Category: Concert Reviews

I found out yesterday that I spent 4 hours on Friday night in torrential downpours. If you don’t know how that feels, think of how you would feel when your skin becomes a prune after 4 hours. Why the heck did we brave the elements?The Trews! Check out review here. Or you can just keep reading about our escapades.

What may I say about the Trews? Out of Antigonish, NS, based in Niagara Falls, ON, these guys know how to rock. Like ‘whoa, did they just do that?!’ rock. The setlist was a haze from my concentration swaying from keeping rain out of my body, but it was a killer show with the guitar solos, the numerous encores and the smoke show which just looked like an amplifier blew up.

Mike, Vero, Joe and I showed up at the Tulip Festival after it had rained all day thinking that we would get a reprieve. As soon as the Novaks went on it started to pour. But it was more of a ‘hey I’m going to rain on you but come at you from all directions so you don’t know what’s going on’. After the Novaks, Vero realized that she needed new clothes as she didn’t think it would rain so her and I went back to get some new clothes on her as well as some garbage bags for everyone.

When we returned, 1,500 more people had filtered in so it was a pain to find Joe and Mike (let’s be honest, the only pain was the fact that I had two beers in my hand and there were umbrellas in the crowd). Once we found them where we left them (right up front) we settled in for the long haul.

Highlights:

• Someone proclaiming that as soon as they would take a sip of their beer, it would magically fill itself up again
• Joe screaming at the very annoying girl from Antigonish who was dancing and screaming in our ears. I loved how she proclaimed to me “You’re not rocking enough! You Ottawa guys suck!” in which, in the Palmer sarcasm you all love, said to Vero “Vero, do you hear this? I didn’t realize that standing here in a torrential downpour to see a band we love counts as sucking as an audience. I suppose we should just leave.” And I did. To get some beer. But the look on her face was priceless. I think she realized she was speaking out of her ass at that moment. Note to all rockers out there: Everyone rocks in their own way. Especially in a freaking rainstorm.
• Someone’s ten foot wide umbrella in which Mike said he saw some dude just shake all the time because it was in the way. Classic. Note to all umbrella toting rockers out there: Get out of the crowd. You don’t deserve to rock up front with us, regardless of how I just said four lines above that everyone rocks in their own way. You’re just making the night awful for the guys in behind you. #1 rule in rocking: Don’t interfere with another’s concert going experience. Except for you seven foot tall boys, there’s no way around that. Do your best to put the Oompa-Loompas in front of you, but don’t feel too bad. The Lord of Rock gave you a gift.

So, once the night ended and we got our second wind, we went over to the faithful Heart and Crown to meet up with Philipp, Carrie, Brian and Sebastien. It was an amazing night and at that moment, drenched to the bone, we didn’t really care what we looked like (as apparent by the pictures taken that night) and we all felt like crap. Let’s just say I felt like I had dived into a lake for an hour with my clothes. My sneakers are still wet three days later.

The band Pogey was pretty good in all their acoustic glory. Highligtts of that adventure were:

• Asking Sebastien how he enjoyed his first trip to Montreal in which he replied “I will tell you all about it, but first I must rock to this song.” I love this guy already.
• My shirt drying out and then having a beer spilled on me. Great.

That did it for us for the rest of the weekend. Water-logged and miserable, we drove home and slept until noon. Then I meandered around on Saturday when I was supposed to get some hardcore essay work done. I ended up making a plan and whipped 1250 words up on Sunday which I am now happy with as it was bugging the hell out of me.

However, I have a story to tell about a trip to HMV, but first, I must write a letter.

iplaying: Parachutes – Pearl Jam (‘Avocado’ Album)

How do I start this review of the Sam Roberts Band from Friday night?Well, perhaps I can steal a little title from the band’s posting about the show: 5 Alarm Show.

We showed up to the Capital Music Hall in time to check out the merchandise and grab a few beers. We positioned ourselves on the left of the stage near the Smirnoff Ice cooler. I don’t really like hanging to anywhere other than the center of the stage due to liking how the show sounds from that vantage, but I was pleasantly surprised after the first band came on and it wasn’t a bad spot at all.

Malajube was pretty cool actually. I had never heard of them, and now I knew why. They were a Francophone band from Montreal! I’ve never seen a French band open for an English one…I enjoyed them and my other co-horts in crime did also. It was hilarious how the singer threw on a monkey mask for the last half of the set. At first I thought they had a beaver on one of their amps! They definitely didn’t have much room on the stage as one of the guitarists was stuck behind one amp. Anyhow, I would definitely recommend checking these guys out. Catchy tunes.

Judging from the hockey playoffs, we figured we wouldn’t see Sammy and les boys anytime before 10:15. Sure enough, around 10:20, they show up and start off with Mystified, Heavy and Taj Mahal and then get into Dead End. I would have preffered if they opened up with a rocking tune, but they were decent enough. Near the end of Dead End, the sound went out on the PA speakers so we couldn’t hear the vocals at all. When I say ‘at all’, I mean they were just really muffled with the rest of the mix coming from the amps. At the end of Dead End, we realized the fire alarm was going off and the band was wondering what the heck was going on. Judging from the post on their site, the smoke machine set the alarms off (which is ridiculous in my thoughts…what kind of venue is this? Oh, New Capital Musical Hall, you have a long way to come.) The band said some words which I couldn’t catch, but they had decided to go on with the show. This wouldn’t have been too bad if the PA system had been on, but it was not so the band were just full out amps on stage. I suggested to my friends that someone pass them a note asking them to crank it to ’11’. 😉

The Gate, Hard Road, and The Resistance all lacked the oomph but near the end I realized that the band was giving it their all and that I shouldn’t let a simple thing like a PA system bring my mood down. I gave it my all and the rock gods graced us with the PA system again once The Bootleg Saint started. Also, the roadies wisened to the dilemna and duct taped a towel over the fire alarm bell right next to the stage. Kudos their thinking. Doesn’t look like the venue staff were thinking about much at all.

You can see the rest of the setlist attached. Mind Flood was amazing. Brother Down was amazing. That’s how you get the crowd going. Oh man…everything was amazing.

Encore #1 brought out the acoustic for Uprising Down Under and then they ripped into Eileen and Rarefied. Excellent tracks.

By this time I had moved up near the stage into the middle just to get a little more into the show. I would like to think that the crowd had something to do with the second encore happening, cause they were great. I’m not generally impressed by the Ottawa crowds, but I thought they were worthy near the end.

They came out for Bridge to Nowhere (which seems to not be their choice checking out the setlist) which was great. They left the stage and all was good.

During the show, there were chants for James which was great since it was his first show back after surgery. Sammy said a few words about his return which was a nice touch.

All in all, I enjoyed the show once I got past the PA system going down (which was REALLY bringing me down for a song or two).

I passed on the tour shirts this time around as I can’t say that I really care for them. I picked up a sticker for my guitar case with the album artwork of Chemical City when I went outside.

OH! Almost forgot the best part. My girlfriend managed to snag a setlist for me which at one point I had reached for out of her hand and it ripped since it was all soggy (must be the beer!). Ah well. Also looks like Mystified, Heavy was underneath the duct tape that was holding it down and got ripped off. She also managed to get a guitar pick.

All I can ask for is that someone magically taped this concert (which is doubtful. Doesn’t seem like there is a taper movement in Ottawa).

Hope everyone has a good show when they catch them on this tour!

Hey, I like Nickelback. So that’s why I went to see them on Saturday night.

Live opened up for them. LIVE! Man, what a great show…I would pay good money to see Live anytime of the day…very strange seeing them opening up for Nickelback…it’s more of a “Let’s get our touring chops back up before our new album release”. Their new songs were mint. Songs from Black Mountain will be a great album.

Nickelback comes out with a thunder and a few pyros…heck, we can feel them from 20 feet from the stage. Awesome.

All in all, very reminiscient of their last stadium tour…they stick to a winning formula and don’t disappoint – pyros, heavy riffs, drum solos, and added to that, a girl 10 feet away from us flashing the band while on top of her boyfriend’s shoulders! That’s a rock show folks!

I’m thinking this is the setlist…can’t recall if there are few missing songs.

• Animals
  
• Woke Up This Morning
  
• Photograph
  
• Breathe
  
• Someday
• Medley/Jam from Curb
• Never Again
• Band Jams while they toss stuff into crowd
• Savin Me
• Side of a Bullet
• Drum Solo
• Follow You Home
• How You Remind Me
• Too Bad
  ENCORE
• Rockstar (Sylvie’s Fave)
  
• Figured You Out

Can I just say that if Ed Kowalczyk from Live needs a few ladies for himself, Sylvie and Vero are more than willing. I don’t understand how they find a guy who is most likely 40 by now is hot while prancing around with no shirt on. 😉

• I’ve been trying to upload another Morning Show file to ihud. Ain’t working. Will have to try from another computer. I love technology, but not as much as you and me.

• Weekend was a bust – read all my books and studied. Do I feel smarter? No. Do I feel scared for the test? Heck yeah. The Prof doesn’t use class notes…he wings it. Maybe he’s a super-genius who remembers things. That’s right…I’m going to expose the University for what it really is. A breeding ground for higher level intelligence. Wait a second. That’s what University is all about anyhow.
• Still chugging away at organizing the slew of MP3s that Tobias passed onto me when I was in Paris. Man, there’s a lot of stuff there.
• Starting to learn a new song with Mike – Landing in London by 3 Doors Down. A decent tune. Although I think Mike and I realizing that the way to rock is not to learn another ballad. Ha!

I am amending this entry because I forgot the coolest event of the weekend happened on Friday when Joe, Trish, Mike and I went to see the Jeff Healey Band at Lonestar!

Had some dinner beforehand which was delic and then headed on upstairs to see the opening act Roadhouse who were decent at amping up the crowd.

Lonestar is a strange venue to see a band…the stage is at the same level as the dance floor (well, half of it at least) so when it came to the band coming on stage, I must admit it wasn’t the greatest experience because with a man who sits down to play, only the first row of people can see him! 3/4 of the way through the set we had a chance to push our way up to the front and catch the awe-inspiring playing of Mr. Healey. What can I say? I don’t think anyone in the world plays guitar the way he does…and he’s no hack. He’s an amazing guitarist. The night was filled with a bunch of blues tunes and they even brought on a girl from the Ottawa area to sing a few tunes. Trish thought that her voice was good, but she was moving her body too sexy for that young of a girl and should be punished. Here’s my word to Trish – when you rock, you gotta move.

My only gripe about the night is when these crazy cougars in the front row were reaching out to touch Jeff Healey’s hands while he was setting up to play. He even pulled away at one point and made a comment about it. Alright…I don’t see a big deal about touching someone’s hand…but then during a song one lady rubbed his leg while he was playing! That’s just rude. He’s a man, not an object for you to bewilder. Just because the man is blind doesn’t mean that you have to touch him like that. Did anyone rub the other band members legs? No. Why not? If she were to answer, she would probably say something like “Because they’re not special.”

Anyhow…I was hoping to see her later on so I could rub her leg and see how she liked it. 😉 Moron.

All in all…2 thumbs up for performance, no thumbs up for stage setup. We were saying how when we hit up Toronto next time, we should stop into his bar seeing him play. I’m sure they have a better setup.

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.

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

Ottawa Sun Review: http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2005/11/17/1310651.html

Wednesday night came and went in a hail of rock n’ roll fury. Showed up past 7:30 but luckily the concert didn’t start for another 15 minutes. Trish, Holly and Vero accompanied me on this rock n’ roll experience.

Go to Row 38 and there are people in our seats. It’s very tough to try and convince someone that they are in the wrong seats once the concert gets started. Very loud and you have to use a lot of hand signals. Turns out these guys were supposed to be in Row 29, not 38. If it was only two of us at the concert, I would have just given up and went to take his seats in Row 29 (which coincidentally was right in front of the freakin’ catwalk!). Anyhow, he finally realized that he can be 10 rows up and bailed.

Lenny…what can I say about him? He can rock. He can groove. He can make the ladies swoon. I think I saw a few women pass out as he winked at them. Even though Lenny could hold his own in a headline spot, he took the 70 minute set instead. All the hits, including a balls-to-the-wall version of American Woman which lead quite nicely into Fly Away. I have visions of me also learning to play Are you Gonna Go My Way after seeing that in the flesh. Let Love Rule was a highlight of the night as the crowd was singing along and Steve Tyler came out to lend some vocal ramblings (read: Ramblings. You can’t understand the guy!)

In between sets, Trish bought a nice Aerosmith tank top and when she was trying it on (while taking off her shirt) one dude yells out “Take it all off!” in which I promptly said “That’s my sister!”. Ha! Man, I love that line. Gets them every time. Turns out that Trish saw this guy being thrown out during the concert. What are the odds?

Lights go down…giant video screens play images and music of Aerosmith. I felt like I was watching a promo campaign. Very hilarious.

• Helter Skelter
• Walk this Way
• Same Old
• Cryin
• Edge
• No More
• Jaded
• Shakin My Cage
• Sweet Emotion
• Miss A Thing
• Dream On
• Thighs
• Other Side
• Baby Please
• Train-Slow Train
• Encore
• Saddle
• Draw THe Line

Highlights:

• Steve Tyler can move for an old man. I think he is more youthful than Mick Jagger and Bono.
• Joe Perry can wail on his guitar. Holly asked if what he was doing was hard. If she only really knew that we were in the presence of a God.
• I was SUPER impressed with the two ramps which went out into the arena bowl 100 level seats. Never seen that before and I think they got more audience interaction at those spots than throughout the catwalk into the floor.
• Seats on the floor area suck.
• Sweet Emotion was my personal fave. Followed closely by Baby Please.
• Paranoia by Sam Roberts just came on random shuffle on my iPod. Today will be a good day. One of my fave tunes.
• Holly was commenting on how she wished there were more new (read: 80/90s) tunes. Aerosmith must have a hard time with their fans since it’s like they are in two different groups. Some prefer the old stuff, some prefer the new.
• Some dude asked me how he can go up closer in which I responded “Just walk up.” Am I a wise sage or something that can magically teleport him?
• Steve Tyler can really rock. He can move more than me. The other guys appeared to be fossils on stage. Other than Joe Perry. He still has it. I think he had flames coming from his guitar at one point. That’s what I’m talking about.

All in all, I was hesistant to pay $130 to go to this show, but it was justified by seeing Lenny AND Aerosmith. Two class acts. Go see them if you can.

Up next: U2. I’m trying to convince Vero that they are a decent band and she should give them a chance.

Also…Coldplay tix on sale tomorrow in Toronto. Hmm…

iplaying: (still) Paranoia by Sam Roberts – We Were Born in A Flame

• Pinion
• Love is not enough
• You know what you are?
• Terrible Lie
• The Line Begins to blur
• March of the Pigs
• Something I can never have
• The Frail
• The Wretched
• Closer
• BURN
• Gave up
• Eraser
• Right where it belongs
• Beside you in time
• With Teeth
• Wish
• Only
• Even Deeper
• Dead Souls
• Suck
• Hurt
• The hand that feeds
• Head like a hole

Went down to Montreal on Friday with Matt, Trish and Jennie. Shopped around for a bit…very cold that day in Montreal. We were caught inside this frigid wind tunnel. Ended up at Reuben’s for a nice Reuben sandwich which everyone enjoyed. One day I’m going to have to dig into the pound of smoked meat.

Went to the Bell Centre and managed to walk right up to the doors cutting past a 1/2 hour wait in line. Some people are stupid. Just go through the OTHER doors with the security guard waiting there.

Checked out Death From Above 1979 who were decent. May have to check out the rest of their stuff.

Queens of the Stone Age…what can I say about this band? I have SO many friends who are into this band. I can’t say they were a bad act…I enjoyed them. But would I buy an album? Probably not. Just doesn’t hook me in. Highlight of the night was when they finished off with No One Knows and messed up in the second verse, but instead of stopping right there, they cut into a 10 minute long jam session, then bring it back to the song. Brilliant. That’s a good live band for you right there.

NIN showed up on stage around 9:45. They had a semi-transparent curtain in front of them which managed to become the means of some great lighting effects. I’ve been telling people that NIN is one of those bands that give a visual experience as well as an audio experience. They had a great backdrop which played along with the With Teeth artwork nicely. My favourite lighting effect was when they had a line spreading across the backdrop and everytime it hit upon one of the solid blocks, the block became red. Very hard to explain in words, but think of how a virus works. As soon as the virus hits you, it spreads, and then continues onto the next victim.

I also enjoyed when the curtain came back down and they played a series of movies while the band played on. Movie highlights included monkeys attacking each other and George Dubyah ballroom dancing. At one point, the movie changed so it looked like NIN was playing behind a waterfall…then Trent swings his mic stand towards the curtain and the video appears to smash into pieces. Brilliant. I do hope there will be another live DVD for this tour. There HAS to be.

My highlight of the night was hearing Burn…one of my fave tunes and I don’t think it’s ever been played live (until this tour). I was freaking out.

Thanks to Christelle who hooked me up with an audio recording of the show. Awesome. I really enjoy her blog and what she does for her concert reviews. It gives me an idea of what to do with mine.

On a random other note, I’ve started hanging up pictures around the house and I started to frame up concert reviews from newspapers along with the ticket stub. I think it looks sharp and I like it better than hanging out inside my scrap book. I now have to search the world (aka Ontario) for newspaper clippings for the past 10 years. Good luck with that buddy. Hey, if any of you out there actually keep newspapers like the Toronto Star or the Ottawa Citizen let me know!

nowblissfullyenteringmyears: The Frail [Live in Montreal – 2005-11-11] – NIN, thanks to Christelle.

Let’s recap:
I won two tickets to a win-to-get-in OLP concert at Massey Hall, along with a bus ride which we didn’t bother taking and a night at the Bond Place Hotel.

On Sunday, November 6, Vero and I awoke and went to watch Dwayne’s kids swim in the public pool which was fun. Aidan is fun to watch as the kid never has a frown on his face. The world is his oyster.

We drove downtown Toronto to go pick up our tickets to the show and ended up with some Rogers swag (mugs, satchel bag!!!) and a sweet $50 in cash for spending money. YEAH!

We then met up with Ryan and Robyn as seen in the previous entry about Body Worlds 2.

We get to the concert hall and find ourselves in the left balcony pretty well in front of the stage. Not too shabby seats. It was an interesting birds eye view of the stage. I thought the floor may have been better but I really enjoyed this view.

Setlist:

Picture
Starseed
Innocent
Angels/Losing/Sleep
Clumsy
Wipe That Smile Off Your Face
In Repair
Car Crash
Where Are You
Is Anybody Home?
Al Genina (Leave the Light On)
Waited
Walking in Circles
Thief
Boy
Will the Future Blame Us
Superman’s Dead

4am
The World on a String
Apology
Somewhere Out There
Naveed

Highlights of the night:
– Entire concert being filmed for what we thought would be a live DVD, but turns out to be a Rogers-on-Demand concert (still great! I’ll have to download it when it comes out!)
– Raine Maida climbing the speaker stack to go into the right balcony during Will the Future Blame Us. AMAZING! I was telling Vero earlier of how Eddie Vedder did this sort of thing in concert halls and then balcony-dove into the crowd. Nuts. Turns out that a few people from Ottawa U (friends of Vero) were actually RIGHT THERE in the right balcony where he was. Insane. Wish it would have been us.
– New acoustic intro to Clumsy
– Rant of George W. Bush during Wipe That Smile Off Your Face. “This is war, now.” Amazing.

All in all, I would have to say it’s probably the best OLP concert I’ve been to (surprisingly since I was in seats). I felt that they’ve hit a stride with their new album which I hope they run with.

iplaying: One [Live in Montreal – 2001-10-12 – That’s the concert I was at!] – U2. Bono is going on about meeting with Paul Martin about abolishing the African debt at the next G8 Summit. Interesting to see what has happened in 2005 and what was spoken about in 2001.