The Arcade Fire, Janelle Monae, The Sadies @ Olympic Island, Toronto (August 14, 2010)

  Win and Regine of The Arcade Fire: photo by Michael Ligon

Update [Aug 23/2010, 12:12 am]: Review now up.

I missed out on tickets for The Arcade Fire's two-night stint at Massey Hall in May 2007 and that was one of the few times I've regretted not being at a show. So when the band announced a surprise two-night stint at The Music Hall[on a tangent, which is at least closed for now due to unpaid back rent according to BlogTO] in Toronto this past June, I made a decision to buy a ticket. That show emphasized the sonically uplifting nature of The Arcade Fire's music, coming at a time[the recent passing of my mom] which turned out to be very much therapeutic. If that show was a warm-up, their large-scale proper show in Toronto at Olympic Island last Saturday nailed it.

With the absence of large-scale outdoor concert festivals from this year's summer Toronto concert calendar, Toronto promoters Collective Concerts stepped up to fill the void, first with the Pavement reunion show at Olympic Island earlier this summer which also featured Broken Social Scene, Band of Horses, Beach House, Timbre Timber, and The Toronto Revue(Zeus, Flash Lightnin' and The Beauties), and last week with The Arcade Fire show also at the Island, with openers Janelle Monae, and The Sadies. The Sadies, with Dallas and Travis Good in their sequined suits were probably happy that the clouds kept the sun at bay, but they still did their best to work up a sweat with their brand of twangy, surf-inflected, country tunes. The hour or so long set they performed seemed short by their standards, with their usual headlining exceeding the two hour mark. There were definitely a few fans in the audience, but it seemed that the majority of the young hipsters in the crowd were disinterested. As per what's been a usual part of their set at least the last few times I've seen The Sadies live, the Good brothers' mother came up to join the band on a few songs including, Sadies standards, their cover of the 60's r n' b song "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)" and their smoking cover of the Traditional "Higher Power". I noticed the reaction of a few young female attendees who thought the whole concept of the brother's mom singing with them was cute.

Next up was Kansas City native, Janelle Monae. The Arcade Fire's Win came out to introduce her, this being her debut Canadian performance. While Win's subsequent walk off stage was a bit clumsy as he tripped over something, caught himself from falling, and sheepishly glanced to the crowd, there was nothing clumsy about Ms. Monae's performance, marked with precision, dexterity and soulfulness. Sporting her version of a pompadour, and decked out in a white ruffled shirt, tight-fitting black tuxedo pants, and two-toned oxfords, her band on keyboards, guitar and drums were similary garbed in their black and white attire. Janelle and her back up dancers came out onto the stage originally enveloped in black hooded garments but then Janelle started out into a a wicked rap before shedding the hood. Having only had some cursory listens of her music prior to the show, I had a slight impression of what to expect, but the live performance really converted me. Her music was a scintillating combination of rock, soul and r'n'b and her stage presence evoked the spirit of a few of the late greats like James Brown and Michael Jackson, oh and to me her music, or at least her approach to is, reminded me most of all of the still living(thankfully), Prince. Vocally, her soulful vocals were spot on, and even a passionate cover of Charlie Chaplin's "Smile" only accompanied by the effective jazz-rock guitar arrangements of guitarist Kellindo Parker, did not expose any blemishes in her vocal technique. Aforementioned guitarist Kelindo Parker was 'sick' as the kids would say, and his stage presence was as if he was channelling the spirit of Jimi Hendrix. Towards the end of the set, the back up dancers threw out a bags of balloons to float and mingle through the crowd. Overall, it was a highly impressive set from the P. Diddy and OutKast protege.

It's come to the part of the review where I should talk about The Arcade Fire but in some ways it is almost difficult to put into words unless you were there. It wasn't the show to end all shows but it definitely propelled feelings of glee and euphoria for those in attendance. The seemingly appropriate, both in title and tone, new single "Ready To Start" kicked off the set and I could feel the excitement build up inside of me. The next song, the punky "Month Of May", also from the band's new album The Suburbs, kept up the crowd's adrenalin. Other highlights of the night included new songs like the restrained "Modern Man" which had the audience clapping, Win switching to piano for the alt-country swing of the new album title track "The Suburbs", Regine's lead vocals on the infectious, dance-pop of "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" and the audience's vocal participation on "Rococo". While the new songs were for the most part new to me since I hadn't listened to the new album yet, they were so instantly memorable.

Of course the old songs weren't about to be overshadowed, so not to speak about them ad nauseum, we got favourites like "No Cars Go", "Haiti", and the usual double-shot of "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" and "Rebellion (Lies)" which ended off the main set in fine fashion and had me on more than one occasion unable to restrain myself from jumping up and down. In perhaps a once and a lifetime moment, the crowd[or at least the front part of the crowd] continue to sing/hum the outro melody of "Rebellion(Lies)" long after the band left the stage, and continued to do so for several minutes, until the band finally made it back to the stage for their encore which was comprised of "Keep The Car Running" and "Wake Up", a mightly fine conclusion to the night. It was an earlier moment in the night that solidified the greatness of the night for me as Win reiterated that one dollar from the sale of each ticket went to the Partners in Health charity to continue the relief efforts in Haiti, where member Regine Chassagne was born. But rather than segue into the appropriately-titled "Haiti", it was the grand presence of "Intervention" and it's pipe organ that graced our ears. I felt, breathed and tasted the greatness of that very moment. But whatever the true song's meaning, when Win sung "I can taste the fear, Gonna lift me up and take me out of here", it gave me a lump in my throat.

Photos: The Arcade Fire, Janelle Monae, The Sadies @ Olympic Island, Toronto (August 14, 2010)
MySpace: The Sadies
MySpace: Janelle Monae
MySpace: The Arcade Fire

Toronto Island Concert w/ Pavement, Broken Social Scene, Band of Horses, Beach House (June 19, 2010)

  Stephen Malkmus of Pavement: photo by Michael Ligon

Update [June 29/2010, 11:27 pm]: My photos from the show have been up on my Flickr for a few days now but I just added the link below today. Sorry for the wait.

Traditionally the Saturday night of NXNE has always been my favourite night of the festival. Over the past several years at least it seems I'd been kicking off my music activities earlier in the day either by checking out afternoon sets at Yonge Dundas Square or seeing music film during the NXNE film festival. However, then news of seminal indie band Pavement's reunion tour coming to Olympic Island on June 19(the Saturday night of NXNE) was announced and I had to make a decision whether it'd be Pavement or NXNE for me. Adding to the difficulty of the decision was the fact that Iggy & The Stooges would be headlining a free show at Yonge Dundas Square on the 19th. As tempting as a free Igg & The Stooges show was, I chose the Pavement show as I'd kick myself if I missed that show. In addition to Pavement, also playing were Broken Social Scene, Band of Horses and Beach House, plus Timber Timbre and a Toronto Revue consisting of The Beauties, Flash Lightnin' and Zeus. Not originally part of NXNE, in a bit of musical comraderie, the Toronto Island Concert latched onto NXNE by offering free admission to the first 250 NxNE Bracelets/Badges at the Mainland Ferry Box Office on the day of the show. Hey, considering the capacity of the island, 250 free admittants might not seem much, but it was a start. In any case the show was sold out.

(4:00 PM @ Olympic Island) - Beach House (Baltimore, Maryland)
I got a late start to my day, missing by the Toronto Revue's and Timber Timbre's opening sets but arrived prior to Beach House's set. I manage to get a sweet spot on the left side of the stage virtually at the front of the stage and I'm glad I ate beforehand, did the bathroom thing, and had a full bottle of water with me because near the front was were I remained for the entire day and night. That's something I've never done at a festival and maybe won't do ever again, but it did guarantee me a sweet spot for all the bands I saw. With the midday sun beating down, it was the pale white duo of Beach House comprised of Victoria Legrand on vox/organ and Alex Scally on electric guitar, joined by a live drummer, to start the outdoor festival off for me. I saw them for the first time live in September 2007 at The Mod Club and while I appreciated the band's gauzy brand of subdued pop performed with guitar and organ, my genuine satisfaction remained elusive that night. To my surprise though this time around, there seemed to be more bounce in their step, whether that might be because of the live drummer or just because the songs off their most recent album "Teen Dream" are that much stronger. More satisfying than I expected and a nice way for me to start the day.

(5:15 PM @ Olympic Island) - Band of Horses (Seattle, Washington)
Band of Horses had already committed to playing the Toronto Island Concert back in January 2010 when show was announced so it was mighty nice of the band to play an intimate free show at the Horseshoe last month in advance of their major label debut Infinite Arms. Unfortunately I didn't get into the show at the Horseshoe. The first time I'd seen the band live was at the Phoenix in November 2007 although I wasn't in the best headspace at the time to enjoy that show at all. Considering these facts, I was looking forward to seeing Band of Horses this time. Led by Ben Bridwell, the band sauntered through tunes from all three of their albums, and while their were some delectable selections ("Is There a Ghost", "The Funeral", "The Great Salt Lake"), there seemed to be a bit of disconnect with the audience, perhaps to do with the minimal stage banter, and except for Ben and bassist Bill Reynolds, there was a lacklustre stage presence. Perhaps not what the kids were after, but the country-ish song "Older" with lead vocals sung by keyboardist Ryan Monroe was one of the highlights of the set for me. But such highlights couldn't detract from the fact that the band weren't owning the stage as I'd hope; they played decently but somehow I just didn't feel the passion.

(6:45 PM @ Olympic Island) - Broken Social Scene (Toronto, Ontario)
It seems that a BSS show can either be full of surprises or terribly predictable and for the most part I think last Saturday's set was unfortunately the latter. Of course, if this had been you're first time seeing BSS live, you might have found it extremely satisfying. However, when you've seen BSS live as many times as I have, it's the unpredictable moments that I'm usually hoping for. Last year's BSS show at Harbourfront was full of surprises and was generally regarded by most people (including myself) as one of, if not their best show ever. That said, this current BSS set had it's share of good moments. It's always kind of fun to guess which of the three ladies (Leslie Feist, Emily Haines, Amy Millan) of BSS renaissance period will show up, and while I guessed Emily might, I was totally surprised that Leslie also did. With Stars getting ready to tour and to promote their new album The Five Ghosts I just assumed Amy wouldn't make it and that I guessed correct. It was totally cool to hear Leslie and Emily trade off vocals on "7/4 Shoreline". The live set did warm me up to the new album Forgiveness Rock Record with cuts like "Forced To Love" and the delicate vocals of Lisa Lobsinger on the electro-pop goodness of "All To All". Other guests included Mr. Sebastian Grainger singing back-up on a few tracks as well as Pavement's Scott "Spiral Stairs" Kannberg joining in on guitar near the end. The band did come back for an encore and of course, in honour of the occasion, and if I recall correctly Kevin Drew saying that he'd be an idiot if they did not play it, BSS performed a balls-out rendition of "Ibi Dreams Of Pavement (Better Day)". So overall, a mix of the familiar with a few surprises, and even if it 's not near the best I've ever seen, it was still pretty good.

(9:00 PM @ Olympic Island) - Pavement (Stockton, California)
I wish there was some sort of Pavement gigography but surfin the net I came across info that Pavement played the Palladium in 1994, the Phoenix in '97 and the Guvernment in 1999. During their Olympic Island set, Stephen Malkmus mentioned that in the early nineties, they played Lee's Palace. I know Pavement played Lollapalooza in 1995 when the roaming festival stopped in Barrie at Molson Park. And somehow I missed all of these shows. Like many, their 1994 major label debut full-length Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain was my introduction to the band and since then I've liked the band a lot. I'll admit it's never been a 'love'; I've been on-again-off-again in listening them and their noisier bits were things I tended to skip over, but after they disbanded in 199 and more recently with the deluxe reissues of their albums over the last several years I've grown fonder of them. Maybe it's just that they remind me of the 90's when life wasn't as complicated or stressful. Or maybe it's the old adage, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Now 2010, Pavement have decided that a decade is a an appropriate length of time that they've been away and so reuniting for fans (and maybe moreso for the money), I finally got to cross them off my concert wishlist and it was everything I'd hoped for.

I'd read in the past that when Pavement toured in their heyday they were quite sloppy musically, but for their set at Olympic Island last Saturday night, they were much tighter than I expected, for the most part resembling their recorded material, and that was just fine with me. The setlist (which you can view over at Brooklyn Vegan) leaned towards the familiar, meaning the band's singles as well as a heavy dose of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, with various nifty album cuts interspersed. They wasted no time to pump out the 'hits' as they dove head first into "Cut Your Hair" to the delight of the fans, then segued next into "Trigger Cut". Other favourites of mine included "Grounded", "Gold Soundz", "Range Life" and main set closer "Summer Babe". The band came back for a three song encore and I practically collapsed when they ended off with "Stop Breathin". I was never bored for a moment and was satisfied with the pacing of the set which contained one great song after another. Member Bob Nastanovich was one to behold with his idiosyncratic approach to back-up singing and his hard-core-ish screams. Spiral Stairs played the guitar arrangements with vigor. It was fascinating to watch Stephen as vocalist sing these songs again as I'd always imagined he never ever wanted to, but it seemed he was geuninely enjoying the experience. And Last but not least, you have Steve West on drums and Mark Ibold on bass holding down the rhythm section quietly but solidly. These are all just random thoughts of mine but all those fuzzy good feelings of a great show will remain. When it was over, Malkmus said with a combination of cheekiness and perhaps a little sentimentality, "Don't Forget The 90's".

Photos: Toronto Island Concert w/ Pavement, Broken Social Scene, Band of Horses, Beach House (June 19, 2010)

Virgin Festival 2008 - Day 2

Oasis @ Virgin Festival (September 7, 2008)


Day 2 of the festival started out rainy, contributing to dawdling on my part in leaving home on time, and resulting in me missing Spiral Beach's opening set on the Main Stage. My day began at the third stage (sponsored by Oh! Henry) with local electro-rock act Opopo rocking out for the respectable sized crowd on hand. I'm sure I've seen these guys open a show at The Opera House I'd been to - I wasn't particularly feeling them the first time, though this time (and maybe it just the good vibes of the festival atmosphere) I appreciated Opopo more for what they really are which is just a fun party band.

Before I'd got to the Oh! Henry Stage I had passed the TD Stage where they were still setting up for Sebastian Granger and The Mountains. There wasn't many people at the TD Stage though after Opopo ended their set it seems a lot of people headed over to check out Sebastian Granger and The Mountains at the TD stage. The band's vibrant power pop seemed to help the sun peek out from behind the clouds at times. I dug the songs at times, and they do deserve a second listen on my part. With Saddle Creek snatching the band up to distribute their music in the States, I mean, there must be something, right?

Day 2 of the festival was a lot more walking between stages, and continuing that threaded I march back on over to the main stage to see The Weakerthans. Surprisingly, while The Weakerthans seemed to be as mellow on stage as The Cons were the previous day, The Weakerthans' more direct approach with pop melodies made their set connect better with me.

Back on over the foot stage to check out Matt Costa though his set was more of an afterthough because I'd primarily went over to grab a free eco-friendly messenger bag from the Motorola tent. Since I was already there, I decided to head over to the TD stage where a large crowd was on hand watching Matt Costa who was in the midst of finishing his set. Largely of the acoustic, folky variety, Matt Costa performed a few pleasant(nothing more, nothing less) sounding songs.

I went back to the mainstage for a pick-me-up in the form of Silversun Pickups whose melodic rock songs reminded me of 90's alternative rock (thankfully more Smashing Pumpkins than Stone Temple Pilots).

I stuck around at the main stage for UK's Stereophonics but only for a few songs as I wanted to make it over to the TD stage for the start of Sons and Daughters' set. Surprisingly popular with the crowd it seems, Stereophonics went for the gold from the start playing basically a greatest hits set("A Thousand Trees". "Have A Nice Day"), at least from the several songs I'd heard.

Off to the TD Stage it was for me but while over there at that side of the island I strolled over to the Oh! Henry stage where buzzed(and deservedly so) about rapper Shad was finishing off his set which a little unfortunate for me since I'd hope to catch more of it but Shad did come back for a brief "encore" which really was just him doing some casual freestyling.

Back to the TD stage I went for Scotland's Sons and Daughters, one of my favourite acts over the last several years. There glammy, rebel rock is undeniably a kick in the pants in comparison to the most of the rest of the acts of the day. Like Spiritualized the day before, it was a little strange seeing Sons and Daughters in daylight, rather than the last couple of times I saw them at Lee's Palace (which guitarist/vocalist Scott Patterson mentioned was a venue he loved to play). Unfortunately original bassist Ailidh Lennon wasn't there, and here duties were taken over by some gent, though adequately so.

Another act that I can cross out now from my wishlist is Paul Weller who was the penultimate set of the main stage this day. Playing favourites like the sublime dub-beat of "Wild Wood", the terrific Style Council tune "Shout To The Top" and exhilirating versions of Jam classics "A Town Called Malice" and "Eton Rifles" plus a bevy of tunes that ranged from great to jammy, I thoroughly enjoyed the set and was as much relieved that he seemed (well at least part of the set) to go over well with the younger kids.

And of course we all know what happened with Oasis and the Gallagher brothers. The guy who had pushed Noel and tried to take a swing at Liam before being tackled by security has turned out to be 47-year-old Pickering man, Daniel Sullivan, who was charged with assault and will appear in court next month. I wonder what the fuck he was thinking. I have to give credit to the the Gallaghers and the rest of the band for coming back and finishing off the set albeit what turned out to be a shortened one, and no official encore. Is the Toronto Virgin Festival cursed or what? The festival's inaugural year had Massive Attack cancel at the last minute and had headliners The Flaming Lips forced to play a shortened set due to curfew laws and the band starting their set late. The second year of the festival had the scorchingly hot Amy Winehouse cancel her appearance. Unfortunate incident aside, I'm glad Oasis were able to play as much as they did. "Morning Glory" (at least until that now infamous incident happened) was truly euphoric while Noel's subsequent solo rendition of "Don't Look Back In Anger" just truly tugged at the heart. Glorious, indeed.

Photos: Virgin Festival @ Toronto Islands (September 7, 2008)

Virgin Festival 2008 - Day 1

Bloc Party @ Virgin Festival (September 6, 2008)


I have to give a big thanks to the Virgin Festival for approving my media accreditation this year. With perks like a VIP ferry, free dinner each day, a relatively comfortable VIP area, and access to the photo pit for the Main and Second stages, it's really spoiled me for any future outdoor festivals I'll be attending.

Although this year's lineup didn't necessarily bowl me over, with a little effort and good time management I still got to check out an interesting if not decent selection of artists throughout the day. Day One started out with me missing some of the mainstage acts, but I was able to get into the Molson Canadian Rocks Zone to catch some of The Fratellis' acoustic set, at least before they called it quits after they got drowned out by The Constantines who began their set on the main stage soonafter. Who ever thought of overlapping those two sets, well, nice one.

The Constantines' set was my first opportunity to utilize my media pass and snap some photos of the band up close so I made a dash over to the mainstage. Though The Cons' melody and grit was musically in top form, it seemed one of their most subdued performances.

I stayed for a bit but then decided to head over to see Uk's Spiritualized scheduled to peform over at the TD Bank Stage just over the foot bridge. My rushing wasn't necessary as the start of Spiritualized's set was delayed. While Spiritualized's last jaunt through town was disappointedly to some a gospel acoustic set, this time around it was the electric band version. With a band and a couple of soulful, backup singers, Spiritualized performed a selection of newer songs and older fan favourites. It wasn't as cathartic experience as I'd hope (maybe it was seeing them perform during the daylight) but still it was very good, and it was all worth it just to see them play "Come Together".

With The Fratellis acoustic set having been cut short a few hours prior, I decided to stick around at the TD stage and catch their electric set, and as such, while there were many a fan in the audience and while I recall bopping my head at times, I seriously do not remember anything else about their set.

Back to the mainstage Against Me! had just begun their set of aggressively sung and played though infectiously melodic pop music. Not the first time I've heard them (God knows how many times I've heard Edge 102.1 play their 'hit' "Thrash Unreal") and I'm not a big fan of them but they were a needed shot of adrenaline for the day which up to that point had been kind of mellow.

As dusk set, the penuntilmate act of the day UK's Bloc Party didn't disappoint, drawing on older favourites and some newer material. While I musically I prefer Bloc Party over headliners Foo Fighters, I will give props where due and say that Foo Fighters and more specifically Dave Grohl knows how to draw a participatory element from the crowd, whether that be communal chuckling in reponse to Grohl's humourous banter or group singalongs(in particular to a few acoustic renditions of songs like "My Hero" and "Everlong"). And that Dave Grohl is one foul-mouthed dude. Don't let his angelic smile in the "Big Me" music video fool you.

Photos: Virgin Festival @ Toronto Islands (September 6, 2008)

Where Did It All Go Wrong?

As I get down to sorting through my photos and collecting my thoughts on this year's Virgin Festival which went down this past weekend at Toronto Islands, Noel Gallagher could apparently be mending a broken rib due to some unknown dickhead who ran on stage during headliner Oasis' performance of "(What's The Story) Morning Glory) and pushed him down from behind, and took a swing(unsuccessfully) at his brother Liam before security guards tackled the asshole to the ground. Oasis.net has this to say about the incident (Londonners, keep your fingers crossed for Tuesday night's show):

"Oasis', Noel Gallagher was attacked by an unidentified man during the band's show in Toronto last night. While Noel and the band were performing 'Morning Glory', the assailant ran on from the back of the stage and pushed Noel from behind, who fell heavily on to his monitor speakers.

Despite his injuries, Noel returned to the stage a few minutes later to complete the band's set but was taken to hospital after the show to be examined for a suspected fractured rib and ligament damage. The assailant was detained in police custody and will be charged with assault.

No decision has been made regarding Tuesday's concert in London, Ontario, but fans are urged to keep checking the band's web site Oasisinet.com and local media for updates."

If curiosity is eating at you, there's video of the incident, here and here. (video links via The Panic Manual).

Also Information Leafblower, was quick on the draw and got a few photos. (via Chromewaves)