[...music...]: 2008-11

2008-11-30

the show was on friday evening. i went with six other friends; it was my first time going to a show with so many people.

gentleman reg, with a full band, were the openers. it was good; i liked it. i probably would have enjoyed it more if i had checked out his material before the show...

there was one song i liked a lot. luckily, roxanne recognized it as "it's not safe" from the "shortbus" soundtrack. (i had forgotten about this, but wikipedia says that he makes an appearance in the film.)

stars gave a really good performance. there were no surprises, since i had already seen them about a year ago, and their setlist was pretty similar. again, they had tons of flowers on stage, except they were roses this time, which they threw into the crowd frequently.

they played one of my favourites "take me to the riot" near the beginning, which is a great song for getting the crowd excited. they also played my other favourite "what i'm trying to say".

compared with the show last year, one noticeable difference this time is, the show seemed much more fun, largely because of the energetic crowd. everyone was shouting with excitement and singing along with all of the songs. i was screaming a lot myself. and the band was really into it. the singer looked so passionate while singing. especially near the end of the last song, when he was all folded on himself, and he looked like he was about to pop a vein and collapse. yeah.

after the show, i did not get a setlist, just a picture of it.

~~~

cd purchase: after the show, i saw that gentleman reg himself was manning the merch table. i asked him which songs he played tonight. he pointed at the album "darby & joan". so i bought a cd and asked him to sign it. i also bought stars' most recent release, the "sad robots" ep.

~~~

Labels: cd purchase, gentleman reg, metropolis, shows, stars

2008-11-12

new order reissues

[tonight is the nin show at the bell centre, just one block away from where i live. but i've already spent enough on music this month, so i am skipping this show...]

i had ordered the new order deluxe reissues, all five albums from the 80's:

i received them in the mail today.

i am not that familiar with their stuff, aside from their big hits like "blue monday" of course, and "bizarre love triangle". i just know that they've released a lot of material and i've been meaning to check it out, so this was a good time to get their five first albums at once. each of these includes a bonus disc with b-sides, remixes, etc.

now, the only studio album that i am missing is "republic".

~~~

Labels: cd purchase, new order

2008-11-01

broken social scene @ metropolis

halloween!

the ticket for the show tonight was a birthday gift from roxanne. we were joined by roxanne's friends mave and janelle.

land of talk was the opening band. post-punkish indie rock with sweet poppy vocals. i thought i had never heard of them before, but when they played "summer special", i recognized that song, but i don't know from where... [according to wikipedia, this song was in the r3-30 chart. ok, so that's where i first heard it, almost two years ago...]

the band members were all dressed up. the singer/guitarist wore a bikini over a spacesuit. the bassist had a double head (freaky...). the drummer was a giraffe. during one of their later songs, they were joined by a bunny playing the sax!

then, broken social scene came out, also wearing costumes. they have a fluid line-up, so i was wondering which band members we'd be seeing tonight.

kevin drew and brendan canning as husband and wife. at one point, someone from the audience shouted to kevin drew: "i want your kids!" kevin drew said that no one would want his kids. brendan canning's response was: "you're saying that in front of the man's wife? what kind of motherfucking bullshit is that?!" hahaha...

justin peroff in hotpants and silver metallic leggings. not sure if that was a costume or not...

andrew whiteman in a toga, with a cool-looking mask.

charles spearin with devil horns.

sam goldberg as a mummy.

the horn section came out whenever there was a fun song. the only person i recognized is jimmy shaw, wearing something that looks like aluminum foil as a mask.

the singer from land of talk did all the female vocals.

i had actually seen broken social scene before, about six years ago, as part of the first edition of popmontreal. it was one of the first music shows i attended. so it was great, seeing them again tonight, and they put on such an amazing show! again, kevin drew acted as mc, introducing the band members and making small talk in between songs.

to be honest, i've not listened to bss in a long while, so i was not so familiar with the songs they played tonight. most of the ones i recognized were from "you forgot it in people". they played one of my favourites, "kc accidental" near the beginning, opening the show.

with so many members on stage, the show was diverse and very energetic. at around mid-show, there was an experimental piece by charles spearin. he recorded his neighbour talk about love and happiness. then, he had the saxophonist reproduce the speech using his instrument. it was pretty cool.

at the end of the proper set, there was a therapeutic moment. all the band members were on stage, playing an energetic tune. kevin drew asked the whole audience to scream. all together. i screamed so much that no sound came out of my mouth anymore. yeah, that was fun.

i took a picture of the setlist. it does not include the encore, which consisted of kevin drew's solo version of "lover's spit", something by apostle of hustle, and a couple of other songs.

[i had forgotten that my camera captures video only in the horizontal orientation...]

that annoying thing at shows, when an idiot sings along loudly, and butchers a song? i've not experienced that until tonight. some girl (unsuccessfully) tried to push her way in front of me, then proceeded to sing along to "anthems for a seventeen year-old girl" loudly near my ear. afterwards, she managed to squeeze into the non-space next to me, such that whenever she danced, she was rubbing against my side. hmph.

~~~

cd purchases: i got the two bss albums that i was missing: "feel good lost" and "bee hives".

hearing damage: bss are not loud. but their show was. slight hearing loss. i should be fine by tomorrow.

~~~

Labels: broken social scene, cd purchase, land of talk, metropolis, shows