summerworks

Summerworks Review: Evening Hymns, August 17, Theatre Centre

Posted on by Paul in Everything, Summerworks | Leave a comment

Anticipation was high amongst many in attendance at Friday night’s Evening Hymns show as part of Summerworks. A record release show for the band’s latest, Spectral Dust, it was also being recorded by the CBC for their Canada Live series. When frontman Jonas Bonetta mentioned this fact, some guy in the audience interjected “CBC Sucks!” Dude, who cares what you think about the CBC? I get that you want everyone to know that you’re oh so cool and beyond things like listening to the radio, but so what? Plus, if you were hoping that you’d be able to infiltrate the airwaves with your comments, they’ll probably edit you out anyways. Regardless of what anyone thinks though, it’s still pretty cool that the band’s getting their show broadcast across the nation. For the record though, I do think that CBC2 was way more interesting back when they had Brave New Waves.

Anyways, back to the show itself. Bonetta may have been a bit nervous, but it didn’t really have any bearing on the performance itself. With the band expanded to a full seven piece to better replicate the songs as recorded,it all sounded great. And in addition to the aural aspect of the show, in keeping with the artsy, theatrical nature of the Summerworks festival, artist Sean Frey provided some visuals in the form of projections on a screen behind the band. Bonetta was actually a bit bummed that he had to face the crowd and couldn’t watch. To digress a bit, I’d just like to point out that the projections at times brought to mind Horsebot 3000 from Community. I liked Horsebot 3000 …

Another aspect of the show that one couldn’t help but take in was the lyrics. Sometimes I don’t pay the closest attention to lyrics – There’s some songs I’ve loved for years that I just never learn the words to and especially live, hearing songs for the first time, I don’t necessarily focus on words. But knowing the backstory behind the songs on Spectral Dusk, the fact that the songs were inspired by the death of Bonetta’s father, I had to pay attention. That several of Bonetta’s family members were also in attendance that night probably made the songs more significant to him personally. They certainly seemed to strike a chord with the audience. With those up front sitting on the floor, the whole thing had a comfortable love-in vibe that meshed well with the band’s warm sound … even if the floors weren’t actually all that comfortable at all.

Summerworks Review: France, or The Niqab (2012, Tanja Jacobs)

Posted on by Paul in Summerworks | Leave a comment

The Summerworks blurb was all in needed to read to pique my interest in this play.  “Warning: Nudity, Language, Sexism, Put-downs, Assaulting a police officer.”  And so, just like a teenager in the ’80s reading a PMRC sticker on an album cover, I was drawn towards France, or The Niqab.  The only thing that might draw me in more would be a rumour that the play includes secret messages if played backwards. 

Of course, the idea of warning people that a fake police officer is going to get assaulted on stage is an absurd one, which makes sense as this play, while dealing with some serious issues, is a comedy.  Telling the story of a French lawyer who decides to spend a day (a business day, to be precise) wearing a niqab so as to better understand the plight of her client.  Of course, lots of farcical moments arise from this scenario and a few shots are taken at the Candian government as well as that of France.  The play basically posits the idea that a woman should be allowed to wear whatever she pleases, whether it be a niqab or a miniskirt and that it’s not the place of a government to make such a decision.  That it does so while offering up a few laughs is a good thing.

Summerworks Review: Buck 65 (with Choir! Choir! Choir! and friends), August 15, Theatre Centre

Posted on by Ricky in Summerworks | Leave a comment

It was a clear black night, a clear white moon
Buck 65 was in the theatre centre, trying to consume
Some skirts for the eve, so I can get some funk
Just rollin in my ride, chillin all alone

Just hit the west side of the queen street
On a mission trying to find Mr. Richard T.
Seen a car full of girls tryin to get their fix
All you skirts know what’s up with 416

That was how far I made it on my hip hop inspired review of Buck 65‘s excellent Summerworks show on Wednesday. Originally I was going to modify the lyrics to Warren G’s Regulate to review the show, but man, that is a hella long song and I lost interest pretty quickly. Sometimes I get great ideas, this wasn’t one of them. So back to the show.

Wednesday night’s Buck 65 showcase was probably one of the two most hyped up showcases for the Summerworks Music series in 2012 (Evening Hymns being the other one). A veteran of the music scene, Buck 65 seems to be the type of artist that would be playing venues a lot larger then the Theatre Centre (which was packed) so the opportunity to see him in this space was rather unique. Doubling the uniqueness was the fact that Buck 65 was preforming songs he has never/rarely ever performed live. There was no doubt this was going to be a special evening.

Unshackled by the restraints that would come from say, a conventional show, Buck 65 let lose a series of songs that shows what a versatile songwriter he is. The man laid his rap verses down over a variety of music – from traditional hip hop beats to thrashing guitar riffs to just about everything else. If anyone was to take away anything from this set, it is that the man is rather experimental when picking the music to go with his flow. Visually, Buck 65 was accompanied by a host of dancers who provided interesting arrangements on all the tunes. Joining Buck 65 for a few songs was Choir Choir Choir a Toronto collective that started off as a choir, but then figured out that they are pretty good and now put on shows. Their numbers with Buck 65 was especially good and added to the overall collaborative energy that is Summerworks.

Overall, it was great night at the Theatre Centre that featured creative visuals, epic story telling, unique collaborations and good music from the man they call Buck 65.

Summerworks Song of the Day: Chrome and the Ice Queen – Stealing Hearts

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

I came for the food and stayed for the music.

Summerworks opening party took place at the Great Hall on Thursday night and I basically went because there was free food catered by the Lakeview and I was also hoping to score a few free drink tickets from media/publicity people. Sadly, no free drinks came my way because this was a fund starved theatre festival and not say, SXSW Interactive where someone would probably pour champagne down my throat if I just asked. To curb my disappointment, I headed for the deep fried carb station. Catered Poutine sounds like a good idea, but really it isn’t, because you need fresh fries for poutine and the Lakeview most certainly did not have a deep fryer on site, meaning you got soggy/stale fries for the poutine. Not good. I still ate it and contemplated seconds, so what that says about me, I have absolutely no idea.

Seeing how this was a music/theatre festival, the opening party had a few musical acts on the bill. Chrome and the Ice Queen was the second or third act on the bill and they were very impressive. A four piece act, the band apparently wrote all their songs about Twin Peaks. For the younger reading audience, Twin Peaks was a good/clusterfuck of a show from the demented mind of David Lynch. It also featured David Duchovny in drag:

Yikes.

Anyways, as one would imagine, Chrome and the Ice Queen’s tracks are minimalistic and has that bluesy/loungey/smoke two packs of cigarettes kind of sound. This music would also fit quite nicely soundtracking Mulholland Drive, in case you need a more recent David Lynch reference. The tracks highlight just how amazing a voice Lisa Conway has and the band’s debut EP Diane is excellent.

Here is at track called Stealin’ Hearts that features Daniel Lee (of Phredre/Hooded Fang I think) and it’s rather good, check it out.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   Next »