lee’s palace

Concert Review: Memoryhouse, Peter, Bjorn, and John, September 2, Lee’s Palace

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Allison in Concerts | 1 Comment
From NXNE

From IKVDK

Friday night marked the first labour day in recent memory in which I didn’t feel a dire need to escape Toronto for the long weekend. There’s something about the last real long weekend in our short summer that prompts a mass exodus–but  the groundswell of Peter Bjorn and John’s popularity since their 2006 breakthrough album Writer’s Block made for a packed house in the first of their two-night engagement at Lee’s Palace.

Fellow Swedes Memoryhouse accompanied them for this part of the tour–Subpop records is releasing “The Years” on September 13, and it’s got some great songs, with a lot of the arrangements able to compete with the best nu-gaze. 19-year-old Vocalist / photographer Denise Nouvion and her partner Evan Abalee are both transplanted Swedes who had lived and studied in Guelph, and are now in Toronto. So considering this is their first real forage into live music performance, it’s hard not to want to be easier on Denise’s sometimes inconsistent vocals. Maybe this exposure with PBJ will help develop their banter and compel them to add some back-up vocals to help out their frontwoman. Instrumentally, they are well on their way.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theswedebeat/page9/

As for Peter (the singer/guitarist), Bjorn (the bassist/vocalist), and John (the drummer), clearly a lot has changed as a result of their frequent touring. Like a lot of the better high-energy shows I’ve seen, this one had an “opening” that the band ran out to. In this case it was the opening to A Space Odyssey.

Of the three of them, Peter in particular has become a seductive showman, able to pull off a full cream suit while jumping off speakers and taking a few songs to the floor. It’s not really fair to think of these guys as the one-hit “Whistling Song” wonders (Peter introduced this as the “X-Files” David Duchovny’s theme song from Californication to our bafflement, then jumped into the audience to the song most people probably came to hear). There were a lot of other better moments from their new album Gimme Some (Second Chance brought down the house). Part of what made Friday such a good show is that the band collected the best singles from each of their albums and incorporated it into their setlist. Their second show from Saturday dug a little deeper into their back catalogue but looks like it struck the same balance. If there was only one approach I’d change it’d be extra-long encore tacked onto the end. I’m not a fan of encores in general (it just always feels like a rouse), but think that if they must exist, they should be short.

For some reason, no one has posted the setlist from the first show in Toronto, but this one from the previous night in Detroit seems comparable.

  1. Tomorrow Has to Wait
  2. Move Me
  3. Eyes
  4. Breaker, Breaker
  5. DALD
  6. Amsterdam
  7. Macabre
  8. Young Folks
  9. Second Chance
  10. Objects of My Affection
  11. Down Like Me

Encore:

  1. Stay This Way
  2. NTWA
  3. Coffin
  4. Lies
  5. Lay it Down

Peter Bjorn and John – Young Folks by Wichita Recordings

Concert Review: Eels, Aug 2, Lee’s Palace

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Paul in Concerts | 1 Comment

Toronto – The thing about seeing an Eels concert is you’re never quite sure what version of the band you’re going to get.  It could be a string augmented, acoustic-based band or it could be a stripped down rock trio.  It could even feature one member simply standing onstage without an instrument, dancing wildly and shouting non-sequiturs into the mic, as I witnessed at a previous Eels show a few years back.  But on this occasion, Eels took the form of what would probably best be described as their version of a rock n’ soul revue.  The entire band, including a horn section, were clad in suits and sunglasses.  And beards!  Eels are one of the most impressively bearded bands I have ever seen.  They delivered an upbeat, fun set of tunes from throughout their career, many of them rearranged to fit the band’s current live sound.

Frontman E was in pretty good spirits, shouting out things like “Refreshing!” and “That was very positive!” after songs and joking about how he thought he was in New Mexico in February rather than Toronto in the summer before the band launched into a proper summer song, a solid version of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Hot Fun In The Summertime.”  Another highlight was a punky version of “I Like Birds,” which I didn’t even recognize at first, but it sounded just as good as the original recorded version.  Maybe better.

On a side note, I’d like to point out that before entering, I noticed not one but two huge tour buses parked outside of the venue.  Granted, there are currently seven members of Eels, but it still doesn’t seem like they would require that much space.  I’m not sure why I’m pointing this out, but I thought it was interesting.  Nice to see Eels doing their part to support the tour bus industry. 

Concert Review: Memphis, July 20, Lee’s Palace

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Paul in Concerts, Everything | Leave a comment

Toronto – For the record, I have never been the biggest fan of Memphis frontman Torquil Campbell.  While I’ve enjoyed his work with Stars, he’s generally been my least favourite part of that band and I will admit that I have thought him to seem a bit pretentious at times. Unfair?  Perhaps.  So in an effort to put aside any preconceived notions and prejudices, I took it upon myself to check out his other band and see what they were all about.  And I must admit, they put on a pretty damn good show.

Campbell somehow comes across a bit differently when fronting this band than he does in his main gig.  Perhaps it was the more straightforward rock band arrangements, but something was definitely different.  I detected more than a hint of Morrissey in his delivery.  In fact, at times it was almost like watching a Morrisey impersonator.  Campbell came across as a pretty engaging and yes, often likeable performer.  At one point, he dedicated a song to “all the evil f*ckers who run this province and this city” and a later dedication went out to all the people in the back who couldn’t be bothered to turn around and watch the group of “tired, old men” performing onstage.  This guy’s not really afraid to call it like he sees it.  Nor is he afraid to ask for a drink.

At one point during their set, Campbell asked for a gin and tonic.  Within a few minutes, I witnessed three or four seperate people bringing a gin and tonic to the stage.  Man, I wish I was in a successful Canadian indie rock band and didn’t have to pay for my drinks.  I should really get on that.

Memphis – Way Past Caring by Arts & Crafts

Concert Review: Foster the People, June 18, Mod Club Theatre

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Allison in Concerts | Leave a comment

L.A.’s  Foster the People should probably document its incredible timeline for anyone hoping to capitalize on Hype Machine. It seems like only a few short months ago, their breakout single Pumped Up Kicks was making the rounds. I’d be willing to bet that whoever scouted and signed them to Sony Music is rolling in accolades right now. It’s not often that a band enters a major label as indie to enjoy immediate major chart success.

Seeing as the band’s debut Torches has barely been officially out for a month now, Saturday night’s concert at the Mod Club was pretty impressive. They played their first Toronto show at Lee’s Palace in early April only to graduate a mere two and a half months later to the next level. It usually takes bands several tour legs to take that step, so even in today’s breakneck pace of internet-fueled mania, this is very fast progress.

I wonder if openers Gardens & Villa are taking notes.

Unfortunately for them, I find it doubtful that they’ll be skyrocketed to anything other than funemployment in terms of their musical careers. Granted, I only observed around three songs, but throughout them I was whisked to the mall kiosk that features Central Americans in ponchos playing unfortunate new-age flute music. I suppose everyone else was too busy attending Taste of Little Italy or playing NXNE to book anyone more appropriate.

The good news is that Foster the People are charismatic live, and that the album plays better in front of an audience than it does in the studio. That is, with the exception of Pumped Up Kicks (falling rather flat no matter how many bubbles were dropped from the ceiling), which they wisely chose not to close with. There are several enthusiastic drummers who like to perform standing up/slightly hunched over, which only serves to add perceived showmanship. Lead singer Mark Foster is also surprisingly dynamic, which you would not necessarily expect from a former jingle composer.

While the set was quite short, I’m not sure what else we should come to expect from an outfit that has around 10-12 officially released songs. And besides, the frat people needed somewhere to dance in bubbles on a Saturday night.

This is their setlist from the Ohio date last week, which I can only suppose was pretty much what we got on Saturday:

Warrant
Miss You
Houdini
Waste
Call It What You Want
Life On The Nickel
I Would Do Anything For You
Broken Jaw
Pumped Up Kicks
Don’t Stop (Color on the Walls)
Helena Beat

Helena Beat by Foster The People

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