Why Library Voices are louder in the valley...

 I’m sure we’ve all got albums that we always listen to in our car, or maybe only on the back deck, every day on the walk home, or when we’re stuck on the bus… Some albums just sound better in certain situations, just as some bands just put on a better show in particular cities. Usually there are places that just fit with certain groups (Cuff the Duke at Maverick’s in Ottawa, or Elliott Brood at La Sala Rosa in Montreal…) but there are a few magical venues where everyone puts on their best shows- where the crowds are consistently supportive, the mix is clear, and the beer is just the right price. It’s why bands are always better at hillside, always better at the Kee to Bala, and most of all, always better at the Black Sheep.

Now back in high school I often went to see the same band several days in a row, sometimes even several cities in a row. Now I’m not talking like Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, here- I refuse to get on a plane to achieve this goal- but Toronto, Barrie, Bala is totally do-able, and Ottawa, Montreal is downright simple. I’ve recently revived this tradition going to both the Ottawa and Montreal legs of the last Elliot Brood tour, and most recently Library Voices, back to back- Tuesday at Casa in Montreal, and Wednesday at the Black Sheep in Wakefield Quebec.

The Montreal show was… interesting. Casa is the first place I ever saw Library Voices (my sister’s favourite band), a show that has become one of my all time top five concerts, but this time it was almost a completely different beast. Of course it looked the same and the pints of cider were still $4.00, but the crowd was quiet and standoffish (since when should there be a four foot buffer between the closest person and the stage?) and the band was- allright I’m just gonna say it- they were a little off. Over the course of their set I’m pretty sure every instrument on stage broke at least once, the songs didn’t seem to want to come out quite right, and Mike actually tipped over his stand sending various pedals and dials flying across the stage. When Carl said “So this is our last song” and someone in the audience said “nahhhhhhh” he replied, quite solemnly: “Yes. Yes it is.” It was just... odd.

Talking to the band the next night they described it variously as “Awful.”  “Just completely off.”  and “The worst show of this tour- by far.”  Everyone had a different suggestion as to why, but Carl’s was especially pragmatic: “sometimes you just have a crappy night, but I mean that’s how you know when its good, how would you ever know that you’d had a good night when you don’t have crappy ones to compare it to?”

I took it all in stride- after all I was seeing them again the next night- no big deal if the Montreal show was a bust- but my sister wasn’t so lucky. She’s moving overseas at the end of the summer and, as she put it after the show “that might have been the last time I see Library Voices in a very long time…!” she was a little broken up about it, and I don’t blame her… If I wasn’t seeing Elliott Brood for three years and their last show was the one at Maverick’s a few months back, I think I might have cried.

Needless to say the Wakefeild show was about a million times better (and no, that’s not hyperbole. It was actually, literally, a million times better). I took along two friends who had never seen Library Voices before (and in fact had not really even heard of them) and no one was to be disappointed! Like my first time seeing them, my friend Madelaine leaned over part way through the second song to say “I love them!” just as I had done.

They were On Fire. Opting for two sets of eight songs (perhaps because they had no openers? Their reasoning being “Because, I mean, why not? We’ve never done this before, lets see how it goes!”) they steamrollered through the first group, playing a mix of new material and old favourites. After the third song Mike had mentioned how much respect they always had for the audiences at the black sheep, and Carl had pointed out that, even all seated, we were a pretty excellent audience (allusions to the previous night’s crowd perhaps…?)  At ‘intermission’ I ended up standing at the merch booth right beside Carl and couldn’t help mentioning that they seemed a lot happier tonight. “I was at the Montreal show yesterday…” I volunteered “Oh.” Carl replied, making a face like he'd smelled something awful "oh…..” We talked a bit about how much more fun they were having at the Black Sheep, and how some days are just off days, and I mentioned that the night before had been my sister’s last show before she moves to Holland. “Oh no!” he exclaimed (no seriously, he actually exclaimed!) “Alright, we’re gonna do something for her after the show, come find me after the show!” And it was time for the second set…

Again mixing old favourites in with new stuff, they continued to bring down the house, getting everyone up and bopping after only a few songs, and reviving the Carl’s-ridiculous-dancing and drums-in-the-audience that had been sorely lacking from the previous night’s performance. Kundera, Genration Handclap, my personal favourite Step off the Map and Float, and their ever-excellent cover of the Misfits “Where Eagles Dare.” Carl dedicated Neil Young’s “Unknown Ledgend” to my sister ("a very special fan who is unfortunately not here tonight”) and they closed out the set to deafening applause. The usual “But guys, that’s all the songs we have….!” Didn’t work on the exuberant crowd, so Amanda Belted out a flawless rendition of AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long," followed by Geroge Harrison’s “Got my Mind Set on You” and, when we still wouldn’t let them off the hook, the best version of “Jump Around” I have ever heard/seen/jumped to. By then they actually had exhausted all of the songs they knew, and we enthusiastically clapped, cheered, hooted and hollered in honour of an astounding performance.

After the show I found Carl (”I’m just gonna change out of this sweaty sweaty shirt…”) and spend a while talking with my friends about how much they’d enjoyed the show. He came back freshly changed, got me to re-tell the story of my-sister-and-the-Montreal-last-show to Mike the drummer and the bassist Eoin, while he collected the rest of the band outside… then got me to tell it to them as well.  They make a sign that read “We promise to come visit you in the Netherlands!” and all took photos with it. 

"We all look like zombies!"

Of course band-love is about the music. For me its even more about the live performance, the enthusiasm and the love of what they’re doing, but its times like these that make it really hard to ignore the role played by such outright friendliness, generosity and excitement. Sure I already loved Library Voices, but taking the time to make my sister just a little bit less sad about how much she’ll miss them? Takes ‘em from Good Band, to Good Band and Good People. Gotta love Canadian indie music…

Gospel, Country and a little bit of Robots...

Day three of concert goodness actually didn't happen at the Dragonboat festival! Though there was a show happening there today, bands-I-already-love win out, so I was off to see the always entertaining Robots!EVERYWHERE!! at the fourth installment of the "4 in 1 acoustic sessions" , a series of acoustic concerts that happen in parks around Ottawa.

Due to a miscommunication about rain-change-of-venue (which led to our discovery of a previously unseen Canadian Navy monument, so that was interesting...) we missed the first band (André M. Bluteau) and arrived part way through the second.

J.M. Farr had a lovely deep voice. I feel like that sentence sounds odd, but I tried to figure out a different way of saying it and nothing else quite feels right. Seriously, his voice is lovely. And deep. But not that booming Graveyard Train kind of deep. The lovely kind. Alright, alright, I'm sure you get the idea...

photo credit: Ming Wu

As I said, we only got to hear a few of his songs, but the original material was beautiful, and the gospel numbers were perfectly pitched and wonderfully played. Each song was perfectly suited to the grey afternoon, cool and calm after this week's heat-wave. Its amazing how someone's voice can carry in such a wide open space, and yet still make you feel that kind of living-room-coziness usually associated with wooden rocking chairs and mugs of homemade beer...  J.M mentioned he was going to be in Ottawa for the summer, and I certainly intend to check out his full set sometime over the next couple of months.

Next up, and on the almost complete opposite of the musical spectrum, the aforementioned Robots!EVERYWHERE!! Now if you've read any of my other reviews of this band, you'll already know that I find Phil infinitely entertaining... today's performance was no exception. Beginning with apologies for his lateness (though we weren't late so much as almost late... still: "I'm sorry, I was in Peterborough and so hungover that my mom wouldn't let us leave without making me pancakes first..." makes it worth mentioning) and quickly transitioning to apologies for his out of tune guitar, one would think it was gonna be a bust, but one couldn't be further from correct (like my use of 'one' there? classy eh?).  Phil has a great talent for ... well for something! maybe for a range of somethings? Actually I'm not sure exactly what it is, he's just always really fun to watch. His songs are catchy, he doesn't take anything too seriously, and even when he messes up, its still entertaining. And Phil is always full of surprises. This time, it was using the infallible Josh Pruner as a makeshift playlist ("Pruner! What song is next?"), which  gave the whole thing a kind of 'mystery tour' meets 'choose your own adventure' feel. Continuing the adventure theme, we finished off the set in the kiddie pool. yep. Photo evidence below. I thought it would be difficult to top last time's Enrique Igalsius sing-a-long-pantomime/dance, but clearly I had forgotten the obvious: Phil is awesome.

photo credit: Ming Wu

Getting back to the quieter folksy theme; Landon AR Coleman took the stage with his acoustic guitar and selection of harmonicas ("I can never remember which one is the non-broken one..."). Playing several tunes off his album, he spent the between-song moments of re-tuning regaling us with stories  ("So yesterday I was trying to read in my room, and there was this plate of chicken...." long story short he fainted and fell into the plate of chicken. I love banter. No seriously, that sounds like sarcasm, but I really do enjoy good banter, especially when its one person having to banter with themselves. Fainting in chicken? That's golden).

photo credit: Ming Wu

Another lovely voice, suiting the grey afternoon to a tee, Landon played a few Dylan covers, stole a few lines from a Georgian poet ("Georgian like the country, not like... the other Georgian...") and otherwise just ambled through at an incredibly pleasant pace, leaving nothing wanting. This is the kind of folk music acoustic sessions were made for, and a nice slice of folk-bread to the salami of Robots!EVERYWHERE!! (Too much of a stetch? yeah I thought so, I just really wanted to make a Robots!EVERYWHERE!! salami sandwich metaphor... my apologies!)  Again in Ottawa for the summer, I certainly intend on checking him out again.

After a somewhat confusing start to the afternoon, the show was a really nice end to a fantastic weekend. Summer concert season is officially in full swing. Bring it on.

"We'd love to keep playing but..."

Day two of the Dragonboat festival brought even more fantastic weather and even more fantastic music. Today's fare? Said the Whale.

With my first Said the Whale making my 'best concerts of the year' and the second not quite living up to the standard, I was interested to see what today's show would bring. Despite a somewhat disappointing sound mix (vocals were not nearly loud enough, at some points making it difficult to even hear the words at all) the band put on their regular, cheerily adorable, show. With Ben all covered in sunburn, and Tyler was in fine form, pulling his classic I-used-to-sing-in-a-punk-band faces, the front lines were as entertaining as ever. Looking around you could really tell that a lot of the crowd were there purely for the show, and hadn't watched or rowed in a single race all day.

Sometimes when you go to a festival, there is a small devoted band of fans right up at the front (present tonight, though a fairly large group), behind whom are dozens of festival-goers  who have never heard of the band. Sometimes it stays that way for the duration. Sometimes though the crowd grows, and the unsuspecting table-dwellers become fans themselves. As someone who is usually right up front, this is an especially fun experience as you don't see the crowd growing until it is suddenly huge. One song has a regular amount of singing along, a regular amount of clapping, then suddenly the audience volume in next song is much much louder. You look back and are faced with three or four times the number of people standing behind you, all dancing along... And its not just the strangers either!

Its always fun to introduce friends to a new band, and tonight it was also the first time for two of mine. One of them made it through only one or two songs before declaring "Erin, I think I officially have developed a crush" on the always "fedorable" (aka adorable and wearing a fedora) Ben, while the other found Tyler's resemblance to David Tennant infinitely amusing... They also loved the music, but that kind of goes without saying!

Mixing newer material like Lines and Big Sky, with old favourites like Camilo the Magician, False Creek Change, and Black Day in December, the show was well paced, and energetic. I'm always impressed with the way in which Said the Whale weave new songs into their mix. Beginning by asking the audience to indulge them, blasting through the new material, then quickly following it up with a well known ditty, means you don't get the normal slight frustration at not being able to sing along to a song you've never heard before. The first of these two new offerings is bound to become a staple, while the second seemed to need a bit more polishing (I wouldn't be surprised if it sounded a bit different my September's folkfest...), but every other song in the set? Fantastic.

By the end they definitely had the [ever expanding] audience hooked. After ending off with Camilo, they were faced with cheers of "One more song! One more song!" that were loud enough and persistent enough for Ben to come back out and tell us "We'd love to, we really would but we're not allowed! Thank you guys so much! Really, so much!" An encore would have been amazing, but I guess we'll just have to wait for their return in September.  Well done Said the Whale- yet another triumph of playing through a bad mix and coming out on top. Lets hope folkfest gives them the opportunity to shine without having to keep asking for their mics to be turned up...!

Spirited away

Ah summer, the season of outdoor festivals, warm breezy nights, and sweaty pits. Mosh pits I mean (though to be fair I suppose there are many types of sweaty summer pits... but I digress). Summer festivals have a way of turning the most unlikely of band-audiences into sweaty jumping masses - sometimes with crowd surfing and skanking, sometimes with linked-arm-twirling, but always with ample singing and excess enthusiasm. Tonight's offering? Paper Lions and Spirit of the West at night one of Ottawa's Dragon Boat Festival.

I had the chance to see Paper Lions at hillside last summer as was really impressed with their energy on stage and (let's face it, my absolute band-love-weakness) their adorableness- but I only got to watch about five minutes of their set because I had to leave to go to a wedding. It was an awesome wedding, but I was still a little bit sad that I couldn't have finished the set then gone to the wedding... Tonight I finally got to see a full Paper Lions show and, especially taking into consideration that everyone (EVERYONE) puts on a better (read THEIR BEST EVER) performance at hillside, they held up really well! They were bursting with energy (why stand at a keyboard when you can run on the spot while playing?), full of man-love (apparently my quote of the night "two grown men singing into the same mic gets me every time..."), and clearly enjoying playing on such a beautiful day.

Photo credit: Ming Wu

Mixing up a few old favourites (Travlin' and Lost the War) with a bunch of stuff off of their new EP they kept a quick pace and sounded great (if a little loud- and I swear I'm not just saying that!!! Children were covering their ears. for serious). With a bit of coaxing they even got the mostly seated-and-drinking-beer audience to sing along with not one or two, but three separate songs. Pretty good for an early-evening opening act! It was especially great seeing them again since this time I was familiar with a bunch of the songs- and as we all know, singing along makes every show better

Which brings me to Spirit of the West

Maybe you have to be of a Certain Age (maybe not?) but it definitely seemed like all my age-contemporaries in the audience were repeatedly having the same "Wow, I know every one of these songs"  reaction as we were. Now I've listened to Spirit of the West for a long time. Actually over fifteen years (ok, so not that long, but considering they date back to a time before I really listened to music that wasn't my parents', its a pretty long time)... but I strangely didn't really realize how much of their music I knew- and how well i knew it! I think there were only two songs during the whole set that I didn't know all the words to- and most people in the audience were in the same boat.

From the opening The Joneses to Venice is Sinking, our cue to say 'chuck it' to the relaxing seats and head into the developing (and aforementioned) pit, John Mann and the rest of the crew gave an unerring and unceasingly energetic performance that saw everyone (ages three to seventy something) dancing their feet off for over an hour and a half. One of the fantastic things about outdoor festival shows is the breadth of people you get to see loving the same show. From the wee redheaded boy jumping in a circle, to the two we-look-like-we-listen-to-hip-hop-but-are-inexplicably-completely-in-love-with-spirit-of-the-west gentlemen front row centre there were representatives from every possible group, and each one was having just as much fun as the next.

Photo credit: Ming Wu

This whole all-ages thing was carried right up onto the stage as the three year old son of the sound tech snuck up to the drum kit and started playing along with the band. Instead of whisking him off, they made sure he wasn't gonna fall off the stool and let him play through the whole song. then gave him a drum solo. Well, it was more like a cymbal solo, but for a three year old he kinda rocked it (and of course who is immune to that insane level of adorableness? yes, clearly I am not, but everyone else loved it too, I swear!)

Of course they closed out their set with the always popular Home for a Rest, which resulted in some of the loudest singing along I have heard ever (EVER- like not just loud for the size of the crowd, loud for any size of crowd...) the guys on stage started laughing they were so startled by the volume. It was fan-freakin-tastic. And the enthusiasm didn't end there, the dancing and jumping about were insane, again with a full-out mix of teenagers, little kids, adults and seniors, each person haveing more fun than the next.

On CD (or "on ipod I guess I should say?) Spirit of the West have always sounded like they would be good live, but I gotta say they surpassed all of my expectations. Fantastic show, and a fantastic start to the summer festival season.

One day down, two more to go (whats a weekend without three days of concerts?!?)

On Being Un-Ironically Enthusiastic...

SO if you know me in Real Life, or have pretty much ever read this blog , you'll already know that when I love something, I LOVE it. My face becomes all smile, I start talking very quickly, I go over the moon, I almost hit bystanders with wooden spoons... ;o)  This happens with art, with music (particularly concerts... and bagpipes), with tv shows, with gardening, with bicycling... Some of my co-workers have even taken to texting me "BAGPIPES!!!" whenever they hear them somewhere- and even just that makes me incredibly happy (the idea that your enthusiasm has influenced someone even just enough for them to think of you when they hear an instrument they hate... its a pretty nice feeling)!

The odd side effect to all of this is that people often think I am a lot younger than I am- like somehow growing up means you are no longer supposed to find life entertaining (quick sidebar- a friend of mine recently remarked that from me 'entertaining' is the highest possible compliment. I'm not sure how I feel about the implications of that statement, but I cannot deny its accuracy). What rule is there that says that once you get to a certain age you shouldn't go on a midnight park-adventure? Or enjoy a concert? Or love riding your foot-brake bicycle? I refuse to admit that the un-enthusiastic people out there are unenthusiastic because they have nothing to be enthusiastic about. That would just be too sad. I prefer to think that they have things they love as much as I love bombing down the highway with Library Voices blaring (half in the back so I can turn it up louder), but that they are simply- for whatever reason- uncomfortable with other people knowing about it. Which I clearly do not understand.

But then I read this quote by Simon Pegg:

"Being a geek is all about being honest about what you enjoy and not being afraid to demonstrate that affection. It means never having to play it cool about how much you like something. Being a geek is extremely liberating" 

And this one by John Green

"Nerds are allowed to be un-ironically enthusiastic about stuff... nerds are allowed to LOVE stuff, like jump up and down in the chair, can't control yourself, love it. When people call people nerds, mostly what they're saying is 'You like stuff' which is just not a good insult at all... like you are too enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousness..."

And it all started to make sense... I am just a huge dork. Which is totally fine with me.

So this is my advice for a happy life: don't 'grow up', just become comfortable with being a nerd, and everything else will sort itself out.

Cowboys and Wheelers

Moving to Ottawa seems to have had the pleasant side effect of making me like numerous Francophone bands... First Coeur de Pirate, then Karkwa and Marie Pierre Arthur, and now the newest addition to the list- Les Cowboys Fringantes, introduction courtesy of my friend Madelaine, and solidification of love via their Francofest performance this past Thursday.

I am a huge supporter of cultivating informed music exchanges- always an incredibly satisfying and effective experience, well worth the time and effort. By this I mean, of course, really paying attention to why your friends like the music they like, and being really specific about why you like the music you like, then making thoughtful recommendations to one another! Sounds pretty straight forward, but you would be surprised at how many people recommend music based on what they like, not what they think you'll like (regardless of the number of times you have had conversations about why you don't like INSERT BAND NAME HERE). If, however, you are lucky enough to have friends who actually remember past conversations, the exchange goes a little more like this:

Madelaine: "I think you'll like this band because they play lots of fun instruments, they have energetic music, they are really funny, and they're political in an anti-conservative kind of way... all things you enjoy!"
Me: "yes. that seems like a very accurate assesment Madelaine, I will certainly attend this spectacle avec toi!" (Alright, so I didn't sound quite so formal or quite so vaguely multi-lingual, but you get the idea.)

They do play lots of fun and random instruments (even melodica, my favourite!)
They are remarkable energetic- I almost had difficulty keeping up with them, and after an hour of psudo-french-folk-dancing/jumping up and down, it was all I could do to drag myself to McDs for an ice cream sundae...
They were really funny, and in that excellent goofy way which involves running around like overgrown children, playing jump rope with the mic cords and dancing like idiots...
And anti-conservative (specifically anti conservative-arts-cutback) they most certainly were. That was an interesting experience, surrounded by francophones, a stones throw away from parliament, yelling things at Stephen Harper... one of those moments you feel like you're slightly removed from whats going on around you, but easily get caught up in it anyways...

Anyways, long story short (yeah right, me? I'll try) I greatly enjoyed singing along to songs that felt familiar even though I'd never heard them, dancing my feet off for over an hour, and cheering in the midst of a sea of glowsticks and plastic beer cups. Highly recommended.

Unfortunately I didn't get any good pics of the show, but I thought I might still share a photo I took of the absolutely completely terrifying pre-show entertainment (if running away screaming is entertainment...)

They were like a combination of the Weeping Angels from Dr Who, and the Wheelers from Return to OZ, two of the most traumatically nightmarish fictional monsters of all time- and no, just because I am all growed up does not mean I am not still disproportionately terrified by simple-special-effects-monsters... or lemurs (though that's another story for another day...). And I wasn't the only one! So many screams of fright and running-away-incidents (from other grown adults, might I add) that they actually used different costumes the next day... Just glad I escaped their evil grasp...*shudder*

At any rate, the evening was a rousing success, thanks to the energetic entertainment and despite the nightmare monsters. I think I see more Francophone concerts in my future...!

To Enthuse or Not Enthuse...

... that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler to only write posts on things I adore(d) or to make myself also write posts about musics that just didn't make that much of an impression on me...

You may or may not have noticed its been a while since I wrote anything- In reality my last post was about hillside excitement, but at some point it will likely appear that my last post was about the Joel Plaskett show... that would technically be untrue, but I have a bit of a habit of pre-dating posts to match when the concert actually happened.

I won't talk too much about the actual show here, not with specifics anyhow, but I did want to mention some... difficulties I had with it. Well, not with the show itself, but with my reaction to it- I enjoyed myself, sure, but just a regular amount. There were bits I liked and bits I wasn't so fond of. I didn't feel the need to rush out at intermission and buy the albums, but I didn't feel disappointed either. The show was good, it was fine. But how do you write about that?

With difficulty, thats how.

With weeks and weeks of putting it off, and putting it off again, then putting it off some more... I'll get to it (or may have gotten to it by the time you're reading this) but it was a bit of a slog. When there isn't an insane excitement or a major disapointment driving the writing, its sooo much more difficult to assemble your thoughts...

But who am I to complain? Summer is upon us and the warm weather concert season is swiftly approaching. The upcoming weeks will bring not only hillside, Wolfe Island, Bluesfest and Folkfest, but One-offs by Library Voices, Robots!Everywhere!, Said the Whale, and many many more...Who knows, I might even get to be a follow spot op for a show or two! So expect the next couple of months to be full or reviews (good, bad, and yes, even so so) rants, raves and ramblings.

Summer concert season, here I come!