It was way back in December 2004 when I caught Calgary's Chad Vangaalen at The Mod Club when he opened for Stars. As you could read from that review, I described his music as stripped down indie rock that reminded me of Unrest and Pixies. Seeing Chad a few days ago at the Tranzac Club in Toronto I was continually reminded of Guided By Voices in the sense that Chad's set was a continuous stream of one pop nugget after another. From stripped down indie pop-rock to Dylanesque folk to country-inflected pop to a rousing rendition of Roy Orbison's "Running Scared", his set was infectious from beginning to end through to his encore. His bandmates filled in the sound quite nicely on keyboards, xylophone, accordion, drums and flute, with Chad taking guitar and banjo duties. My favourite part of the set was when Toronto's Julie Fader joined in on background vocals for several songs, including one of the most lovely duet ballads I've heard in a long time[being a late comer to Chad's music I picked up a couple of his CD's at the show and I need to find that duet which he sung with Julie that night...unless it's one of the new songs that Chad apparently performed]. For a Wednesday night, it was a very decent turnout and there were definitely some Chad Vangaalen-fanatics in the audience that night.
Opening the night was up-and-comer Jade McNelis from Montreal who I'd mentioned a few weeks ago. I missed Jade's opening set when Laura Veirs played El Mocambo a few weeks back so I was glad to see Jade live in person this night. She opened her set with the slightly unusual(at least to me) setup of having her keyboards directly facing the audience. She has a rich full flowing way of playing her keyboards that reminded me of Fiona Apple or Regina Spektor although on a few tunes like "Christmas Eve" and "Miles of Seas" her vocals(combined with a slightly rockier instrumentation) were almost full-on Emily Haines-sounding. She brought on additional members, first a cellist to play on one song with her, then later a few more members on drums and guitar, with the cellist switching to bass guitar, for the remainder of the set. It was nice set of intricate, classically influenced indie rock and while it was good introduction to her music, at her tender young age of 20, I think her modest stage presence still shows it.
Photos to come.
MySpace: Jade McNelis
MySpace: Chad Vangaalen
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Just Keep Bloggin' points to Y! Music's Critical Eye who have video of Feist performing live her song "I Feel It All".
Some concert news - Ex-Drive By Trucker Jason Isbell rolls into El Mocambo on July 24, tickets $8.50. Apparently, Travis are still around and will prove that fact with a show at Kool Haus on July 19, tickets a whopping $35.00. Hometown Toronto boys Blue Rodeo perform their annual(?) summer show at Molson Ampitheatre on August 22, tickets $16.25-$65.50 - I say take a seat on the lawn, lay back and enjoy the (hopefully) warm summer evening[last three items via Eye Weekly].
According to Pollstar, The Dears have been added to the Rogers Picnic happening at Historic Fort York in Toronto on July 29 - before you bank on this, the show isn't listed on their website or their MySpace. Update: Date is confirmed.
The Hold Steady promise to kick some serious rock 'n roll ass when they return to Toronto for a show at The Opera House on August 6, tickets $15.00[via Rotate This].
Peter Elkas plays at Nathan Phillips Square on August 16[via Pollstar.
Those lovable Scots, Camera Obscura return to show, this time at the Phoenix on August 26[via Ground Control Touring.
According to Chromewaves over at Stille Post, there's been a few more additions to the Toronto Virgin Festival lineup coming in September(day 2 is starting to give day 1 a run for its money):
day 1 - Matt Costa
day 2 - Explosions In The Sky, Stars, Blonde Redhead
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