[...music...]

2010-06-25

on tuesday this week, i went to the ted leo show at il motore, as part of the suoni per il popolo festival. it was my second time in that venue, my fourth time seeing that band.

the opening band was screaming females, from new brunswick, new jersey. wow, that vocalist can really yell! they were alright. i feel like standard indie rock stuff doesn't impress me so much anymore.

the space in front of the stage quickly filled up for ted leo's set. i never realized how scarily skinny the dude is. the band had good energy. stage banter was so-so; i know he's done better. at least, he got to practice his french. i must say, the sound was not great; the guitars were so loud that they drowned out the vocals throughout the set. it was disappointing in that aspect.

but i was quite happy about the mix of old and new songs. when i realized how many old hits they were playing, i was hoping they would play "timorous me" from one of their really early albums. but they didn't during their regular set. still, i had a good time, especially during the older favourites, such as "where have all the rudeboys gone?", "me and mia", and "counting down the hours".

so my memory is quite poor. here are the tracks i remember:

from "the tyranny of distance" (2001):
- dial up

from "the hearts of oak" (2003):
- where have all the rudeboys gone?

from "shake the sheets" (2004):
- me and mia
- counting down the hours

from "living with the living" (2007):
- ???

from "the brutalist bricks" (2010):
- the mighty sparrow
- even heroes have to die
- bottled in cork
- one polaroid a day
- where was my brain?

for the encore, ted leo returned to the stage solo, wearing a t-shirt with "happy 400th, quebec". haha, cool. he played a new song, then a cover. finally, he played "timorous me" and the band joined in. best way to finish! exactly as i had hoped for.

~~~

Labels: il motore, shows, ted leo

2010-03-06

north of america @ il motore

[oops, been a little behind on my blogging...]

last week, blue skies turn black celebrated their 10-year anniversary with three nights at il motore. the gazette did a story on them.

i went to the third show, on saturday (february 27), with ryan. it was my first time at il motore. i liked the place; small and warm, it has a similar feel to the sala rossa.

there were four bands on the lineup, three of which were playing a reunion show that night. we got there early, as the doors were opening. during the wait time, they spinned mostly punk rock, stuff i used to listen to back in cegep (i recognized some propagandhi and fugazi). ah, memories.

unsurprisingly, the show started a half-hour later than listed. the first band to play were thundrah. it was a mix of indie/experimental/jazzy/electro rock. i liked it. i'd never seen anyone use a telephone like that before.

the second band to play was spengler. it was good, but more of the standard guitar-bass-drums kind of sound. after a while, i found it a bit boring...

the only reason i was there was to see north of america's reunion show. i first heard about them when they opened for ted leo back in 2005, where i had bought their last album, and ended up loving it. i hadn't listened to that album in a long time, until giving it a spin a few days before the show. ah, good memories.

i never use flash at shows because the flash on point-and-shoot cameras give a weird glow. but i happened to take this shot just as some guy's high-end flash went off, and the picture turned out good:

as expected, north of america gave an energetic performance. from the response, the crowd obviously loved them. stage banter was good; they made a joke about "the next one's from the new album!" and about being older. also, i found this youtube video where they mentioned that someone flew in from los angeles and from japan to see this show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDTlzqxtIF0

i only recognized a few songs, the ones from the last album. i was right in front of the stage, close enough to see the intended setlist:
wet to dance
cities and plans
let's get sick to our stomachs
now you've got your doctorate
fuck (repeating)
keep it on the download
font crimes
revolt on revolution
the fix is in
route of sorts
central port of...
speech is an...
rough draft korea
killed in the ratings

but after "the fix is in", they realized they only had 15 minutes left, so they cut out a couple of songs. out of those five last songs, they only played three, but i didn't recognize any of them, as they were all from the first album. still they ended up playing an hour-long set.

i would have liked for them to play a bit longer, but there was one last band on the lineup: rockets red glare. unfortunately, this show coincided with the nuit blanche events, so i had to miss the last band to meet up with friends downtown.

before leaving, i checked out the merch table. north of america had some cassette tapes on sale. i guess there's still a demand for tapes in the diy scene?

~~~

hearing damage: thundrah and spengler were loud. i had cheap foam earplugs that were not sufficient to block out the low bass vibrations. surprisingly, north of america's set was not as loud as i expected, so i was able to enjoy their set without earplugs.

~~~

Labels: il motore, north of america, shows