Waddya know! My friend Dino and I actually made it to the Opera House in Toronto yesterday, just before The Constantines started their set. I'm still in the process of becoming more familiar with them, but I thoroughly enjoyed The Constantines set. I know they played selections from their debut CD and their newest CD "Shine A Light". The band is firmly rooted in rhythm a la the thugging bass and the solid beat of the drummer. The scratchy Gang-of-Four-ish guitars, the Springteen-ish rumble of the vocalist, the punky shouting background vocals and the spacey keyboards(at times) filled out the music which made me realize that this is music which is dependent on these sounds coming together. There are bits and pieces of melody floating amongst the sounds, but I tried imagining whether they could pull off any of their songs acoustically, and I realized it just would not be the same. The Constantines have constructed a 'rock' sound that is at once challenging and accessible. These guys have been getting alot of press too! They were featured in a recent issue of Magnet Magazine. Way to go guys!
Guided by Voices came on stage after what seemed like an eternity and the fans, myself included, were ready for a another entertaining marathon set by the band. And when I say 'marathon' I mean it; I believe that, including the encore, the guys played about 2 and a half hours. Woah were my legs tired! But it was worth it. Surprisingly their set seemed to stay away from the 'hits' at least for the first hour or so and concentrated on either rare tracks[eg. from their newest box set], EP tracks or tracks from their newest CD Earthquake Glue which I have not purchased yet. Then the guys played "Things I Will Keep" and "Teenage FBI" from Do the Collapse. The guys played tracks from Isolation Drills such as "Skills Like This" and "Brides Have Hit Glass". They played "As We Go Up, We Go Down" and "Game Of Pricks" from Alien Lanes. As the night wore on, Robert Pollard went through more beer bottles and more cigarettes and I swear I don't know how he was even standing at the end of it all. The surprising thing is that the guys came on for an encore and went through a bunch of their 'hits' such as "Glad Girls" from Isolation Drills and "Tractor Rape Chain", "Echos Myron", and "I am a Scientist" from Bee thousand. The band bid adieu, thanked the fans and left the stage. My buddy and I took off because by that time I just wanted to sit down. Not everyone took off right away and some were still chanting for another encore although I'm not sure if the band came back. Great show from a great band! [and on behalf of all Canadians, I would like to apologize to GBV for the shitty treatment they received at the Canadian Border; apparently the guys drove 16 hours from New York City, ran in to problems at the border crossing and just barely made it into Toronto on time for their show]
PS. Liz Phair had an in-store performance at Sunrise Records today in downtown Toronto but I didn't have enough time to get downtown so I decided not to go. I hope her performance went well. I heard part of an interview she did with EDGE 102.1 FM yesterday and she seemed to be a genuinely nice person. I've been listening to her CD Whip-Smart all today and I forgot how much I like it, especially the song "May Queen"!
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