I'd been tempted to finally getting around to see Margaret Cho live on this tour which she's dubbed "Assassins". As usual, the day of the show came around and I still hadn't bought a ticket. However, after reading an article about Ms. Cho in the recent issue of eye(also featuring a cover photo of her) which came out that morning, I decided to scoot on over to the Massey Hall box office to purchase a ticket. I would not consider myself a rabid fan, but I've always respected and enjoyed her irreverent humour. Hard for me to believe, but this was the first time EVER I'd be seeing a stand-up comedian live. Having seen bits of Ms. Cho's concert films, I was going into this show with fairly high expectations. Opening her show was openly gay comedian Bruce Daniels. Physically, he's a regular sort of hipster-looking black dude. As might be expected, it was a very homo-centric set of material. As he said, he was one of those gays not interested in 'pride days' and such. But rather than the stereotypical flamboyant gayness that gets exploited in the media, Mr Daniel was quite the opposite. He performed for about 20 minutes to half an hour and had the audience in stitches.
Without an intermission, at the end of Bruce's set, he grabbed the mic for a grand introduction for Margaret Cho. If I remember correctly, she was dressed in a torquoise sort-of peasant top and blue stretch-jeans, with her hair cut casually shorter than I usually have seen her with. I'd say she's looking pretty good these days(if you're in Toronto check out the photos of her in the recent issue of eye) these days, but considering her noticeable weight loss, I could still tell from some of her comedic material that her weight was still an issue. We've all got our insecurites and one of the admirable things about Ms. Cho is she isn't afraid of being honest with hers. Her material was pretty much all over the place, jumping from casual issues(eg. the absurdity of Posh spice), to sexual politics, to cultural observations(eg. differences between the U.S., British, and Canadian media), to topical events(eg.the recent Canadian news story about the dude who set himself on fire), to friends and family(of course impressions of her mom!), to specific issues like gay rights, and finally to quite a bit of George Bush bashing. Margaret was consistenly funny and biting, if not hilarious at times, but I think in certain ways didn't hit the comedic peaks she previously did on past tours. Maybe it has to do with the fact that on previous tours Margaret was quite open about the dark and depressing elements in her life that provided the motivation for much of her turnaround at the time. From such dark places, her subsequent tours became much more of a cathartic experience. This time around she seems much more happier in her life, which I think's resulted in less of an emphasis on material dealing with herself and more dealing with everything else. Margaret still has a bite, but now it's a little different than before. And of course, Margaret on a bad day(if there ever was a possibility), is still ten times better than most comedians on their good days. Margaret, you rock. [photo credit: Austin Young]
I tried to get into The Inbreds show at Lee's Palace yesterday but it was all sold out
so I headed over to the El Mocambo(upstairs) to check out Republic of Safety with special guest Jens Lekman. Upstairs at the El Mocambo was nice as I'd never been there before. The band was playing as part of Dynamite Soul which is a hip-hop night from what I could hear the DJ spinning. Dynamite Soul was giving away free hip-hop mix CD's at the door but the one I put in my coat pocket fell out before the end of the night. :-( Mr. Lekman only provided some vocals on a couple of songs which was a disappointment for some(such as myself) who were hoping for some of his own material. However, it was Republic of Safety's night, who were playing the gig as a pre-cursor to their CD release on March 19th at Stones Place(1255 Queen St. West). The band, and the female vocalist in particular, had great energy on stage. Their music has some American post-punk influences and the hyper-kinetic speak-sing vocal style of the vocalist was really good. There was some frenetic drumming(so frenetic that it appeared that the drummer fell off his drum stool) as well as some great scratch/wiry guitar. The girl on bass guitar kept things simple, and at one point did a fierce punk vocal shout-out. The vocalist reminded me of Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. And they performed a decent version of The Undertones "Teenage Kicks"! It was a short set, but I'd advise you to check 'em out.
Electrelane will begin a short US/Canada tour with a three night stint in New York City on June 2-4. The gals will be hitting Toronto on June 8th. So far venues are TBA. [info from Kork]
Fucking May 13th Toronto date(at Kool Haus) of The Mars Volta tour sold out in 7 minutes yesterday.
No comments:
Post a Comment