sheezer

Concert Review: Sheezer, October 31, Lee’s Palace

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

sheezer lee's

 

The young-ish crowd at Lee’s Palace was in full party mode to celebrate Sheezer’s 4th annual Halloween show. Most were dressed up even if it were just a tail, cat ears or a mask purchased from Dollarama. Props goes out to the girl who dressed up as the Statue of Liberty (more on her later). Proof of age was apparent when a significant proportion responded to the lead singer of openers Patti Cake when she asked everyone “Who was born in the ’90’s?” followed by breaking in to a slowed-down cover of 1979 by the Pumpkins (on Halloween, go figure). A crowd favourite was a cover of No Doubt’s Sunday Morning that finished their encore. They were a fun, energtic party band that prepared everyone for the headliners.

Only because we’re all familiar with Weezer’s discography, here was Sheezer’s setlist:

Buddy Holly

In the Garage

My Name is Jonas

Undone – The Sweater Song

Surf Wax America

Why Bother?

No One Else (“This one is about women’s rights!”)

Tired of Sex

I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams

Holiday

Say It Ain’t So (crowd singalong)

El Scorcho

Suzanne

Hash Pipe (encore)

Island in the Sun (encore)

The Good Life (encore)

I can only imagine that being in a cover band must be strange for its members. From one perspective, it must be easy having everything written for you but also frustrating since you’re always going to have to wait for new material. There’s also the possibility of having an identity crisis. Do we play these songs with our own little added touch or do we do our best to imitate to a ‘T’? Fortunately, Sheezer seek to do the latter. They’re definitely no novelty though and know how to be self-deprecating and not take themselves too seriously. Between songs the drummer “I’ll tell you a secret. We kinda play the same songs all the time.”

Sheezer were all dressed as superheroes: She-Ra, Wonder Woman, Phoenix and the Incredible (She-)Hulk. They asked the crowd if anyone was dressed up as a Sexy Rob Ford, which got me thinking if this was at all possible and even if it were, they would definitely be winning some costume contests. This was as close as we got to see our beloved mayor in costume on this night.

Nevertheless, Sheezer put on a tight set with everyone having a good time and not just because it was clearly one of their favourite holidays. They invited three people in costumes on stage to read the lines of the party people during Undone – The Sweater Song including the aforementioned Statue of Liberty girl (see picture) who really got in to it even twerking at one point (God, I hate that word). One couldn’t ask for a better way to party on Halloween.

Best of 2011: Ricky’s Favorite Concert Moments in Awards Format (pt 2/2)

Posted on by Ricky in Concerts, Year End Reviews | Leave a comment

Everyone likes awards right? Especially when they are random and whimsical..right? Here’s the rest of my favorite concert moments. Since it’s my blog, I’m just going to call these awards The Panickys. I would call it the Rickys, but that oozes of ego boasting.

2011 Panicky for Concert Where I Saw the Most Friends

Sloan, December, 2011 – The Great Hall
Before I joined this cultish indie blogger group I am now apart of, I rarely knew anyone at concerts. Since that fateful day, I seem to run into at least a few people at shows. While I’ve seen a lot of friends at a lot of shows, the Sloan show was by far, the one I went to with the most amount of people I knew there. I didn’t talk to most of the people I knew there, because I had a good spot. It helps that the show was phenomenal, and a nice cap off to a phenomenal concert year.

Sloan – Everything You’ve Done Wrong (live 2011-12-21) by panicmanual

2011 Panicky for Concert with the best backdrop/environment

The National, Llevant Stage, Primavera Sound, June, 2011
Brooding band, sun setting, beautiful weather and the Mediterranean Sea at my back. Even Matt Berninger mentioned how amazing it was for The National to play a set at that particular time at that particular place. Pure magic. Second best sunset show I’ve seen (after Coachella 2004, where Belle and Sebastian played a sunset show).

2011 Panicky for Concert where I formally gave up on a band

Interpol, Llevant Stage, Primavera Sound, June ,2011
I used to love Interpol, their brooding, atmospheric debut was one of the better records from the past decade. Sadly, the band has failed to consistently improve/expand on their sound and seeing the band go through the motions and play their inferior new tracks was a tough pill to swallow. Maybe Carlos D left at the right time, but I’m pretty sure that the sixth time I saw these guys was my last, until of course, the Interpol reunion in 2019.

2011 Panicky for Best Unexpectedly Great Concert

Erasure, Sound Academy, September 2011
The 80s synth-pop band put on one of the best shows I saw in Toronto this year, delivering a hits filled set at their show in September. The track selection for this set was perfect, building momentum slowly and then exploding in an outburst of color, melody and hook filled choruses, instantly transforming yours truly into a big time Erasure fan.

2011 Panicky for Best Unexpectedly Great Local Concert

Allie Hughes, NXNE, Wrongbar, June, 2011
Given the amount of large shows I go to, it’s probably not fair to group them with the smaller, more intimate local shows. So Allie Hughes gets the Panicky for the local version of best unexpectedly great show. Catching her on a whim at NXNE, I wasn’t expecting too much but came away awfully impressed by Allie’s theatre meets indie music mashup. Fun, original and filled with good music. A definite highlight of NXNE.

NOT THE STARS by AllieHughes

2011 Panicky for Best 1 Song Show

The Walkmen, Primavera Sound, June 2011
I only caught the tail end of the Walkmen (who Allison confuses with the Watchman, 9 times out of 10) set at Primavera Sound, but they sang the only song I would ever want to hear – The Rat. Seriously, listen to it. It’s one of the best tracks from the past decade and should have launched the band into the stratosphere. It didn’t, but that doesn’t make it a great moment to hear that song live.

2011 Panicky for Best Show I Do Not Remember

Yeasayer, Microsoft Party, Austin, March 2011
As chronicled in my article here, the PM crew indulged a bit too much at the free booze fest and as a result, I missed/forgot what happened at the Yeasayer show. Still, this was better than my performance at the Woodhands show in 2010. I didn’t have to review the Yeasayer show, I kinda had to review the Woodhands show and instead ended up making references to Fast and Furious in the article.

2011 Panicky for Show with the Highest Dancing Crowd/Collapsed Floor Potential

Sheezer, Sneaky Dees, NXNE, June, 2011
While they didn’t dress up as Spice Girls aka their Halloween show, Sheezer’s Sneaky Dees show was the perfect storm of great music, amazing crowd and really small space. The crowd was more than amped to see the Weezer cover band at 2 am at the height of NXNE and the result was a venue long mosh pit which was literally floor shaking. Great show.

Sheezer – Only in Dreams (Live) by Pop Montreal

2011 Panicky for Best Concert

Pulp, San Miguel Stage, Primavera Sound, June 2011
Was there any doubt? Favorite Concert Ever.

Song of the Day: Rouge – Modern Lovers I

Posted on by Ricky in Song of the Day | Leave a comment

Rouge are an all-girl trio whose members include Kelly McMichael from Gentlemen Reg, Jess Tollefsen from Green Go and Emma Tollefsen. I just copied and pasted that line from a PR email, but really, it’s a well formed introductory sentence. The group is part Guelph, part Toronto and all about dirty dance beats accompanied by disco inspired synth lines. Reminds me of a local version of defunct UK act Client. “Modern Lovers I” is a track off their debut 7″ and is an extremely polished track that will light up some dance floors in due time, have a listen

Rouge will be having a release party at Sneaky Dees October 14th, with guest DJs Sheezer (wo)manning the decks.

Concert Review: Sheezer, March 2nd, The Ballroom

Posted on by Ricky in Concerts | 3 Comments

Toronto – The Ballroom is the new hip destination among urban young twenty somethings who are suffering from nostalgic feelings from back in the day when they used to go bowling in the suburbs. It’s a very fitting venue for Sheezer, an all female Weezer cover band consisting of musicians Robin Hatch, Dana Snell, Alysha Haugen, Magali Meagher and Laura Barrett all of whom have their own personal projects in bands such as The Bicycles and The Phonemes. Already Rivers Cuomo approved, Sheezer have slowly been making their mark around the city with a variety of high energy shows that well, let’s face it, takes the best of Weezer (first two album) and gives it a nice swift boot in the butt. Wednesday night’s show kicks off ‘Ballroom Live’, a soon-to-be weekly Wednesday that combines bowling and really great live bands.

Having seen and enjoyed Sheezer live before, I skipped the bowling (instead opting for a night of drinking scotch on an empty stomach – bad idea) and just went straight to show. The girls took the stage shortly after eleven and began the night with a rousing rendition of My Name is Jonas (which I mistook for Zombies, while being downstairs and on the phone..why would I even think that?? wait maybe it was playing downstairs at the time in the bowling alley..anyways). Buddy Holly soon followed and we were on our way into an hour of nostalgia drenched Weezer memories. I saw Weezer open for the Pixies a few years ago and I actually like seeing Sheezer more. Maybe it was because Weezer was playing a lot of shitty songs during that show, but Sheezer plays songs like The Sweater Song, El Sorcho and Say It Ain’t So with so much enthusiasm and energy it’s hard not to get caught up in the moment. I guess it also helps that they are all pretty cute. They even teased Hash Pipe, which is obviously not off Pinkerton or the Blue Album, but I was kind of hoping they’d play it too.

Sheezer is always a fun time, I highly recommend catching them if you have the chance.