I went down to Harbourfront to catch Joel Plaskett Emergency this past weekend. There was a good turnout for the show, more than I expected actually. I wandered towards the stage down one of the aisles to get as close as I could to the stage. The Emergency as he called his bandmates consisted of fellow ex-Thrush Hermit member Ian McGettigan on bass guitar and drummer Dave Marsh(who's played with The Super Friendz among others). With half of Thrush Hermit onstage I was hoping for some old Thrush Hermit classics to weave their way into the setlist. Unfortunately, I don't think any surfaced. Anyways, Joel performed his own brand of honest pop-rock which was both hummable and dance-able at the same time. The only album of Joel Plaskett's I own is "Truthfully, Truthfully" so it's really those songs during the set which I enjoyed the most. "Come On Teacher" and the cowbell-enhanced "Extraordinary" were good crowd-pleasers. Audience request "Mystery and Crime" was my favourite song of the night because it echoed the pop sentiments of Thrush Hermit which I loved so much. The brooding pop of "Radio Fly" was a nice change of pace but still totally invigorating because of Joel's emotional vocal turn on the song. Unfortunately, I'm not that familiar with Joel's other albums, although I do recall him playing a song solo(something he did several times during the evening) called "I Love This Town" which got a favourable reaction from the crowd. I liked how he interwove "Toronto" as well as "Thrush Hermit" into the lyrics of the song, to the pleasure of the crowd. I think there were alot of Nova Scotians/Maritimers in the audience that night based on the reaction from the crowd anytime anything east coast-related was mentioned. For example, Joel: "I played the Dartmouth Waterfront Festival..."; crowd: "Woohoo!". You get the picture. So, yes Torontonians and Ontario-ans were for one night NOT the centre of the universe. ;-) The highlight of the evening had to be his solo rendition of "True Patriot Love" during his encore which he performed to an attentive crowd. It's a lyrically wonderful song even if it's dripping with melancholy. I think Joel is quite adept within this solo troubadour style and I'm looking forward to seeing at least part of his solo set at the Ear To The Ground festival next month. The only disappointment of the night was not getting a second encore. After the encore, it seemed there was a possibility of a second encore, especially since the MC had motioned the crowd for more applause. Thanks for getting our hopes up. No dice with a second encore. And I was really hoping they'd come back to play a Thrush Hermit tune. Now there's a reunion I'd LOVE to see. [photos from the show]
ps. more reviews of the show from suckingalemon, morriganlefey, and whintegreen.
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To celebrate the release of The New Pornographers' new album "Twin Cinema" tomorrow, the band will appear tomorrow August 23rd on KEXP to perform a live session at 3 pm PST[6 pm EST]. Pitchfork reviews the new album today, giving it a strong 9 out of 10. Toronto weeklies, eye and NOW reviewed the album last week and both liked "Twin Cinema" well enough but were less enthusiatic overall. Hmmm, I hate mixed reviews. Lastly, after KEXP, the band will head to KCRW to perform a live session on Morning Becomes Eclectic on August 26th at 11:15 am PST[2:15 pm EST].
The at-once-disappointed-but-relieved Kevin Drew addresses the leak of the new Broken Social Scene album over at the band's official website[see the update on today's date]. Okay, I downloaded the album just yesterday, but just because of you Kevin, I think I'll hold off listening to it and wait for the CD to be released.
In addition to the already scheduled Metric show at the Phoenix on September 29th, a second show has been added for the day before on September 28th. [from emergelive]
chromewaves reports that Matt Pond PA's new album "Several Arrows" will be released October 11th with tour dates to be announced shortly. On a related note, I noticed over at the Edge 102.1 FM website that Matt Pond PA are scheduled to open for Athlete at The Opera House in Toronto on September 19th. Hopefully, some smaller club dates will surface around that time. I would have been tempted to go to that September 19th show but I'm already going to see Sigur Ros.
Dan Burke over at stillepost says that The Zoobombs will stick around the city after the Ear To The Ground Festival for a show at The Silver Dollar on September 22nd. Openers will be California's The Willowz.
Death Cab For Cutie will be performing a live session for BBC 6 Music's Gideon Coe, tomorrow August 23rd.
The Big Ticket has a long overdue post about seeing The Constantines in concert back on July 14th at 400 Bar in Minneapolis. He has some nice photos from the show plus a couple of links to mp3's of tracks off The Cons' new album "Tournament of Hearts" which will be released through Sub Pop on October 11th.
My Mean Magpie ends his consecutive posting of the Teenbeat Mp3 of the Week at the 100th post, and for the occasion has compiled a live version of Unrest's "Perfect Teeth" LP consisting of live recordings of (most of)the album's songs recorded in and around 1993.
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