Author: admin

Categories
Concert Reviews

Review: Hurst and Theory of a Deadman at Capital Music Hall



I would like to point out how much of a difference a handlebar moustache makes to a man.

I thought Tyler Connolly was a freakin’ old man when they hit the scene years ago…now he looks like a kid without his el moustachio.

Night started with Mike over at Vero’s having a few beer while we debated what the heck my references are supposed to look like in my essay. Stupid references.

Went over to the Capital Music Hall where Hurst hasn’t started up yet. Too bad they were sold out of Theory autographed pics…I would have snatched that up quickly.

Had a few beer during Hurst’s set…Trevor Hurst is the frontman of this band and was the singer from Econoline Crush from years back. The set was intermixed with their own tunes as well as catering to the Crush fans. Excellent! Very impressed with them. Picked up their EP for $5 and got it autographed by the band at the end of the night.

After their set, I realized that the beer must be interacting with the Advil Cold & Sinus that I was taking since I felt like I was in some dream state while chatting with Mike.

Highlights of the night with Theory:

  • Only a billion picks were sacrificed at this concert
  • Excellent setlist
  • Band has come very far as a touring machine ever since we saw them at Barrymore’s awhile ago. It was a pre-Gasoline release so we got to catch the new rocking tunes the first time out. Here’s where I go on a rant about how the true fans show up at the beginnings of the band touring…but as soon as they release a few hit singles (read: Santa Monica), the crowd increases twofold with the fans of the radio singles. Is this a bad thing? Heck, the band has to get their fans from somewhere. But I find it awkward to see a band at this stage since the crowd doesn’t seem to know how to interact at a rock show. “Am I supposed to give the devil sign now? What about jumping up and down? Am I bothering the person next to me? Oh no…I look like a goof when I do that. I’ll just stand still.” Let me the bearer of good news…go nuts at a rock show if you feel like it. If you don’t, then don’t. There’s nothing wrong with that either. But don’t hold back. The band wants to see some spirit in you. They want to know their music as a whole makes you move and not just their one hit single.
  • Waiting near the stage at the end of the night and nabbing the setlist. Saweet!

All in all, I love this band, I think Gasoline is my favourite album of 2005. It may show up on my top 10 list this year at the top.

Categories
Uncategorized

Old Saves the New

If you were around me last weekend, you’ll know that my cell phone was on the fritz. Looks like the battery kept losing it’s connection. I brought this up to Mike and he said that if I fold a piece of paper and put it inside, it should push the battery against the connectors to maintain a connection.

Voila. Problem solved.

I find it ironic that the newest form of communication was saved by the oldest form of communication (other than vocal of course. Oh yeah, and those cave drawings.) Granted, I’m not using the paper to write down any information, but at least it came in handy for other things!

Categories
Rant

Mike’s Rant – No White Males Policy

Another special guest ranter…apparently I have quite a few friends who like to rant.

Read this article first on the new policy in place at PWGSC for hiring white, able-bodied males:

Here

Then continue on with Mike’s rant here:

You know,

That is total bullshit, by attempting to stop discrimination they are only discriminating even more than before. Getting a job based solely on your ethnic background or your sex does nothing but hurt the employer. Jobs should be awarded solely on the basis of your experience and your qualifications. If I have a problem I want the best person for the job no matter of who they are or where they come from.

And there is my rant.

Such is a fact of life, I guess that I will have to get used to the idea of being discriminated against for no apparent reason. Why discrimination ever came to be I have no idea, we are all human beings who originated from the same lineage.

Mike

Categories
Uncategorized

The Morning Show – Episode #1


At long last…the moment you have all been waiting for…I present you:

The Morning Show

A webcam based show from my office along with my colleague in crime Phil, in the year 2001.

The collection follows Bob and Jethro through the trials and tribulations of hosting a morning show, and how you can only go so far with moose jokes.

Episode #1 – Download Here
Original Airdate: November 9, 2001
(tech notes: 8.09 MB, AVI File)

Categories
Uncategorized

Artists and Pushing their Views

If you take a look in the comments section of Trish’s Rant, you’ll notice the topic of artists pushing their political views on people.

Granted, Bono pushes a lot, hence, you see a lot of him in the media.

But let me ask if there are any artists out there that haven’t pushed their views on their audience at sometime or another? I suppose there are quite a few.

Wasn’t the good old days of Rock n Roll about rebelling? Alright, maybe not every band rebelled against something, but I’m sure a lot of them did!

What about John Lennon? Speaking of which…25 years…coming up soon.

I enjoy a good political rant at a concert. I enjoy hearing about their views against the current political climate in the States, or the myriad horrible issues affecting Africa right now. I like how it informs people. I was very oblivious to current events until musicians took it upon themselves to inform me.

But back to my main point…I like it when rock n roll is rebellious. They want us to rock out. They want us to rock the vote. They want us to change something. I like when they speak between songs…you get to hear what they are thinking. It’s cool. It’s more than just the music. That’s what I like about a concert. You get more. You hear new variations on songs. You get to feel the energy in the crowd. You get to hear the band’s thoughts on stuff and see how it translates into their music writing.

You can keep the discussion alive in Trish’s Rant section…I don’t want to squash it.

Categories
Rant

Trish’s Rant

Since Ryan has been gracious enough to let me be a guest ranter on his blog, here are a few things that I need to vent about today. For the past few days I have had that fabulous Band-Aid song “Do They Know Its Christmas” stuck in my head. This stems from the compilation of my Fromage de Noel album, which will be on sale shortly.

In this song, we distinctly hear our very own Bono, champion of poverty prevention, sing “Well tonight thank God it’s them instead of you” in reference to the poor starving children of Africa. Thank God the children are starving in Africa? Doesn’t sound very charitable to me. For a guy who is so quick to tell us all his political views and insists during his concerts that we call our political leaders and share our views on poverty, he might have put a little more thought into that line. (editor’s note: I think Trish is on crack.)

Another line that gets me: “And there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmastime.” Is this as opposed to every other year when they do get snow? Do you really think snow is their biggest concern? I mean really, it is fabulous that all sorts of famous singers got together to save the children of Africa through song, but I think they could have put a little more effort into the lyrics. (editor’s note: Who says there isn’t snow in Africa? I think Trish should do some research on this one.)

The Simpsons also agree with me. Please refer to the episode “Radio Bart” where Bart uses a microphone and pretends to be an orphan boy named Timmy O’Toole, who has fallen down a well. Celebrities from Springfield and Sting put together their own Band-Aid.
Sideshow Mel: Though we can’t get him out, we’ll do the next best thing…
McBane: We go on TV and sing, sing, sing! (well, if it was in the Simpsons, I can’t deny Trish’s comments above.)

In other ranting news…ever since I have had a car again, I have been noticing that there are a lot of stupid people out there. For instance:

  1. The guy who ran the red light where Wellington and Bronson cross and nearly smashed into me. Dangerous corner anyway because of that large cement wall that blocks your view of traffic.
  2. The moron who parked his car about 1 foot from the lights at the corner of Parkdale and Somerset (or whatever Somerset turns into) so that when you make a right turn you nearly smash into his car.
  3. People who do not change their driving techniques when the roads are covered in a sheet of ice. And last but not least
  4. People who spend their money on recording equipment instead of on winter tires and endangers themselves and the rest of us innocent people! (sorry, couldn’t resist adding that one…) (editor’s note: HEY! I brought the car out and the tires are fine. I even took it for a few skid runs and she’s a beaut.)

Ok. Done for now, but don’t worry. I am just getting warmed up. I’ll be back (it’s up to you to imagine the Terminator voice here).

Categories
Reviews

Review: Prison Break (and other shows I watch)

I’m going to send some props out to Mike for introducing me to my new fave show: Prison Break.

Before I forget, Benoit resurrected his blog. Check it out here.

Back to my props. Mike told me about Prison Break around Thanksgiving…since I was a little low on good shows to watch, I decided to download it.

Holy crap this series is great. I love television these days…all serialized format where it’s like you’re watching a mega-movie. (sidenote here about how Quentin Tarantino directed the season finale of CSI last year just to see how TV production is. Now he loves it and thinks he can do a lot more with story in a series than in a 2 hour flick. Awesome.)

Anyhow, the show revolves around one guy in jail on death row and his brother getting himself thrown into jail so he can break him out. Oh yes, and supposedly the brother on death row didn’t do it, so there’s that side story of lawyers/friends trying to prove he is innocent.

Why do I love this show? Excellent storytelling for one. I am engaged the whole way through. I thoroughly enjoy the cast and the character development. Working inside a prison, you can create a character you need out of thin air since there are thousands of people there. It’s not like they are on some mystical island in the land of nowhere…actually this brings me to Lost (my other fave show right now) and how they smartly said that there are more people who crashed on the island than they actually show. So if they ever need a new character (read: someone to blow up, like the ensigns on Star Trek) they just pull them from this random pot of survivors.

Anyhow, I haven’t finished watching the season yet…about half way through (I download them off the Internet since I don’t have TV cable) but I may try and have a marathon run this coming weekend to finish the season off.

—–
Should I start talking about how Alias is biting the royal big one lately and how I’m not depressed that the show is getting cancelled? For the past two seasons, I have found the show to start out slow and uninteresting…but then they ramp it up near the end to make it all worthwhile. I’m hoping they will do that for the series ending.

Should I start talking about how I love the fact that I can download TV shows and watch them whenever I want instead of being pulled from my every day doings to go sit and watch a TV show? I just wrote an essay on this subject which I should put up here which analyzes how broacasting companies like the CBC should offer up their shows on the Net as free downloads and keep an archive forever. I like the ‘on-demand’ society better than the ‘must be in front of the TV at 8:00. No worries I can set my VCR…NOOOO! I forgot to set my VCR!!!’

Granted, it takes awhile to download a show…overnight usually. But hey…if I’m not in a rush to see them anyhow, I’m saving some sweet cash from not paying for TV cable. Granted, this may change when Mike moves in with me in January. Heck, I don’t mind paying for TV cable. Scratch that…I do mind. We’ll see what we can do to get around that. In no way am I talking about illegal means that I was using at my previous home. 😉

Categories
Uncategorized

The Internet Does Not Want Eric Here

Turns out that the Internet would rather that Eric stays away.

All Your Base Are Belong To Us

Categories
Concert Reviews

Review: The Arcade Fire (oh…and U2 also)

We believe that we can see Benoit, Claude and I at this concert in this photo. We could not locate Joelle though who is standing right next to me.

What can I say? Their first set of 90 minutes flew by. It felt like 15 minutes. That is what the U2 experience is all about…it allows your entire being just get into the music.

Setlist:
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
I Will Follow
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / In A Little While (snippet)
Beautiful Day
Original Of The Species
Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
Love And Peace Or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah (snippet)
Bullet The Blue Sky / The Hands That Built America (snippet) / When Johnny Comes Marching Home (snippet)
Miss Sarajevo
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Where The Streets Have No Name
One

Encore(s):
Until The End Of The World
Mysterious Ways
With Or Without You
Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of
Yahweh
40

Highlights of U2:

  • Foil wrappers being released as soon as City of Blinding Lights begins
  • Realizing that my fears of Bono having a weak voice (after watching the Vertigo DVD) being squashed as soon as I hear Sometimes You Can’t Make it On Your Own. Magical.
  • Literally being 12 feet away from Bono during Love and Peace while he bangs the drum. While I’m at it, it’s great to be 12 feet away from any of the band when they come to our end of the catwalk. Read that again. 12 feet away. We were SO CLOSE.
  • Seeing a little boy scream “No More!” during Sunday Bloody Sunday and realizing it’s the boy I met in the washroom. His dad was saying how they’ve been following U2 for the past few weeks.
  • Bullet the Blue Sky – what can I say. Beautiful.
  • Pride (in the name of love) – looking a few feet behind me to see Claude have the greatest grin on his face seeing his favourite U2 tune being played
  • Joelle and her concert shoes
  • Hearing With or Without You – didn’t expect that
  • Spending an hour in traffic, getting to the Corel Centre, missing the pre-party with free drinks, going to the scalper, talking him down from $400 a ticket for Floor to $125 (with our tix to trade in), going in, finding the wrong entrance, continuing on, the anticipation of (almost) getting picked to go inside the ellipse, suprisingly meeting up with Claude and Benoit on the floor, the lights, the sound, the magic…

Everything was beautiful.

Quick review of the Arcade Fire: I love these guys. Mega-band on tour. They switch instrumental positions. That’s so wild. Drummers playing guitar. Fiddlers going on the drums. Back and forth and round again with people banging the ski helmets with their drum sticks. Excellent opener.

Links of interest:
http://www.u2-vertigo-tour.com/
Benoit’s Review

Categories
Uncategorized

Bread For Sale

Your very own Ryan is making bread this coming Thursday. 50 loaves of bread for fundraising activities for work (needy families, etc.).

We have 10 loaves left for order if you would like to have one. They are $5 each.

Let me know!

iplaying: Somewhat of a Complication – Steve Cuch