Concert Review: Doves, June 1st, Kool Haus

Posted on by Ricky in Concerts | 6 Comments

Toronto – It’s been a few years since the Doves graced Toronto with their presence. With that in mind, I was surprised that the Kool Haus was only about 70% full upon arrival. I guess once you reach a certain age band wise, you pretty much lose the ‘cool’ stigma and a bunch of hipsters looking for the next best thing don’t attend your show anymore. More room for me, I say. The Doves were in town to promote their 4th full length cd, called “Kingdom of Rust” (aka Detroit in 5 years). This cd has slowly been growing on me but I have yet to listen to it enough to make a final assessment. I would say I am still a sucker for The Last Broadcast and Lost Souls.

The band came on at about 10:15 and to our surprise, there was a 4th member – Roman Rebelski, who was in charge of keyboards and all things electro. Playing against a large project backdrop featuring random videos, the Doves quickly launched into recent single Jetstream, and my oh my, instantly you can see what an addition Rebelski is to the set. With the added keyboard addition, all the Doves song seem to have an extra oomph to them. The material from the recent album had an extra kick, whether it was because of a looped beat or a some added melodies, I found the addition of the fourth dude to be quite nice. It could also be that the Doves are an extremely, extremely polished band and played each song flawlessly and without a hitch. It’s hard to believe that they’ve been around for 9 years already. Aside from a few inbetween song banters, the band mostly kept to themselves and let the music do the talking. Considering the strength of their songs, I am perfectly okay with that.

The Doves played about an hour and half, featuring songs off all four albums. Notable exceptions would be “Break Me Gently”, “Catch the Sun” and my fav “The Man Who Told Everything” which I guess never ever gets played. The crowd was greatly appreciative of the band, and while most of their songs aren’t really of the ‘rock out’ variety, there was definitely lots of fists in the air for favorites such as “Black and White Town”, “Caught by the River”, “The Cedar Room” and set closer “There Goes the Fear”.

I guess the best way to sum up the show was a conversation overhead as we were walking back to the subway station. The person said “Wow, they were really good. Now I know why people like the Doves”.

Check them out if they are in your town.

Over The Top Festival: Boys Who Say No, Oh No Forest Fires and Five Blank Pages [Mod Club, May 23rd]

Posted on by Wade in Concerts, Everything | 3 Comments


(Toronto) Ah yes, an early Saturday night show at the Mod Club. There is something weird about going to a concert when it is still light out and it’s too early to be drunk.

First up was Toronto band Boys Who Say No. I liked them. They have a kind of quirky shouting, talking and singing over strong riffs. Kind of like Los Campesinos!. As I was watching them I thought that they kind of sounded like the Lovely Feathers, then they announced that they were playing a show with them on June 6th at Lees. Makes sense.

Up next were Oh No Forest Fires. Now I know my mother told me not to judge a book by its cover, but I am going to anyway. So Oh No Forest Fires takes the stage and I see three dudes, wearing crappy jeans and plaid shirts, you know, the typical slacker rocker indy outfit. No problem. But over on the corner of the stage on guitar is a fourth dude who I can only describe as Ian Ziering-esk. Brock Swanek took the stage wearing a freshly pressed white V-neck T-shirt, a fake-n-bake tan, new white Italian sneakers, fancy jeans and a faux-hawk-mullet hair don’t. It looked like he was on his way to meet his girfriends parents for the fist time. I didn’t get it.

Musically, I’m not that into Oh No Forest Fires. Not yet at least. I’m sure they are all fine musicians and others seem to like them, but on this night I was so distracted by the glare off of Brocks’ shirt and shoes, I couldn’t focus on the music. Visually, the band had no coherency. Visual coherency is important.

You would think that at some point the other three members of the band would be like:

“Hey, dude, do you have to get a manicure, shave, and whiten your teeth before every show? And why do you smell like a pina colada?”

OK, I made the pina colada thing up, I didn’t get that close, but if I had I am pretty sure that Brock would have been all coconuts.

On another superficial note, lead singer Rajiv Thavanathan has a lovely head of thick black bushy hair. If I could grow it like him, I would. Now I must admit that I did find some pictures from an Oh No Forest Fires show that happened at the Horseshoe earlier this year where Brock looks much more respectful. HERE too. Maybe the Mod Club show was a one off for the guy?

The last band of the early evening was Five Blank Pages. This was billed as their last show ever. I thought that they might just be saying that as a publicity stunt to get more people out, but when all the band members parents and grandparents started rolling in half an hour before their set, I knew that the ‘last show’ claim must have been legit. We didn’t stick around, there was an hour of daylight to get out and enjoy.

Concert Review: Joel Plaskett, May 23, Massey Hall

Posted on by Mark in Concerts | 7 Comments

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TorontoJoel Plaskett and his band The Emergency played Massey Hall last Saturday night. It was a great show shock full of feelgood east-coast rock. The unassuming Mr. Plaskett is on tour promoting his latest album Three. He was joined on guitar by his father Bill Plaskett, as well as fellow singer/songwriters Ana Ege and Rose Cousins.

“Rock and roll’s wrapped ‘round me as tight as a noose.” – Joel Plaskett

The show started just after 8 pm and was broken up into two sets. The first was an accoustic set with Bill, Ana and Rose and prominently featured songs from Three. After a little a break, he was joined by his band The Emergency and rocked all the way to the 11 pm curfew imposed on Massey Hall. That’s nearly a solid 3 hours of music! The length of the set was as ambitious as his album, which consists of three CD’s (hence the title). It’s a good thing his music is so fun and easy to listen to.

Joel Plaskett puts on great live shows. He’s a consumate musician who knows how to play guitar and knows how to sing. In addition to his vocal prowess, Joel is a fantastic guitarist that plays with a straight-ahead blues-infused vibe that can really cook. I remember seeing him at Lee’s Palace a few years ago and was awestruck by the simple and powerful way he could rock out. This show featured a lot more of Joel the accoustic guitarist and singer/songwriter than Joel the rock guitarist. But this is consistent with his album Three which is a lot less rocky than his previous offering: aptly named Ashtray Rock.

Joel gives off such a clean-cut friendly vibe that I’m alway a little taken aback when he swears in some of his tunes.

One highlight from all this great accoustic stuff was the addition of Ana Ege and Rose Cousins.  Both are talented singer/songwriters in their own right. Adding them to the mix made the harmonies that much sweeter. Their voices really added a lot of padding to the mix and generally bumped up the atmosphere of the show in general.  Pairing Joel’s strong voice with these ladies’ harmonies was a smart move.

If there’s one thing that was a little out-of-sorts, it was the ticket price. Once the surchages are added, my tickets ended up being $50 a piece, which is a little on the pricey side. It certainly brings it home that I’m not seeing Joel in some quaint bar in Halifax, or even at Lee’s, but at Massey Hall in downtown Toronto.  Lucky for us that seeing Joel Plaskett live is such good clean fun. Joel gives off such a clean-cut friendly vibe that I’m alway a little taken aback when he swears in some of his tunes. If anything, it makes the experience that much more sincere.

Concert Review: Au Revoir Simone, May 23, Lee’s Palace

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

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Toronto – Thursday night was a big concert night for the city of Toronto – The National were in town and the Over the Top festival was in full gear, including a Dinosaur Bones/ Sebastien Grainger show at the Whipper Snappe gallery. So I guess it should be to no surprise that Brooklyn’s Au Revoir Simone played to a sparse crowd at Lee’s Palace. The band was in town to promote the release of their new album “Still Night, Still Light” which came out on Tuesday. I reviewed the album here.

All I can say about the show is that the girls from Au Revoir Simone are fricking cute. Vintage dresses, charming smiles and witty banters all added to the show’s laid back fun vibe. They apologized for not being able to party afterwards because of an interview with Q the next day. The band had a minimal setup, as you can tell by the photo. The music was mostly from the new album, with a few tracks from their previous one. I guess the only disappointment from the show was that they didn’t sing “Stars”, a single from their previous album. I guess it was okay because the bands excuse was “we don’t remember the lyrics”.

Au Revoir Simone is touring thru out North America, if you want to see three cute ladies sing some chilled out tunes and have a good time doing it, then I would suggest you check out the show.

29 May 2009 20:00 Music Hall of Williamsburg Brooklyn, New York
30 May 2009 20:00 Rock and Roll Hotel Washington DC, Washington DC
31 May 2009 20:00 Southgate House Cincinnati, Ohio
1 Jun 2009 20:00 The End Nashville, Tennessee
2 Jun 2009 20:00 Hi Tone Memphis, Tennessee
4 Jun 2009 20:00 The Cavern Dallas, Texas
5 Jun 2009 20:00 Walters on Washington Houston, Texas
6 Jun 2009 20:00 Mohawk Austin, Texas
9 Jun 2009 20:00 Plush Tucson, Arizona
11 Jun 2009 20:00 El Rey Los Angeles, California
12 Jun 2009 20:00 Velvet Jones Santa Barbara, California
13 Jun 2009 20:00 Bimbo’s San Francisco, California
15 Jun 2009 20:00 Wonder Ballroom Portland, Oregon
16 Jun 2009 20:00 Neumo’s Seattle, Washington
17 Jun 2009 20:00 Richard’s on Richards Vancouver, British Columbia
19 Jun 2009 20:00 Kilby Court Salt Lake City, Utah
21 Jun 2009 20:00 Fox Theater Boulder, Colorado
23 Jun 2009 20:00 Waiting Room Omaha, Nebraska
24 Jun 2009 20:00 High Noon Saloon Madison, Wisconsin
25 Jun 2009 20:00 Logan Square Chicago, Illinois
26 Jun 2009 20:00 Grog Shop Cleveland, Ohio
27 Jun 2009 20:00 Bowery Ballroom New York City, New York
14 Jul 2009 20:00 Be Cool Barcelona
15 Jul 2009 20:00 El Sol Madrid
16 Jul 2009 20:00 Nocturama Festival Sevilla
17 Jul 2009 20:00 Dour Festival Dour
18 Jul 2009 20:00 Lovebox London
21 Jul 2009 18:30 Pure Groove Records in-store London
22 Jul 2009 20:00 Bungalow & Bears Sheffield
23 Jul 2009 20:00 Night and Day Manchester
24 Jul 2009 20:00 Indie Tracks Festival Derbyshire
25 Jul 2009 20:00 Be At @ Proud Galleries London
26 Jul 2009 20:00 Secret Garden Party Huntingdon
7 Aug 2009 20:00 Astropolis Festival Brest
8 Aug 2009 20:00 Nuits Secretes Festival Aulnoye-Aymeries