Rocktober (part two)

Alright, here it the round up of my October rocking, and rock we did. On October 19 the megasuperstar Canuck collective Broken Social Scene opened their international tour where? That's right folks, Kingston. They chose to play Grant Hall as a sort of dress rehearsal but as far as I could tell there were very few kinks to work out. But before I get ahead of myself and start gushing uncontrollably at the awesomeness of it all let me talk about the opener New Buffalo. New Buffalo is Sally Seltmann out of Melbourne (we tried to figure out where she was from but couldn't pin it down - I figured she was European from her sound, shows you what I know). She played by herself and while her sound was good she suffered from the fact that she was alone - initially accompanied by a little pink gizmo she set to play the back-up rhythm which looked suspiciously like an iPod from where I was standing but which, I am sure, something fancier. She alternated between the not-quite-an-iPod (but might as well have been) along with playing the occasional bit of keyboard and accompanying herself on guitar. With her rather dreamy songs (no Whitey Houston that's for sure) she really didn't get the full respect/attention of the crowd despite having a really interesting set and a Feist-like vibe. And this crowd liked Feist, I'll tell you what. But again, I am getting ahead of myself. So check out New Buffalo (you can stream her album on her website) and hopefully with the exposure she gets with touring with BSS she will get more attention paid to her. Broken Social Scene, when they finally came on (come on guys, what was the freakin' hold up? You know from mentioning it during your set that Queen's students are partial to burning shit, don't give them an excuse. Oh, and it was awesome that you said that it wasn't cool to burn someone’s car. good on you), they did not disappoint me in the least. I have read some bloggers who were not so impressed by the show, much of it due to the sound, which makes me very glad to have stood 5 people away from the stage just off to the right of the speakers. They played a solid hour and a half set with tunes from their new album (which is superb) and their (even more superb) back catalogue. Jason Tait (Weakerthans) and Julie Penner (FemBots) were there along with six (seven? eight?) BSS guys and gal. And Feist came out to sing. And the crowd when bananas. And for the encore Sarah Harmer came out and I went bananas - she was made an honourary member of the group for the song "Backyards" and then was given the stage to sing her song about the Niagara Escarpment. They were really tight musically, had a good on-stage presence (except for the new singer, Lisa Lobsinger who really needed to loosen up and you know, maybe enjoy herself or something), talking and joking with the audience and Kevin Drew even hopped into the audience to hug them. The music was dense, anthemic, wonderful. Aside from some knobs in the audience (no, I don't need a running commentary or to hear you think that it "sucks" when they tell us that the version of Major Label Debut they played was the slow version, which, by the way, was far from sucky. Please, please, shut up. dicks) and rather low vocals (which is almost to be expected as it is their preferred sound even on their albums) it was an absolutely great show. It was very different from the first time I saw them - outdoor, huge festival during they day vs. an intimate gothic church-like space during the night - and I am so happy to have had the chance to get to see them up close. (The BSS pic was taken from the Queen's Journal).

The next show was back at the gradclub on October 27th for the Hidden Camera's, supported by the Lesbians on Ecstasy. I wasn't a huge fan of LOE - a bit too much crazy synth filled vocals for my liking - but they got the crowd going like you wouldn't believe and that is something to commend them for. Their music was quite heavy but still danceable and people seemed to dig it quite a bit. The Hidden Cameras, however, I did like quite a bit, and if there was one reason why I didn't enjoy them fully is because I am not all that familiar with them. I mostly went because Christine-y Weeney highly recommended their live show and I dug the few songs that I heard. While their were no male go-go dancers and the band didn't perform in blindfolds as they are wont to do from what i understand, they did cram seven people on the stage plus had a cellist and a viola player sitting off to the side (more volume on the strings next time, please), played a great big set of dancey pop tunes, and really got the crowd going. There was banjo, there was xylophone, there was co-ordinated dancing. And, from what I saw, the soldout crowd was digging it. (The Hidden Cameras pic was taken from Optimus Crime - you can see a tiny bit of me on the right by the wall).

So that was the last show that I saw in October, but since I am on the topic of shows I have seen I might as well give a rundown of the two concerts I have seen so far in November. First, on November 3rd, was controller.controller, which I was really looking forward to. There were two openers. The first was a band called Sylvie out of Regina (check out their very attractive flash site where you can preview their songs). They were quite good, alternating between shoe-gazer space rock and more driving bits, except that they got screwed by the sound guy (was he not in the room?) and you couldn't hear the vocals at all. Nevertheless, they sounded really good and looked like they were having a good time - especially the drummer dude who looked like there was no where else in the world he would rather have been. Magneta Lane were up next. The sound issues got sorted out and their was no missing the powerful vocals of lead singer Lexi Valentine. Considering how many people I have seen on the gradclub stage as of late this trio looked pretty sparse up their in comparison but the sound was big: big vocals, big guitar, big hair on the drummer who pounded out crazy-big beats. Seriously, she reminded me of Cousin It, except with two drumstick wielding arms sticking out of the hair and pounding furiously. It was pretty awesome. In rather stark contrast, however, was the bassist French (as far as I can see she only has one name) who looked rather bored. As a whole the band was exceptionally tight and played a really good set. Up next was controller.controller, who I saw back in July and which was a great show in every which-way. This, in comparison, can only be described a great show despite all odds (as will be described in a moment) capped off with one of the strangest moments in my live-music seeing history. As the band came onstage and turned on their signature red footlights, Nirmala took up the mic and positively croaked out that she had laryngitis but would do her best. To my surprise they played a pretty full, if slightly truncated, set. The band sounded fantastic, they played all their great songs off their EP and new full-length album and, all things considered, Nirmala sounded pretty good even if her voice broke on occasion. She has some help from the audience and Magneta Lane's Lexi came out and sang on one track but all in all she gave it pretty much everything she had and I for one have the highest respect for that. Once the set was done the drummer/keyboardist Jeff Scheven stayed onstage and played atmospheric electronic stuff. Strangely, i thought given the state of Nirmala's voice, the crowd wanted an encore. Nirmala came out, sat on the stage, thanked everyone. She asked if people wanted to dance, we said yes, and she thought she could work something out. As she was talking to Scheven, the guitarist Scott Kaija (I think he came out first, it was a while ago now and he may have come out second, doesn't matter) came out. He was followed quickly by bassist Ronnie Morris. They exchanged some rather unfriendly words that I couldn't quite make out, then Morris knocked over a mic stand and then one pushed the other and they were into the crowd and then went offstage into the gradclub kitchen where someone standing near the door said they were fighting. Nirmala looked rather shocked, as we all were, said something to the effect that there would be no encore and had the sound guy put on a cd. Apparently it was just some personal issues that have been worked out but still it was pretty dramatic. And weird. And Oasis-like. I can only assume that it is one of the by-products of a stressful tour.

Coming off two really packed, dance oriented shows, the second November show (gradclub again) was a whole different thing. On November 8th the always wonderful Jill Barber graced the stage. While I wanted to see the show, particularly to check out the opening act the Blue Raincoats, it was a pretty exhausting weekend, I was feeling a bit broke, and I had seen Jill with Josh Ritter on the same stage a few months before so I was going to pass on it...until my musical saviour Tuan of CFRC kindly provided my with two free passes. So we went. Things got under way right on time, which is never expected, so we missed the first few songs of the Blue Raincoats. They played a pretty good set, although I thought they sounded better on their album. I won't hold it against them as one of the band members was missing due to jaw surgery. They kicked it up at the end with a Nancy Sinatra cover and just as they seemed to come alive they were off. After a short break Jill took the stage. We had great seats at a table right up front of stage right which made for quite an intimate and mellow show. She sounded great, introduced us to her new guitar "Tennessee Rose", and previewed a number of new songs which were very good. As with the last time I saw her, Jill was quite chatty. She told anecdotes and shed some light on the stories behind her songs. She catered to the audience, which was quite good for a Tuesday night, playing a few more songs than she intended including a couple of requests. At the end she had the crowd join in on the chorus on a cover of the old country song "The Tennessee Waltz". As ever, she seemed right at home on the gradclub stage which, she informed us, is the first place she ever performed live, and she sounded wonderful. I am glad we ended up going.

So that's it. There are a few shows coming up in the next little while but October/early November will be hard to top in terms of the number of first-class shows that I was able to take in, in such a short span of time. 'Tis really one of the best reasons to be in Kingston - it may be small (which can be good thing in itself) but there is a lot going on.
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