A last minute decision after work last Thursday and I convinced myself to buy a ticket for Martha Wainwright's show at The Mod Club that night. It was an early show at that and it just happened to be a beautiful summer still-lit evening. Before arriving at The Mod Club for the 7 pm doors that night, I'd just come from seeing a street gig by The New Kings at Queen and Bathurst. From the raucaus rock n' roll of The New Kings, it was nice to follow that up with the far gentler Martha Wainwright. The crowd was a mixture of indie hipsters, adult contempos and everyone in between it seemed and actually I found it to be one of the friendliest audiences I've encountered in a while, even going so far as to strike up conversations with several people. The opener was Ridley Bent who I knew nothing about. It was just him and his acoustic guitar, Ridley's sort of sing-speak style was interesting and his guitar work was competent. His music was not really folk, nor pop in the conventional sense but it definitely had a quirkiness to it, at one point a song of his mutating into Snoop Dogg's "Gin and Juice". Maybe that Pixies t-shirt he was wearing was also a giveaway to his quirkiness. His sing-speak vocals started to sound a little samey after a while and honestly I didn't have the urge to run out and buy his CD. I appreciate his talent but his music would have to fall into that category of "not my cup of tea". Next.
If casual listens of her debut CD hadn't convinced me of Martha Wainwright's greatness, then her show at The Mod Club last Thursday was all the convincing I needed. With a band which included the lovely vocals of her cousin(Lily?), Martha led them through a setlist which musically traversed genres. The similarities to her brother Rufus' music were downright obvious in folky-pop numbers like "Far Away", "Factory" and "Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole". I was constantly impressed by the beauty of the timbre of her voice. Martha turned up the tempo on numbers like "When The Day Is Short" and encore-pleaser "G.P.T.". Martha performed a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Tower of Song" and introduced it jokingly as being written by "someone who writes songs more depressing than her own". A highlight for the evening was when most of the band members left the stage and she, along with her keyboardist, performed a wonderful French cabaret-pop number[it's times like these that I wish I had a setlist]. I wasn't initally impressed with the production on her album, but in a live setting her music(for example, a song like "When The Day is Short" which is a pleasant pop song on record) took on a punchiness which was alot more enjoyable.
Martha was dressed in a thrift shop dress and black Converse ultra high-tops folded down and this was pretty indicative of the casualness of the evening. Jumping between musical genres, alternating band member setups, her off-the-cuff remarks to the audience, having to tie her shoelace and tune her guitar constantly, there was a loose, intimate feel to the evening as if she was playing for a group of close friends and family. Having lived in the shadows of her other family members' careers(in particular her brother Rufus) for so long, it's nice to see that talent still runs in the family. ...And Martha, Happy belated Birthday! (We have the same birth day!)[photos]
:
:
Oh no...'tis farewell to Three Gut Records according to the most recent news update at their website. The Constantines' new album, "Tournament of Hearts" will be the last official release for the label. Sorry to see you go just when I was starting to get to know you.
Another one to add to the collection, here's a torrent of a show by The Arcade Fire on May 15, 2005 in Brussels. [from largehearted boy]
As I previously mentioned, Secretly Canadian artists Early Day Miners(with openers Windsor for the Derby) are coming to Hamilton[Aug 20th] and Brockville[Aug 21st] for a couple of shows. The Secretly Canadian site's now showing that the lineup will play a Toronto show on August 19th at Rancho Relaxo(well the SC site actually says 'Ranchero' Relaxo but let's just assume that's a mistake).
SHOT posts his point-by-point rundown of this year's NXNE.
Saint Etienne will be performing a live session for BBC 6 Music's Gideon Coe today. Sessions start around the 20:40:00 mark(about 8:40 London, England time or about 2:40 Eastern Standard Time). Sessions are usually archived in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment