Basia Bulat @ Mississauga Celebration Square (August 26, 2011)

Basia Bulat @ Mississauga Celebration Square: photo by Michael Ligon


Basia Bulat @ Mississauga Celebration Square: photo by Michael Ligon

As you may have guessed given my two recent posts, I'm trying to work my way backwards, posting photos/reviews of the shows I've gone to over the last several months, which brings me to the enchanting Basia Bulat who played Mississauga for the first time on August 26 at Mississauga Celebration Square. It was a solo set from Miss Bulat, accompanying herself on vocals with a variety of instrumentation from piano, guitar and autoharp.

A somewhat small crowd was on hand for the show, but otherwise Basia was chipper throughout, playing enthusiastically and smiling through. Basia bantered with the audience, .entioning her days as a youth patronizing such Mississauga establishments as "Coffee, Tea or Me" and how her mother still goes to Starsky's (a European-style grocery store). Performing a selection of tunes from her two albums, 2008's "Oh My Darling" and 2010's "Heart Of My Own", she charmed the crowd throughout her set. In addition to that, other highlights included a cover of Jon Rae Fletcher's "Come Back To Me" (which she sung as a duet with Mississauga native and Arkells member Dan Griffin), a cover of Daniel Johnston's "True Love Will Find You in the End" and the folk traditional "Hush", which she embellished with hand clapping and foot stomping. And recognizing her heritage, and if I recall correctly saying something along the lines about wanting to record a Polish-sung album, she even sung in Polish like on "W Zielonym Zoo". Even a group of young teen boys, who in my opinion were acting up a bit, seemed to be charmed by Miss Bulat as during several of her tunes, they started to dance - it was perhaps a little bit of a joke to them, but Basia took it all in stride, accepting their enthusiasm as genuine. And perhaps maybe it was.

I've seen Basia several times live, and it was after this show I finally introduced myself, as well picking up her CD "Heart Of My Own". Lovely, lovely person, and I also must thank her for giving me the heads up on Supercrawl, a music and arts festival in Hamilton, ON which happened a week later, where she had a sublime performance collaboration with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.

For my complete photoset from the show, check out the link below:

Photos: Basia Bulat @ Mississauga Celebration Square (August 26, 2011)

Gord Downie and The Country of Miracles @ Mississauga City Centre (July 1, 2010 - Canada Day)

  Gord Downie: photo by Michael Ligon

Yes, my 'hood of Mississauga has been stepping it up these last few years with some decent free concert fare at Mississauga City Centre and for the second year in a row I spent my Canada Day evening there taking in the free show. Last year it was Sloan, and this year it was with Canadian icon, as MC and Mississauga resident Mike Bullard referred to him, Gord Downie and The Country of Miracles entertaining the crowd. With renovations being done to the Mississauga Library Square where past shows have taken place, the stage was moved to the street at an intersection at the back of Mississauga City Hall, bordering the Living Arts Centre and Square One Shopping Centre. Quite a few people were in attendance, mostly for the fireworks later that evening, but there was a good crowd in front of the stage early awaiting Mr. Downie.

Sporting glasses and a bald-shaven head, and decked out black shoes, jeans, t-shirt and sport coat, him and The Country Miracles (featuring The Dinner is Ruined's Dale Morningstar on guitar, John Dave Clark on drums, and I think John Press on keyboards, as well as Julie Doiron on guitar and vocals and The Skydiggers' Josh Finlayson on guitar), the band stepped onto stage to an appreciative response. Gord started almost immediately into what seemed liked stream-of -consciousness poetic verse, perhaps catching some Mississauga residents off-guard who might have been expecting some Hip tunes, but then the band segued into more conventional territory with the band's fantastic first single "The East Wind" off Gord Downie and The Country of Miracles' new album The Grand Bounce. The band played songs off their most recent album including "Yellow Days" (their ode to summer), "The Hard Canadian", and "The Drowning Machine". Although comparisons of his solo work to The Tragically Hip are hard to escape mostly because of Gord's vocals, I guess the main difference for me is that the new solo material feels less focused on the Hip-isms(Downie's somewhat affected vocals at times, guitar-based song arrangements), for a looser band feel, more subtle vocal technique and more straightforward lyrical content. A shame that the band didn't play longer than an hour - I was quite enjoying it - nor did they play an encore, but in any case, the set we got, plus the fantastic fireworks afterwards was a great way to celebrate Canada Day.

Photos: Gord Downie and The Country of Miracles @ Mississauga City Centre (July 1, 2010 - Canada Day)
Video: Gord Downie and The Country of Miracles - "The East Wind" (live @ Mississauga City Centre, July 1 2010)
Video: Gord Downie and The Country of Miracles - "The East Wind" (music video)

Tokyo Police Club @ Mississauga Civic Square (July 24, 2009)

Tokyo Police Club, a product of the suburbs (Newmarket that is) made a return to the suburbs with their Mississauga debut this past Friday night. Actually, they were suppose to have played Mississauga's Beating Heart Festival during the summer of 2007 but had to cancel that show for reasons I never really could confirm. Although if I had to guess, it may have been due that year to the band having been caught up in a whirlwind of publicity and perhaps didn't have the time to play a measly indie music festival in Mississauga when they could be playing higher profile gigs and festivals. I almost never forgave them for cancelling that show but I'm finally glad they finally came around to play a free show for us even if it took two years.

Performing as part of the My Mississauga music series at the outdoor stage set up in Mississauga Civic Square, a mostly all-ages crowd(many who looked not even of legal drinking age) had gathered for the show. Although it seemed like a relatively small crowd, as the start of the show grew closer, the crowd numbers seemed to exponentially grow. A definite help to anyone trying to write down the set list that night, the band had an easel on stage with each page of paper showing which two songs were next in the setlist, definitely stirring the crowd's anticipation at times.

It was an energetic set with the band playing all the favourites from their album "Elephant Shell" and their EP "A Lesson In Crime" plus their cover of The Rentals' 'Friends of P. Funny how I ignored them for so long, only giving a few of their songs a cursory listen and liking them but not wanting to explore them further, but since earlier this when I uploaded "Elephant Shell" to my iPod, I swell with Canadian pride every time I listen to it. The unbridled joy of youth dwells within the spiky guitars, jittery keyboards, vibrant drums, melodic bass lines, and the occasional shout-out lyric and when they sing "you don't need to change, the future is ours" you feel it. But what ultimately reels me in with the band, as they more competently displayed that night, is the band's grasp of melody. Catchy as fuck.

Every good band needs a theme song, perhaps one that even references their own name, so when Tokyo Police Club launched into "Cheer It On"(which has the band shouting out their band's name a couple of times during the chorus) during the encore, it was like an exclamation mark to a thoroughly exhilirating evening.

Photos: Tokyo Police Club @ Mississauga Civic Square (July 24, 2009)
MySpace: Tokyo Police Club

The Mississauga News has a brief write up on the show.

Sloan @ Mississauga Civic Centre (Canada Day - July 1, 2009)

Jay Ferguson of Sloan @ Mississauga Civic Centre: photo by Michael Ligon


Mississauga's been upping the ante lately with some decent concerts for example having lined up Sam Roberts and Kathleen Edwards for the Mississauga Waterfront Festival that happened in June and lining up Tokyo Police Club for a free show at Mississauga Civic Centre on July 24. This past Canada Day at Mississauga Civic Centre featured headliners Sloan, playing Mississauga for the first time. Though perhaps most in attendance were there for the fireworks later that night, there were definitely some Sloan fans in the house ("Sloaaannnn"). There were some funny comedy bits from MC and Mississauga resident Mike Bullard - I'd thought he was sort of hit and miss when he had his late night talk show, but I thought he was funny this night. After some delays with Sloan's sound check and Mr. Bullard fulfilling his MC duties hilariously (saying the boys had just left Halifax airport and were now on their way), he finally introduced the band, saying how great they were the several times they appeared on his talk show, then introduced the four members one by one. The performance itself didn't surpass any of their previous shows I've seen - it was fairly routine with drummer Andrew Scott and bassist Chris Murphy exchanging duties at one point in order for Andrew sing lead vocals on 'People Of The Sky'(and other tunes) and Chris Murphy as defacto frontman getting the crowd to participate(either singalong or clapping) at just the right moments during certain songs. What it boiled down to was that they have such a great catalogue of songs that it's terrific to hear one song after the next. Fan favourites like 'Penpals', 'Everything You've Done Wrong', 'People of They Sky', 'The Lines You Amend', 'The Good In Everyone', 'The Other Man', 'Money City Maniacs' bookended the set list with the middle section featuring more recent material from "Never Hear The End of It" and "Parallel Play", albums I'm almost embarrassed to say I haven't spent much time with (although after that show I hope to make time for). I remember a time when Sloan used to be my favourite band although in recent years I've lost touch with them. But for them to play my hometown finally[it only took 18 years], it wasn't hard to remember why they used to be my favourite band.

Photos: Sloan & fireworks @ Mississauga Civic Centre (Canada Day - July 1, 2009)

MySpace: Sloan

Fortress

concert review: Dala @ Mississauga Library Square, July 25, 2008



Scarborough natives, Sheila Carabine and Amanda Walther, aka Dala (taking the last two letters of each of their first names) brought their breezy acoustic folk pop to Mississauga's Library Square last Friday night. Their MySpace site hints at the duo's talents (most notably their vocal harmonies) though the polished sheen of their most recent album 2007 "Who Do You Think You Are" and 2005's "Angels and Thieves" wasn't necessarily a drawing point that was consistent with my usual indie tastes. But a free show in my hometown and nothing planned that night eventually drew me out to the show. I'd checked out shows at the Square in the past (like past years' Beating Heart concert series) only to be turned off by the all-ages (primarily teen) vibe of the events. Dala, on the other hand, drew a bit more of a varied audience, from seniors, to couples, families and others. A relatively small turnout considering the size of the Square, but thems the breaks when you're relatively unknown. I find it a bit surprising they haven't yet broke into the mainstream when they have several things working for them - talent (most notably vocally), an accessible (somewhat polished) sound, they're attractive, and they have a major label (Universal) behind them having released their last two albums. They've been gaining experience having done (and continuing to do) the folk-festival circuit and having completed opening slots for Tom Cochrane and Matthew Good most recently.

Though their MySpace presents the girls' music as performed with a band, they're apparently more likely to perform live as a duo as they did this time. Playing two set, they performed a mixture of covers (like Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now' and a medley of Buffalo Springfield's 'For What It's Worth' and Rolling Stones' 'You Can't Always Get What You Want') and polished acoustic folk-pop originals. Though there was a safeness, sometimes wide-eyed innocence, to songs they performed like '20 Something' off of "Angels and Thieves" or 'Marilyn Monroe' off of "Who Do You Think You Are" they did also display a knack for introspective, melancholy with tunes like 'Fortress' (which most recently was featured in a scene in the pilot episode of television show "Flashpoint"), 'Hockey Sweater', and 'Sunday Dress'. I could have done without the cover songs for the most part - during their encore, I wasn't particularly feeling their jazzy accappella version of 'Hit The Road Jack' which segued back and forth with '(You Give Me) Fever' which they did an admirable job vocally though I'm not really fan of those songs). However, if one cover song counted it was their version of Neil Young's 'Ohio' (a version of which they contributed to the tribute album "Borrowed Tunes II: A Tribute To Neil Young") which they performed with just electric piano, acoustic guitar and their vocals. Overall, the gals definitely have things working for them, most notably their great vocal harmonies, and as displayed during their live set, charming and humorous banter. With a little musical fine-tuning (a little less polish, more lyrical abstraction) they could definitely be essentials on the music scene.

Photos: Dala @ Mississauga Library Square (July 25, 2008)

MySpace: Dala