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Monday, June 23, 2008
Stars Shine Brightly Stars w/ Curtis Santiago and My!Gay!Husband! at Malkin Bowl
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Well, if you've seen Stars before, you know how hard they hit it in their live show - I probably don't even need to blog about them.
This was an all-ages show so the crowd was all kinds of crazy. There was everything from drunken cougars dancing as if they were at a Bon Jovi concert to wee babies with giant headphones on to protect their ears. At one point, even a bald eagle also showed up for the festivities.
My!Gay!Husband! opened the show, spinning a wide range of songs for those of us who stood in line from 4:30 pm. Curtis Santiago was up next - I don't even know if I can accurately describe his set. Mix equal parts kooky stage presence and slightly off-putting lyrics about robots (?), underage love affairs and crystal meth-like love and you've got Curtis Santiago. It was truly bizarre.
Stars [http://www.arts-crafts.ca/stars/] were great as usual. They had the stage decorated with roses again, which they tossed out to the crowd over the course of the night. I really like the way Torq and Amy interact on stage, her shy presence is balanced out nicely by his theatrics - also, they both have gorgeous voices. Unfortunately, Amy was unable to crowd-surf this time as a barrier was set up between the crowd and the stage - too bad!! No suit of light either.
The set list covered their three albums -"Heart", "Set Yourself on Fire", and "In Our Bedroom After the War". I was hoping to hear "Barricade" off "In Our Bedroom After the War" but I think the song is probably too intimate for the large, open space that is Malkin Bowl. Stars always put on a good show, it's impossible to leave them without a spring in your step.
Next up - Tilly and the Wall!
Your new BFF,
Marlon
NP: (nothing)
posted by Marlon Bookcase |
8:02 PM
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Blinded by Awesomeness Shout Out Out Out Out w/ Ravens & Chimes
Commodore Ballroom
Shout Out Out Out Out played the Commodore last night as part of the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and my ears are still ringing from the sheer awesomeness of it!
The night started off with the lovely and charming Ravens & Chimes from Brooklyn, New York [http://www.ravensandchimes.com/]. They are a fine indie rock band and I feel bad for them that the crowd was kind of crappy. Hardly anyone paid attention to them except for those of us in the front row and even then there were people being loud and talky. Anyway, R & C played a good mix of upbeat and quieter songs and they even did a cover of "Say It Ain't So", that really got the crowd going. The lead singer looked like a younger, more awkward Conor Oberst!
After Ravens & Chimes, it was time to have our minds blown by Shout Out Out Out Out!! [http://www.shoutoutoutoutout.com] Two drummers + four bass players + two samplers + five synthesizers+ two vocoders + high kicks = pure awesome! The dance floor filled up the instant the Shout Out guys came on stage, everyone seemed to be having a great time. There was a surprising amount of room to dance which was great, I expected it to be the same as the last time I saw them (meaning, I would be covered in sweat that was not my own by the end of the night). We were treated to some new songs as well as old favourites like "Chicken Soup for the Fuck You", "Forever Indebted" and, "Dude You Feel Electrical". One of their new songs that I really like was "In the End, It's Your Friends That Will Fuck You Over" - Hanson got the beer-soaked play list from the stage so maybe he'll post it later.
Next up - Stars at the Malkin Bowl!
Yours,
Marlon
NP: (nothing)
posted by Marlon Bookcase |
3:18 PM
Monday, June 02, 2008
A Healthy Appreciation for Punctuation Marks! Parenthetical Girls, You Say Party! We Say Die!, and Los Campesinos! at the Plaza.
I would never say that I'm too old to enjoy music and going to shows but I think I'm too old for some kinds of music (Parenthetical Girls I'm looking at you!). I don't want to come down too hard on them, I guess I'm just not that into shoe-gazing songs with whispery, warble-y vocals but I'm sure there are plenty of young hipsters out there that are.
You Say Party! was great as always. They're nothing if not consistently entertaining performers. The sound seemed wonky and the vocals were hard to hear but I think that's the Plaza's fault and not theirs.
Los Campesinos! were lots of fun too. They seem to have good chemistry on stage and were having a good time - I've never seen such enthusiastic xylophone playing. The crowd was having just as much fun as the band, there was much dancing, singing, and fist pumping. There were sound problems during this part of the show too, so it was definitely the Plaza and not the bands. Over all, charming kids, these Los Campesinos!, so if you have the chance to see them live do so, it'll be a crazy fun party.
Next up - Stars at the Malkin Bowl.
Yours,
Marlon
NP: (nothing)
posted by Marlon Bookcase |
10:23 PM
Sunday, June 01, 2008
A Thought I'm sitting in a Starbucks at the corner of Yonge and College right now, taking in the pedestrian traffic of Toronto while catching up on some work and interwebs time. If it all goes according to plan, I'll get checking out No Gold tonight at Wavelength. It's funny that I have to go all the way across the country to see a Vancouver band that I've already heard read a good deal about. I guess that speaks to how few shows I've been to recently, especially local acts.
Perhaps in my overly-caffeinated and sleep-deprived state, I'm a bit too reflectively for my own good. But it seems to me that over the last year or so, I've had much less time for keeping up with the music scene. The volume of music I've acquired recently has declined dramatically, as have the number of new acts that I've been able to check out. Not surprisingly, these downward trends have also been correlated with a massive drop off in my blogging as well. (Massive thanks to Marlon Bookcase for picking up the slack recently!)
The reasons could probably all be grouped under the umbrella of my ascending/descending into oldness. The considerable time and money I used to devote to my musical pursuits have been slowly slipping away. In their place, I now have increased increasing responsibilities and a mortgage to keep me company. I suppose most hardcore music geeks reach this stage at one point or another in their lives; I just thought I wouldn't hit it until I'm at least 30.
So how do I cross this chasm, this earlier-than-expected sea change in my life? In the words of Buffy, I just have to deal. Human beings have an innate ability to adapt, and there's no reason why I can't make this work for me. Maybe I could explicitly schedule time in my calender to scour the internet for new music, sampling one track at a time from new artists instead of always insisting on getting the full album so as to not make a rash and uninformed judgment. And instead of writing long-ass reviews that go into the minutia of a show or a record, I could simply thrown down a couple hundred words and leave it at that. There's more than one way to butter my toast!
Yes, I can deal. If Mariah Carey can pull a comeback from her increasingly-exposed ass, so can I. Metaphorically speaking, of course -- there's no way I can rock those booty-shorts.
NP: (ambient chattering)
posted by Hanson |
5:21 AM
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