The Hives w/The Donnas & The Hits @ Commodore Ballroom - Feb 22/08

Lights dimmed. "The Hives" red neon sign snaps on. The Hives file in quietly and quickly in the dark, and launch right in with 'You Got It All...Wrong', with Pelle Almqvist skidding up to the microphone stand just in time for the first vocal. An exciting, choreographed start that sets the tone for the next hour: the sonic equivalent of the first half of Trainspotting. No letting up -- go, go, go!

Nattily dressed in matching black suits with white trim sporting crests with The Hives' logo, and diagonally striped black and white ties, they look like cheeky school boys. I'm reminded of Malcolm McDowell from the movie If.

A few songs in and the heat is rising; the jackets and ties come off to reveal black shirts. Almqvist is throwing the mic stand around and snapping it back to him with the cord. Nicholas Arson, as much a showman as Almqvist, is zipping around making faces at the audience. And drummer, Chris Dangerous, stands up clapping vigorously, encouraging the audience to clap along. We don't need much prodding; the dancefloor is bouncing and arms are flailing.

Almqvist chatted to the audience almost constantly throughout their set reveling in his megalomaniacal yet instantly endearing persona: "I love you. We love you. You love us. Hello Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada!" Amusingly, he referenced our full location three times in his Swedish accent, introducing 'Die, All Right' by saying "Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Canadoo, Canadeye, CanISing, CanIDie, Can I Die All Right."

If you haven't sensed it already, The Hives put on one hell of a live show. This may be the best show I've seen in 2008, and I would love to see them again. The songs come fast and furious, Pelle whipping his head from left to right and back, hair flying, hand jauntily on hip a la Jagger, with leg kicks thrown in to emphasize a beat. They faithfully reproduce the sound of their albums with the clean, sharp sound and tapping urgency. Of course, the stellar Commodore sound system helped with this.

Setlist:

You Got It All...Wrong
Try It Again
Square One Here I Come
Die, All Right!
A Little More For Little You
Walk Idiot Walk
You Dress Up For Armageddon
No Pun Intended
Diabolic Scheme
Won't Be Long
Main Offender
Tick Tick Boom
Encore:
Bigger Hole to Fill
Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones
Return the Favour

Video Clip from February 22, 2008

The Hives - 'You Got It All...Wrong'

Pinback w/MC Chris @ Richard's on Richards - Feb 15/08

When Pinback played Richard's on Richards in February, they were suffering from colds and initially out of tune. And although I don't think it was a great show, I have to say I would gladly see them again if given the opportunity.

Playing mainly material from their 2007 Autumn of the Seraphs album, Pinback was able to recreate the beauty of their recorded music for the assembled crowd. And for a group of mainly 20-somethings, the crowd was somewhat diverse: the expected indie hipster types, baseball cap sporting hip hoppers there for the opener MC Chris, some moshers, and the bookish girls who discovered Pinback on an OC soundtrack on stools circling the balcony, flanked by their harmless-looking boyfriends.

My musician friend pointed out Zach Smith chording on his bass, and after that I was aware that Pinback certainly seem to be all about the bass. Two are featured on some of the songs and bass duties are shared among Smith, Rob Crow and one of their touring musicians. Smith plays bass exclusively and is the higher voice on vocals; the heavily-bearded Crow standing behind a keyboard for the perrformance, switches between that, guitar and bass and does the remaining vocals. Two backing musicians play guitars and keyboards on either side of the Pinback duo when needed and the group is rounded out by the drummer.

Pinback play their set at sped-up tempos making for a more energetic show than you may imagine from listening to them at home. And I was delighted to find the sound was just as pretty and transporting.

Within the 16 song setlist, thoroughly covering the album they're touring to support, Pinback also played a half dozen songs from their earlier albums, including 'Non Photo-Blue' and the best-known song 'Fortress' (welcomed by high-pitched eruptions from the balcony) from the 2004 Summer in Abaddon, 'Penelope' from 2001's Blue Screen Life, and a lone song, 'Loro', from their 1999 debut Pinback.

I know they weren't playing their best on this night, but they still made a bigger fan of me than I was going in. The show gave me an inkling into how good Pinback likely are when in top form, and I hope to have that pleasure one day in the future.

Setlist:

Bouquet
Torch
Non Photo-Blue
Penelope
Good To Sea
How We Breathe
Walters
Devil You Know
Subbing For Eden
Microtonic Wave
(something I didn't recognize)
B
From Nothing To Nowhere
Encore:
Loro
Fortress
AFK

Video Clip from February 15, 2008

Pinback - 'Fortress' (captured from the balcony):

Editors/Hot Hot Heat @ The Commodore Ballroom - Feb 5, 2008

A little thrown off by an earlier start time due to it being a weekday show, the three band lineup, and a friend who needed a smoke or two before the show, I managed to miss the openers, Louis XIV. I’d been really looking forward to seeing them, but will soon be able to rectify this when they come back to town on March 28.
The first thing I noticed when Hot Hot Heat took the stage is the new lighting system at the Commodore. Vibrant colours light the stage and the musicians from a myriad of spotlights adding to the spectacle of the performances and the mood of each song played.
Hot Hot Heat are immediately energetic despite the initially tame crowd. Originally from Victoria, but now based in Vancouver, they are currently recording an album in town, and the singer tells us they're happy to be home.
Steve Bays warns us that his doctor advised him to take two weeks off for his voice, but he declares "we wouldn't let Vancouver down!" Despite the good intentions, his voice does sound weak at times and even fades away to nothing at others. Hot Hot Heat cut their set short, but have still managed to get the fans warmed up.



Hot Hot Heat's approximate Setlist:
Dirty Mouth
Harmonicas and Tambourines
Oh, Godamnit
No, Not Now
Middle of Nowhere
Goodnight, Goodnight
Bandages
My Best Friend
Talk to Me, Dance with Me


I never got around to writing a review on the Editors (this is added in 2018). My memory is of a pretty dull show, but enjoyable music. I believe they were wearing suits, which has changed over the years. There wasn't much audience interaction or showmanship. But the lights and sound were good as this was the Commodore. I recall loving hearing the Editors music live and that it was very faithful to the recorded versions.

Setlist (very partial):
Smokers Outside the Hospital Dorrs
The Racing Rats
An End Has a Start
Munich

Yeasayer/MGMT @ The Bourbon - Feb 1/08

This is the first show I've been to at The Bourbon, and while the door staff were polite and doing the best job they could, I wasn't too impressed with anything else about the venue.
Doors were supposed to open at 8pm for a 9pm show, but with delays for sound checks, we had to stand in the cold with the assembled 20-something hipsters until almost nine o'clock. The boys were shaggy and sensitive-looking, the girls, safe and smart.
It was not a diverse crowd, although I did spot one Mohawk in the crowd later. But this is getting par for the course at Vancouver shows: spot the token "punk".

When MGMT finally took the stage at 9:30pm, the 400-capacity venue made it easy to get close up to the band, but the stage is awkwardly positioned in the middle of the room facing the opposite near wall in a long room. The sight-lines are not great for the entire room, only for the 200 audience members standing between the pillars closest to the stage, or just up the steps at the back third of the room.
MGMT were the reason I wanted to see this show, so I was pretty eager to see how they'd do. They began with their best-known song, "Time To Pretend", which they just performed on Letterman (Jan 8). While MGMT consist of Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, their touring band has five members, including a bassist who stuck around out front after to watch Yeasayer's set. Andrew who announced "It's my birthday today. I'm 25", is front and centre on guitar and vocals, and Ben is tucked away behind the keyboards. Another guitarist and drummer round out the touring setup.
It wasn't a spectacular performance and the sound was a little fuzzy, but it was a nice introduction to this young band, and an audience member echoed this feeling with a screamed "thank you for coming to Vancouver". It was a short set, perhaps cut short by the initial delays, and I was a little disappointed not to hear "Kids" or "Boogie Down" off their "Time To Pretend" EP. But they are touring to support their debut full-length album "Oracular Spectacular", and understandably focused on that material.
So many things about this band make me think of Ween, and to be clear, I'm a huge Ween fan. From their videos and artwork, to the intelligent but intentionally unselfconscious lunacy, I was hoping more of that feel would make it into the live show, and it didn't. Opening bands often have to pare down their live presentations to fit into someone else's tour, so when MGMT come through as a headliner, you can be sure I'll be there.

Both bands come from Brooklyn, but in contrast to MGMT, the front-man of Yeasayer, Chris Keating, was much chattier and more personable. The four-member band were squeezed onto the very small Bourbon stage along with two keyboards positioned sideways, one distractingly sitting atop a lumber-jacket style checked blanket, and the drumset behind. Anand Wilder also had a guitar to contend with in front of his keyboard, but they all managed.
Yeasayer began with "Final Path", while not on their new album "All Hour Cymbals", it's a song similar to their well-known "2080" in vision. "2080" itself was another highlight for me, but my favourite moment of the show came from Ira Wolf Tuton, the bass-player, and his vocals on "Sunrise". It was like a Middle-Eastern chant, fast, repetitive and hypnotic. I was utterly transfixed and transported. As their MySpace page says "Enya with balls" indeed!
Chris Keating humourously shared with us that his girlfriend is from Vancouver and she recommended to him a restaurant located in Blood Alley. Even coming from Brooklyn, he said he was amazed to pay $45 for a salad when he had to step over a guy shooting heroin in order to get inside. He added "it was a good salad though". Just before 11:30pm, and before we filed out past pissed-off looking clubbers lined up outside, the lead singer thanked his Vancouver friends once more and Yeasayer gave the cheering room a brief encore.
I wasn't a Yeasayer fan before this show, but as I knew I'd be seeing them, I brushed up on their music, beyond the familiar-to-me "2080". And to be honest, I was a bit wary of how world-music/new-agey they may come off. But, even in such a small, unimpressive live venue, I was impressed by their heart and musicianship, and would consider seeing them somewhere else in the future. Yeasayer make their influences their own with new and unique results, and I will definitely be listening to "All Hour Cymbals" and any new releases as they appear.

Partial Setlist

Yeasayer
Final Path
Sunrise
2080
Wait For the Summer
Wait For the Wintertime

MGMT
Time to Pretend
Weekend Wars
Electric Feel
Pieces of What
The Handshake


Video Clips from February 1, 2008

Yeasayer - "Sunrise"


MGMT 24 Seconds with...

A Fresh Space for Concert Reviews

I'm going to several concerts a month.
I started taking crappy cellphone pics to remember them by and sharing them on Facebook. Then I wanted to duplicate the setlists on my Media Player, so started taking some brief notes. These notes have expanded to almost-reviews of the shows. So, I've decided to mint a fresh space for the sole purpose of writing reviews of the concerts I'm going to.
As a music junkie and frustrated (or lazy) writer, this seems like a natural progression for me. It should inspire me to complete the reviews I'm almost writing now and polish my writing.
If you're reading this, it means I'm ready for some feedback or comfortable enough with the results so far to share.
Welcome!