How do people sit at concerts? No really, HOW DO PEOPLE SIT AT CONCERTS!?!?!?
I'm not talking about the symphony or the opera, okay okay I understand how people sit at those type of concerts, I mean how do you sit at a rock concert? How? How do you feel the bass and sing along, and not stand up? I am baffled- As apparently also were several other concert-goers at last night's Sam Roberts show at Massey Hall... more on that in a moment...
Sam Roberts was one of my first concert loves. Sam Roberts at the Key to Bala. I think that was the first time I fell in love with a concert, the first time I felt like i was on the moon afterward. Cuz Sam Roberts- he is good live. What I mean is, he is GOOD live. I mean GOOD. I challenge you to see him live and not enjoy it. Seriously. My friend El doesn't really even like him on CD, but will drop everything to see him in concert. Its the energy! I know that sounds all lame and hippy-dippy, but its really the only way to describe it- The Sam Roberts Band have great energy on stage. They always look like they're having the time of their lives, they sing/play their hearts out, the sweat everywhere (you say 'gross', I say 'sexy') and they sound GOOD.
I've lost count of how many times I've seen them live (Once three times in four days...! OK, ok, I was going through a bit of a Sam Roberts phase...) but they never disapoint. And neither do the fans. There are many things I love about a Sam Roberts show, but the fans have gotta be right up there. The most random people love Sam Roberts. Seven year olds love Sam Roberts. Hard-core punks love Sam Roberts. Hippies with dreadlocks down to their knees love Sam Roberts. And those who love him LOVE him. No really, LOVE him, and don't care who knows it.
Last nights show was no exception. Now I should likely start off by saying that I haven't seen Sam Roberts play in a few years, and he did not disappoint even one little bit (the addition of a horn section just made it that much better), but I did go through the all-familiar concert psych-out before it started. You know, the I-haven't-seen-this-band-in-a-while-and-I-used-to-love-them-so-much-I-hope-I-am-not-just-gonna-be-disappointed psych out? Yeah, you never have to worry about that with Sammy. Everything I remembered about their shows was upheld with remarkable intergrity. What I did, hoever, forget, whas how entertaining the other fans were.
Casein point: sitting down.
Exhibit A) The soccer Mom. Older Lady, balcony, tight tan pants and an overly flowery shirt. Very excited. standing. Did not care at all that no one else around her was (apparently people think being in the balcony means you shouldn't stand up... bollocks. Stand up.). Awesome.
Exhibit B) Dude with the mohawk and dirty white tank top. totally opposite end of the standing-spectrum. He was standing. He was clapping. He was singing along (which in and of itself was super entertaining), and he was having none of anyone also not doing those three things. At one point he literally ran down the aisle, took another guy by the shoulders and started making him dance. Again, Awesome.
Alright so maybe I'm not exhibit A or B (not on the outside anyways...) but I secretly would love to be either of them (or both!) because here's the thing... ok I have no thing, I have no big eloquent reason, just a feeling. Just a feeling that if you're sitting down at a rock concert, you are missing out.
So here is a simple rule: If you can feel the bass, you should be standing up. Done.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
The Honesty of 90s Lead-Singer Rock 'Dancing'
I am an 80s kid, I lip-synced to Madonna and Fresh Prince at sleepovers, I wore neon legwarmers, and I crimped my hair. I watched Sunday morning cartoons and was scarred by Bowie's pants in Labyrinth. I loved Return of the Jedi best based solely on the Ewoks.
I was a kid in the 80s. But I was a teenager in the 90s, and that's when I fell in love with music.
Recently my room-mate and I went on a 90s-music-video-binge. On this particular occasion it was sparked by the mention of Train's first-time-around hit Meet Virginia, and how much better it was than their recent Hey Soul Sister. Now admittedly this opinion is largely based on Meet Virginia having a time and a place for us, a sense of nostalgia, but it is also because the lead singer just looks creepy in the newer video! No, its not because he is older, its not because he looks like a messed-up version of Uncle Jesse on Full House, its because of his dancing.
Despite their recent rebirth, Train is a 90s band. The lead singer is a 90s singer. He should dance like he's a 90s singer in a 90s band, not all choreographed and slow and smooth! The 90s, especially Alternative Rock in the 90s, was not about smooth dance moves (unless you were the Backstreet Boys, whose dance moves were... well slightly more smooth I guess?). 90s Alternative Rock 'Dancing' was all about the grab-the-mic-walk-back-and-forth. Simple? Sure. Kinda dumb looking? Usually. Honest? Most definitely. These guys were singers, not spokesmen, not fashion models, not marketing creations. They were there to sing- not the most groundbreaking, innovative, creative songs in the world, but songs that were about what they were about. Songs about speeding down the highway, songs about recreational drug use, songs about breakin' up and feelin' bad about it. Songs about life. Average, everyday, un-choreographed life.
That's what everyone says right- about the music of their generation? That it was so much more honest, so much more awesome, so much more than 'this crap kids listen to now-a-days.' Except that that's not what I'm saying at all- I like much of the music 'kids listen to now-a-days,' in fact I absolutely adore quite a lot of it! Kate Nash wasn't around when I was a teenager, nor were the Decemberists. Most of the bands I listen to hadn't even met each other pre-2000. But most of them are also magical- they tap into the deeper unseen bits of the dust of the universe and turn it into melancholia, beautiful, and heart-pounding odes to the wonder of everything. That is not what 90s music was about. It was about Rock. It was about fast driving, and parties, and stealin' your best friend's girl. It was about being a 90s teenager, even if you weren't a teenager like that at all.
And it was about honest dancing. It was about mosh pits and jumping and waving your hands in the air while you got covered in sweat that wasn't yours, and ducked so you didn't get an errant shoe in the face. You can see it in all kinds of 90s music videos (from back when Much Music actually still played music videos...), the kinds of videos teenyboppers like Miley Cyrus and Justin Beiber try to replicate all the time. Promise by eve6, Third Eye Blind's Semi-Charmed Life, or The Oaf by Big Wreck all fit the bill- awkward rock dudes with guitars (or basses) stomping around, grabbing their mic stands, taking two steps forward and two steps back, singing their hearts out, lookin' kinda dumb and surprisingly sexy.
Maybe it isn't super-innovative. Maybe it isn't magical, or beautiful or awe-inspiring. But it is honest. Simple, straightforward, and honest. Its my music as much as any of what I listen to now, and I still love it every bit as much as I did back then. Which is a lot.
I was a kid in the 80s. But I was a teenager in the 90s, and that's when I fell in love with music.
Recently my room-mate and I went on a 90s-music-video-binge. On this particular occasion it was sparked by the mention of Train's first-time-around hit Meet Virginia, and how much better it was than their recent Hey Soul Sister. Now admittedly this opinion is largely based on Meet Virginia having a time and a place for us, a sense of nostalgia, but it is also because the lead singer just looks creepy in the newer video! No, its not because he is older, its not because he looks like a messed-up version of Uncle Jesse on Full House, its because of his dancing.
Despite their recent rebirth, Train is a 90s band. The lead singer is a 90s singer. He should dance like he's a 90s singer in a 90s band, not all choreographed and slow and smooth! The 90s, especially Alternative Rock in the 90s, was not about smooth dance moves (unless you were the Backstreet Boys, whose dance moves were... well slightly more smooth I guess?). 90s Alternative Rock 'Dancing' was all about the grab-the-mic-walk-back-and-forth. Simple? Sure. Kinda dumb looking? Usually. Honest? Most definitely. These guys were singers, not spokesmen, not fashion models, not marketing creations. They were there to sing- not the most groundbreaking, innovative, creative songs in the world, but songs that were about what they were about. Songs about speeding down the highway, songs about recreational drug use, songs about breakin' up and feelin' bad about it. Songs about life. Average, everyday, un-choreographed life.
That's what everyone says right- about the music of their generation? That it was so much more honest, so much more awesome, so much more than 'this crap kids listen to now-a-days.' Except that that's not what I'm saying at all- I like much of the music 'kids listen to now-a-days,' in fact I absolutely adore quite a lot of it! Kate Nash wasn't around when I was a teenager, nor were the Decemberists. Most of the bands I listen to hadn't even met each other pre-2000. But most of them are also magical- they tap into the deeper unseen bits of the dust of the universe and turn it into melancholia, beautiful, and heart-pounding odes to the wonder of everything. That is not what 90s music was about. It was about Rock. It was about fast driving, and parties, and stealin' your best friend's girl. It was about being a 90s teenager, even if you weren't a teenager like that at all.
And it was about honest dancing. It was about mosh pits and jumping and waving your hands in the air while you got covered in sweat that wasn't yours, and ducked so you didn't get an errant shoe in the face. You can see it in all kinds of 90s music videos (from back when Much Music actually still played music videos...), the kinds of videos teenyboppers like Miley Cyrus and Justin Beiber try to replicate all the time. Promise by eve6, Third Eye Blind's Semi-Charmed Life, or The Oaf by Big Wreck all fit the bill- awkward rock dudes with guitars (or basses) stomping around, grabbing their mic stands, taking two steps forward and two steps back, singing their hearts out, lookin' kinda dumb and surprisingly sexy.
Maybe it isn't super-innovative. Maybe it isn't magical, or beautiful or awe-inspiring. But it is honest. Simple, straightforward, and honest. Its my music as much as any of what I listen to now, and I still love it every bit as much as I did back then. Which is a lot.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Soul-Time-Sing-A-Long
I love to sing along with songs. You know this about me (and possibly about yourselves!) though I don't think I wrote that quite properly... it should read:
I LOVE to sing along with songs!!!
There are many things that make me happy, but this would be top five, maybe even top three.... actually more like top two. I love it so very very much. Very much.
There is something about singing in the car specifically.... in the summer, windows rolled down, driving way over the speed limit, with the music so loud your ears are ringing and singing so loudly that your voice goes hoarse (I actually once sang so enthusiastically to 'Bicycle Race' by Queen while on the way to work that I lost my voice and had to write things down for the whole day...) and I can't even put into words how much joy this brings me. I have tried on several occasions and just never seem to be able to quite capture it... However, on a recent road-trip I re-heard one of my all time favourite songs (I'm not afraid to admit it, its uber 90s alternative, and not exactly the most profound thing ever, but I can't help it, it speaks to my soul!) and was reminded of all of the things I love about singing in the car. As cheese as it is, this experience is so fully encapsulated in Open Road Song that I feel the need to block-quote it...
"I crack a window and feel the cool air cleanse my every pore, as I pour my poor heart out to a radio song that's patient and willing to listen, my volume drowns it out. Yeah but that's okay, 'cuz I sound better than him anyway, any day. Yeah my voice is sweet as salt. I search for comfort and I find it where I found it many times before, though times before can be forgotten..."
Its the singing-along part! The you-drowning-out-the-music part! The finding-comfort-in-pouring-your-heart-out part!
Back in high school all of my car-songs needed to be of a certain type to be able to 'work'- loud, fast, rock. Thats's what car music was to me, but my car-music tastes have broadened vastly in the interim... From Sons and Daughters by the Decemberists to Valley Town by Elliott Brood they have widened to include songs that paint sweeping vistas, that use intricate harmonies and gut-grabbing melodies, not just those that are loud and fast. And yet the all important lyrical factor has remained unchanged. I know many people who would disagree with me on this, but lyrics are as important to a song as the melody, the production values, or the instruments its played on.
I sing along with songs. You need good lyrics to sing along to, and I need to sing along for a song to be real to me. Singing along is how songs seep into my soul and become an inseparable part of me. Its how they transport me in time (Semi-Charmed Life), its how they make me homesick (Oh Alberta), its how they make my heart burst (Wake Up)...
Two of my current favourites are Ghosts by Laura Marling and Gentleman by Said the Whale. Neither are all epic, neither are all loud, neither are what one might call all hard-core... but both have absolutely sweet and beautiful lyrics that melt my insides when I hear them and even more so when I sing along.
Whether the song is quietly beautiful or heart-thumpingly exciting- that feeling of flying down the open road, singing at the top of your lungs.... perfection.
I LOVE to sing along with songs!!!
There are many things that make me happy, but this would be top five, maybe even top three.... actually more like top two. I love it so very very much. Very much.
There is something about singing in the car specifically.... in the summer, windows rolled down, driving way over the speed limit, with the music so loud your ears are ringing and singing so loudly that your voice goes hoarse (I actually once sang so enthusiastically to 'Bicycle Race' by Queen while on the way to work that I lost my voice and had to write things down for the whole day...) and I can't even put into words how much joy this brings me. I have tried on several occasions and just never seem to be able to quite capture it... However, on a recent road-trip I re-heard one of my all time favourite songs (I'm not afraid to admit it, its uber 90s alternative, and not exactly the most profound thing ever, but I can't help it, it speaks to my soul!) and was reminded of all of the things I love about singing in the car. As cheese as it is, this experience is so fully encapsulated in Open Road Song that I feel the need to block-quote it...
"I crack a window and feel the cool air cleanse my every pore, as I pour my poor heart out to a radio song that's patient and willing to listen, my volume drowns it out. Yeah but that's okay, 'cuz I sound better than him anyway, any day. Yeah my voice is sweet as salt. I search for comfort and I find it where I found it many times before, though times before can be forgotten..."
Its the singing-along part! The you-drowning-out-the-music part! The finding-comfort-in-pouring-your-heart-out part!
Back in high school all of my car-songs needed to be of a certain type to be able to 'work'- loud, fast, rock. Thats's what car music was to me, but my car-music tastes have broadened vastly in the interim... From Sons and Daughters by the Decemberists to Valley Town by Elliott Brood they have widened to include songs that paint sweeping vistas, that use intricate harmonies and gut-grabbing melodies, not just those that are loud and fast. And yet the all important lyrical factor has remained unchanged. I know many people who would disagree with me on this, but lyrics are as important to a song as the melody, the production values, or the instruments its played on.
I sing along with songs. You need good lyrics to sing along to, and I need to sing along for a song to be real to me. Singing along is how songs seep into my soul and become an inseparable part of me. Its how they transport me in time (Semi-Charmed Life), its how they make me homesick (Oh Alberta), its how they make my heart burst (Wake Up)...
Two of my current favourites are Ghosts by Laura Marling and Gentleman by Said the Whale. Neither are all epic, neither are all loud, neither are what one might call all hard-core... but both have absolutely sweet and beautiful lyrics that melt my insides when I hear them and even more so when I sing along.
Whether the song is quietly beautiful or heart-thumpingly exciting- that feeling of flying down the open road, singing at the top of your lungs.... perfection.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Melancholia and Music
Sometimes its nice to feel sad. Not usually, usually its not nice to feel sad. Usually something happens, there's some sequence of events that makes it feel like your life is spinning out of control or like you just don't know what to do... Something immensely personal and upsetting gets you down and you just can't run away from it, because its inside of you. Sometimes what makes you sad isn't inside of you, its not something you can run away from, but it is something that affects more than just you, something that seems bad now, but might be okay later on. And sometimes, every once in a while, its kind of nice to feel like life holds some sort of beautiful mystery that will always elude you, like all of the things that seem not-so-great will one day be revealed to be the self same things that led to wonderment and joy.
I'm not good with definitions. I tend to make up my own very specific meanings for words and be willing to argue them 'till the cows come home ("an ass is not a dork, nor is a knob the same thing as a dink" will take me long into the wee hours of the morning...). This is by way of saying that this second kind of sadness, this one-day-it-will-be-important-that-this-sadness-happened type of sadness is what I imagine melancholia to be. And this type of sadness, this melancholia has, of late, been captured for me in the beautiful song Oh My God by the Wooden Sky.
Hauntingly beautiful and quietly sad, its made me feel like crying my eyes out and smiling my face off all day long. Thank you Canadian music, thank you small timey bands, thank you art for once again proving your awesomeness....
I'm not good with definitions. I tend to make up my own very specific meanings for words and be willing to argue them 'till the cows come home ("an ass is not a dork, nor is a knob the same thing as a dink" will take me long into the wee hours of the morning...). This is by way of saying that this second kind of sadness, this one-day-it-will-be-important-that-this-sadness-happened type of sadness is what I imagine melancholia to be. And this type of sadness, this melancholia has, of late, been captured for me in the beautiful song Oh My God by the Wooden Sky.
Hauntingly beautiful and quietly sad, its made me feel like crying my eyes out and smiling my face off all day long. Thank you Canadian music, thank you small timey bands, thank you art for once again proving your awesomeness....
Friday, March 4, 2011
Why Sound is Important at Live Performances OR The Band Shouldn't Have to Set Levels DURING The Show
So moving to a new city means getting to explore a lot of things- here is means skating on the canal, exploring the river, finding awesome art-house and repertory cinemas, and going to new concert venues. One such place is Maverick's- it happens to host several bands I like- which is a plus- only problem is the sound. sucks.
Now I do a lot of backstage work, I've worked a fair number of concerts, but I am no sound-guy (or gal). I am a pretty clever cookie, I pick up things quickly and remember things easily, but my retention-rate for sound-tech information is practically non-existent. So just to be clear- I could not operate a sound board to save my life. Okay, well maybe to save my life, but not for much less. So clear. Good.
However.
I do know what a show is supposed to sound like. what a band is supposed to sound like. What music is supposed to sound like. Music. its supposed to sound like music. This is not some rant about the state of present day popular tunes, no, I'm fine with most of the music being made today, I actually kind of adore a lot of it, but when I go to a show, thats what I would like to hear. Music. Not a rotating menu of too-much-drums, feedback, not enough vocals, too much bass, too little guitar, and maybe some more feedback thrown in for laughs.
I mean a sympathize, I do. Like I said, I 'aint no sound-gal, but come on! A band should not have to stop to re-set the sound in the middle of the set! Yukon Blonde is a fantastic band- they're great live and they've got a really classic rock sound- they are not supposed to sound like some kids who have been practicing in their parent's garage for three weeks...
Now I do a lot of backstage work, I've worked a fair number of concerts, but I am no sound-guy (or gal). I am a pretty clever cookie, I pick up things quickly and remember things easily, but my retention-rate for sound-tech information is practically non-existent. So just to be clear- I could not operate a sound board to save my life. Okay, well maybe to save my life, but not for much less. So clear. Good.
However.
I do know what a show is supposed to sound like. what a band is supposed to sound like. What music is supposed to sound like. Music. its supposed to sound like music. This is not some rant about the state of present day popular tunes, no, I'm fine with most of the music being made today, I actually kind of adore a lot of it, but when I go to a show, thats what I would like to hear. Music. Not a rotating menu of too-much-drums, feedback, not enough vocals, too much bass, too little guitar, and maybe some more feedback thrown in for laughs.
I mean a sympathize, I do. Like I said, I 'aint no sound-gal, but come on! A band should not have to stop to re-set the sound in the middle of the set! Yukon Blonde is a fantastic band- they're great live and they've got a really classic rock sound- they are not supposed to sound like some kids who have been practicing in their parent's garage for three weeks...
THIS is what they're supposed to sound like... So if you were at the show the other day, please give this an ear, and don't judge the fellas too harshly, seriously they can play, I swear.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Cuff the Duke: Oshawa for your ears
I'm sure this is a sentiment that will be oft repeated in the coming months/years, but Cuff the Duke is like Oshawa for your ears. Bluecollar music from bluecollar boys from a bluecollar town. Word. Rossland Square makes me think of my childhood in a way that seems strange since I only went to Oshawa to visit family... but it captures it in a way that is so very close to my childhood impressions of the city that it makes me feel even more at home than when I visit there now.
Openers The John Henrys were a last minute substitution who were surprisingly very up to the task, paving the way for Cuff the Duke to do their thing, and make us feel like we should all be working for GM. in a good way. Man that compliment really got away from me there...
Openers The John Henrys were a last minute substitution who were surprisingly very up to the task, paving the way for Cuff the Duke to do their thing, and make us feel like we should all be working for GM. in a good way. Man that compliment really got away from me there...
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
The Apparent Finality of Finally Seeing One of Your Favourite Bands...
I've been to a lot of concerts. Actually really a lot. I've been to so many, I've started to forget what bands I've seen (seriously, who forgets whether or not they've seen Green Day?), or how many times I've seen them (is Sam Roberts up to eighteen or twenty...?) so there aren't many of my favourite musicians I have not seen. Even fewer when you narrow it down to my absolute favourites. In fact, the Decemberists were almost alone on that list. Until yesterday!
I used to live out east. the Decemberists are from out west. They don't go out east, especially not Canada's out east... when I lived in Vancouver I almost went to see them in Seattle- then didn't. I almost went to see them in Maine- then didn't. Then i was planning on moving to Ontario. and they were playing in Montreal. January 31st. So I decided I'd better be moved in by January 31st, because there was no way I was going to miss them a third time...
The show was amazing. It was magical and loverly weirdly melancholy just like they are. they even played the Mariner's Revenge Song, one I have been wanting to see live since I first saw a video of them play it at a concert (the video below, actually! and I'm not ashamed to say it inspired a living-room puppet show complete with sets, sock puppets, and paper cut-outs...). I sang myself hoarse and danced my feet sore and had the time of my life. Then it was all done. Apparently for a very long time.
The Decemberists are taking a break. Its due to sad circumstances as one of their members has cancer and needs the time off to get well again. I didn't know this when I bought the tickets, I didn't know this when I rearranged my moving-house so that I could go see them. I didn't know this might be my only ever chance. I didn't know I would have such a fantastic time. alright I had a sneaking suspicison about that last one, but anyways...
Its great when you discover a band through a live show, its great when the first time you see them is the first time you've ever heard of them. the first time i saw Arcade Fire no one knew who they were, and it was weird and magical and invigorating, just like their music. So maybe its fitting that the first time I saw The Decemberists in concert it was beautiful and haunting and happy and just a little bit sad, just like their music. Maybe that's how it always goes. Maybe that's just how it works.
I used to live out east. the Decemberists are from out west. They don't go out east, especially not Canada's out east... when I lived in Vancouver I almost went to see them in Seattle- then didn't. I almost went to see them in Maine- then didn't. Then i was planning on moving to Ontario. and they were playing in Montreal. January 31st. So I decided I'd better be moved in by January 31st, because there was no way I was going to miss them a third time...
The show was amazing. It was magical and loverly weirdly melancholy just like they are. they even played the Mariner's Revenge Song, one I have been wanting to see live since I first saw a video of them play it at a concert (the video below, actually! and I'm not ashamed to say it inspired a living-room puppet show complete with sets, sock puppets, and paper cut-outs...). I sang myself hoarse and danced my feet sore and had the time of my life. Then it was all done. Apparently for a very long time.
The Decemberists are taking a break. Its due to sad circumstances as one of their members has cancer and needs the time off to get well again. I didn't know this when I bought the tickets, I didn't know this when I rearranged my moving-house so that I could go see them. I didn't know this might be my only ever chance. I didn't know I would have such a fantastic time. alright I had a sneaking suspicison about that last one, but anyways...
Its great when you discover a band through a live show, its great when the first time you see them is the first time you've ever heard of them. the first time i saw Arcade Fire no one knew who they were, and it was weird and magical and invigorating, just like their music. So maybe its fitting that the first time I saw The Decemberists in concert it was beautiful and haunting and happy and just a little bit sad, just like their music. Maybe that's how it always goes. Maybe that's just how it works.
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