The Flaming Lips, Spoon, Tokyo Police Club @ Molson Ampitheatre, Toronto (July 8, 2010)

First of all thanks to Live Nation for the two complimentary tickets to last week's Flaming Lips show at the Molson Ampitheatre. Every summer I get that itch to go to a summer music festival and I'd scratched that itch last month with the Toronto Island Concert. While the Molson Ampitheatre as a music venue borders on pure hatred for me, beggars can't be choosers when it means getting to see The Flaming Lips live. Bringing a mini-festival atmosphere with them, in tow with the Lips were Spoon, Tokyo Police Club and Fang Island. Last week's show was the fourth time I've seen The Flaming Lips live, better than their truncated set in 2006 at the Toronto Virgin Festival, but only slightly less euphoric when I saw them at Coachella in 2004 or Sasquatch in 2006. So four years since I last experienced The Flaming Lips live, and I was itching to see them again. My brother came along for the show with me, and having misread our tickets we ended up sitting in row C of section 203 [excellent seats, by the way] although we should have been in row J; as fate would have it, the rightful ticket-holders of our seats did come, and we moved a few seats to our left and never budged, and it was the most perfect view one could have for a show at the Molson Ampitheartre.


  Tokyo Police Club: photo by Michael Ligon

We arrived too late for first openers Fang Island but came partway into locals Tokyo Police Club's set. It was still light out, and it was a sparse crowd and for all the energy the band seemed to exude on stage (and yes, the band were working up a visible sweat), it seemed all for naught. You'd think that at least the crowd on the floors might be more active, but it was more like a sea of stillness. Even the band's 'hit' "Yr English Is Good" failed to get the crowd going.


  Britt Daniel of Spoon: photo by Michael Ligon

It was soon obvious that none of the bands on the bill would even come close to upstaging the headliners - of course, few bands could upstage The Flaming Lips. While Austin's Spoon are amidst there most fervent popularity, having headlined Sound Academy in Toronto back in April of this year, there's also a consensus that they aren't the most interesting band to watch live. Thank God, for the music. Spoon frontman Britt Daniel, dressed summery in white v-neck t-shirt and white slacks got down to business leading the group through a selection of new and old songs, mostly from their last 3 full-lengths, the highlights being "I Saw The Light" from their newest album Transference, a bunch from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga including "Don't Make Me A Target", "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb", "The Underdog", and "Black Like Me", and "I Summon You" and "I Turn My Camera On" from Gimme Fiction. The occasional horn section was used to great effect on several tracks including "Underdog" and "Cherry Bomb", the latter Britt dedicting to their "no. 1 cheerleader", referring to a girl dancing very enthusiastically in the aisle coincidentally in the same section where my brother and I were sitting. It was a no- frills set overall and ultimately an opportunity to hear some good tunes.


  The Flaming Lips: photo by Michael Ligon

Ever since I'd first seen The Flaming Lips live in 2004 at Coachella, their live stage production has remained virtually the same. Confetti cannons, giant confetti-filled balloons, dancing animals, video projection back-drop, and of course frontman Wayne Coyne and his now famous walking over the crowd while in a giant transparent plastic ball are all now standard components of any Lips live show. It never gets old but given that this was my fourth time seeing them live, it is predictable. Having said that, since it had been four years since I last saw them live, this time Wayne's giant ball walk and the show's initial reams of confetti and sudden launch of a mulititude of colorouful giant balloons into the crowd were every bit as impactful as I'd remembered. Every time I experience that I think, this is the happiest place in the world right now and I am here. It's the most wonderful feeling in the world.

As the confetti settled, the show followed suit as The Flaming Lips focused on the musical portion of the evening. I've largely been ignorant of their last two full-lengths, Embryonic and At War With The Mystics, so to hear the former's "I Can Be A Frog"(with the band prompting the audience to mimic the animal sound for every animal mentioned) while a fun, almost child-like tune, didn't motivate to want to listen to the album. At War With The Mystics' "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" is a cool little tune although far from their best. On the other hand, their 1995 'hit' "She Don't Use Jelly", came out the speakers with it's great guitar lick with more impact than I ever remembered. It's a shame the band didn't play anything from their orch-pop classic The Soft Bulletin but the band were simply majestic on the Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots cuts including the hazy "In the Morning of the Magicians", their toned down rendition of "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Part 1" and their last-hurrah, confetti-filled encore of "Do You Realize".

While the evening's vibe remained mostly upbeat, Mr. Coyne's also never been shy about injecting a few political statements during a show. He expressed his continued distaste for Bush and his support for Obama, spoke about love and peace, and during one song, in a symbolic gesture wore two giant laser hands holding them up to the heavens. Coyne would be more explicit in his views later on as he told the crowd that the band would perform their rendition of "Taps" (bugle accompanied with dreamy keyboards) every night until the war in Iraq was over - as the first notes of
"Taps" emanated from the bugle that Coyne held up the mic, he prompted the audience to hold up the peace sign with their fingers, as an eery stillness fell over the crowd. The Flaming Lips are at a point in their career that much of what they do during their live shows seems self-indulgent, even schtick. But there's also no doubt in my mind that they are nothing but sincere.

Photos: The Flaming Lips, Spoon, Tokyo Police Club @ Molson Ampitheatre, Toronto (July 8, 2010)
MySpace: Tokyo Police Club
MySpace: Spoon
MySpace: The Flaming Lips

Spoon, Deerhunter, The Strange Boys @ Sound Academy, Toronto (March 29, 2010)

  Spoon @ Sound Academy: photo by Michael Ligon

Let's face it. I'm getting lazy with reviewing shows but so far, for the sake of this blog, I still feel compelled to write something. I apologize for my tardiness - it's been a week since Spoon's show at Sound Academy last Monday. Even if Sound Academy is far from my favourite venue (and well actually is my least favourite venue in Toronto) my general disdain for it has diminished slightly now that I'm attune to the bus route that travels in the general vicinity of the venue and the venue itself isn't as terrible as I'd remembered as long as you show up at a reasonable time to snag a decent spot to watch the show. With regards to the show itself, Spoon really delivered.

I'd arrived at the venur with Austin's The Strange Boys well into their brief set of garage-y, sometimes twang-inflected guitar rock. Formed in 2001 and releasing their debut EP, States Newest Noise Makers, in 2004 this was the first time I'd even heard their name, so I'd have guessed that they've dwelled in relative obscurity. There's an authenticity in their garage-y tunes although not particularly distinctive, and not particularly fashionable if you pay attention to such things. I do particularly recall a twang-inflected, slacker tune that hit a good stride although otherwise there's a dozen other similar bannds albums I'd no sooner reach for.

I'd only caught part of The Strange Boys' set due to trying to convince security to let me in with my SLR [as I didn't have a media pass, I promised to keep my camera in my bag but they wouldn't budge so I gave in and they held it for me in the security office. Hence, the iPhone photo above(using the Hipstamatic app) as well as including the photos through the link below].

While Spoon were the main reasons I'd bought a ticket for the show, it was second openers Atlanta's Deerhunter who were arguably the best band of the night. The youthful outfit led by the lanky Bradford Cox wearing dark sunglasses and what looked like a fishtail-style military green parker were a sonically exciting bunch at various times sounding like some of my all-time favourite bands. At various times they had the noisy guitar dissonance of Sonic Youth, the skewed-pop sensibilities of the Pixies and Jesus and Mary Chain, and the shoegaze-y guitar tendencies of My Bloody Valentine. But as much as they'd reminded me of these other bands, their sound was still fresh. Between songs, Mr. Cox spouted what seemed like stream-of-consciousness existential babble, all very entertaing in a sense, but it made me wonder if he was on something. With Spoon's Britt Daniel joining in on one song on guitar for an extended jam as well as a member of The Black Lips also jumping on stage at one point, it was an entertaining set.

There's no doubt Spoon's star has been steadily rising over the past 4-5 years. Their last show in Toronto was in October 2007 at Kool Haus (a show which had originally been scheduled for the Phoenix), and their show previous to that was in 2005 at the Phoenix. But such a historical progression still didn't make a show at Sound Academy a reasonable venue. Are Spoon really THAT big in Toronto? Apparently so.

The dapper-looking quartet in their monochratic shirt and trousers performed a delectable set of tunes from their new album "Transference", their previous efforts "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" and "Gimme Fiction" and peppering the setlist with oldies from "Girls Can Tell" ('Me and the Bean'), and "Kill The Moonlight"('Small Stakes'). What the band lacked in stage presence (though they were far from wet blankets on stage, with Britt Daniel oozing more slinky sexuality that I recalled on previous visits to Toronto), the band compensated musically, with the group's sublime mix of guitar, bass, keys and drums, led by Daniel's attractive semi-raspy vocals tying things together perfectly. What makes Spoon so generally distinctive is their devotion to classic songwriting, songs that have an air of influence of bands before them, but yet so timeless sounding when I come to think of it. When so many bands these days sound like a genre, indie or what have you, Spoon are truly in that minority of bands that really make good melodic, rock n' roll music.

Random points: Deerhunter's Cox guested on one song. Britt made a humourous comment about a moustached-guest musician being on "lead moustache". There was good audience handclap participation on "I Summon You". The keyboard staccato of "Small Stakes" absolutely sizzled. And while real horns would have been nice on encore closer "The Underdog", still the song's celebratory mood was such a perfect way to end the show.

Eye Weekly has a review plus also the setlist from the show.

Photos: Spoon @ Sound Academy, Toronto (March 29, 2010)
MySpace: The Strange Boys
MySpace: Deerhunter
MySpace: Spoon

Don't Make Me A Target

concert review: Spoon, The Ponys @ Kool Haus (Toronto, Ontario), October 20, 2007



I'm losing my patience for the Kool Haus. I have no problems with it necessarily hosting bands/artists that need a large space to accommodate its large fanbase but increasingly it seems that you encounter/observe more and more fuckin' morons at Kool Haus. But more on that later.

4-piece Chicago, Illinois Matador Records band The Ponys opened the show thrashing out a set of tuneful, reverb-charged, punky indie rock exhuberance. I had almost made up my mind before the show that I wouldn't like them based on their ambiguous band name and 2007 album cover, so it was a pleasant surprise they had tunes to back up their hype. If you were a fan of the now-defunct The Rock*A*Teens[who I am only casual familiar with, but who I kniw were also purveyors of a similar reverb-soaked production], you'll probably want to check out The Ponys.

When on-the-brink-of-stardom, band-du-jour, Spoon had their show moved from Phoenix to the cavernous Kool Haus, I underestimated the band's draw. At the show last week, I was towards the front but at least from my vantage point it seemed to be a fairly packed house. And a fair amount of young'uns at that[another thing I wouldn't have guessed]. Ashamedly, I only caught on to the band with their album "Gimme Fiction" (which I admitted was likely my favourite album of 2005), but better late than never. I still haven't explored their back catalogue but I got a taste of it at the Kool Haus last week and it's tempting. But the "Gimme Fiction"/"Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" songs were exciting, especially when the horn section that were in tow got to play like on the most recent album's "You Got Yr Cherry Bomb" and "The Underdog". Britt Daniel was impressed by the response the band got from the Toronto crowd, expressing that Toronto's always treated them well back to the day when the band performed first performed in Toronto at the Horseshoe Tavern. Britt even gave a special shout-out to local promoter Craig Laskey for always looking out for them. There's no doubt that the audience was one of the most enthusiastic Toronto audiences I've seen in a long time, although the group of kids(well a few of them at least) I had the unfortunate experience of standing beside were plain annoying, and obviously loaded. Their misplaced hootin' and hollerin' and flailing elbows was grating after a short while. At one point, Britt had even acknowledged them for their 'enthusiasism'. Oh, if he only knew.

I have a few photos from the show over at my Flickr.

MySpace: Spoon
MySpace: The Ponys

More reviews(some good, some not so good) of the show over at Eye Weekly, Torontoist, Just Keep Bloggin', the local black and red, Wolves, Hawks and Kites, Thick Specs, and The Panic Manual.

adangca has some video clips from the show.