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BUILT TO SPILL @ Le Tulipe
By Cody Hicks - Breakfast of Champions - 07/12/2007
I have a long, strange relationship with the music of Built to Spill. It’s based on three classic principals of youth: road trips, high school and pot smoking. Now that I’ve outgrown two of those three things and have no access to a car, listening to Built to Spill has ceased.
As an obsessive vinyl collector I have recently been purchasing albums of theirs, just based on the fact that they were cheap, and available. I think I threw Keep it Like a Secret on the table once for posterity’s sake, but other than that, the sounds of a scruffy Neil Young imitator just haven’t done it for me ever since I quit smoking pot.
But, the show was amazing and I had a great time, but I felt out of place. When going to a Built to Spill show, one must realize that their hey-day was ten years ago. I felt about ten years younger than most of the crowd and I even saw a few kids on their father’s shoulders in the audience.
The only concert goers to move a muscle were a group of frat boys doing the Barenaked Ladies head-bob dance while playing air guitar and flubbing the lyrics in their meathead moshpit. And, I don’t know how old Doug Martsch is, but he looked as stoic as an old soul on stage. He barely moved a muscle apart from his bobbing Joe Strummer leg and nimble wizard hands.
That guy makes axe-slinging look easy. Doug Martsch is a bona-fide indie-guitar-god, and he dealt out meaty riff after meaty riff with gusto. I used to dream of the day when Doug Martsch and J Mascis finally had the flaming guitar duel for the Neil Young’s dirty guitar-hero throne.
I was a little worried after listening to the double-live Built to Spill record, in which there are two twenty minute songs. As a rule, I hate jam bands. Phish make me want to puke all over myself. Thankfully, it seems that BTS have reeled themselves in a bit and the jams were economical and only the final few minutes of the encore ("Randy Described Eternity") left me bored and zoned out.
I was also wary of the setlist. Since their peak in 1999 with Keep it Like a Secret, Built to Spill have been on a real slope into mediocrity. Despite opening with a track from their new album, "You in Reverse", they ignored their two most recent records almost entirely. I was thrilled to hear some of the killer guitar-workouts from Perfect From Now On and I nearly lost my shot when they played some of pop jams from my personal favourite, "There’s Nothing Wrong with Love".
I actually lost my shit when they launched into a blazing cover of "Third Uncle" by Brian Eno, which is as furious as I could imagine Built to Spill ever getting.
Ultimately, I’m a little torn over the show. On one hand, they played all my favourite songs, and that made me grin. On the other hand, it was like seeing some classic rock dinosaurs show up and play a greatest hits compilation onstage. And that’s sad.
But, in spite of the frat boys, "Carry the Zero" is still one hell of a make-out jam and Built to Spill do classic rock better than most these days.
ALBERT HAMMOND JR. + The Dead Trees @ La Tulipe
By Katie Seline - Wrong Side of the Bed - 06/12/2007
Somewhere between the beginning of my love for non-pop music and my discovery of such wonders as the drum machine, synthesizer, ridiculously loud guitars, overly fast kicking of bass drums and screaming, intense vocals (not the emo or screamo kind but the kind that tells me that a singer is really, intensely passionate about what he is singing), I seem to have lost my love for basic rock ‘n roll.
I had known something was up a while ago when I was constantly flipping through my computer play list that was set to shuffle. It was only at the Albert Hammond Jr. show at La Tulipe on June 12th; however, that I really understood what was going on.
To be fair, I was fresh off of an incredibly intense weekend of fabulous music at Toronto’s NXNE music festival which ended the day before the show. Maybe I was tired, maybe I was biased, but something about Hammond’s show just didn’t do it for me.
The whole evening was quite odd as I arrived at La Tulipe, on of my favorite venues, right around 8:30 pm thinking I’d still be able to catch some of the opening band. Of course, I was wrong, because for some reason someone decided it was a good idea to start a 2 band line up show right at eight o’clock. With that said, The Dead Trees already had their stuff cleaned up off the stage and Albert Hammond Jr. was ready to go at 8:45. Who headlines a show and starts that early?
Hammond started off his set quite well and I was happy to see three guitar players and one bass player. His lead guitar player was incredible and when they all played in tandem the sound was amazing! However this novelty got old quite fast when only one or two guitar players would play while the other moved on to light keyboard or just vocals. Maybe the stuff is just a bit too poppy for me, but I’m assuming not since I did really enjoy the album, Yours to Keep.
Being the former guitar player (sometimes lead guitar player) for The Strokes, Hammond’s set really felt like a lighter, watered down version of one that would be performed by The Strokes. I guess if that was the case, I just really felt like the set needed to be louder and that there needed to be more edge, more raspy vocals familiar to Julian Casablancas’. Don’t get me wrong, the set was solid and musically and technically perfect but, simply put, it bored me. Having only one album, they whipped through all the songs in under an hour, and then when asked back for an encore, announced that they had already played all of the stuff that they had. Hammond decided to play a song that he had just written acoustically, which was good, and you could tell that once the rest of the guitar and drum parts were written, that it would be a great song.
The show was over by 10 pm, which in all honesty, suited me just fine.
- Catch Wrong Side Of Te Bed every Wednesday from 5 to 7 pm ET only on CJLO!
THE NATIONAL + Shapes and Sizes @ Cabaret Juste Pour Rire
By The Jay of Spades - Faster, Leonard Cohen Die! Die! - 06/04/2007
Listening to recordings of Brooklyn, NY quintet The National can sometimes be like watching a really good slow thriller film, like the Coen brother’s Blood Simple or Hitchcock’s Rearwindow; it can seem at times like things are moving a bit slowly, until you realize you haven’t blinked in 47 minutes and you don’t want to get up to pee even though you’re on your sixth mocha latte. The National’s music exudes a sort of quiet intensity that is detectable on first listen, but is only really discovered and appreciated after several times through.
When put on stage and behind lights and microphones, this quiet intensity comes out into the foreground as the main ingredient of the music. Just like the great slow thriller films, The National don’t rely on flashiness or contrived stage theatrics to achieve a connection with their audience, but rather on genuine earnestness and personality.
As soon as the band took the stage of the near-capacity Cabaret Juste Pour Rire, the audience was enthralled, hanging on every note, and every word from singer Matt Berringer, who delivered a very personal, heart-on-sleeve performance. Playing a mix of songs from their new album The Boxer, as well as selections from previous albums, it was clear that The National have a very enthusiastic and devoted following. T the crowd sang along to new tracks “Fake Empire” and “Mistaken for Strangers,” as well as favourites “Baby We’ll Be Fine” and “Abel” from their 2005 album Alligator.
Behind Berringer, the rest of the band played a tight but subdued set, which kept the focus on the front man’s vocal and lyrical energy. Brother sets Scott and Bryan Devendorf and Aaron and Bryce Dessner were joined by unofficial sixth member Padma Newsom, an Australian composer who arranged the orchestral element on The Boxer. Newsom energized the band with some incredibly enthusiastic violin playing.
The set continued on with a consistent level of energy, until the last song of their set, when things boiled over with a spirited performance of “Mr. November,” a standout track from Alligator. Like the final climax scene in a film, everything seemed to click and come together. Berringer attacked the song, thrusting his microphone with each word, as if to force every little bit of energy he had into it. His voice strained and cracked, he sang from the floor to the ceiling, he stood up on the amps and monitors... and the audience loved it. The band left the stage to a roaring applause, only to come back for the now obligatory, but in this case heartfelt encore.
Opening act Shapes and Sizes. held their own, performing a well-received set of angular jazz-folk-infused indie-pop/rock (for lack of a better way to describe them). The Montreal-via-Victoria, B.C. quartet, featuring Caila Thompson-Hannat, Jon Crellin, Nathan Gage and Rory Seydel are currently touring in support of their upcoming self-titled album, to be released in July on American indie label Asthmatic Kitty.
Not to belittle the performance of Shapes and Sizes, but this night really was about The National. The last time they played Montreal, it was as the opening act for The Cloud Room at the less-than-regal Main Hall venue. It was definitely their turn to be the hero in this one. And like any great film, nobody left the theatre until the final credits rolled, the lights came on and the 16-year-old employees started sweeping up the popcorn, jelly beans and milk duds off the floor.
THE TWILIGHT SINGERS + Afterhours @ Cabaret (Musée Juste Pour Rire )
By Omar Husain - Hooked On Sonics - 05/27/2006
The last time Greg Dulli ever performed (or set foot) in Montreal was in 1998, touring in support of what ended up being his previous band, the Afghan Whigs’ last CD. One of the first shows I ever saw, that performance still stands up as one of the best, if not the best, I've ever experienced. Playful, relaxed, and tight, (not to mention entertaining), Dulli and co. played several songs from the band’s catalogue, with an additional touring keyboardist and group of backing vocalists. It seemed more like a celebration of the band's history, and rightfully so, as the band ended up parting ways following that tour. Since the break-up of the Whigs, Dulli took a brief hiatus from music, opening some bars and restaurants in what was to become his new home base of New Orleans (Dulli fell in love with the city when the Whigs recorded their final CD 1965 there). A while later Dulli picked up his guitar and the songs began pouring out again. Now with a steady band of backing musicians and a three CD’s worth of material since (not including one covers disc and a solo record), Dulli and his new group the Twilight Singers were back in town for their first Montreal show to promote their latest, and Dulli’s best material since the break-up of the Afghan Whigs, entitled Powder Burns. What so far is, and will probably end up being my favourite album of 2006, Powder Burns not only stands up to Dulli's fantastic catalogue with the Afghan Whigs, but it's also one of the best collection of songs he's ever released. The real question is - how might the live show stack up? Kicking off the evening with Powder Burns’ lead track, "I'm Ready", the band let the crowd know they meant business and things really kicked in by the third chorus when Dulli let his trademark caterwaul howl out of his throat. From then on, the band hit their stride and kept it coming as the night progressed. "Bonnie Brae" started off shaky, but segued into “66”, the only Whigs cut of the night (much to this writer’s chagrin). After, Dulli sat down behind the piano amidst shouts of "Duuuuulliiiiiii!" that were met with a smirk and a "Yeeeees?" Dulli also joked with the crowd how he was suppressing any urge to play ‘Frère Jacques' to which some drunk gal started yelling "PLAY IT DUUUULLIII! YOU BETTER PLAAAAY IT!" much to the audience's amusement. Cracking up behind the piano, he looked out towards her and replied "Lady, when did we get married so you can yell at me like that?". During "Candy Cane Crawl", Dulli then left the piano (while bandmate Manuel Agnelli filled in) and pulled a brunette from the front row up on stage and serenaded her while they slow danced. Dulli is indeed quite a charmer. "There's Been an Accident", my favourite song on Powder Burns, was nicely rendered with opener Afterhours' Dario Ciffo providing some electric violin and was the highlight of the evening, with lead guitarist Dave Rosser stealing the show. Ending off the set with another Powder Burns standout, "Forty Dollars", the band seemed to have been playing the song in an alternative key. I don't know if this was intentional or not, or something they're working on, but it definitely sounded ‘off’. After a short intermission they began the encore the same way their set had started: with some moody music. Then the band returned and kicked it off with Dulli once again behind the piano for a rendition of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm on Fire" before segueing into "Killer" and covering Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" (personally, I would have preferred the Whigs' "Crazy", but this was still great) and finally closing with their cover of "Black is the Colour of my True Love's Hair." Leaving the stage, it was obvious the crowd wanted a second encore and they were making it known. The house lights were lit and the PA started cranking out music, yet the crowd didn’t stop chanting, stomping, and clapping for more. I’ve never seen a group of people demand a second encore as exuberantly as they did (they would continue for fifteen more minutes). While the hall was full of past Whigs fans, I wondered how many of them might have attended that 1998 Whigs show, where Dulli and company performed an impressive three to four encores. Maybe they thought he’d relive that experience. Not so. After clamouring about, everyone gave up and walked out. Oh well. In the end, it wasn't as good as the Afghan Whigs performance I had seen before, and to be honest I wasn't expecting it to be. That performance had a lot of sentimental value attached to it for me. Along with being one of the first shows I ever saw, it was the first time I interviewed a band (I had the pleasure of having coffee with Afghan Whigs bassist John Curley), and the Whigs were, and still are, one of my all-time favourite bands. (Note: the first time I ever set foot in an an independent record store as a young teen, the two tapes I bought were Bad Religion's Recipe for Hate and the Afghan Whigs' Gentlemen. Both are albums that figure in my top 10 albums of all time. The Twilight Singers’ performance was both tight and relaxed with a feel you’d expect from Dulli, but I guess the only thing absent was a kind of magic or spark. Dulli clearly still has that but I did feel that something in general was lacking in their performance. Still, Dulli is one of the best songwriters around, and if Powder Burns is any indication, he still has a lot of fire left in him.
THE REVEREND HORTON HEAT + Murder by Death @ Foufounes Éléctriques
By Jesara Sinclair - I Keep Hearing Noises in the Basement - 05/18/2007
I always forget that Foufounes Electroniques is notorious for early shows. I arrived at the Reverend Horton Heat show around 10pm, anticipating a huge line-up of dressed-up rockabilly boys and girls. They were nowhere to be found, so I made my way upstairs, where the concert room was packed and Reverend Horton Heat were spitting out the last half-hour of their set.
I was really looking forward to this show. They're such a fixture on the psychobilly scene and have been around forever, it seems. I don't know if it was because it was so late into their set, or maybe they’re getting a little old, but I found the show a little slow. I'm not quite sure what it was; the music was great, as I had anticipated, but the crowd and the band seemed a little tired. Even when Jim "Reverend Horton" Heath climbed up onto Jimbo Wallace's bass, it seemed like an old, rehearsed gimmick that was only being pulled out because of some performance convention or standard.
Their set was over a few songs after I arrived (and I apologize for my terrible memory not being able to reproduce the set list). They shook outreached hands from audience members, before finally exiting the stage. The crowd shouted and stomped and clapped for an encore, and the band waited their sweet time before returning to the stage. They eventually returned and resumed playing, this time with a newfound energy. Bodies in front started moving as people started dancing again. When the encore was over, I was left with an adrenaline rush that left me yearning for more.
Next time, I'll go early.
BLONDE REDHEAD + Fields @ Club Soda
By Jackson Macintosh - Track Marks - 05/16/2007
Blonde Redhead do not attract a particularly respectful audience at this point in their career. Their sold-out show May 12 at Club Soda was filled with pushers, shovers, in-the-crowd joint-smokers, and horse-whistlers. There was a startling lack of show-going tact.
Beyond that, though, how was the music? The openers, Fields, a five piece from London, did not exactly get things started on the right foot. They were highly competent and deeply dull. Nothing they did seemed to really go anywhere--they definitely seemed like the sort of band that will get a 7.5 or whatever from Pitchfork when their debut album finally drops on Warner or whatever, and then they’ll go on a poorly-attended headlining tour, break up and be forgotten, and the whole thing will be deeply whatever for everyone who isn’t in the band. If we’re lucky, that is.
Blonde Redhead were on next. The Paces, who are Italian twin brothers, and Kazu, who is reputedly an ex-art school student from Japan, stepped out onto the stage. Everything was backlit and mysterious. They started to play. They seemed to be making a lot of sound for three people. I was wondering to myself what kinds of effects and processing they were using on the vocals and guitars to make them sound like there was more than one singer and more than one guitar track. And then Kazu, the singer, stepped away from the microphone and started talking to Amadeo Pace, the guitar player. But the singing didn’t stop! And Amadeo stopped playing guitar, but the sound of guitar playing didn’t stop! Shocking, I know. Of course, they were using backing tracks to reproduce their latest album 23 (no connection to the Jim Carrey film of the same name) as faithfully as possible.
It certainly sounded lush, but I don’t like their new album very much, and I’d rather hear them play with each other rather than play along to a recording of themselves. There was no speaking between songs, except before the last track in the encore. Anyways, I didn’t find the whole thing very interesting, but I think I learned a few lessons that might be helpful.
Here they are:
1. Do not go to rock shows that are attended by more than 600 people
2. Do not tap the large Québecois man on the shoulder while he is busy horse-whistling and waving his arms at the pretty Japanese girl on stage. He will NOT LIKE YOU.
3. Horse-whistling looks like a really effective, respectful way to get the attention of pretty girls.
4. Let short people stand in front of you at rock shows that are attended by more than 600 people if you are tall and you like to think of yourself as considerate.
5. Do not tell strangers that you attend and enjoy amateur female wrestling events. They will also NOT LIKE YOU.
6. Don’t go to see a band’s show if you don’t think they’ve put out a good record since you were in high school.
So there we have it. Seeing Blonde Redhead has clearly enriched my life by teaching me these valuable lessons. Thank you Blonde Redhead.
DWARVES + Riptides @ Club Lambi
By K-Man - 05/08/2007
Tuesday night shows are usually a good excuse to have an easy going -early night. Unless you're going to see psycho-punkrock icons the Dwarves at the always intimate Lambi. It's almost impossible to describe these guys. I like to describe them through Dwarves related experiences.
Like back in '90 just after they released their 3rd(?) album Blood,Guts, and Pussy. My friend just got it and motored to the bus stop to come over and listen to it, you know.. bust shit up. Only he never made it. Some freak at the bus stop saw the cover art, peaking out from under his arm and tryed to beat the shit out of him, screaming blasphemy and all that stuff ( who'd think 2 naked women and a naked dwarf covered in blood would insight that kind of reaction! ) but in all fairness, these guys are dirty, filthy, nasty ( f*ck ) rockers.
In the black corner, hailing from Illinois, fighting out of sunny California, The Dwarves. In the white corner, fighting on home turf from Montreal, in the white diapers...the fans. Deliciously, debaucherously violent, this was a full on barn burner. These boys put the Sub Pop label on the map with their classic '90 release, Blood, Guts and Pussy.
They have been around since '85 and have broken every law/rule in the book....and then some..no joke, I'm still amazed that they even made it up into Canada, legally speeking.
Blag Dhalia (vocals) was in fine form this evening, ' Detention Girl ' was one of the first punches that landed flush in the face of the audience. Followed by the stiffest set of jabs I've heard live starting with these classic lyrics: "...I'm livin', I'm livin', I'm livin'...in the back seat of my car " from their song ' Back Seat Of My Car ', the second jab came in with there song ' Let's Fuck..', ".. I'm the best fucking fuck , in the whole fucking world....." genius, you just can't make shit like that up.
A swift 5 punch combination followed with ' Astro Boy ' , ' SFVD ', 3 songs from their album Come Clean which were ' River City ',' Come Where The Flavor Is ', and ' Johnny On The Spot '( I think it was ' Johnny On The Spot ', or was it ' I Want You To Die ', honestly I was getting pretty ' punch' drunk.
" Going down to the drug store, gonna have me some fun.." was a left hook that sent the audience realing ( the first time that night ), from the song ' Drug Store '. HeWhoCannotBeNamed showed up as usual, wearing nothing but a Mexican wrestlers mask and swinging his guitars headstock ( among other things ) at anybody who got close enough to injure. I'm pretty sure it was Vag Amoral in the pocket, but I'm not sure if it was Salt Peter on bass. Their set list opened like a greatest hits list from their album Blood, Guts and Pussy, and I think the lead guit. actually was The Fresh Prince of Darkness.
These guys have been incorporating a special guest system ,when someone can't cross a border or state line. Including Nick Olivieri and the drummer from KMFDM , Dexter Holland( Offspring ), Black Josh Freese ( the Vandals ), Nash Kato ( Urge Overkill )...the list goes on. People hated these guys for years and now everybodys falling over each other to fill a potential spot...isn't that always the case?
Knock out punch came disguised as ' Fuck You Up And Get High ' ( an oldie but a goodie ), and the cool ' You Gotta Burn ' from there awsome '97 release The Dwarves Are Young And Good Looking, other than that, I honestly cannot remember all of the songs...and that is probably a good thing for a Dwarves show. These guys played a buh-roo-tal set.
When the final bell was rung, we picked ourselves off the canvas and our bells had been rung. They swiftly flew off the stage to catch their next bus to the corner of Psycho and Freakass. I feel priviledged to have been punched out by these legends. The Riptides....mmaaaahhhhhh, if they were food I could purge myself like a bulemic, but alas, I can't trow up my brain...or can I?
[Check out Beyond That Graveyard! III every Friday from 9 pm to midnight ET only on CJLO!]
RJD2 + Bus Driver @ La Tulipe
By Puffy Coates - 04/16/2007
The average fan’s mentality looks to find reliable sources of good music from artists it thinks it can trust, and builds expectations based on the assumption that the artist has a fixed style. So, seldom is the average fan pleased when a favorite artist decides to drastically change their approach.
In mid-2004 when RJD2 vainly called much of his prior catalogue ‘moron music’ in an online interview, it was evident that change was near for the Oregan-born producer. While there was some Internet backlash against this sentiment from confused fans, RJ remained revered because his sophomore release Since We Last Spoke was solid. Touring for the album, he began opening his set with a guitar and a mic, hinting at an ambition beyond the boards that--in retrospect—foreshadowed the Eno-like style employed on this year’s The Third Hand. So why, after RJ played Montreal’s La Tulipe on April 16th with a superb live band, were many fans shocked and disappointed? The boy wonder’s very limited vocal capacities aside, I can only assume that it was because he has moved too far beyond what fans want him to be.
After an impressive set from Freestyle Fellowship affiliate Bus Driver, RJD2 took the stage with 3 musicians and a plethora of instruments including a guitar, a bass, drums, a mini MPC, a Roland Juno and tables. Over the next 30 minutes, these were passed around like joints with RJ, in one inspired sequence, playing the keys with a guitar around his neck before hurrying to the tables to cue up a sample. Powering through live renditions of material from Dead Ringer and Since We Last Spoke, he looked every bit as comfortable playing the instruments as he did behind the tables. The band left the stage halfway through the set at which point RJ returned briefly to mixing and drum programming, his bread and butter.
I had the advantage of being on the balcony so I had a bird’s eye view of the stage and watched, in drunken awe, his hands darting from the mixer to the tables to the drum pads and back. “He should stay on his tables,” the chick beside me uttered. Then the band returned and proceeded to play a more poppy second half consisting mostly of material from The Third Hand, much to her dismay. RJ crooned through most of it, which sounded weird because he can’t really sing, but the music was powerful, unpredictable and brilliantly arranged. While not as striking on record, the live treatment of these songs was something to behold and RJ should be commended for his creative diversity and for having the balls to do something different. Needless to say, the chick left before the encore.
Whether or not the average fan likes RJD2’s new style is inconsequential. He’s already delivered a classic and is currently just doing what good artists do: pushing himself and the limits of how his work is defined. Leonard Cohen once wrote that "the artist’s allegiance is not to the image or its progress in the public domain but to the notion that he is not bound to the world as a given, that he can escape the arrangement of things as they are." So if fans want another Dead Ringer, I suggest they find the cats that are already emulating RJ circa 2003 and buy tickets to their live shows instead. The true artist, meanwhile, is ever-changing and will simply be doing his thing, building new mountains to climb and reaching higher heights.
ISIS + Jesu @ Le National
By Omar Goodness - Hooked On Sonics - 03/18/2007
Aaaaaaand chalk up another missed opener due to trying to find parking. While circling the surrounding area around Le National for like a good half-hour in an ill-fated attempt to find parking, I ended up missing Zozobra, a new noise-rock band featuring Caleb Scofield of "indefinitely hiatused" Cave-In. Apparently not much of a big loss to me, as I heard Zozobra wasn't much to write home (or you) about, and to be honest, their debut CD didn't leave too big an impression on me either.
After finally finding parking, I made it into the venue just as Jesu took the stage. I'm a big fan of ex-Godflesh genius Justin Broadrick's new band that combines slow tempos, thick sheets of detuned guitars with a nice coating of melody over it. It basically sounds like a slower, more depressing version of one of my all-time faves, post-hardcore space rockers Hum (a comparison that apparently is pretty common, as after their recent SXSW performance, the house soundman apparently started playing Hum over the PA). Looking forward to hearing how Broadrick and crew would pull off the thick, expansive and dense sound he's crafted on record, as soon as I got closer to the stage, things looked...wrong.
Touring as only a trio -- when he had previous toured with a five-person backing band -- I was a little surprised. How was he gonna recreate the loud guitar walls, or the melodic keyboards with just himself on guitar, a bassist, and a drummer? Then I thought, "OK, maybe it'll be interesting stripped down". Boy was I wrong. Rather than attempting a more stripped-back sound, Broadrick was relying on member #4, the "mighty" laptop at stage-left, to fill the sound. While I have no problems with laptops in bands, it got a little tedious when the laptop turned out to not just be another instrument in the mix, but rather a machine providing HALF of the sonic wallop (further breaking my heart was watching Broadrick motion to the sound guy to turn up the laptop in the mix... sigh). Probably the biggest letdown of the whole performance was watching him let the laptop provide the guitar feedback bursts on "Friends Are Evil", a trick that could be easily reproduced live, and would have sounded phenomenal. Instead, let the laptop take care of it.
While songs like "Silver" sounded as good as they did on record, it just seemed extremely fake as the entire backing tracks were being provided by the laptop with the band playing along with it like some sort of Franken-karaoke. There's only so much you can take watching Broadrick strum out one dirgey chord after another, letting ye ole laptop fill the rest of the space while he's all slumped over his axe, probably all Quaaluded up. With the exception of some fantastic drumming by Intronaut's Danny Walker, the whole performance felt pointless. If Broadrick didn't want to get a larger touring band, it would have been pretty neat to see what he could have done by restructuring Jesu's dense songs into a tight power trio set-up. Instead, the performance was a letdown and the more I go through it in my head post-show, the whole thing was just very, very disappointing from a band that released one of 2007’s best albums so far with Conqueror.
After a brief soundcheck on some guitars, ISIS took the stage and started off with "Wrists of Kings", the leadoff track off of their latest CD In the Absence of Truth. Now, it's common knowledge around CJLO that I was not a fan of their latest (it was one of my "disappointments of 2006") and I was curious to see how much I'd hate their performance and feared how much of it would be peppered with tracks from said album. Luckily, the songs they did play from In Absence... were the few that didn't annoy me that much, and surprisingly the live performances sounded a lot better than they did on record. Also, pretty much all the things that bothered me about In Absence... were rectified live. The tribal/jungly/tom-heavy drumming? It was still there, but it sounded more crisp live, and was less grating. The clean singing? Still there too, but it seemed like Aaron Turner’s voice wasn't as nasally as it is on the CD, and he also had echo and light distortion effects on it, which made it more bearable. The funked-up bass? Yeeeeah, that was still there, and still annoying, but not so present -- when they kicked off the bass intro of "Not in Rivers But in Drops", my sigh was so audible it produced some nice dirty looks from two dudes next to me... sorry dudes. That being said, the performances of the newer songs did make me go home and pull out that record again to give it another chance --yeah... it failed... again -- so if you aren't a fan of the new album, I still recommend you go catch them live.
The highlight of the evening was a great performance of the acclaimed Oceanic's "False Light", with the band sounding at their most crushing. For every bellow Turner let loose, the echo effect on his vocals made it seem like the hall itself was yelling right back at him; it was truly amazing. Closing out the set with what I guess is the closest ISIS has to a hit song, the fantastic "In Fiction" from Panopticon, they ended up having some extra time and came back on stage while the PA was playing music (the usual sign of "yeah, it's over... go home"). Turner walked up to the mic and said "Hey, I guess we do have time for one more... thanks for coming out!" and the band launched into a great and welcomed version of the title track off of their amazing first full-length album Celestial (the Tower).
All in all, while Jesu was a complete utter disappointment, ISIS was a pleasant surprise. The new songs sounded OK live, good even, and the older ones were performed flawlessly. It was interesting to see a band whose catalogue is built on songs that probably form from open-ended structures and jams be so tight and precise, yet still not lose any of that unpredictability in a live setting. Broadrick could stand to learn a lesson or two from the very same people he's influenced.
[Tune in to HOOKED ON SONiCS every Tuesday from 6pm to 8pm.]
THE BOUNCING SOULS + Strike Anywhere + Loved Ones @ Foufounes Électriques
By T-Bone - 04/22/2007
I rolled into the Foufounes around 9PM and after talking to a few friends, I went to check out Static Radio NJ. I think I would have liked them if I gave them a chance; I decided to instead go outside and smoke cigarettes, drink some beers and talk to some friends. I guess the spring weather makes unknown bands, on a full bill, hard to give a chance to.
The Loved Ones came on and played a solid set. They’re from Philly and from what I hear, they have been touring constantly for some years. They were tight as hell; reminded me a lot of a great band from Philly called Plow United. They actually put out a 7" with the Bouncing Souls on Creep Records, a record label from Philly. Plow United, although they never got recognized internationally, were quite an amazing band. Check out their stuff if you like The Loved Ones. Anyway, The Loved Ones played that kind of fast, energetic, East Coast punk rock that reminds me of The Clash, with a bit more balls and speed. When that was done, it was good because I have been looking forward to seeing Strike Anywhere.
While they were setting up, I met up with my friends Sean and Maggy of Sound Central. If you don’t know already, Sound Central moved to the corner of Mont-Royal and Coloniale. Check them out; they’ll provide you with some sweet music for pretty damn reasonable prices. You know what, there is nothing better than -- while we are living in the digital age -- buying it from the mom 'n pop stores when you want to purchase some tunes. So anyways, Sean and I went for a smoke while SA set up. We talked about music and how stoked he was of his new location and just music in general. It was nice to hear of a record store that, through thick and thin, are getting to do it.
This was a nice conversation to have for what came up next. Strike Anywhere turned Foufounes into a DIY club space through energy and commitment. If you don’t think so, then the attempt was there. It is quite interesting to see bands deal with the relationship between business, marketing and punk ethics. Here you have a band that is now playing bar shows, have songs on the new Tony Hawk game that came on on the Wii and still try to pass on a message. I could tell that Thomas sometimes felt defeated, but his intensity as a singer and his commitment to his personal causes are extremely moving. What can be said about their set? They exploded and the crowd received. One interesting fact that I heard is that their new guitarist is 11 years younger than their old guitarist, born on the same date, and decided, for whatever reason, to wear his clothes while on stage. Kind of strange, but who knows. So I can’t say enough good things about Strike Anywhere. What was nice about their set is that by being an opening band, they were able to play a nice mix of songs from all their records. They finished off, the crowd and band were in communion and they passed the torch to the mighty Bouncing Souls.
Now on to one confession: the first time I saw The Bouncing Souls was in 96’ when they were opening up for The Mighty Mighty Bosstones in Athens, Georgia at the 40 Watts Club. The last time I saw them was opening up for Face To Face at the Spectrum in the late nineties -- I don’t really remember when -- and I haven’t heard anything after Maniacal Laughter, so I didn’t really know what to expect. Let me just say I was really impressed -- they sounded amazing. I thought I knew the songs from the opening riff, and then when the vocals would kick in, I realized it was a new song. Whatever, they were great! For interviews with Thomas Barnett, please check Roots Of Rebellion.
I walked down to meet my good friend Chris and saw some kid peel off the show poster. From watching him, I decided to take the other poster -- and we ended up talking with his other two friends as to how great the show was, and how great it was to see a solid punk rock show, and how great the Foufounes is to hear live music. When you have packed house, and it just sounds GOOD.
Anyway, that is all -- see you maybe at the free Sainte Catherines show, or the Reverend Horton Heat and Murder By Death show... both will be sweet.
[Check out Roots Of Rebellion.]
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