4-28-05 - I've pretty much locked myself in my room since coming home
from school, but sometime this summer I will make it out for concerts.
Tulip festival is in just a few weeks, and Greenfield Main, Joel
Plaskett and Hawksley Workman will be there. And then Bluesfest, source
of all happiness last summer. It sold out bigtime this year. No Birdman
stage, very little blues. Headliners include Kid Rock, Simple Plan and
ZZ Top. It's not gonna be pretty. There are some good things out there
though. K-Os, Michael Franti, Four Tet, Do Make Say Think, pretty much
all of the Arts and Crafts label (Broken Social Scene, Stars, etc.)
More that I can't remember. Should be good, if I get a press pass. If
not, theres no way I'm paying $140 for it. So thats my story. Thank you
for listening.
4-24-05 - Lee's Palace in Toronto didnt let me into Brendan Benson's
show since I'm underage, despite the fact that I interviewed the guy.
So i have no idea how that was. However, I did interview Louis XIV, The
Futureheads and Hot Hot Heat before their show last week. Louis XIV are
terrible live. Awful. Witnessed perhaps the worst solo I have ever
heard thanks to them. I'm still undecided on their album - the music
and vocals are cool, but the lyrics... ugh. Hot Hot Heat put on an ok
show, although Luke, the replacement guitarist, seemed to be out of
sync with the rest of the band. And the Futureheads. Oh The
Futureheads. Brilliant! Such a good show. I love that band.
2-16-05 - Andrew Vincent, Greenfield Main, Paintbox a couple weeks back
- great show. Gentleman Reg - good show. RRedwall, Zutons - Great shows,
both.
11-15-04 - I saw a free Rheostatics show at Sam the Record Man in
Toronto. I guess that counts as a concert. It was ok. Not a huge fan of
the band. This week I see Jonathan Richman. Should be amazing. Then the
Datsuns and Pixies the week after.
10-13-04 - Last week, I saw the Premiums (opening for a pretty good New
Zealand band called Goodshirt) at the Drake Hotel in Toronto. It was
seriously the best show I have ever been to. Amazing. They were playing
their new stuff for the first time, and there was so much energy. And
the songs kicked ass. Quite Hivesy, this time around. Interviewed the
band afterwards for the radio station. It's pretty funny... I also went
to another DFA 1979 show last thursday, and got an interview with them.
The band got us into the show for free. We left before Metric and Billy
Talent came on.
10-5-04 - Death From Above 1979 and Metric opened for Billy Talent. I
had very high hopes for the first two bands. And plans to leave for the
third. Unfortunatly, legions of 13 year old girls ruined my plans, by
making a potentially really fun show (DFA 1979) a really boring one.
Metric just sucked. I mean, Emily Haines or however her name is spelled
is a horrendous performer. The rest of the band was out of tune. We
left during several blasts of crappy Emilian keyboarding during Dead
Disco. Billy Talent never saw us. Actually, I think that the schedule
may have been wrong. I think the headliner may have actually been Raffi.
9-17-04 - I have had quite the rocking couple days. On wednesday night,
I saw the Sea Snakes and Jim Guthrie. I wasn't a big fan of the Sea
Snakes. The vocals were a bit Harvey Dangeresque, but the band didn't
really do anything for me. Jim Guthrie was awesome though. He is very
Pavementy, plus a violin and some other wacky guitary instrument that I
don't know. He finished it off with a hilarious cover of Survivor by
TLC or Destiny's Child. I think it's Destiny's Child. Last night though
was pure gold... Andrew Vincent and the Pirates opened for the
Silverhearts. AV was awesome... he played Cover It Up, which is all
that really matters. He also covered Radio Radio and Roadrunner. The
Silverhearts were pretty weird... They're usually a 12 piece, but they
were 7 last night. The only way I can classify them is as a swing band,
but they were really good. Entertaining too. I guess I should also
mention that I saw a localish band called Argyle a couple times around
campus recently. They're decent. That's all you get about them.
9-13-04 - You know what sucks? Of course you don't! I'll tell you.
Orientation week music at Guelph. It is quite an assy time. The big
band? Sum 41. The not so big bands? Moneen and Silverstein. ARGH! I
mean... Moneen... that's passable. But not for my $12. On a less assy
note, Andrew Vincent is coming to town on thursday, so that'll be a
jigworthy time for all.
8-17-04 - A couple weekends ago, I was in Toronto to witness a Canadian
Rockstravaganza. Unfortunately, I missed The Arcade Fire, but I did see
The Constantines, Pilate, The Stills, Broken Social Scene, Sam Roberts
and Sloan. Let's start at the beginning. Broken Social Scene was
decent. I've never been a huge BSS fan, and there is no way that they
needed 10 people up there (including the singer for Metric), but
whatever. It was decent. The Constantines were up next - I didn't like
them as much this time around as I did when I saw them at the Tulip
Festival, but they too were decent. They didn't play Insectiverous
though... And then, something unfortunate happened - Pilate came on.
And I really don't like them, so I sat down and did nothing for a
while. The Stills were also pretty good. They brought out one of the
million guys from Broken Social Scene to sing on a couple of the songs.
Basically, I'm saying that the support bands were generally a bit
dissapointing. But Sam Roberts and Sloan rocked. I managed to get right
up to the stage for Sam and Sloan, which was stellar. Sam Roberts was
great live... tons of energy, great stage presence. For Brother Down,
he brought out a few bongo drums and the drummers from a bunch of the
days bands bongo'd away and K-OS did some decent freestyling for a few
seconds. After a long wait, Sloan came out, and opened with
Underwhelmed. That made me very happy indeed. They picked a pretty
solid bunch of songs, and were especially rocking for Rest of My Life
and Money City Maniacs. The crowd was really into it for Sam Roberts
and Sloan, in a non-obnoxious way. They chanted Slo-wan while waiting
for Sloan and between songs, which kept me entertained. The cameraderie
between the Canadian bands was also kinda cool. Overall, it was a
really good day of concerts. And now for something completely
different... Little Steven's Underground Garage Festival happened this
past weekend in New York City, and I wasnt there. The Strokes, Iggy Pop
and the Stooges, Bo Diddley, Nancy Sinatra, the D4, the Mooney Suzuki,
and tons of other amazing bands. I'm so sad that I wasn't there.
7-19-04 - I miss Bluesfest. And I wish I was Japanese... There's this
thing that I just found out about. The Fuji Rock Festival. 3 days of
rock, with the following bands - Lou Reed, Dizzee Rascal, PJ Harvey,
Pixies, The Bees, The Killers, The Zutons, Dropkick Murphys, Franz
Ferdinand, Primus, The Mooney Suzuki, Jet, Simple Kid, The Black Keys,
The Libertines (minus their singer, who the band forced out of the band
till he kills his drug problem, methinks), The Stills, The White
Stripes, and at least 40 other bands. Or I wish I was British, so that
I could see Green Day, The Darkness, The Hives, The Offspring, Franz
Ferdinand, The Libertines and the White Stripes at the Reading and
Leeds festivals. That would be after going to Glatonsbury last month.
Of course, I would have bad teeth, but it would be worth it. But you
know what beats all that? Living in North America, and being able to
witness the beauty of Lollapalooza - Sonic Youth, PJ Harvey, Modest
Mouse, Le Tigre, BRMC, Von Bondies, The Walkmen, The Datsuns, The
Flaming Lips, The Pixies and the Thrills. Oh, nope. North America can't
handle good music... Neither can Perry Farrell. Ugh. I want my
lollapalooza...
7-18-04 - Bluesfest. Day 10. Today, I got 7316 machs worth of sonic
boom. I saw 3 shows... 1st up was Tony D, my guitar teacher, and a few
of Tony's cronies. They were really good... they did nice covers of
Be-Bop-A-Lula, by Gene Vincent, and Folsom Prison Blues, by Cash. After
that... The Greenhornes! These guys were awesome. Not too exciting on
stage, but they made up for it with awesome music. They also totally
ripped of the Yardbirds song, Happenings Ten Years Time Ago. I swear,
the music was identical. I forgive them though. Finally, The Dirtbombs.
Wow. Amazing music, crazy energy. The pants were rocked. The singer was
great, and he was a good guitarist too... he played for about 5 minutes
with 4 (maybe 3) after breaking at least 2 others, and still sounded
great. On the encore, they did War Pigs, and then one of the drummers
(there were 2 drummers and 2 bassists) threw his drumset all over the
stage. Groovy.
7-17-04 - Bluesfest. Days 8 and 9. Shall we start will day 8? I think
so. We didn't really pay much attention to the headliner, Blue Rodeo.
It seemed ok from a distance, but neither of us felt like fighting the
crowds for slow music. So, we checked out The Deadly Snakes. What a
name. It's almost inspiration for me to start a band named the
Galloping Ponies. Or the Flirtatious Fruitflies. Actually, I kinda like
that name. The Flirtatious Fruitflies. Groovy. The Deadly Snakes were
really cool. I can barely remember what they were like though... really
cool high energy singer/keyboard guy. Cool drummers. There was some
nice instrument swappery. And then there were the Weakerthans... pure
emo. Ridiculously boring performers. And emo fans are assholes. Not
always. But usually. Dobbins theorized that its because they are so
self centered. They run through the crowd screaming "GET OUT OF MY WAY!
i want to go cry." (That was a Dobbins). Dobbins also published his
list of how cool various crowds are. 1. Proper Rock and Roll. 2. Punk.
3. Heavy Metal. 4. Emo. And now, onto day 9. The day started off with a
young lad (his first album came out in 1959) named Nathanial Mayer (and
the shanks). Once upon a time, he was a doowopper. But he has upgraded,
and now he just rocks. An amazingly cool growly voice. We then moved on
to another band... Andrew Vincent and The Pirates. Really cool on
stage... they didnt really do anything special, but they had great
on-stage charisma somehow. And awesome music. Pretty poppy, but
definitely in a good way. The lyrics are a bit Sloany I guess. The
Double Pumpers, Five Horse Johnson and BBQ (1 guy drumming, guitaring
and singing) didnt impress me. Bob Long III however, was a cool cat.
Another 1 man band, but he did it so much better. He was a pretty good
guitarist, and he wore this wacky helmet with a telephone attached to
it that he spoke into instead of a mic. He had a bunch of cool
gimmicks, and his stage banter was great. The night closed with Mr.
Airplane Man. A Girl-Girl guitar-drums duo. I found that they got a bit
boring after a while, but they were cool. I'm a sucker for 2 piece
bands. Which brings me to the Black Keys. You know... THE BLACK KEYS!
The ones that cancelled the show. The show that i've been looking
forward to since march or april. The bastards. I blame Torontonians who
didn't buy tickets to the bluesfest. And I blame the Black Keys for
being assholes. And that was today. Tomorrow I'll check out Tony D, The
Greenhornes, The Dirtbombs, and probably a couple others. But not the
Fiftymen. Because they suck.
7-15-04 - Bluesfest. Day 7 pt 2. Well... Jimmie Vaughan... Good
guitarist, uninteresting performer. The circle jerks - straight garage
rock, nothing spectacular. Lyle Lovett - Exactly what I expected. Pure
garbage. Tomorrow is Blue Rodeo and the Weakerthans. Maybe that'll be
better. Saturday and Sunday should rock.
7-15-04 - Bluesfest. Day 7. Tonight, I'm going in to see Jimmie
Vaughan. Maybe a bit of the cool jerks. And of course, Lyle Lovett.
Teehee.
7-14-04 - Bluesfest. Day 6. Hey... wait a second.. this isn't blues. Or
rock. Or music. It's Nelly Furtado!
7-13-04 - Bluesfest. Day 5. You know what would suck? If there was
somebody that had one good song, and for the rest of the career he and
his fans were somehow under the impression that he was actually good.
That would suck. On a completely different note, the Bryan Adams
concert sucked. So did Colin James, but not quite so much. The asshole
(who was opening) got polite applause after his "last" song, and then
came back for an encore! He wasn't even asked! He should have invited
Bryan Adams to go out there and play Summer of '69. That would have
gotten the evening over with so much better. The worst part of the
night? We left Bryan's concert at 9:40 after he played Summer of '69...
and heard strange and seductive noises coming from the Roots stage. We
got there, and found out that Wyclef Jean had been playing for nearly 2
hours. We got 2 awesome songs out of him. Then it was over. You want a
moral of the story? Don't see the guy that was past his prime the
minute he was born, and go to Wyclef Jean instead.
7-12-04 - Bluesfest. Day 4. Nothing on tonight. I'm sad. Organizers are
lazy bastards. I want a show!
7-11-04 - Bluesfest. Day 3. I got another dose of Pearlene today. They
did some of their own stuff, and a bunch of covers of old blues songs.
Also saw T Model Ford play. Man that guy is cool... 83 years old and
still rockin. He'll probably still be rockin' when I'm 83. Los
Straitjackets - these guys are pretty cool. They play great surf
guitar. All instrumentals. They also speak spanish between songs (with
english words such as Celine Dion every now and then) and wear Mexican
wrestling masks. And to top it off, they covered the Titanic theme
song... "My Heart Will Go On". Did an awesome job, too. The Bell Rays -
Hard Rock band with an Aretha Franlinesque chick singing. Really cool.
It took me a little while to get into it, then I realized how much they
rocked. Also caught a bit of Asteroid #4. Pretty cool. Kinda poppy,
kinda country, kinda garage. And thats day 3.
7-10-04 - Bluesfest. Day 2. Another pair of my socks is missing. I saw
a few cool bands today. Scat Rag Boosters - montreal french guys doing
garage rock / blues. Got boring after a while. Dead moon - hippy
punkers. Straight garage rock. Cool drumset. Got boring after a while.
Pearlene - WOW! I love these guys. They're pretty similar to the Black
Keys in style. Not quite as powerful, but I really like them. They
worship the old bluesmen. Nice guys, too. The Tragically Hip - More
like tragically need a new hip (dobbins said that). We had a bad spot.
Couldn't see too well. But the music wasn't too hot anyhow, so no big
deal. They need to realize that their new stuff sucks, and that until
they put something good out, they should be a greatest hits band in
concert. Kind of like Trooper (snickers)... I guess that they were
thinking, "why rock when we can take a shit on the stage?" (Dobbins
said that). I also caught a bit of Taj Mahal (anybody really old that
still plays is cool). So thats day 2 of the bluesfest.
7-09-04 - Code Red. I want everybody on full alert. A pair of my socks
has gone missing. It would appear that they were rocked off by David
Gogo and George Thorogood. If anyone finds them, please let me know.
Anyhow, the concerts. David Gogo started off the Bluesfest, with some
killer rocking. He's an amazing blues guitarist, and he was soloing all
night. He also chugged a beer, then used the bottle as a slide. That
was pretty funky. Great singer too. And he did an awesome cover of
Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus. George Thorogood on the other hand is
not an exceptional guitarist. But, the guy knows how to put on a
performance, and thats enough for me. Even if he does only have one
sound.
