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