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By Lisa F. - Nostalgia for the Present - 02/11/2005

February 11th was to be the third time I have had the opportunity to experience a Neko Case performance. The first time I saw her, she played an intimate show at a small venue in Arizona; the second time she played for thousands from the central stage of the Sasquatch Music Festival in George, Washington. During each of these performances, she seemed to have a mesmerizing power over her audiences. Even at the Sasquatch Music Festival, I recall her voice carrying over to the second stage where Pedro the Lion had just finished playing prompting a massive migration of teenagers to the center of the venue as they murmured in wonder amongst themselves: “who’s that?”.

February 11th failed to disappoint and proved to present quite a different show than I had expected. Admittedly, after listening to her most recent record The Tigers Have Spoken, a compilation of live performances from shows in Toronto and Chicago, I was hopefully foreshadowing a bit more rock n' roll than I’d seen before. For if listening to Neko Case jamming with the Sadies on my walkman while waiting on the Guy-Concordia metro platform with some half-crazed man lying on the floor doing sit-ups as a team of police questioned his motives can keep my toes tapping and a smile on my face, I figured that I should probably wear my dancing shoes to the Friday night show and refrain from hovering around the sit-down folks at Club Soda.

Dancing shoes definitely proved to be the way to go.

Visqueen, a Seattle indie-rock band, opened the evening. Unfortunately, on account of unprecedented problems with a certain smoke alarm that likes to go off at the most inconvenient times in my apartment, my friends and I arrived at the end of the band’s set, only catching the last two songs Visqueen performed. I wasn’t overly impressed with the music I heard (I mean everyone was waiting for Neko Case), but I certainly wouldn’t ignore their potential. Their music was catchy and they held an appropriate confidence, the kind that lacks arrogance.

I guess it would have been pretty difficult to appear arrogant when you’ve got a band like The Sadies performing after yours. This was the first time I’d seen The Sadies and let’s just say that my predilection for Neko Case was slightly threatened. As I’m sure nearly everyone who was at the concert would agree, The Sadies stole the night. The energy that swept through the air as they began their set was uncompromising. It was true rock n' roll accented with that perfect touch of distinctive surf country sound, the kind of music that makes you forget there’s snow and prostitution just outside the front doors of Club Soda.

When Neko Case appeared, the audience seemed to be securely contented by The Sadies and it looked as if it would have been nearly impossible to interrupt the vibe. Neko Case did an excellent job performing her set, especially considering that she was battling a cold during the performance. The set was concise, but personally I didn’t mind. She played all of the songs from The Tigers Have Spoken and her collaborations with the Sadies brought a dimension to her performance that I had never encountered (besides through the speakers of my CD player). Fast trains, tigers, dresses in soulful shades of blue, wayfaring strangers, and Loretta... Neko Case has captured it all. (And to those people who were just standing still in the audience: I do not think you are human) Case’s voice radiated over the strings and drums of the songs. But this time, besides just mesmerizing, the music was intoxicating (and no, it wasn’t just the Southern Comfort). The performance reinforced the strength and variety of the singer. I only look forward to hearing more of her work with The Sadies in the years to come.

This was the kind of show that reminds you of how much you love music. By far, the best concert of the new year.

[Tune in to Nostalgia For The Present every Monday 3pm-5pm]

By Angelica - BVST - 02/16/2005

This was THE night for celebrating the best that the Montreal stoner rock scene has to offer. Tickets were cheap, beer was flowin' freely, and "paraphernalia" was handed out at the door, so the crowd was definitely ready to get down, and they weren't disappointed.

Absolu took the stage first. What a surprise. This band definitely delivered, all thick, grinding guitars and big, fat redneck riffs, perfect for pole dancing. The ass shakin' continued on a faithful, if slightly grungified French language cover of “She” by Kiss. Of course, at that point I was fully sold. Slow and greasy, this is rock'n'roll done right, and I look forward to seeing them again..

I've been enjoying High on Fire's latest Blessed Black Wings over the past couple of weeks, marveling at their no-bullshit steamroller approach to stoner rock. Medusa Head Trip are very much in this same vein: all dirty, freewheeling rock songs that thunder onward relentlessly. The heavy stoner riffs are there, but they're a little speedier, a little grittier. Plus, these guys are all about fast cars and faster women, so what is not to love?

Floating Widget are somewhat less accessible than the previous bands, with more complex song structures, and a more "traditional" stoner sound, but it was on their more "punk" (their word, not mine) inspired tracks that they truly dominated. Olivier Comtois' vocals were awesome that night, which is remarkable, seeing as I find that the singer is often the Achilles' heel of many great stoner bands. Of course, he could have cut down on the heavy breathing between songs, but now I'm just splitting hairs.

I've seen 2004 Montreal Emergenza winners Pete Möss before, and once again I was left... uninspired. This is more cock rock than stoner rock, and while I enjoy balls out rock'n'roll as much, if not more, than the next person, I find Pete Möss soulless. The riffs are heavy and the choruses are catchy, but like a Mickey D's cheeseburger, they're empty and unsatisfying and leave you hungering for something real. Pay some more dues before printing up all those boy-cut panties, boys.

Unfortunately, I didn't stick around for Squalor's set, despite the fact that they were the reason I decided to attend in the first place. However, because I have seen them on many different occasions, I can confidently say that they killed. These guys have been doing this forever, and their loaded, spacey instrumentals always satisfy, and I doubt that this night was any exception, unfortunately for me. Damn you, day job.

[Tune in to BVST every Thursday from 6pm to 8pm]

By Mikey B - The Lonesome Stranger - 02/19/2005

After a few years of hearing just how good Tegan and Sara are, I finally got a chance to see for myself whether or not they were worth the hype. This happened on Saturday when I busted my ass to get to “La Tulipe”. Actually, I got a lift to the show, but I assure you that this place is still pretty out of the way. Luckily my friend Franck’s apartment is three blocks from the place, so he ended up being my date for the night. He and his ex Amelie are the ones that have been raving about T&S to me for years, so it was nice to go to the show with a big fan. Even though I’ve been to most every concert venue in Montreal, I did rather enjoy the coziness of La Tulipe. Small, intimate and as a walked in, I had just noticed the way the stage lights blended in perfectly with the second hand smoke. Very pretty.

Opening for the duo was a three-piece from Toronto named Lindy. Simply put, they were a breath of fresh air from the usual mediocre opening acts. Armed with an acoustic guitar and a sweet set of pipes, frontman Lindy Vopnfjord serenaded the crowd for a good 45 minutes of sweet organic folk rock. If Thom Yorke had a 7-foot tall Swedish cousin, it’d be this guy. Their voices and vocal ranges are very similar, but yeah, let’s not compare Lindy to Radiohead here. Anyways, for future reference, these guys are definitely worth checking out.

During the break, my friends and I basically just waited on the floor for Tegan and Sara to come out. These are the moments that seem to last forever, although this time it went by pretty quickly. Usually, clubs will play music during intermissions and most of the time it’s pretty lousy (although the Metropolis does play the Clash a lot). Anyways, I was able to listen to some great songs, most notably by the Flaming Lips, the Sounds and the Weakerthans. Finally, after a long wait, surrounded by short girls who wouldn’t find me attractive, those crazy Thompson Twins took to the stage. Hey, the real Thompson Twins weren’t even twins; they were three people who look creepy as all hell. Yes, I know, the Thompson Twins reference is completely unjustified, my bad.

Now, like most bands out promoting a new CD, Tegan & Sara’s setlist was comprised mostly of songs from their new highly acclaimed album So Jealous. Pity for me, and like many of the people there, So Jealous was the first album I’ve listened to in its entirety. I was pretty impressed; there’s a real vulnerability in their songs that’s just so sweet and encompassing. They mesh great love songs, with a sort of general insecurity about themselves, which is revealing and at the same time truly genuine. Seeing them up on stage, one gets the feeling of true authenticity with this band. They just seem like two real sisters that love to joke around and play music. There was a lot of great onstage banter between the sisters and the audience. Sara now lives in Montreal, and she had been telling us about her party that no one came to. The sisters were also busy pimping off other members of the band (Chris Carlson, Rob Chursinoff and Ted Gowans) and when they weren’t doing that, they were making fun of each other.

Before hearing their new record, I’d heard a couple of songs off their earlier records: “If It Was You” and “This Business Called Art”. They didn’t play too much from either album, but I wasn’t all that disappointed. If I were a longtime T&S fan, I think I might’ve been a little frustrated with the lack of oldies. My buddy Franck, who hadn’t listened to the new album, was a little downtrodden. I had asked him to help me out with the setlist since I didn’t know the band all that well. He was able to name 2 or 3 songs, and this guy has seen them at least 10 times over the last few years! Personal faves that were played were “I Bet It Stung”, “Where Does The Good Go” and “So Jealous”. The song “Monday, Monday, Monday” drew a pretty good response from the crowd, and well, it was one of the only earlier recordings I was able to decipher. During the encore, the sisters played an absolutely sparkling version of “Dancing In The Dark”, which capped off a terrific show.

[Mikey co-hosts The Lonesome Stranger on CJLO with Spanky G every Tuesday noon-2pm]

By Mikey B - The Lonesome Stranger - 02/12/2005

I can specifically remember working on a crisp late summer day in Fairview. It’s those kinds of days where the slightest thing would piss you off… People who know me best know that it takes a lot to piss me off. I can take most physical and verbal abuse and still have a pseudo-smile on my face. This particular day at HMV, however, just killed my spirit. Not because of co-workers, and surprisingly not because of jerk-off customers, but because of the store playlist.

When I had first started working at HMV over two years ago, rules over the playlist were pretty fair. We could play anything we had in the store, provided that there were five copies of it in the store, and there was no extreme profanity… not too shabby. A few months went by, and the rules became slightly stricter. No shorts and no hats allowed, but most importantly, we had no control over what we could listen to in the store. HMV bigwigs would start sending us various compilation CDs: Rap, Pop Rock, Francophone, Adult Contemporary crap… it was all on about four CDs that we listened to NON FUCKING STOP day in and day out. Along with those comps, we also had the choice of playing a cd from a pre-selected group of 20. Most of those CDs would be things like:

• Les Cowboys Fringants
• The Killers
• Black Eyed Peas
• Avril Lavigne
• Hilary Duff

On this particular day, I lost it. And I lost it when I heard what I thought was a Travis song. It was Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know“ and not only did it sound like a Travis song, it sounded like an OLD Travis song! I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I figured these guys basically ripped off a melody from Travis’ 1999 album, The Man Who. Which song though !?!? Goddamn it, I’m listening to the album right now and I still can’t figure it out, so why did this piss me off? I don’t know. You tend to lose it at the worst, most unexplainable time. Like when an old lady asks for directions to the nearest pay phone or when your neighbor’s daughter knocks at your door cause she’s selling BATTERIES for smoke detectors so she can raise money for Girl Guides. WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THOSE SHITTY FUCKING COOKIES !?!?!

What’s really unusual about this all, is that I actually really do enjoy Keane’s music. Although my first encounter with them was overly hostile, I’ve managed to get past it. My second encounter with them was when the lovely Miss Ginger offered me six tickets to see the show. This was back when I had only heard that one song, and I referred to them as “the band that sounds like Travis”. Super sweet! There’s nothing more awesome than being able to treat your friends to see a live show, at least that’s the way I see things. I love spending a Saturday night in Montreal at the Metropolis hangin’ out with a bunch of music geeks. Holy shit, there was a LOT of them!

Accompanying me to the show was Pointe Claire’s own hardcore drunk rocker Kevin, decked out in his Slayer T-shirt. We then met up with our sexy friend Amelie, who was most definetly turning some heads that night due to her high hotness factor. Kevin and I gauged our arrival time pretty well, since we caught most of the second opening band called The Zutons. These guys were from Liverpool and put on a reasonably good show. It’s tough to classify them under, well, any genre. There were songs that had a great stripped-down indie sound, mixed in with some funkyness and a little bit of ska upstrokes (which worked… sometimes), and heck, there was even a song that would’ve been perfect as the theme to a game show! These guys were pretty good, and I can see that musically, they have yet to find a particular style that fits them comfortably, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing… they’re young.

Right after the Zutons set, people flooded the floor to get ready to see Keane. It was pretty weird, having been used to going to see punk bands. You can usually just make it to the front of the stage whenever you want by just pushing through people. Well, I didn’t plan on doing that tonight. WAY TOO MANY BIG TOUGH GUYS that you’d expect to be hangin’ out at The Dôme picking up 17-year-olds. I swear, I must’ve smelled 20 different colognes in the same night! It was, for the most part, a very GQ crowd. I’m guessing the last show most of these people saw was Sting a couple months back…. yeccchh !

So is Keane the new “In” band for the thirtysomethings ? Well, the fourtysomethings have Michael Buble and Josh Groban and all senile old fogies seem to love that Daniel O’Donnell guy (I mean, no wonder… he has a PBS special just about every goddamn week!). Keane is catering well to a wide array of demographics, but I see them having more of an impact with the late 20’s, early 30’s music fans.

All demographics and comparisons aside, Keane’s performance was one that made the night just that much brighter. In the past few years, we’ve been exposed to minimalistic bands like The White Stripes, The Black Keys and Death From Above 1979, two-pieces that come out with a sound that defies all logic. Keane manage to do just the same with three members: one pianist, one overly eccentric drummer and one babyfaced vocalist. You wouldn’t know it if you listened to their album or if you were at the show with a blindfold on.

Usually, the live performance (for me) is what makes or breaks my total impression of a band. I saw The Vines play this year and they were by far the worst live performance I’ve ever seen. Keane was one of the most comforting live shows I’ve seen in the last 12 months. Aside from being cast as Coldplay/Radiohead wannabees, these guys provide the perfect soundtrack to a makeout session or an episode of The O.C. Songs like “We Might As Well Be Strangers” and “Everybody’s Changing” were two of the hard hitters while “Somewhere Only We Know” provided the only real sing-along of the night. When they played their song “Your Eyes Open”, I could’ve sworn that they borrowed their entire piano melody from Radiohead’s 2004 single “There There”. Give ’em both a listen and tell me I’m not crazy.

Now only having one CD under their belt, most of the set list was pretty much predictable, aside from some new song that sent the crowd into hysteria. I can recall some girls yelling out, “we want to have your babies, Tom!”. That’s something that’s always hilarious to hear. Hey, remember what used to be hilarious? Yelling out “Freebird”. Nowadays, I swear, the next jock idiot that yells out “Freebird” during a show is gonna get a face full of knuckles and a crotch full of converse. Anyway, it was during their song “Bedshaped” that the Metropolis became eerily quiet; you could’ve heard people blinking! All eyes focused squarely on Tom Choplin as he swayed back ‘n forth. Now, lucky for me, Amelie happened to know the owner of the Metropolis, and he led us backstage to watch most of Keane’s performance. In fact, we got to sit up in that VIP balcony. It was at that particular moment that I turned to Amelie and said “here come the cell phones…”. And there I was, looking down on a virtual sea of neon blue and green lights being waved in the air by a buncha yuppies. I was tempted to throw pennies from the balcony, but decided not to ruin this moment of glowing tranquility. I know smoking is unpopular, but can’t we have lighters at shows instead? If it means taking up smoking, I’m all up for it.

I enjoyed the last few songs of the night by the bar in the back of the venue. Talked to a few record company reps which happened to be at the show, jazzed it up with my friends Meg & Mel and then got a lift home with my friend Dave. No partying for me, I was working at 8am, jacking up the cost of CDs and whatnot. I hate Sundays. Still, that day I ended up buying the Keane CD and it’s well worth it.

[Mikey co-hosts The Lonesome Stranger on CJLO with Spanky G every Tuesday noon-2pm]