An Evening with Stars (and snow)

On Thursday we braved what was being called the worst snow storm since 1976 (although we didn't get as much snow as they predicted there was still a crazy amount of it) to go see Stars. It took 5 hours on the 401 but we made it. In fact we timed it pretty much perfectly so that we got to Lee's Palace and had just enough time to get a drink and some swag before Stars took the stage. Others have reviewed the show much more quickly than me (and probably better, too boot) so I won't go into great detail but I will simply say that it was an extremely good show. The band sounded great playing a rather up-tempo set, Torq was in great form (very energetic, very happy to be playing in Toronto), Amy was sultry, the wintery/holiday-y set dressing very apropos, the addition of a saxamaphone lent an extra dimension to the sound, and the four song encore ending with Fairytale of New York was fan-damn-tastic. I thought I would have a recording of this show but I ran into some technical difficulties (ie I am technically a moron who can't properly operate simple electronic devices most of the time) so if you came here looking for that I am sorry. Trust me, no one is more dissapointed that me that all I got was one (rather crappy) photo from the show and a blank tape. At any rate, it was completely worth the trip to see them. Thanks again to Mr & Mrs Sparkly for the tickets and the hospitality. 'Twas another fun-filled TO weekend.
rgsc

Stars cover 'Fairytale of New York'

Today I am trying something different. For a while now I have been avidly reading various MP3 blogs and I thought I would give posting some music a try (via an external host - so click on the links and scroll down. I am open to suggestions if anyone can recommend a better host than RapidShare). While this blog isn't going become a strictly music blog, from time to time I plan on posting some of the bootlegs of shows that I have made. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, thanks to the ticket-acquiring skills of Mark, we shall be going to see the first of the six (!!!) shows that Stars is putting on at Lee's Palace (it looks like there still might be tickets for the sunday afternoon show for those that don't have them yet, the rest are soldout). To get everyone in the mood I have two songs to share. These ones, obviously, aren't my bootlegs, but I did rip them my very own self.

Since it is the season, here is one of my all-time favourite Christmas songs, covered wonderfully by one of my favourite bands.

Stars - BBC6- Fairytale_of_New_York.mp3

[UPDATE: Here is Your Ex-Lover is Dead(mp3) , the other song Stars performed on the Coe session. I uploaded it for someone on LiveJournal so I thought I might as well put it up here as well.
ANOTHER UPDATE, here is a video of Stars performing "Fairytale of New York" in Toronto on December 17th. With thanks, again, to the eagle eyes of For the 'Records']

The song is taken from the BBC6's Giddeon Coe Session (9 December 2005), with my thanks to OptimusCrime and For the 'Records' for pointing me in the right direction.



The second track is from FabChannel, which has streaming video of bands that play the Paradiso in Amsterdam. You will notice the date of the concert was August 29th of this year- one day before I arrived there this summer. Had I known about it earlier I would have arrived a couple of days before my conference. Much to my chagrin my tickets couldn't be changed. Anyway, you can watch the awesome video and listen to the this track - the first of their encore (I seriously considered traveling to Bologna to see them open for HotHotHeat but figured it would be a little ridiculous to spend $1000 to see them and then have to get back to Amsterdam for my return flight. Would've been supercool, though).

Stars -Paradiso - The_First_Five_Times.mp3.

So enjoy these two songs. I will post pics and possibly more from Thursday's show next week.
rgsc

The Rose City or "The Worst Place in Canada"

I made my first trip to Windsor last week, which coincided with Stephen Colbert stating that Windsor is "the worst place in Canada. Just...just God-awful. I don't even have time to go into it, but if you've been there, you know." While I perhaps didn't get the full Windsor experience, from what I saw it didn't seem much crappier than Trenton or Brantford so, you know, maybe Colbert should take a tour of the other many crapholes in our lovely nation before making such a definitive statement. But I am getting sidetracked. Ok, so I went to Windsor to interview a 96 year-old nun and to check out the archival doings there. It was a quick trip but a good one. In addition to getting to see the archives there and do the oral history thing, I got to hang out a bit with everyone’s favourite Windsorite, Christine. She took me our and showed me a bit of what the city had to offer. If I were to judge Windsor on what I saw I would come to the conclusion that it was quite a happening place - this belief, however, is undercut by the fact that pretty much everyone I met told me that it wasn't a typical night. Nevertheless, Christine showed me a pretty great time out on the town. First up was bar called The Avalon Front to see an exhibit of local photographers called "Fotografika." There was quite a diverse array of images on display around the bar varying from portraits and landscapes and still-lifes, documentary, 'art' photos, colour and b&w, traditional and digital. A typical mix bag that you might expect from a group show. Most were good, some were excellent. Of particular note were a series of large b&w photos of people in front of their houses, a series of images by Christine's friend Chris which had intense colour and a unique mounting, and a time-lapse video that was projected on a screen of urban views. For the opening there was a dj and a pretty good little local band called Theory of Everything. If that wasn't cool enough, we then skipped over to the Phog Lounge for the opening night of their second annual T-Shirt Art Show. This, my friends, is an awesome idea. Essentially the bar had people submit one-of-a-kind or limited run t-shirts with designs that were silk-screened, embroidered, handpainted, etc. They stay up for the month and are auctioned off to the highest bidder (with some that you could buy 'off the rack' for a set price). There were some very cool, and some very odd, shirts and the bar itself was excellent with a good vibe, good beer, and board games galore (a very intense game of Connect Four was happening behind me at one point). A good time was had. Thanks to Christine for showing me her hometown and introducing me to all her ubercool, artsy friends. I look forward to getting back down there soon.
rgsc