Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: Live At The Danforth Music Hall

First off, I had no plans to see this gig last Thursday. I had checked the Ticketmaster website a couple of weeks ago and it seemed that they did not have any tickets left. After hearing Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark sounding really good on the CBC Radio show Q earlier in the day - and after having a couple of drinks - I changed my mind and decided that I would try to get tickets through scalpers. Luckily, I checked the box office first and much to my surprise they had tickets.

Note: I was late and missed the opening set by the always excellent Diamond Rings.

Andy McCluskey, Paul Humphreys and band came out at 9:30 PM sharp to the pre recorded sound of "Please Remain Seated," the introductory track off their latest album English Electric. Once the guys were settled they launched into another English Electric song, Metroland, their Kraftwerk-like ode to bad suburban planning. McCluskey seemed happy and energetic while giving high fives to the fans in front of the stage. He announced that “There will be old ones and there will be new ones,” referring to the song selection and sure enough OMD provided a good mix of their classics along with plenty of new songs.

Unlike other bands who regroup after a long hiatus, OMD made the decision that the reunion of their original group would not be a cash grab and that they would record new material. Since they got back together in 2010 they have put out two excellent LPs, History of Modern and the aforementioned English Electric. Most of the older crowd seemed to like the new material but I  did notice some fans who were disinterested. Those people got what they wanted though, and most of the set list was comprised of oldies including my personal favourites "Tesla Girls", "So in Love" and "Enola Gay". The band even played "If You Leave,"the mega hit from the Pretty in Pink soundtrack. OMD don't particularly care for this song but it did make them a lot of money and McCluskey jokingly acknowledged that fact.

Another funny moment happened near the end of the first set when McCluskey stated that he was tired. He had good reason to be exhausted because the band were stuck on an airplane for 20 hours due to Toronto's shitty weather earlier in the week. McCluskey did get his second wind, finished the last two songs and with the crowd shouting O.M.D. over and over again the guys seemed reenergized and ended with a three song encore that included two more classics, "Secret" and "Electricity".

If you are in Toronto and you missed them, OMD will be back at the same venue on Friday July 19th. Go see them.

Set List:


Please Remain Seated 
Metroland 
Messages 
Tesla Girls 
Dresden 
History of Modern (Part 1) 
(Forever) Live and Die 
If You Leave 
Night Café 
Souvenir 
Joan of Arc 
Maid of Orleans 
Our System 
Kissing the Machine 
So In Love 
Sister Marie Says 
Locomotion 
Sailing on the Seven Seas 
Enola Gay 

Encore:

Walking on the Milky Way 
Secret 
Electricity 

Cansei De Ser Sexy- Live at The Mod Club

While all of Toronto’s hipster elite were fawning over Zooey Deschanel at the She & Him concert Thursday night, Brazilian electro pop group CSS were playing before a small crowd at The Mod Club. That was lucky for me because I got to stand in front of the stage to watch one of the most enigmatic front women (Lovefoxxx!!!!) in music today. Last night’s show was one of the funnest gigs I have ever been to and I was left wondering why it took me seven years to see this band.

It is always good to begin a concert on a winning note and CSS did that with “Art Bitch", the sexually overt electro punk song from their self titled debut album. With lyrics like “My art is called egocentric soft porno,” and “Lick, Lick, Lick my art tit" how can you go wrong. Those words perfectly describe the music of the band and their theatrics for the show.

Lovefoxxx came out on stage dressed conservatively in a pair of parachute pants but by the time the band launched into “City Grrl" she ripped them off to reveal a pair of leopard print short shorts. She teased the audience for the rest of the show by hiking the shorts up at times and then covering them up with a black laced chemise at other times.

There was bit of introspection in the middle of the set when Lovefoxxx reminisced about the other time they played The Mod Club back in 2006 and she remembered how proud she was that the members of Death From Above 1979 came to that gig. That led the band laying into a blistering version of “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above." that would have made Sebastien Grainger proud.

Lovefoxxx was a bundle of dancing joy throughout the set and wasn't afraid to come up to the lisp of the stage. There were times when she was standing right over top of me. She even stopped to flirt with an audience member who yelled out that he was lonely for her. She dedicated the song "I Love You" to him.... Lucky guy.

Could not find a set list for the show. Lovefoxxx handed out the paper set lists to the audience at the end of the gig but I was unable to grab one. However, I do remember several favourites were played by the band including "Move", "Alcohol," "Hangover" and the iPod commercial hit "Music Is My Hot Hot Sex." The encore contained "Alala" and the track with my favourite song title of the year "Frankie Goes To North Hollywood."

CSS ended with a fun song that Lovefoxxx dedicated to the bartender. “I’ve Seen You Drunk Gurl" is a hilarious hip hop duet between Lovefoxxx and bandmate Ana Rezende that brought the show to a awesomely amusing dumb (in a good way) ending.

CMW Festival Wrap Up: Ft. Chvrches, Savages, Besnard Lakes & More

In the past I never really had any interest to go to Canadian Music Week, the six day music conference in Toronto that brings together various types of artists and bands into the city to showcase their talents. In previous years the talent seemed to be a mixed bag of pop artists, pop punk bands, alt rock groups. retreads, indie bands that play here every other week, and the odd buzz band.

Something changed this year as the line up increased from approximately 600 artist showcases to over 1000. They also seemed to leverage off SXSW this year and managed to bring two of that conferences biggest buzz bands to the city. Once I heard Chvrches and Savages, plus a lot more up and coming musicians were coming to the festival, I quickly booked time off work and bought my $60 wristband. From Wednesday to Saturday of last week I enjoyed some really cool showcases:

WEDNESDAY

The Mod Club Theatre

DIANA

DIANA are a Canadian synth pop band that I have featured on the blog before. In fact their glorious song Born Again made my Top 50 songs of 2012. The band were opening for Scottish synth pop trio Chvrches and quickly proved to the low key crowd that they have a lot of talent.

The band played a set of 8 songs over 45 minutes with lead singer Carmen Elle showing her charisma  by joking with the crowd about the Harlem Shuffle and the spelling of Chvrches name. DIANA's sound was retro cool synth that featured a lot of saxophone and Elle's swooning lyrics about love. I think by the end of the show she had won over the crowd.

CHVRCHES

By the time CHVRCHES took the stage, the Mod Club Theatre was packed with wall to wall people. When pixie lead singer Lauren Mayberry came to microphone you could see her take a deep breath, maybe a little bit overcome by the sheer size of the crowd. They then opened with their first blogosphere hit "Lies" which was backed by a thumping bass drum machine and her two bandmates, Ian Cook and Martin Doherty, each with a synthesizer on either side of the singer.

The band raced through a number of songs that will be included on their new Recover EP, due out next week and a new album which is promised for the fall. Among the songs they played were "If We Sink," "Lungs," and "Night Sky" that showed off the confidence and the big beautiful voice of singer Mayberry. The singer also had a really good stage presence and a great rapport with the audience.

Near the end of the set the band brought out the big hits "Recover" (my favourite) and "The Mother We Share." The performances of these songs solidified the fact that this band is for real and they will only get bigger and better.

The audience demanded an encore and CHVRCHES didn't let them down. They played one song, a cover of the Prince classic " I Would Die 4 U' which had the whole crowd in a dancing tizzy. Hopefully The Purple One won't sue them.

The Garrison

Shiny Darkly

With Chvrches finishing up a little passed even o'clock I had to quickly make my way down to College Street to the Garrison to catch Danish post punk band Shiny Darkly. I featured their song "Diana" on the blog last September and really wanted to see what else they had to offer. Much to my chagrin, by the time I got there the band were already well into their set. These guys played really loud, so loud that  the thirty people in the audience watching them were all standing well back of the stage. They played an okay set of post punk guitar songs, but they also seemed bored, maybe due the fact there was nobody there to see them.

THURSDAY

Nightlands

The Mod Club Theatre

Cancelled!!!.....moving along......

The Garrison

Elephant Stone

Elephant Stone are an Indo-Canadian psychedelic rock band from Montreal who like to use the sitar in their music. It was funny to see lead singer Rishi Dhir running between the guitar and the sitar in the songs that featured both instruments. One minute he was a guitar hero and the next he was sitting bare foot and cross legged. Otherwise these guy were really good and played a trippy set of psychedelic guitar songs including the song "Setting Sun" which I featured last week.

The Great Hall

PS I Love You

Once again I had to rush between venues (almost falling on my ass because it was snowing), this time to try and catch Kingston noise rock duo PS I Love You at The Great Hall on Queen Street. No luck as I missed half the bands set. I tried to see these guy a couple of years ago at the NXNE festival, but they blew an amp on the first song and it was taking really long to fix. I decided to forgo their performance to catch Crocodiles.

I had heard that PS I Love You play really loud, but I think the vacuous Great Hall tempered some of their aural assault. However, guitarist/singer Paul Saulnier's reputation preceded him and he rocked the guitar like there was no tomorrow, all with his long hair hanging over his face making him look like Captain Caveman.

Wildlife

These guys play big songs and seem to aspire to be playing arenas. Their songs had the bros in the crowd with their arms around each other and fist pumping their tall boys of PBR in the air. Wildlife seemed to influenced by a number of big rock acts from the Arcade Fire to Bruce Springsteen. Their one big hit so far is a song called "Bored To Ruin", which is one"i" away from "Born To Run."At one point they brought out a mandolin and that is where they lost me. I absolutely hate Mumford & Sons and these guys seemed to have that whole sing-along frat boy fist pumping art down to a tee. Not for me.

Funny fact: I dissed them on twitter after the performance and called them bullshit. The next day Wildlife started following me.

The Darcys

The Toronto indie rock/shoegaze band were the secret guests on the night, but maybe too secret as the venue was only half full for their performance. They played a quick set of only about five songs, one of them new, another from their Steely Dan- Aja covers album and then ended with a blistering version of "Don't Bleed Me."


Friday

The Horseshoe Tavern

Young Rival

Young Rival are a nice Canadian indie rock band from Eastern Ontario who could be compared to a million other Canadian indie rock bands with the same style. Their sound is caught somewhere between The Trews and Hollerado and they played a 45 minute set of meat & potatoes indie. There were a couple of highlights with the Weezer sounding "Two Reasons" and a really great cover of a Deadly Snakes punk song.

Savages

By now everybody has heard about the hype about this band. Even before they released a single  Savages were already known across the UK for their blistering live shows. The crowd was full of music industry types and there were even a couple of minor celebrities in attendance. Beside me (for a couple of minutes, anyway) was Jian Ghomeshi the host of the CBC radio show Q and in front of the stage I spotted Oliver Ackermann of New York shoegaze trio A Place To Bury Strangers.

Savages singer Jenny Beth is one of the most intense performers I have ever seen and she has this terrifying icy stare. I wouldn't want to fuck with her. As a matter of fact she made some clown in the first row turn off their video camera.

The crowd was sedate for most of the blistering performance but once the band lit into "She Will" there were a couple of pogo dancers in the first row. More on Savages later.....

Lee's Palace

The Besnard Lakes

I actually made it in time for their performance but had to leave early because I couldn't take the loudness of the show....my ears were shot and needed a rest. Besnard Lakes were test driving a lot of their new songs from their upcoming new album, Until Excess, Imperceptible UFO, and a lot of the songs were not familiar to me. Some of the new tracks were okay and some of them sounded My Bloody Valentine epic including their new single "People Of The Sticks". They also threw in their classics"Albatross", and "Chicago Train." It looked like they were going to play a long set before I left. Too bad.

Saturday

Lee's Palace

Valleys

This Montreal dream pop duo Valleys reminded me a lot of Beach House. Although, there was a lot more shoegaze in Marc St Louis' guitar than their Baltimore contempoaries. Nice set.

Lioness

These guys are a dance punk/R&B group from here in Toronto who are led by the powerhouse voice of frontwoman Vanessa Fischer. These guys really impressed me and their performance knocked it out the park. Hard to believe these guys have been around since 2007 and have had little exposure.

Savages

See above.... only more intense, and the crowd were more into it. In fact I thought two girls in front of me were going to come to blows as they "danced" into each other. Crazy shit!!!! Another girl was so pumped I thought she was going to hyperventilate. As should stood there waiting for the band she nailed it by saying that "Savages were PJ Harvey, The Dead Kennedys and Siouxsie & The Banshees all rolled into one." And that it was.......

Django Django- Live At The Opera House In Toronto

After a two month concert hiatus it was good for me to get back in the game after getting so pissed off the last time I saw a live show. This was back in January when Father John Misty played with The Walkmen at The Danforth Music Hall. It wasn't the band's performances that were bad, but it was my old pet peeve the inconsiderate, talkative, and just plain selfish asshole fans. Yes, I got stuck beside one of these idiots-the guy talked about his trip to Calgary and snowboarding expedition the whole fucking concert. I was so mad I didn't even do a concert review of the show and I swore that was the last gig that I would attend....ever!!!

Alas, I had major live music withdrawal in February and I was itching to see some live music. Django Django playing last night at The Opera House provided the remedy. Actually March seems to be a good month for Scottish bands playing live in Toronto as there are four groups stopping in town during the month. Unfortunately Veronica Falls was playing the same night as Django Django over at The Garrison and obviously I was unable to see them. Tried to get Frightened Rabbit tix as well but they were sold out. I will be going to see buzz band Chvrches when they play Canadian Music Fest next week.

The opening band was a group from Minneapolis named Night Moves who specialize in indie rock that is inflected with country.  The band seem to be influenced by seventies AM radio country rock (think Bob Seger, thus the group's name) and after 5 or 6 songs I began comparing them to Band Of Horses. They were okay but seemed an odd choice to open for a dance rock band.

Night Moves- Headlights

Django Django arrived enthusiastically on the scene at about 9:15 and all of the members were wearing  matching shirts. The concert kicked off like the band's S/T album, with the instrumental track "Introduction" morphing into Hail Bop. The track proved that Django Django were a lot more dance oriented than I had originally thought and can even be compared to Hot Chip when they play live. In fact synth player Tommy Grace could be a dead ringer for Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor.

The next three tracks, "Storm", "Firewater", and "Wave Forms" kept the rave going with the music turning the area in front of the stage into a full on dance floor. During "Wave Forms" all three members took to the synths and played like 1986 Depeche Mode.

Lead singer David Maclean was like a circus ring leader instructing the crowd to put their hands in the air and even brought out a cow bell to play. At one point he had to share that he had found out that John Candy was from Toronto. Must be a big fan.

The concert slowed down when the band played "Love's Dart" (meh!!!) and the acoustic number "Hand of Man"which provided a nice peaceful song for the audience to clap along to. This was okay because it allowed the guys to have a rest from the frenzy of the other parts of the show.

Next up was the weird but cool Egyptian sounding song 'Skies Over Cairo" which had Maclean acting like a snake charmer while banging on a bass drum and yelling to the crowd “People of Toronto, are you ready to come up up up with us?”

The big hit came next as the band launched into "Default". The crowd were digging it but unfortunately the sound mix was a little off. That's okay, it wasn't that bad and the audience barely noticed as they were lost in dance.

"Life's A Beach" was the track that sounded the most rock on the night. There was no synth on the song and it could be compared to the band's countrymates Franz Ferdinand.

"WOR" was the last song of the night (besides the encore) and probably the coolest. The surf guitar intro was accompanied with air raid sirens before turning into a bopping great ending tune.

The group only played one encore song, Silver Rays, which was a fun bass and synth track. As usual the crowd were disappointed that the concert was so short but as Maclean pointed out they only have one album worth of material. He promised more songs next time.

And as for the audience, they were very well behaved and restored my faith in live concerts. Next time you happen to be standing next to a douche who thinks he or she is more important than the live act....just move. Also it helps to have Brendan Canning from Broken Social Scene standing in the area. Bet he doesn't take any crap.


Setlist:

1 – Introduction
2 – Hail Bop
3 – Storm
4 – Firewater
5 – Waveforms
6 – Love’s Dart
7 – Hand of Man
8 – Skies Over Cairo
9 – Default
10 – Life’s A Beach
11 – WOR

Encore:
12 – Silver Rays

Tamaryn: Live At The Garrison

Before I got to The Garrison last Saturday to see Tamaryn, along with their Bay Area contemporaries Young Prisms, I thought the relatively small venue would be jam packed. After all, Tamaryn had just released their buzzworthy great new album Tender New Signs. Surprisingly, when I walked in the door The Garrison was very quiet with only a few people sitting around talking or reading books.

The venue did fill up after a a solid set from newish shoegaze band Young Prisms. Young Prisms songs feature the dreamy vocals of singer Ashley Thomas complemented by the hypnotic drone of guitarist Matt Allen.  These guys are very similar to Tamaryn and provided the perfect opening. They played a tight 30 minute set with songs mostly from their 2012 album, In Between.

Singer Tamaryn must be very meticulous about her shows. Before Young Prisms set, she was seen adjusting the spotlight and assisting the sound guy behind the mixing board. When the band did come out, the only lighting was that aforementioned spotlight, otherwise the stage was very dark. This provided the perfect setting for the bleach blonde singer Tamaryn. The goth looking singer was wearing a a very short black blouse (as some of us in the front row found out, it was little too short), and bright red lipstick.

The band started the night with my favourite Tamaryn single, Mild Confusion, from their 2010 album The Waves. The dream pop classic flowed hypnotically into the small space leaving the audience in a hazy trance. Unfortunately, from where I was standing, I could not here Tamaryn's vocals.

The sound did improve for the rest of the group's short set which featured songs from Tender New Signs. The band distanced themselves from the crowd and from each other, as they seem to play with an intensity that is very much in their own world. Song highlights included The Garden, Heavenly Bodies and I'm Gone which featured Tamaryn singly mostly with her eyes closed. When she did open her eyes it was an icy stare far into the back of the venue. These guys sure do have the coolness of the dream pop aesthetic down pat.

The band went back to The Waves album for their encore and the beautiful track of the same name. The song is one of the band's more fitting, as it provides an aural blast of wavy guitars. Unfortunately that was the only song of the encore. The group waved and beat a hasty retreat into the night.

Father John Misty-Live at Lee's Palace

When my friend asked if I wanted to go see Father John Misty a few weeks ago, I was a little bit hesitant to say yes. Would I want to give up my Saturday night up to go see a folk rock band. Any other night of the week I would, but Saturday is usually not ideal to see live music that is so laid back. Plus it was the weekend before Halloween and there was sure to be all sort of fun parties to attend. Luckily my friend reminded me that Father John Misty was no ordinary folk rock artist. I had forgotten the man otherwise known as Josh Tillman is quite the wit and wanna be rock star. Then I heard that Vivian girls "Kickball" Katy Goodman was opening with her project La Sera and I knew I couldn't miss this show.

The first act on the night was a band called Jeffertitti's Nile, who's lead singer was also the bass player for Tillman's band. I had to giggle at the group's name (thinking like Beavis and/or Butthead). The band  played a really great brand of fuzzy reverb laden psychedelic rock with Tillman pulling double duty on drums.

Up next was the beautiful redhead, Katy Goodman, and her lo fi garage pop band La Sera. The singer came on stage with a red varsity high school jacket, a lacy white dress and her hair in an updo ponytail. After the first couple of songs Goodman explained that she was dressed as a valley girl for Halloween and promptly got rid of the ponytail because it was giving her a headache. She played mostly songs from her latest album, Sees the Light, including the bubble gum garage of the fantastic single Break My Heart. Unfortunately the sound was not very good for the first few songs and it didn't change until Goodman asked for more reverb on the mic. After that Goodman's voice was near perfect.

Last but not least, the five piece Father John Misty took to stage with singer Tillman brandishing a full bottle of Jameson whisky. Tillman loves to be a showman and acts more like Mick Jagger or Axl Rose than someone who is leading an band that plays Americana. Also a bit of a funny man, Tillman made jokes between songs all night. When he first got on stage he told the audience how much he liked hanging out in the back of the venue, Lee's Palace, where there was a big heap of trash and strangers offering the band pot and 'shrooms. He also, jokingly, gave respect to the concert hall for having the word "Palace" in the venue's name.

The band played pretty well all of the songs off of their debut album, Fear Fun, which had sounds that ranged between folk rock, country rock and psychedelia. Just before Now I'm Learning to Love the War, Tillman said that he was not wearing anything that represented Toronto, at which point an audience member offered the singer an Indian headdress ( I assume he was wearing it as a Halloween costume). Tillman took it and placed it on the hat that Jeffertitti was wearing, probably because the lead singer wandered about the stage like heavy metal cock rocker while taking swigs from his Jamesons for the extended jam and wouldn't have been able to keep it on.

The set ended with the first single from the band, Hollywood Forever Cemetery sings, which showed that the rest of the band could rock out as much as their lead singer. The psychedelic track ended with a chaotic flurry of grunge feedback which left the audience wanting more.

The encore saw Tillman and his guitarist take the stage, where the singer did a pretty good version of crooner Dean Martin's standard Nevertheless, I'm in Love With You. The rest of the band joined Tillman for the last song of the night, which was an extended jam of the Canned Heat country rock classic On the Road Again.

Would I see this band on a Saturday night again? You bet.


Set list:
Funtimes in Babylon
Only Son of the Ladies Man
Nancy From Now On
I'm Writing a Novel
Misty's Nightmares 1 & 2
This is Sally Hatchet
Well, You Can Do it Without Me
Now I'm Learning to Love the War
Tee Pees 1-12
Every Man Needs a Companion
Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings

Encore:
Nevertheless, I'm in Love With You  (Dean Martin cover)
On the Road Again (Canned Heat cover)

Thanks to Jacques Hung for the video.

Beach House- Live at Kool Haus

Midway through Beach House's concert at the Kool Haus in Toronto on Saturday night, singer Victoria Legrand proudly proclaimed that this was the 12th time the dream pop duo have played Toronto. At that point I thought to myself, why the hell is the first time I've seen them in concert. A lot of conflicts and missed opportunities.

Show openers were the folk rock band Poor Moon, who count Christian Wargo and Casey Westcott of Fleet Foxes among their ranks. When Wargo was on vocals, the group sounded similar to Fleet Foxes and they shared many of the same attributes that make that band so good. They played a solid set even though they were sort of sarcastic when they tried to converse with the timid crowd.

The Beach House gig in Toronto has long been anticipated and the city rewarded the duo by selling out the large warehouse space that is known as the Kool Haus. Even though the pair have been touring since last May they did not look the least bit tired.

Normally when you write something about a concert you would talk about the band's instrumentation and discuss the guitar playing or the drummer etc. In this case, the guitars and drumming were an after thought as the band kept the noise to a respectable level of decibels to showcase Legrand's big beautiful voice. The 2 hour set featured most of the songs from their brilliant new album Bloom mixed with a healthy dose of hits from previous albums. Legrand's vocals soared through the cavernous space on crowd favourites like Norway, Lazuli, Zebra and Myth, while Alex Scally complimented her voice with his jangly guitar and newly added drummer Daniel Franz backed the duo with his intense tribal drumming.

As mentioned earlier, Legrand stated that this was their 12th appearance in Toronto and reminisced, with the help of Scally, about playing earlier gigs at the El Mocambo and Tranzac. They also thanked Kensington music store Paul's Boutique for providing the piano for that evening's show.

The highlight of the concert came in the encore when they played the epic Teen Dream track Ten Mile Stereo. As the song reached a crescendo, Legrand could be seen behind a fog of dry ice and blinding flashing lights playing her keyboards like a mad scientist, her voice never wavering. The performance of that song sent chills down my spine. So good....

Set List:
Wild
Water in the Park
Norway
Gila
Other People
Lazuli
Take Care
Silver Soul
The Hours
On the Sea
New Year
Zebra
Astronaut
Wishes
Myth

Encore
Real Love/Turtle Island
10 Mile Stereo
Irene

The Raveonettes with Melody's Echo Chamber: Live at The Phoenix

I have this lingering cough that I contracted a couple of weeks ago which I can't seem to shake. That was not going to keep me away from The Raveonettes show on Tuesday. I have seen the band twice before and I know they are too good to pass up. Even better, the much hyped band Melody's Echo Chamber, who the Aural Report helped introduce to the world, were the opening band.

Melody's Echo Chamber is a band, led by French pop artist Melody Prochet, that play a brand of dream pop that is is underscored with psychedelia. They recently released their self titled debut album that was produced by Kevin Parker of Tame Impala. The band's set was a swooning collection of songs from their debut album that had the lithe Prochet dancing in a hippie trance with her hair covering her face everytime there was a guitar or synth solo. The highlight of the band's performance is when they played the track Crystallised, which is a song that starts out dreamy, like most of the other songs on the album, but ends with a total crush of electro synths and psychedelic guitars.

The Raveonettes took the stage to a venue that was only three quarters full and the audience was enthusiastically quiet (No oxymoron). That changed when the group launched into the Lust, Lust, Lust track Hallucinations and it's classic jangle guitar sound.You know that a concert is going to be a total array of different guitar sounds when the fourth member of the band is the technician. The Raveonettes' technician was actually standing on the stage ensuring Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo had the right axes to wield for the rest of the night. The diversity of the Raveonettes music is quite vivid and is a sound that features surf guitar, 60's pop, garage, dream pop, psychedelia and most notably an aural assault of deafening shoegaze.

The band played a a set that was infused heavily with songs from their recent release Observator, their debut record Whip It On, and their 2007 album Lust, Lust, Lust. They only played three songs that were not from those albums. It was nice to hear the old Whip it On garage-gaze tracks Bowels of the Beast, Chains and the wrecking ball of a song Attack of The Ghost Riders which had Rose Wagner launching into a screeching guitar squalor after each musical directive "It Goes Something Like This....."

Finally, as every fan of the band knows, it wouldn't be a Raveonettes show with out their blistering 2008 hit Aly, Walk With Me. The band didn't disappoint, as they ended the pre encore set with the shoegaze classic.  The performace of this song is a "must see" for any shoegaze fan as it features Rose Sun and Foo at their Mary Chain inspired best. With a plodding drum beat and Foo's musical chants the song explodes into a wall of feedback, that is backlit with flittering strobes, and has Rose Wagner and Foo converge into a battle of furious guitars that is played for maximum volume. See example below.

Set List:
Hallucinations
She Owns the Street
Dead Sound
Blush
Apparitions
Curse the Night
The Enemy
Gone Forever
Observations
Remember
Young and Cold
Attack of the Ghost Riders
Chains
Bowels of the Beast
Aly, Walk With Me

Encore:
Sinking With the Sun
Cops on Our Tail

DIIV & Wild Nothing- Live at The Great Hall

When I first heard the song Doused by DIIV, the first thing I thought of was is that it sounded similar to Wild Nothing. It is both fitting that DIIV signed to the same label as Wild Nothing, Captured Tracks, and that the two bands decided to tour together. That tour brought the two groups to The Great Hall in Toronto last Tuesday night.

When I first heard that DIIV and Wild Nothing were playing The Great Hall I had reservations about the sound quality of the show. The last time I was at this venue was in 2010 for Women and Best Coast and the vacuous theatre swallowed up the sound and left it a big echoey mess. Luckily, there were no such sound issues on this night.

First, I need to talk about how fantastic opening band Yacht Club were. Fucked Up member Ben Cook's new side project is pure 80's inspired dance greatness. Cook even acted the part, looking his preppy best, wearing a white polo shirt, rolled up skinny blue jeans and loafers with no socks. The highlight of their set was the cheesy good synth pop single Flash which was featured on this blog earlier this week.

Next up, DIIV took the stage and looked a lot more coherent and clean than the last time I saw them in June. That night lead singer Zachary Cole Smith had disheveled hair, was sporting sweats and looked like he just got out of bed. He probably had a reason to be unkempt because I believe he played with Beach Fossils in New York the day before and rushed up to Toronto for his own gig.

DIIV dived (excuse the pun) right into things with the instrumental track Druun. Their were a few technical problems to start the song but the issues were quickly rectified. The set was similar to the set they played last June at Lee's Palace. The band ripped through most of the songs off of their debut album, Oshin, and also included a cover a Nirvana's Geist B-side classic Bambi Slaughter. The band ended with their must well known song, Doused, which featured a duelling guitar battle between Smith and his childhood buddy, guitarist Andrew Bailey.

Wild Nothing and DIIV might have similar jangle guitar sounds but there are a lot of differences between the two bands. Jack Tatum is a very quiet guy and it sort of comes across in his music. The band started out with the Gemini songs Confirmation and Chinatown which are classic dream pop masterpieces. I have to admit I love Gemini more than Wild Nothing's recently released LP Nocturne which features a lot more synth pop.

The band then preceded to play an hour long set with most of the tracks from the album Nocturne, including the single Paradise, and a few a Golden Haze & Gemini classics. I saw the band play last year and was more enthralled with their performance than on this night. At last year's performance I got lost in Wild Nothing's dream pop shimmering guitar haze while this year I just didn't feel the vibe. That doesn't mean the band weren't good, just a lot different. The crowd didn't help much as there were more than the usual amount of yappers and drunken dancers who always try to ruin everyone else's experience.

Bloc Party: Live at The Danforth Music Hall

Kele likes us...he really likes us. That was the impression that Bloc Party lead singer Kele Okereke made during the band's performance in Toronto on Monday. The fans of Bloc Party in Toronto love him back judging by the enthusiastic crowd that jammed the Danforth Music Hall.

Hey... and The Danforth Music Hall looks absolutely superb. Nice to see it back in business again. The last time I was there was for a surprise show by the Arcade Fire in 2010- just before they released The Suburbs. At that time the venue was still a community theatre that featured musicals and kiddie shows. A few weeks after the Arcade Fire show the theatre went into receivership and closed down for over a year. Glad to see somebody bought it, removed all of the seats (with the exception of the balcony) and turned into a proper concert venue.

It has been a long road back for Bloc Party. After rumours that the band were going to break up in 2009 and Okerke released a solo album, Bloc Party have come back strong with the release of their brilliant new album Four.

The concert started with the band bashing out the first single off of Four, Octopus, followed by Trojan Horse off of the record Intimacy. The audience seemed enthusiastic but that was not good enough for Okerke. After the second song he yelled out  "C'mon you fuckers" before the band launched into a feral rendition of Hunting for Witches. That seemed to do the trick as the crowd worked itself into a frenzy. By the time the band played Positive Tension there were crowd surfers and a mosh pit which lasted until the end of the concert..

The coolest point of the night was when the band played their new track Song for Clay (Disappear Here) and their biggest hit Banquet, back to back, without a break between songs. The mash up showed the diversity of the band between their grungy new sound and their original high energy dance punk.

Throughout the night Okerke (The sexiest man in indie rock) had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand. At one point in the encore someone from the crowd jumped on stage and ran over to the mic and said something inaudible to Okerke as he was singing. Okerke didn't lose a beat and just ignored him.

Near the end of the first set Okerke stated "and now for something completely different" at which point the band played their awesome synth pop song One More Chance. The song title is ironic as this was the last single released before their rumoured breakup in 2009 and on Monday night it seemed Toronto was willing to give Bloc Party one more chance.

The rumours of Bloc Party's demise have been highly exaggerated.

Set List for the show:
Octopus
Trojan Horse
Hunting for Witches
Positive Tension 
Real Talk
Kettling
Song for Clay (Disappear Here)
Banquet
Day Four
One More Chance
This Modern Love
The Prayer

1st Encore
Coliseum
Ares
Flux

2nd Encore
Sunday
Helicopter

The Jesus And Mary Chain- Live at the Phoenix

When The Jesus and Mary Chain announced a new tour back in April after playing fairly successful shows at SXSW, I knew I could not miss this once in a lifetime opportunity and rushed to buy a ticket before it sold out. I had never seen these guys play before, even though they are one of my all time favourite bands. I also knew the The Phoenix is a relatively small venue and sure enough it did not take long to sell out.

The concert started with Toronto based dance band Nightbox, who were an odd choice to open for the more sullen shoegaze main attraction. Nightbox mixes synth pop with party disco and reminded me a lot of Friendly Fires. The crowd seemed appreciative of their music but there was a also a lot of people ignoring the band or mocking them. One tweet from a well known Toronto indie rocker (who shall remain nameless) stated "Worst opener ever". You can't please everyone.

In the time space between the opening band and the main attraction, the concert theatre started to fill up. This usually brings out the idiots (you can read more about this on favourite blog indie kid vs dance kid) who need to make a final beer run or want to get a better position in close the stage. I was pushed aside numerous times with not even an "excuse me" as douchebags who arrived late selfishly shoved their way up closer to the stage. You think that an older crowd would be more behaved, but I was proved wrong.

The Jesus and Mary Chain arrived on stage at 10:45 PM, and the notorious bickering Reid brothers looked pretty good for guys who are noted for their past drug and alcohol abuse. Guitarist William Reid still has hair that looks like he stuck his finger in a light socket.

The band quickly proved they are still king when it comes to shoegaze right from the get go with the Sound of Speed classic Snakedriver. The aural assault of punk , post punk and Spector wall of sound 60's pop ladened with William Reid's terrorizing guitar licks and deafening feedback sounded fantastic throughout their 14 song opening set. The music was so loud that singer Jim Reid had to cover his ears for most of the set (the poor guy is probably legally deaf by now) to try and hear himself sing.

The first surprise of the night came whenFrench Canadian actress and Mad Men star Jessica Pare-aka Megan Draper- came on stage to help out with the backing of Just Like Honey (It just so happens that Jessica's boyfriend John Kastner is former lead singer of the punk band The Asexuals and now JAMC's guitar technician). She did a fairly admirable job of singing the few lines near the end of the song-unlike Scarlett Johansson who butchered it at Coachella a few years ago. However, there was a second surprise, as Jessica did not leave the stage, and singer Jim Reid announced "they were going to play a song they have not played in a while." Jessica stayed to sing the Hope Sandoval part of the duet with Jim Reid for the song Sometime Always. They screwed up a few bars in and had to start the song again, but after all was said and done the rendition was nearly perfect. Glad Jessica didn't break into the song Zou Bisou from that infamous Mad Men episode.

The only other mis-step on the night was when the band started playing All Things Must Pass. About a quarter of the way through the song, guitarist William Reid botched a cord and Jim decided to stop the song. The short tempered Jim Reid then berated his brother on stage, and if I understood his Scottish burr correctly, he basically told him he was a fuck up. They were able the finish the song and the rest of the concert without any major incidents. The only other criticism I had of the show was that the light show seemed to be lacking and the dry ice seemed to dissipate too fast in the hot summer night.

The set ended with a very Stooges-like punk rock version of Reverence. That was the highlight of my night.
Download: The Jesus And Mary Chain- Reverence

The band played two encores, the first made up of three songs (see set list below) and the second one song. The second encore was kind of funny, as many of the people in the crowd headed for the exits, the band re-appeared and announced that they had forgot to play one song. They then launched into a raucous version of their classic song Sidewalking, much to the chagrin to the people who had already made their way out of the concert hall. Lesson learned-it's never over until it's over.

Set list:
Snakedriver
Head On
Far Gone and Out
Between Planets
Blues From a Gun
Teenage Lust
Cracking Up
All Things Must Pass
Some Candy Talking
Happy When It Rains
Halfway To Crazy
Just Like Honey (featuring Jessica Pare)
Sometimes Always (featuring Jessica Pare)
Reverence
Encore:
The Hardest Walk
Taste of Cindy
Never Understand
2nd Encore
Sidewalking


Watch: The Jesus And Mary Chain- Sometimes Always (featuring Jessica Pare) live at The Phoenix



Watch: The Jesus and Mary Chain- Sidewalking (Live)

Best Coast- Live at The Phoenix

On Saturday afternoon Bethany Cosentino of the band Best Coast sent out a tweet stating "Toronto tonight at The Phoenix! Doors open at 8, come sweat with us." Voila!!! I had my plans for the night.

I arrived at The Phoenix at 9 o'clock just in time to see openers Those Darlins. Those Darlins are a garage band from Nashville Tennessee and are made up of two guys and two girls. The band played a raucous 45 minute set of garage and punk songs. A favourite among their set was a fun song called Pussy Party....you can imagine what that song was about. I was sold on this band and was wondering why they have not worked with Jack White's Third Man Records. They seem like a perfect fit to work with Jack.

After a half and hour break, Best Coast came on stage promptly at 10:15. Against a backdrop of a mural that contained the album artwork from their latest LP (see above) they started the concert with the songs The End, Crazy For You and Goodbye from their debut album Crazy For You. Having seen Best Coast twice before I knew that singer Bethany Cosentino likes to be very engaged with the crowd. It didn't take her long to berate the audience for being quiet and inactive, wondering why there were not more people dancing. She then backtracked on her statement saying that she was a lousy dancer and probably wouldn't be moving much either. The rest of the first set consisted of their trademark lo-fi sunshine pop and angst driven love ballads- a mixture of songs from both Crazy For You and their new album The Only Place. Bethany apologized for playing a couple of ballads but I don't think the audience minded. Later Bethany had to check on the status of her partner, the ever popular guitarist Bob Bruno, as he seemed to working up a good sweat. She then gave a shout out to Bob which resulted in a huge roar from the appreciative crowd. The rapport between Bethany and Bob was fun to watch as Bethany took several playful jabs at Bob. Also she had to introduce their touring bass player who is from Toronto. She donned his baseball cap for a couple of seconds to more thunderous applause. I believe the hat may have been a Blue Jays cap but I was too far back from the stage to confirm.

After a thirteen song opening set the band were ready for an encore. The encore started with the song I Want To from their album Crazy For You. Near the end of the song a long haired dude jumped on the stage and started dancing to which Bethany exclaimed "That was fucking awesome." The encore included a cover of the Fleetwood Mac song Storms from the forthcoming tribute album Just Tell Me That You Want Me. Even though the band have played it several times over the last couple of weeks, including on the Jimmy Fallon show, Bethany forgot some of the lyrics. Oops!! The last two songs of the night were the popular When I'm With You and Boyfriend. The former included a spirited shambolic guitar solo by the aforementioned Mr. Bruno which resulted in another deafening cheer from the audience.

As mentioned earlier I have seen Best Coast twice before and this is by far their best concert. The first concert I saw them play was at The Great Hall during NXNE a couple of years ago and Bethany got pissed after a heckler told them they sucked. They played awesome but Bethany was not very talkative after the incident. Also the sound wasn't very good and Bethany kept asking for updates on the L.A. Laker game who were in the NBA Finals at the time. The second time I same them was also at The Phoenix. That concert was an all ages affair and most of the people were 17 year old skate kids who were there to see indie pop punk band Wavves. Not my scene. I left happier on this night.

Download: Best Coast- The Only Place
Video: Best Coast -I Want To
Purchase: Best Coast- The Only Place via iTunes

There is no song list from the Toronto concert posted yet so I took their set list from the concert in Montreal on Friday night. It looks like it is the same.
Set List:
The End 
Crazy For You 
Goodbye 
Last Year 
Summer Mood 
The Only Place 
No One Like You 
How They Want Me To Be 
Why I Cry 
Dreaming My Life Away 
Our Deal
When the Sun Don't Shine
Do You Love Me Like You Used To
Encore:
I Want To
Sun Was High (So Was I)
Mean Girls
Storms (Fleetwood Mac cover)
When I'm With You
Boyfriend

!!! (Chk Chk Chk)-Live at Lee's Palace

When I was perusing through the concert listings last Thursday I was shocked to see that dance punk act !!! were playing a show at Lee's Palace on the following Saturday. They haven't released a new album since their 2010 release Strange Weather, Isn't It and there has not been any news about them releasing any new material. I had heard a lot of good things about their live show and I knew I had to see them. I always love it when bands come through town and they are not promoting a new album or there is no buzz surrounding them. It usually means that the show will not sell out. This was the case on Saturday as Lee's Palace was only at 75 % capacity.
The show opened with a band called Dopes led by former Tangiers and Bad Tits singer Josh Reichmann. The band consisted of two members-one playing guitar and Josh playing a keyboard which was perched on top of two of Lee's infamous red stools. They were backed by a Macbook that provided pre-recoded backing tracks. The songs were an odd experimental mix of post punk and pop music. The last two songs were sung with auto tune-I'm not a big fan of auto tune and songs came across too weird for me.
After a 45 minute wait it was time for !!! to take the stage. Lead singer Nic Offer came onto the stage wearing only a pair of boxer shorts. Apparently they were porno shorts, but I was too far back of the stage to see what pictures were emblazoned on them.  He later explained that he bought them at a Thrift shop in Athens Georgia. The first song was the classic All My Heroes are Weirdoes. Nic Offer started doing the frenetic dancing he is famous for and the rest of Lee's Palace followed suit. Nobody was left sitting at the side tables or the previously mentioned stools.The band raced through some of their classic material like Must Be the Moon,Yadnus and Heart of Hearts leaving the crowd in a sweating frenzy. Nic Offer also made a couple of forays into the crowd and did a few tightrope acts on the wooden side bars around Lee's pit. Kudo's to the dude in the Pure Energy T Shirt who jumped up on stage and out danced Offer. Offer didn't mind as he danced along with him and invited him back for the encore. The band played two new songs called Except Death and Jack Ruby. Offer also announced that they have completed recording a new album and it would be released "whenever the internet says it is cool to do so." Looking forward to it. They only played one encore song which is probably a good thing as the crowd and the band looked like they were drowning in sweat due to the crazy amount of dancing mixed with the sweltering venue. However myself and the rest of the crowd were left wanting more.
Next time.....

Here is the set list from the show

All My Heroes are Weirdos
Jamie, My Intentions are Bass
Except Death
Must Be The Moon
Byron
Jack Ruby
Yadnus
Cokie
Heart of Hearts