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By Emilie - The Treefrog - 03/03/2005

I went to see The Frames at Cabaret La Tulipe, an old theatre that makes a very good venue in terms of sound and general ambiance. I had seen The Frames open for Calexico a year or two ago, and I had been impressed by the energy they had on stage. I listened to their live album to learn more about them and despite their similarities to British rock-pop bands like Coldplay and early Radiohead, I grew fond of their songs. The Frames became one of my guilty pleasures and I was looking forward to seeing their live set again.

Opener Mark Geary had solid acoustic ballads, but was getting more success with the audience as a stand-up act, peppering his set with jokes and banter. He did catch my attention when he would use a sampler during his last song to create the different guitar layers of that track. I had also seen singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur do this live, and have always been impressed by the concept.

The Frames finally hit the stage, beginning slowly with a moody song. The band seemed a little stiff on stage, which disappointed me since I remembered them being much more interesting live. Fortunately, after a few songs, the band got more and more energetic. When they started playing their popular song "Lay Me Down", everybody really got into it and singing along. Singer Glen Hansard really likes to make the audience participate, and not always in cheesy ways. Also, the singalongs weren't always lyric-oriented, so the crowd had a lot of fun with the "aaaahs" and "oooouoooous", causing many to start howling like wolves at one point. Hansard would enjoy playing with the structure of the song itself, especially in their performance of "I Want My Life To Make More Sense", where he made the crowd sing quieter and quieter, which created the oddest sounding crowd singing I’ve ever heard.

One aspect of the show that pleased me less was the singer's tendency to finish his songs with covers of the likes of Jeff Buckley, Leonard Cohen, etc. If you do it once, it's OK and it can be entertaining, but they just seemed to do it way too often. Nonetheless, the between-song banter also got funnier as the show went along, the singer obviously feeling more and more comfortable. This was maybe caused by their intake of cheap Mexican beer, which Calexico has apparently got them hooked on. Unfortunately, my enjoyment took a major blow when Hansard decided to pull a female fan onstage. You can do the singalongs and crowd participations, but pulling a shy girl onstage to sing with you is simply too much. The girl also didn't look that pleased to be standing in the spotlight (from my point of view) and it was a concert cliché that we could have all easily gone without. The band nonetheless managed to win me over again in their second encore, where they came back onstage acapella with some drum brushes for a last quiet singalong with everyone and some final goofing off.

Overall, The Frames are a band that just seem to really be enjoying themselves when they are playing onstage. They radiate a very good and positive energy, and love to laugh at themselves ("well, back to playing some more sad folk-rock, you know, the songs about me, me, me!"). In fact, frontman Glen Hansard said in his Gazette interview the weekend before the concert:

"It's not about being the best band in the world. It's not about being a great songwriter and making people's eyebrows twitch because of what you've said in your lyrics. It's just about bringing a bit of life to people. And if someone pays $10 or $20 or whatever to see the band and they leave the building with a warm feeling, well, then we've done our job."

And yes, they do succeed at making the audience leave with a smile. You won’t necessarily live and die by their songs, but you’ll surely always have a great time at their concerts.

[The Treefrog is on hiatus and currently serves as CJLO’s production manager. You can tune in to BVST every Thursday from 6pm to 8pm to witness the Bulldozer piss on the Treefrog’s grave.]

By Nikkie - More Rock Than A Crackhouse - 03/03/2005

Take the essence of the Warped Tour (angry mallrats, merch and overpriced food), add to this too many scenesters and bad hairdos and a stage sponsored by myspace.com and what you get is the Warped Tour’s new sibling, the Taste Of Chaos Tour. Don’t get me wrong, the idea behind Taste Of Chaos was pure genius: a harder, louder, smaller version of the Warped Tour featuring the hottest screamo bands of the moment. The results however… not so hot.

First, on the smaller acoustic myspace.com stage, were a few lesser-known groups, such as as local band Florence. Sadly, these bands played very early on before anyone started on the main stage, which made a lot of people including myself miss these performances. One thing that was lacking from this first edition of ToC tour was organization; everything was everywhere, the coat check was ridiculous (especially considering that it was rather cold in there) and security was more than pesky when I went to interview Mike D. from Killswitch Engage.

The first band to play on the main stage was UnderOATH. They did give an ok performance, but it seemed like they forgot that they have more than one album and appeared very reluctant to play older stuff, which is always a disappointment. Then after a short pause, Killswitch Engage were on. Although I personally find that they seemed a bit out of place in this screamo fest, they were perhaps one of the good performances of the night. Hard and loud, just like it should be. After this, there was Senses Fail performing, which was very ordinary. However, I cannot comment much on their performance since I missed part of it, because I was interviewing the bassist for KsE.

Finally, the band I was looking forward the most, My Chemical Romance, came on at 8:55pm. They started off their set with a lot of profanity and their latest hit “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” off their album Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. They played an equal amount of old and new songs, which made it very entertaining, perhaps as much as the singer’s “weird” stage presence. To finish off our first edition of Taste of Chaos was the headlining band, The Used. They gave an alright performance, considering that most of their songs consist of whining and annoyingly catchy chord combinations.

Overall, Taste Of Chaos was definitely not worth wasting a Thursday night over. Nothing out of the ordinary, very short and almost boring sets from most of the bands. For a very average concert, I give a very average 6/10.

[More Rock Than A Crackhouse is currently on hiatus. Keep track of her on her Live Journal page.]

By Jordan-na - Canadian Invasion - 02/14/2005

On Monday February 14th, love was in the air. California band Shivaree crept into Montreal and stole the hearts of those attending their show at the Main Hall with an inviting evening of warm music on a cold night.

Shoot The Moon kicked off this Valentine’s Day show and managed to garner some admiration from the audience. They are a Montreal-based art-rock collective akin to a curious circus of musicians. Behold the lead singer, intoxicated with the power of her own vocals. Marvel at the stiff keyboard. Hear the two guitarist swinging towards each other with their heads cocked. See the violinist in the dark corner, just her and her instrument. Shoot The Moon’s music fits with their morose presence as it has a sad, comically nightmarish quality to it, like a Tim Burton film. They create a dark, eerie atmosphere in which to play their art-rock blues. The more they played, the better they got, becoming comfortable with themselves and the crowd. Their delivery was sometimes sloppy, as they missed cues, and they weren’t always on the same page. Yet for the most part, Shoot The Moon delivered a decent opening set and I developed a slight crush on them, but nothing long term.

When Shivaree came on, my momentary infatuation with Shoot The Moon was forgotten. Shivaree invited their audience into an intimate, casual laid-back evening on that snowy night. Lead singer Ambrosia Paisley took the stage, greeted the audience with a “bonsoir” in perfect European French and the crowd was instantly smitten. Then the band heated up the stage with their sexy lounge music, dashed with a hint of mystery, evoking images of a sweaty Mediterranean night.

Shivaree may be a band, but the main attraction is Paisley. She played the parts of the gracious crooner woman and the cute kid, crinkling her nose while wishing the audience a happy Valentine’s Day, suggesting we celebrate with champagne. Her voice is girly yet soured by life experience, like a Gwen Stefani who has smoked too many cigarettes and knows better. She is charming, charismatic and unassumingly commanded the attention of the room. She told stories and sang songs to warm our souls.

Meanwhile Paisley’s band shined as they provided a wonderful, smooth base on which Paisley could play and place her vocals. They are fine, seasoned musicians who play for love of what they do, eliciting cheers of admiration from the crowd for their fine musical craftmanship.

As a collective group, Shivaree created a soothing, relaxing atmosphere, like a long, comforting embrace, or a flannel blanket on a bitter cold night. Their music is like sweet lullabies that entrance you into a state of lucidity. They ably blend jazz, blues, lounge and pop into a smooth, pleasing mix. Shivaree’s repertoire comes across better live than recorded as they played this combo with the right amount of uptempo songs and down home tunes, within the intimate evening created by Paisley’s admirable stage banter. Their presence was enhanced by softly coloured lights that speckled the room and graced the back of the stage.

Shivaree played a long set, and capped the evening off with a three-song encore. After their show, they sold their own CDs at the Main Hall’s bar. Montreal could not have asked for a more gracious or talented object of affection to host their Valentine evening.

[Tune in to Canadian Invasion every Friday from 4pm to 6pm]

By Alex - Losing My Edge - 02/26/2005

The current crop of post-punk revivalism, spearheaded by Franz Ferdinand and including Bloc Party, TV On The Radio and tonight’s hosts The Futureheads, promotes the artier and spazzier side of the much-copied genre.  To their credit, they have stepped back from the mood music of predecessors like Interpol, realizing perhaps its limited shelf life, to bring more of a good times aspect which of course means backup shout vocals galore.  What might bore some people is that these bands are so, well, straight down the middle.  They hardly inspire as much hate from the cynics who like to rattle off the laundry list of influences (Gang Of Four, Talking Heads, Wire), because it’s hard to deny their effort and "taste" (it's much harder to hate someone who loved the same records that you did).  Despite the copping, they seem sincere and earnest in their desire to make interesting music, doing what they can within the limits of their talent.

Making their first visit to Montreal, The Futureheads made their intentions clear by blasting off with "Le Garage", showcasing the vocal interplay between all four members.  The energy was also palpable, with each instrument bouncing off each other in a jagged rhythm.  They were in good spirits and they passed the crowd’s bullshit detector with that first song.  Then came the next song.  "The City Is Here For You To Use" is a good song, but the feeling of stagnation seeped in quickly.  In fact, that was representative of the Futureheads in that they have great parts in their songs, but don’t seem to always be able to piece them together to have much sustaining impact.  Nowhere is this better examplified than in their single "Meantime", which drags through a competently written song before belatedly delivering the goods in the last part of the song.

However, the frustration is easily offset by their seeming desire to entertain and put on a good show, emphasizing audience participation in a last-call-at-the-pub kinda way.  They led the crowd in a split sing-along of the great Kate Bush cover, "Hounds Of Love".  Perhaps though it is telling that the audience was all into the chants and the hand claps, but the dancing was barely registering when one would think that the music is conducive to such activity.  Blame it on the cigarette smoke, blame it on the heat inside the glorified death trap that El Salon becomes when it sells out, or blame it on the lack of build-up versus delivery of most of their catalogue.  The sameness in the music often threatened to suffocate the blistering moments that the Futureheads are occasionally capable of delivering.

It is an uphill battle to try to convince skeptics, because their influences came from (Ed’s note: romanticizing alert) a more embattled backdrop, a time where they were more likely to inspire and change the lives of a few.  The Futureheads possess the explosiveness of The Jam, but lack the angst or ultimately, the purpose.  To be fair, the Futureheads never claimed to be in the market to peddle scathing social commentaries through their music.  The burden of their socially-conscious influences weighs heavier on them, whereas for example, the Exploding Hearts only had to live up to the heartbreak themes of The Undertones and The Buzzcocks (though they also arguably wrote better songs).  One wonders if they can even do that, as their cover of Television Personalities' "A Picture Of Dorian Gray", kicking off the encore, lacked the vulnerability of the original.  What they did manage to do was to deliver a good rock show for those interested.  As evidenced by the sweaty and enthused crowd response and the visible high in the Futureheads’ demeanours, no one minded turning the rally into a party.

[Tune in to Losing My Edge every Sunday noon-2pm and Tuesday 8pm-10pm]