mtroads

I’ve always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with shoegazer. Back in my teens, while I was listening to Poor Old Lu, MxPx and Grammatrain, my older brother was listening to Starflyer 59, Morella’s Forest (the later one with the girl lead singer, not the one made up of the Martin brothers) and The Lassie Foundation. At the time, I couldn’t really see what he saw in that music. To me, it was boring. I couldn’t really see the art in a massive wall of guitars and noise. Over time the music grew on me and as I was researching these bands, and one name kept popping up as a major influence, My Bloody Valentine and in particular, their album Loveless. Eventually I picked it up, but it didn’t really hit me. Although this is nothing new, often when experiencing the creators after listening to the bands inspired by them, the newness and rawness of the original band is lost when revisiting it later. (I’m looking at you Velvet Underground.) Now after an extended hiatus, My Bloody Valentine were reuniting for one last tour. Now MBV shows are legendary for their experience. They’re recognized as one of the loudest bands, so I figured that it would be fun and decided to go. Over the last week, I’ve dusted off Loveless and enjoyed it a lot more than I had previously, so I had pretty high expectations going into the show.

First up were Flowers of Hell. They were a post-rock band of many (nine members on stage) but quantity didn’t really make up for quality. There were flashes of goodness but it didn’t last and much of their set was pretty boring. The coolest part was Owen Pallett (aka Final Fantasy) joining them onstage for their last 15 minute number. Over all it wasn’t that bad, it’s just for the amount of instruments on stage, the arrangement was pretty ordinary with only one the guitarists showing any real talent.

Next up was Gemma Hayes. She got a few laughs when she first introduced herself as “Kevin Shields” but the crowd pretty much ignored her, talking pretty loudly for most of her set. She seemed like a run-of-the-mill female singer-songwriter, flanked by only a guitarist, providing some atmosphere and rounding out the sound. She seemed alright, it’s just her sound just didn’t seem to fit with the headliners. Thankfully, she only played a short set and finally it was time for the headliners of the night.

As I mentioned, MBV are notoriously loud and they were handing out earplugs at the door, so I was bracing for the worst. MBV hit the stage with Loveless opener Only Shallow and began what can only be described was an assault on the senses. They were loud (although not as loud as I’d expected, it was comfortable when wearing earplugs, I’ve seen louder bands) and their light show had a lot of very bright lights aimed at the crowd. Added with the strobe effect, if I’d had any tendency towards epilepsy at all, I’m pretty sure they would’ve been seizure inducing. Anyways, MBV weren’t all that tight and the live versions pretty much mimicked the recordings from so long ago. I hung around for an hour until they played Soon and then came to the conclusion that I had experienced enough and left. There’s only so long you can take loud, shrill guitars, extremely muffled vocals and occasionally sloppy drumming. Maybe I’m getting old, or maybe I was saving myself for my rock show tonight (or the Watchmen show on Saturday) but I just felt like I’d heard enough. MBV weren’t bad and it was what I expected, I just couldn’t sit through their full set. I’ve now experienced them live, don’t think I’ll ever have to again.

The Watchmen are back. No, I’m not talking about the graphic novel or the film adaptation due in theatres in March (although I’m pretty excited about that as well). I’m talking about the 90’s Alt-Rock band from Winnipeg. This really isn’t big news for most people, but The Watchmen were one of those bands on my list of artists I missed seeing live before they broke up/moved onto something else/died. These days, that list consists mostly of The Ramones, Run DMC, Poor Old Lu, The Lassie Foundation, Moxy Fruvous… ok, maybe not Moxy Fruvous but until yesterday The Watchmen were on that list.

I was a little late getting into the band. It wasn’t really until Silent Radar was released that I really started listening and even then, it wasn’t until early 2001 that I spun that disc, a lot, as my college roommate, Joel can attest. I must’ve listened to that for about a month straight. Stereo was my wake song in the mornings and it was my background music as I surfed Napster for bootlegs and rarities of my favourite bands. Anyways, it wasn’t too long afterwards that Slomotion was released and it was announced that the band was breaking up. Which was really too bad because the new material on Slomotion was some of their best material, even if there was no drummer.

Anyways, I heard the Watchmen were reuniting for a couple of shows this, so I was hoping to get to see them. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear about this until after the shows had sold out. The only sign of tickets on the secondary market were people looking to swap days and a handful of people like me, looking for a way in. By the end of last week, I had pretty much given up hope of seeing them in this batch of shows when I heard they’d be playing a tailgate party for a Maple Leafs’ pre-season game. I was pretty excited about this because this meant it was a free show and I didn’t have to worry about paying someone scalping the tickets more money than I paid to see Radiohead a couple months ago. But I still had my reservations. How long would they play for since it was a free show? Would they even care about this show and just be mailing it in? What good rock show starts at 5:45 that’s not at a giant outdoor festival? Well, we’ll get to those in a couple seconds.

I showed up to the tailgate party around 5:30 and kind of wandered around. After helping myself to some free Coke Zero and wandering by the Calder, Jennings, Vezina and Conn Smythe trophies, I siddled up to the stage. I was shocked that no one else had congregated there so close to show time. With the demand for tickets for the weekend shows, why hadn’t people come out to this free event? Anyways, I enjoyed my solitary site (there was no one within a six foot radius of me) and in a couple minutes the band came out and launched into the classic Boneyard Tree. After a couple songs I was joined by Andy and Brad and we proceeded to see them rock out for the next hour. Eventually they got the crowds attention but no one would come within 20 feet of the stage, but some of that could be attributed to the volume. My ears are still ringing a little, which is surprising, given that it was an outdoor show.

Anyways, the band was super tight and looked like they were having a lot of fun. They definitely looked older and fatter but brought the rock as they belted out hits spanning their catalogue from Run and Hide and Wiser to Any Day Now and Absolutely Anytime. The old songs were energetic with bassist Ken Tizzard supplying most of the stage presence (might have to steal some of those moves for my own performance in a couple days) and the newer stuff was adapted well when played with the live drummer. After playing for a little over an hour, they ended with Stereo as Danny Greaves had to head inside the Air Canada Centre to sing the national anthems before the hockey game. They left out a couple of their slower hits but that can be excused given that the whole goal of the gig was to energize the crowd (not sure Brighter Hell or Soft Parade could’ve accomplished that).

I was hoping that this would serve as a good replacement for aforementioned shows on the weekend that I would be unable to get to, but if anything, it’s made me more disappointed that I wouldn’t be seeing them in such a small, tight venue as the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern.

After a long hiatus, I took in my first real show in a few months on Sunday. The playbill at the Molson Amphitheatre featured three great bands and a show worthy enough to snap me out of my complete apathy towards this blog (even if I posted about the Sloan show first). I had picked up tickets to this event back on April 2nd, so I was relieved to finally have June 8th show up on my calendar.

Nikki and I arrived at the Amphitheatre around six o’clock for what we had heard was a 6:30 start time. Thankfully we didn’t show up too much later. After I brief discussion with Tyrone, I returned to my seat just in time to take in the National’s set. If anyone has actually read my blog, they’ll know that I’ve seen them before and am a big fan of their live performances. The last time I saw the was at the Phoenix and then I was already remarking about how it wasn’t as intimate as the Opera House, so I was really wondering how their show would translate to a much bigger and outdoor venue with a sparse crowd. Thankfully, they did not disappoint. Although they only played for 40 minutes, they only stopped to make a comment about no one having shown up yet (only about 10% of the seats were full when they started) and brought the rock to the rest of the time. It was nice to see they brought a couple of horn players with them to expand their sound a little more. They had a setlist filled mostly of songs from Boxer, their latest, and ended with the always anthemic Mr. November. A great start to the night, even if the experience wasn’t as profound as the other occasions I’ve seen them. By the end of the set, about half the crowd was there and many people were disappointed they didn’t show up earlier after hearing them close of their set.

Up next were the shouting/yelping vocals of Modest Mouse. There were a number of hardcode Isaac Brock fans in the audience that were really into the show. Their setlist was representative of their entire catalog, barely touching on their two newest records (which was really all I know). They brought a lot of energy and got the crowd going. When they closed their set with Float On, the crowd was wound up and singing along. Although, part of that could be that it was the only song the non-Modest Mouse fans knew and could sing along to. It was neat to see Johnny Marr up on stage with them, although he didn’t have much of a stage presence. He just kind of stood there in his rockstar stance and played his part.

After a brief downpour, (really glad I didn’t trade my seats for lawn tickets. It was nice and dry under the roof) R.E.M. took the stage to thunderous applause. I was a little worried about the show because there were still tickets available from Ticketmaster a couple weeks before the show, but the venue seemed packed and ready to hear from the Athens, GA heroes of rock as they were poised to return to their harder-rocking roots. They kicked the set off with the Life’s Rich Pageant rocker These Days. I was really taken aback by the energy they displayed. When I think of R.E.M., I tend to think of the Automatic for the People-era, when they wouldn’t be confused with a high energy rock band. Anyway, they played an uptempo set spanning their entire catalog with an emphasis on newly released Accelerate. If you want to see the entire setlist, you can do it here. The band was entertaining with Michael Stipe constantly moving, breaking mic stands as he danced along with the music. Their set only slowed down for a gather-round the piano acoustic sing-a-long for Let Me In and New Adventures In Hi-Fi closer Electrolite. The crowd was energetic with most people seemingly aware and knowledgeable about every song being played, regardless of the era it came from. That said, they nearly blew the roof off when R.E.M. launched into Losing My Religion in their encore. It was also a treat to see Johnny Marr return to the stage to play Fall On Me with the band. It was neat to see him and Peter Buck playing identical black and white Gretsch guitars. The Smiths and R.E.M. together on one stage. It was every mid-80’s college rock fan’s fantasy. They closed the night off with Man On The Moon and the crowd left happy and entertained. The night was a lot of fun and I left with a different impression of R.E.M. than I began the night with. It’s almost enough to make me check out their newest album.

I got a call from Brad on Monday night asking if I wanted to see Sloan. He had won free tickets from BlogTO and was wondering if I was interested. Naturally, I was. Before heading down to the show last night, I did a quick search and determined that the show was part of the Live at the Orange Lounge series for Sympatico/MSN’s music page. After taking in Sloan’s performance for the SunTV program Beautiful Noise and their impending album release (Parallel Play was released yesterday), I was confident that it would be a short set with nearly all of the setlist coming from the new album. Anyways, I headed on undeterred. Sloan live is a lot of fun regardless of the era they draw material from.

After taking the short street car ride down Queen Street to the Tattoo Rock Parlour, we got in line with about 50 people waiting for the soundchecks to finish up so we could move inside. Upon entering the building, I was surprised to see a fairly small space with a stage at the East, bars at the North and South and bench seating along the West wall. After a few minutes of waiting, an opening band came up and proceeded to play a few songs. I think they were called “Will Curry & The Country Fresh” but I can find no record of that band existing on the world wide web. They were a bunch of high school kids, that were maybe 16, playing some piano-driven, 70’s-inspired pop. The guitarist looked like a younger version of Kenneth the Page from 30 Rock. Anyways, they were pretty good for a high school band and were off the stage quickly, only running through four songs before giving way to the headliners.

After a brief break, Sloan were introduced. By this time the place was packed, although there were probably only around 150 people there. They ripped through three songs off their new album (I’m guessing all that they got paid for) and left. After a few minutes of vocal encouragement, they came back to play Coax Me, The Good In Everyone, The Lines You Amend and two more songs off Parallel Play. They were the typical, slightly unorganized Sloan that we’ve come to love. When they played they were tight, but between songs they seemed unsure of what to play next. Chris Murphy looked like he loved the attention and Jay Ferguson looked like he couldn’t get off the stage fast enough. The crowd was very receptive to the new songs but didn’t really come alive until the first few notes of Coax Me where everyone started singing along to one of the band’s most quotable songs. “I drink concentrated OJ”, “It’s not the band I hate, it’s their fans”, etc.

It was a short night but still a lot of fun for the price. Oh yeah, the highlight of the night may have been when Brad realized they were selling pints of beer for $3. Not even the Done-Right Inn sells them for that cheap.