11 posts tagged “concert review”

Pretty sure I became an honourary lesbian last night.

Yup, I went to see The Gossip’s Toronto gig at the Opera House.

Surrounded by a crowd of music industry types, hawt plaid lesbians you would at first glance think were hawt hipster boys, actual hawt hipster boys and hot girls who could easily swing both ways with overprotective boyfriends who were also there to make sure THAT didn’t happen, I watched every.single.person. swoon in awe when singer Beth Ditto came out, looking like a hot and sassy red-haired Medusa, opening up the show with Dimestore Diamond.

From that moment on, it was near impossible not to be completely captivated with Beth’s larger-than-life stage presence and energy; that pipes on that girl! With a falsetto that could rival that of Mariah’s! and those utterly charming, ridiculously cute dance moves! I swooned along with my 700 other friends, just fascinated. When she wasn’t giving us all a show worth every penny, she was gushing about the city of Toronto, even at one point quipping up and comparing the crowd’s enthusiasm to that of the crowd she was in when Obama won. Hee hee. So cute!

And Tina Turner better watch it, because The Gossip’s cover of What’s Love Got To Do With It, was one of the best covers I have ever heard a band do! And trust, I’ve seen a lot in my time. As if the whole show wasn’t memorable enough, I couldn’t help but fall.in.love when during the band’s performance of Four Letter Word, all you could see was a sea of people mimicking Beth’s dosey doish dance moves exactly in unison. Effin’ adorable! Finishing off the set with Heavy Crosses, The Gossip (with Bruce Paine on guitar and Hannah Billie on durms) knew exactly what the crowd wanted and delivered an encore out of this world with the aforementioned Tina Turner cover.

And before the show was actually, fully and completely over, Beth, a gay rights advocate made a little spiel about reclaiming queer art and lead the crowd in a sing along of Queen’s ‘We Are the Champions’. Again. So cute! Le sigh.

Needless to say, Beth Ditto, has just joined the ranks of Emily Haines and Scarlett Johansson on my totally girl-crushing worthy list.

xo xo

Ang

Santigold, Amanda Blank, and Trouble Andrew, at Phoenix Concert Theatre (Toronto) on June 3, 2009

Toronto hipsters, scenesters, and all-around music aficionados turned out in droves to see Santigold (real name: Santi White) last night at the Phoenix Concert Theatre.

I showed up at the tail end of Trouble Andrew’s set. This self-professed crunk rocker is enthusiastic, super entertaining, and just a little geeky (but in a good way). Also, he’s Santigold’s fiancé, did you know? My concert buddies and I couldn’t take our eyes off a random guy in a mask who stood on the far right of the stage. We kept wondering what his purpose was. Suddenly he started tossing fake money into the air and we were like “ahhh…I see.” Well, not really.

After Trouble Andrew, Philadelphia MC Amanda Blank (real name: Amanda Mallory) – mostly known for her collaborations with Spank Rock - took the stage. My first impression of her was that she was some rich kid from the ‘burbs who used to get drunk at high school parties and sing along to rap records and then parlayed that into a career. She got off to a shaky start (fumbling lyrics and subsequently thanking her DJs for ‘saving her ass’) but hit her groove by the third song in her set. Also, she wasn’t wearing any pants (much to the delight of the males in attendance). Signed to Downtown Records, Amanda’s infectious blend of rap-meets-pop kept me interested [particularly her opening song ‘Might Like You Better (If We Slept Together)]. That said, she lacked stage presence and seemed, at times, to be more interested in tossing her hair around and looking sexy than what she was about the singing.

And now to the main event: Santigold. She’s constantly compared to M.I.A but frankly I like Santigold better, mostly because her voice is amazing and I would pay to listen to her sing the phone book. Sadly, the volume at the show was set a bit high and it was hard to fully appreciate the range of her voice. Hailing from Philadelphia but currently residing in Brooklyn, NY, Santigold (formerly known as Santogold – she changed her name after an infomercial jeweller with the same name threatened to sue) has been collaborating with Lily Allen and GZA for years. Her hugely popular blend of indie rock, reggae and ska/pop landed her with gigs opening for Coldplay and Kanye West. My fave part of her bio? She started as a A&R representative for Sony and Epic Records, then morphed into a songwriter and producer, then started singing. Lovesit.

From the second her two backup dancers took the stage, I was hooked. Clad in gold lamé American Apparel-style jackets, MC-hammer pants and sunglasses, these girls (my concert buddy compared them to Gwen Stefani’s Harajuku Girls) were a highlight of the show. Their combo of hip-hop moves, sexy shimmies and occasional militant-like posing had my eyes glued to them in anticipation of what they would do next.

Santigold’s set included "L.E.S. Artistes," "You'll Find a Way," "Light's Out," “I’m a Lady” (blended into a cover of LL Cool J’s ‘I Need Love’), “Say Aha,” and “Creator,” (during which she invited 5 people from the crowd onstage to dance – a mixed bag of one good dancer, three mediocre dancers and one atrocious blonde chick clad in her finest ensemble from STITCHES who proceeded to do the start-and-stop method of dancing akin to Elaine’s dancing on Seinfeld).

Not to be outdone by her stage support, Santigold wore an eye-catching ensemble consisting of a one-piece printed jumpsuit over white pants and a long-sleeved white shirt with feathered hair and huge gold earrings. Not my cup of tea, style-wise, but she pulls it off.

All in all, the set was short, tight, and energetic. Santigold has a knack for giving the crowd exactly what they want and keep them begging for more.

XOXO

Blair

I’m underwhelmed to be at the awards this year but I’ve packed a mickey of vodka in my purse to add to my free water that’s given out in the media/artist green room and before any work can begin I excuse myself to the washroom and make myself a stiff drink, I mean, a special water… ok. I’m ready to rock *unenthusiastic* yay!

There’s so much unwashed hair and Chuck Taylor’s I don’t feel underdressed in my dirty Vans and my own unwashed hair.

It’s still early and the media and artists are trickling in. Un-surprising no-shows were the guys in Buckcherry and Papa Roach who were supposed to present the first award. Surprising guests include a guy from Hedley – the one who always wears a hat to hide the fact that he’s balding, the chick who’s referred to as Lights, and Kelly’s ‘nice guy” from last summer – the one who called, who made plans and then disappeared without a word. He came strolling in hand in hand with his new girlfriend and sauntered right past Kelly!!

His new girlfriend is wearing a lovely dress. No really, it’s very cute if it were the August Long weekend at the cottage!

 ‘Nice guy” sees Kelly, unhands his girlfriend and walks over to say Hi and play nice. I’m standing on the outskits of the convo but it appears to go well. Only Kel can say for sure.

Here’s a list of ways it could have gone better:

1. Kelly could have had a Publicity pass on instead of a “Saturday Volunteer” Pass
2. She could have been on fire. I’m kidding, but she could have been talking to some super hawt indie boy. Instead she was talking to some strung out dude from Cali who wore his sunglasses indoors, all night

So unfortunately instead of snubbing Nice Guy he was a welcomed distraction from the other dude.

Here’s a list of things that went well for the ‘hi’:

1. Kelly looked cute (and weather appropriate) in her skirt/shorts and leggings paired with a very collegiate looking cardi.
2. it was obvious that Kelly was the ‘hot one’ in their relationship… Nice Guy just looked short, a tad gingery and definitely not the cute one of the band. Where as Kel is sporting a hot new haircut, and she’s def the hawt one of our band! ;)

I’m sipping demurely on my special water and just taking in all the sights and sounds (they were not in attendance). Hey Rosetta! take over the one corner with all their gear and band members and warm up for their opening set. I was quite impressed by them, not just the fact that all 47 members could fit on that stage, but also their music! The only band that rivals them for number of band members is Down with Webster. If you’d been at the awards and didn’t know what they looked like… they were the swarm of young looking whiteys from suburbia dressed as thugs…. One even donned a backpack that was shaped like a stuffed kaola bear.

The green room is filled with dirty boys with no money. Good thing there was free food. Some of these kids could use a deep fried butter sandwich, STAT. I just wanted to force feed them all!!

Anvil were among the first bands to arrive, and they still look like 1984 personified. Their publicist wins the Biggest Transformation Award from us TBSers. She’s lost about 80 lbs! If only she knew that she’s too old for pink hair….

Lights won some stupid award for something stupid and doesn’t thank her BAND! You know, the boys that make it possible for her to tour and make a living!!!

Best Set of the Evening

Jon LaJoie - www.myspace.com/jonlajoiecomedy

So funny!! He’s like Dane Cook with a guitar.

Best Dressed

Bif Naked

She was diagnosed with cancer not too long ago and she appears to be doing quite well now and looked stunning in her new short hair.

Best Look Alike

The kid with the hair from the Arkells, on stage he has a striking resemblance to our former/allusive friend A.W.

This is about all I can remember from the night…. The special water knocked me on my butt, and I needed a beer to sober up at the Library Bar in the lobby of the Royal York. Turned out that wasn’t as easy to do as you’d expect. We actually had to wait in a LINE to get into a bar called the LIBRARY Bar on a SATURDAY night. Could we be more lame?

But it was certainly worth the wait! We got fake fangs from one of the performers!!!

After that I was dunzo. I went to the Timmy’s got a bucket of tea and some cookies and went home to watch this week’s epi of Dollhouse.

yours sincerely,

the advocate for mid-day work naps

M

Just kidding. This post has nothing to do with Tokyo. It's just that a few of us TBS gals went to Japan back in June, and we're pretty impressed with ourselves, so we like to bring it up as much as possible. That said, this is really a review of the Matt Mays & El Torpedo show at the Phoenix in Toronto on November 6th. It's taken me this long to write about it because I'm pretty sure I JUST STOPPED BEING DRUNK from that night. Side note: pardon any snarkiness which may come across during this post. I spent the last 2 hours on a bus and I smell like people.

So yeah, Matt Mays & El Torpedo. Great show. Amazing. Insert numerous other superlatives here. Place was packed, which makes me happy. But I gotta admit, from a purely selfish place in my cold, cold, heart I sometimes miss back in the day when us ladies used to go see Matt and the boys at the Horseshoe Tavern and it was just us and their family. And we were there for their early NxNE gigs when they were supporting their first album as a group, so it's been amazing to see more and more people coming out to shows. The unselfish part of me grudgingly agrees that there's definitely something amazing about seeing the band perform to a huge, enthusiastic crowd. It was a moment. Well, it was actually 2 hours.

The opening band was The Arkells. They were fantastic. Maybe you caught their performance on MTV Canada? If not, check it out here. Matt and the boys opened with 'Building a Boat,' the first track off their latest album Terminal Romance. They played a great mix of songs off the new album, and older songs including City of Lakes which Matt dedicated to his peeps back in Halifax. Wearing an all-white leisure suit reminiscent of a sexier Colonel Sanders, Matt was flanked by bassist Andy Patil on his left, guitarist Jay Smith to his right, Tim "Jim" Baker on drums, and Adam Baldwin on keyboards. About halfway through the set Matt quipped that he was mugged earlier in the day at the corner of Carlton and Ontario near the venue. Totally possible - that's right smack in the middle of hookerville. "Anyhoo I'm alive," he said. Phew!

Everywhere we turned, there were people we recognized as either musicians themselves, or in the Toronto music business. How awesome is that? Generally a tough and cynical crowd, they were putty in Matt's hands. They were...ahem...torpedoed.

I caught up with fellow TBS bloggers Angela and Kelly about 3/4 of the way through the set. That's when things got...fuzzy. I like to think that Angela poured the beers down my throat. We swooned and held hands as the band played some of our faves ('Cocaine Cowgirl' and 'On the Hood'), and I'm going to venture to say that based on our (yes, our) performance, we may receive backup vocal credits on future albums. We were that loud. Kelly and I were also loud when we realized we were wearing the same outfit, but that's neither here nor there. The boys closed out with the title track off Terminal Romance which, seriously, made me cry. I heart that song. It's definitely my favourite off the new album. "Heartbreaks are uncurable, and I'm up all night. Stone faced in New York City, trying to set things right..." sigh.

Later after the set (*cough* backstage *cough*), two of us enjoyed free ciggies being passed around, one of us enjoyed the free clementines, and all of us enjoyed the free booze. Hee. That's when things got fuzzier. But I do recall at one point we may have been roadies? Pretty sure I witnessed Kelly lift a box. Sure, she immediately put it down, but it's the bicep curl that counts, right? Then there were cabs and the lot of us ended up at a bar and there was a cute (and very patient) bartender and really gross bathrooms, and I peed in the men's room...and then it was 5 in the morning and I finally got to bed and work time came too quick and I walked into my office and dry heaved into my outbox. So yeah, it was a pretty good night. 

These Nova Scotia-based boys are one of my favourite bands...dare I say of all time. I dare. I can listen to their music over and over and never get bored. And live? Even better. My apologies as I venture into superfan territory here...but for realsies, watching them perform I sometimes realize I've forgotten to breathe. Chills. You really can't take your eyes off them. Their stage presence is unrivalled. These boys have got charisma! I do hope you check them out. I'll say this: I go to lots and lots (and lots) of shows and without a doubt they are the best live performers I've ever had the pleasure of seeing. True story. 

XOXO

Blair

Warning: Major Gush-age ahead. Stop reading now if you don't want any cavities...aka the sweet sweet amazingness that was this show! get it? hee.

k, so last week was a civic holiday and other than daydreaming about Jordan Catalano, I was wondering what the heck i could possibly do to get out of this city for a while, when, as if on cue, I was given a very coveted guest list spot to the intimate 150-person capacity Schubas Tavern in Chicago, Ilinois for to see Okkervil River's Lollapalooza After-Show.

Now I have to admit, I had pretty little knowledge of the band but I can never pass up a trip to Chicago and getting to see a band who just recently played to a sell out crowd of over 600 people at Lee's Palace in Toronto in front of 150 peeps sounded like my type of gig!

So off it was to the Windy City to check out this lil' band that could; Okkervil River. Little did I know of the amazingess that was to follow and the confusion of how I have been living under such a rock that I wasn't as familiar as I should be with this brilliant band.

With a friend, I arrived at Schubas in awe of the cuteness that was and even more so of paying $6 for two bottles of beer. We thought it was a mistake until we found a bar that served TWO DOLLAR pints. Reason #576 to love the city.

The show started around 10:30 and opening for Okkervil River was Octopus Project. Now, I scoped out their stuff on MySpace prior to the arrival and admittedly listented to one song, not quite in the mood for instrumental. BIG MISTAKE. Soooooooo entertaining and simply wonderful! The way to use to stage to move around and play; it's blissful. And so much energy! You know that band that just makes you heart? What a way to set the tone for the rest of the night. So much fun to watch. and so, so, so talented. There was even a theremin player! Now how cool is that? Sadly, I missed their last Toronto show. I won't be making that mistake. ever again. Fingers crossed, there may be a show October-ish. Also, crush alert: their drummer/guitarist/bass player (yep, they switch off their instruments amongts each other, another major bonus in the talent department); i'm sorry I had to.

check out their website:  http://www.theoctopusproject.com/ for songs and tourdates

Next up: Okkervil River

At this point, I would have been happy if they didn't live up to my hype. I mean, Octopus Project was so, so, so, so good times infinity that I was ready and willing to see mediocre.
Holy, was I not prepared for what came next! 
Lead singer Will Sheff came out and noted that he wasn't uber excited playing after lolla BUT after doing sound-check and hearing everything, he just knew this would be THE show.
And so it began.
Hoolyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, it began!
They opened with The War Criminal Rises and Speaks, a song I wasn't familiar with. And usually, it takes me a while to warm up to new material. I like hearing songs beforehand so I can familiarize myself and enjoy that much more. With this band, it was instant. I fell in love.
And with every other song I didn't know.
And with all the ones I've already heard.
From 'Black' to 'Unless It Kicks' to 'A Girl in Port' and every single other song in between, the show, which was more than an hour and a half, was ridiculously impressive. I actually forgot the last time I saw something in this calibre.
The crowd, also helped with the experience. They danced and sang along and seemed to genuinely appreciate being there. Imagine that. Toronto: please take note.
I can't even justify Okkervil River with a bunch of silly words. It's best to go out, buy their records, and see them live. They play Toronto October 12 at the Phoenix. I am currently scheduling my vacation not to miss this. You shouldn't either.

http://www.okkervilriver.com/

Molson Amphitheatre - August 7, 2008

Oh my gosh, it’s the late 90’s again and I’m in my teens, totally crushing on AJ from the Backstreet Boys, right? Either that or it’s last night and I just went to my first Backstreet Boys gig ever!!!

Seriously folks, the show was amazing. They opened with the appropriate “Larger Than Life” and it was non-stop from that moment on. They sang all of their big hits and each of the remaining members (who even noticed Kevin isn’t in the band anymore, what did he ever contribute?) sang their own solo songs. AJ’s was obvs my fav.

For a solid two hours the boys, ahem, men danced and sang their hearts out. Granted, their dance moves weren’t quite as *NSync (ha) as they used to be, but it’s to be expected. They’re in the 30’s now, with the exception of Nick Carter, who’s only a year older than me. Which if you’re doing the math you realize that makes me 27 this year.

Now, even though I’m 27, I was age appropriate when the Backstreet Boys came onto the scene 13 years ago. But oddly I was one of the oldest people at the show. The large majority of people there were about 13-17 years old. How/when did they become fans???  They were babies when “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)” was released!! That said. I totally got ID’d last night!!! And the poor kid that ID’d us was a tad embarrassed when he saw our ages.

While I didn’t get to meet the love of my high school life, AJ last night, I was in the presence of a superstar in the making…. Bret Ryan. Huh? Who? Exactly. Apparently he’s a family channel rockstar prodigy type kid. He seems like a bit of an attention whore to me and he could use a lesson on updating his hair style to the new millennium. His friend/bodyguard/whoever did his best to blend in with the crowd of screaming girls by wearing a screaming NEON LIME GREEN shirt. Very blendy. He was a bit of a dick anyway.

In short. BEST.TIME.EVS. For two amazing hours I danced (yes, true story) and sang (off-key) like it was 1998 again.

Gawd to be young again.

xo

M

Ah, summer. Warm weather, ice cream, not having to wear underwear. It's my favourite time of year! And what makes it even better is free concerts at Harbourfront. Ladytron performed last night at 9:30 on the Sirius Stage as part of the Beats, Breaks and Culture series. Ladytron are a boy/girl electro quartet based out of Liverpool. The band's been around for about 10 years, and consists of Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo sharing vocal duties and playing the keyboard, Daniel Hunt on guitar and Reuben Wu doing programming and keyboards. The band mostly played songs off their new album Velocifero, the follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2005 album Witching Hour. They're a terrific live act and pretty cute too! As with any free concert, you had to get there early. Otherwise you were angling for a good view from waaaaaay back and shoving your way through the throngs of teens crowding the aisles. And what’s a free outdoor concert without the stench of pot filling the air? Ugh. Some of the standout songs during the performance were Playgirl, Runaway and Black Cat. Even the casual fan couldn’t help but get sucked in by the catchy dance-worthy beats that Ladytron had to offer. In a recent interview in EWeekly, Daniel Hunt commented that the band was eager to take the songs of Velocifero on the road - and that was obvious at last night's performance. Energetic and engaging, Ladytron delivered like they were playing for paying concert-goers at a 10,000 + seat auditorium. Me likey.

XOXO

Blair

NxNE Showcase Silver Dollar June 12, 2008

So another band that we famously miss is Diemonds. I also try to avoid the Silver Dollar for reasons I’ll keep to myself.  But after a mickey of purse booze, it seemed like a good idea, plus we were accompanied by the entourage we’d picked up over the course of the night.

Diemonds are proudly Toronto’s only sleaze band, with the hair to prove it. They are everything you’d expect from a band with that claim to ‘fame’. They also appear to spend as much time practicing as they do shopping. They’ve put together quite the wardrobe, it’s very 1984, the year not the book.  Interesting choice considering most of the members were hardly stable on their feet in 1984, and not from drugs…. I mean because they were toddlers!

Kidding aside, they don’t suck. But I’d rather listen to them on my iPod, than watch them live.

As always, to each their own, keep your hate mail to yourself! They are exactly what they claim to be, kudos for keeping it real, yo. Word.

Muah

M

NxNE Showcase - Bovine June 12, 2008

The TBS girls have never once made it to a HYFY gig, not once. We have good intentions every time… but some how we manage to miss it, even if it's at 4 am!

But against all odds three outta four ladies made it out to the last standing bar in the holy trinity, the Bovine for 11 PM on a Thursday! Ok, we were like 15 mins late. Deal with it.

I have to say, it was worth.the.wait!! The bar was rammed, but not so rammed that you couldn’t maneuver your way to the bar and the beautiful bartenders!

The band was energetic and commanding and the crowd knew the words – we might have too if we ever made it out to a gig before now! Sometimes the bands at the Bovine acts like a musak track at the bar being performed live. I find in that space it's often hard to keep your attention on what’s going on, on stage. Not the case that evening.

I think we’re definitely gonna keep our pretty baby blues open for their next gig, and make it on time!!

muah.

M