claustrophobic concert venue – the cheekily-named West Germany – extended much further than it appeared from outside. The concertgoers were young and varied; I only heard German about half the time (so, par for the course in Berlin). Three hipster-saturated flights of stairs above me stood the doorway to the tiny club, a space only slightly bigger than my parents’ basement, and its soon-to-be crowded balcony overlooking the bustling and, I am told, drug-infested U-Bahn station at Kotbusser and Skalitzerstraße.

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Concert Review: Say Hi [Oct 22nd, Lees Palace]

Posted on October 24, 2009 by Wade in Concerts, Everything | Leave a comment


Photo by Matthew McAndrew

I don’t really want to write a review for this show, so I will just take another review and comment on it. What follows are points made by BlogTO contributor, Matthew McAndrew, who attended the show. I will either agree, disagree or make fun of his review of the show.

Matthew Says: Fellow Seattleites Say Hi (formerly Say Hi To Your Mom) played back to back sets, serving as both the sole opening act and Bazan’s supporting band.
Panic Says: I agree. Say Hi did open up for Dan Bazan of Pedro The Lion

Matthew Says: To be honest, I didn’t have very high expectations for this Seattle-based threepiece.
Panic Says: I had high expectations. The last time we saw Say Hi was at Sneaky Dees when they toured their Impeccable Blahs (2006) album. It was a good show.

Matthew Says: Their set was filled with infectious, anthemic rock songs that, at times, veer towards pop-punk more so than they do towards the lo-fi indie sound evident on their studio recordings.
Panic Says: Infectious, anthemic, rock, pop-punk, lo-fi, and indie. Matthew gets a thumbs down for using six non-descript and overused music performance adjectives in one sentence which ultimately confuses the reader as to what type of music was actually performed.

Matthew Says: Their predictable formula of simple, steady basslines, aggressive drumming and a single guitarist made many of their tracks sound one dimensional and ultimately generic. It’s a shame his vocals were so low…
Panic Says: I agree. The drumming seemed to drown out the lyrics, which are one of Say Hi’s strengths. During one of their last songs, the drummer was restricted to drumming with only one hand as he was working a shaker with his other. This allowed the vocals to really come through and added some dimension to the song. Conclusion; cut one of your drummer’s arm off to improve your bands sound. It worked for Def Leppard.

Matthew Says: The three members of Say Hi barely had the chance to leave the stage before they were back in the spotlight. Joined by Blake Wescott on lead guitar, Say Hi functioned tonight as Dan Bazan’s backing band.
Panic Says: I assume that this true since we left after Say Hi’s set, but it makes total sense since the two are touring together.

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