MS MR – The Venue – Wednesday, October 23, 2013

This review was written for and first published by Concert Addicts. Photos, including the one below, are copyright of Jamie Taylor.  
 
I’d been wanting to check out MS MR since I first heard Hurricane on my go-to Seattle alternative rock station months ago. That voice. Getting to review them was my opportunity to check out their other songs, as I only ever hear that song, so this suited me to a T.

To prepare the audience for the group’s arrival, the loosely packed house heard Wildcat Wildcat. They are a 4-piece: keyboards/auxiliary percussion, bass, drums, primary keyboards. They begin without much fanfare; at 9 pm the house lights darken and the band begins to play. During the set, the audience find out that they are from Los Angeles and that they just released an EP. To me, they appear to be a bit of an experiment in whether a guitar is an absolute necessity for making pop-rock, but what a guitar – acoustic or electric – brings is a nice hard edge at times and focus at others. To continue the analogy, this band is all round: atmospheric pop-rock, stylistically, it’s as though Atlas Genius replaced the sound that is identifiably ‘theirs’ with a keyboard. Wildcat Wildcat do make good use of the instruments they have – there’s no surplus. There’s no single lead singer; the bass player and the primary keyboardist spell off one another for parts and everyone does back-up vocals. They’re not bad. Theirs isn’t really music to dance to, but it’s got a nice groove to it and it’s certainly music to move to. Wildcat Wildcat’s 40-minute set comprised 9 songs. They extend thank yous after every couple of songs, say what a nice city Vancouver is, and that they hope to be back.

Between bands, it’s an almost non-stop arrival of people arriving and they’re heading for the dance floor. Although the mezzanine has a healthy row of people clear around the railings, the floor is where the attendees of this sold-out show wanted to be.

At around 10 past 10, MS MR and their 2 colleagues Curtis and Zac walked onstage. One of them a multi-tasker at a second keyboard station, where he also plays bass guitar and provides backing vocals; the other, a drummer. At the first notes of Bones, already a multitude of mobile phones are held up, so I’m silently hopeful people get it out of their systems now, and maybe they just wanted to get a photo of Lizzie Plapinger in her pink plush rug of a coat. You’ve got to have confidence in spades and a certain attitude to wear a costume like that, and with her multicoloured hair, a shape many women would happily starve themselves for (please don’t), and command of the audience – in addition to the aforementioned voice, yup, she’s got it goin’ on. With just her striking presence, our MS holds the audience captive and they are as putty. The drums on No Trace provide lovely dramatic elements to contrast with the vocals. Next was Salty Sweet, or as I called it, ‘the clappy one’ because of its syncopation. Rhythmically, I think by just the way the bass line goes, I’m reminded of The English Beat. Between this song and the next one, Lizzie tells the audience how happy they were to be back in Vancouver, to be the headlining here, and to have it be a sold-out show. In some ways, she seems a little incredulous of it, but immensely grateful, as Max Hershenow was also happy to say – oh, and she’s a nose-crinkler when she smiles! 

Max introduces the next song BTSK, the audience sounds very happy. What a mood piece this is – sustained chords on one side, staccato notes on the other, gelling nicely with the long drawn-out phrasing – you can’t hear her inhale so the combination creates a rather haunting, even hypnotic effect. For Fantasy the audience sings along for quite a bit of it, and not just during the chorus. Max had introduced it as being from their 1st album, Secondhand Rapture (GREAT title, BTW). It has a similar structure to No Trace in that it has wonderful percussive elements during it, particularly for the chorus, but the bridge of the overlapping oh-oh-oh, is also percussive and provides a base for Lizzie to weave in and out of their rhythm. I like it. Small wonder it was a single. The next song was introduced as the new single: Think of You – which an enterprising DJ could totally do a mash-up with Kim Wilde’s Keep Me Hangin’ On (or the Supremes original) because that’s a lot of what I’m hearing here. Speaking of covers, MS MR have a cover of Do I Wanna Know by the Arctic Monkeys to offer next. Bias alert: I LOVE this song. MS MR manage to make it their own, they don’t repeat it note for note, syllable by syllable (though ‘summat in your teeth’ sounds odd out of the mouth of a New Yorker, but that’s the lyric), BUT, remember my earlier comment about how sometimes you need a guitar to provide an edge? For this song, the guitar riff borders on the iconic and it gets under your skin. It MAKES this song. MS MR tries to get under your skin using what they have, which isn’t paltry, but I prefer the Arctic Monkeys. In all fairness, I don’t know if the audience would agree with me on that score. 

Head is not my Home is a fun, upbeat number. Lizzie flashes her happy, crinkle-grin, when the audience spontaneously echoes the oh-oohs back to her. In this song, I can see where people make the comparison between Lizzie and Florence Welsh in vocal style. I think the difference is that Lizzie can be a lot more subtle with her control, whereas Florence Welsh just belts it out. There’s little finesse, she just hits you over the head (or ears) with how much power she can put behind a note: her album’s called Lungs, for Pete’s sake. She’s got a set, that’s for sure, but so does the artist I’m listening to this evening, and, I gotta say, I’m with Team Lizzie. Florence & the Machine seem to put more focus on Welsh’s voice, by contrast, Plapinger’s voice seems more organic, nestled in with the entire ‘soundscape’, as it were.

Between songs Max mentions that this is the second-to-last day of the tour, having started in Montreal, and how much they really enjoy playing in Canada – that the audience is really affectionate here. If anyone in the audience was blushing, I couldn’t tell. For This isn’t Control, it’s just Max and Lizzie on stage. I love how positively twinkly the keyboard sounds for this song. Actually, I like it all around. They segue right into Dark Doo Wop, which is exactly that.. There’s an immediate response from the audience when it starts. There’s also a nice bit of tension when we get to the chorus repeats and push from the cymbals (MS MR’s friends were only off-stage for the one song).

Max introduces Ash Tree Lane as one of the first songs he ever wrote. I like it – it has a nice flow to it, and the drums are really the pulse of this song, for a bar or two, and not just once during the song, those quarter notes on the drum are the only thing you hear. The next song was a cover, originally done by LCD Soundsystem but this time I don’t actually know that I know the original, so I can take this one at face value. As with the other cover, it’s very much in line with their style. Talk about making it your own – if Max hadn’t said that it was one, I might not have known. From where it is in the set, it’s a last-gasp chance for the band to engage the audience and they respond: it’s very much a “dance, clappy-clappy, yay” song for them.

To close the show, Hurricane, is introduced as a song that means a lot to Lizzie and Max personally and that they think it’s great that it seems a lot to the audience. For me, it’s also the only song I know well enough to sing along to with the rest of the audience, and it’s the song that for the first few times I heard it, I had to stop everything and look up the artist name. As far as drawing you in, dang, they’re GOOD! They also mention that there wouldn’t be an encore. Perhaps this is one of the hazards of being a new-ish and successful band: you’ve only got so much material? As for the performance, those lovely low notes on the keyboard vibrate through the floor and by having the two male voices for the chorus made the song sound ever so much richer.

That was the show – I’ve seen their music style described as ‘dream pop’ and it definitely has atmosphere, creates ambiance. In a way, it’s ethereal but don’t let that lull you; lyrically they can get ‘down and dirty’ as in BTSK and explore darker themes in others. To my ears, this group is more about the overall ‘sound’ and experimenting within it and testing the limits of that atmosphere, than making their songs distinctively different from one another. As I was packing up at just after 11 pm, I heard one person after another saying “OMG, that was so good” or “OMG, I thought I was going to pass out”. It was a very good show; a very genuine show. I got the impression that amongst all the artifice that happens outside of a gig, MS MR are very much “What You See Is What You Get”, and what we saw and got was a really good night of music.

Setlist:
Bones
No Trace
Salty Sweet
BTSK
Fantasy
Think of You
Do I Wanna Know
Head is not my Home
This isn’t Control
Dark Doo Wop
Ash Tree Lane
Dance Yrself Clean
Hurricane

Walk the Moon – Vogue Theatre – Tuesday, October 22, 2013

This review was written for and first published by Concert Addicts. Photos, including the one below, are copyright of Jamie Taylor.

Ever since Walk the Moon’s first show in Vancouver in March of 2012, I’ve hoped their career would have an upward trajectory that would see them play bigger and bigger venues here. I was therefore interested in what numbers they could draw to the 1,150 seat theatre in the heart of Granville’s entertainment district.

Before it was their turn, we had two opening bands, the first of which was Los Angeles-based Smallpools. Although the website I had checked said tonight’s show was to begin at 9:30 pm, when I arrived at 8:45 pm, the band was already on stage, so my views will necessarily be limited to the 4 songs I saw them perform. They are a 4-piece covering electric guitar, keyboards, drums, bass guitar and look to be mid-20s-ish. Musically, they are very much in the vein of Foster the People, The Naked & Famous, Grouplove, etc. The voice of the lead singer (keyboard player) is actually rather similar to that of Mark Foster and together, with all four men singing in unison in their head voices is in line with the style of the aforementioned groups. On a technical level, they’re not bad at all. Sonically, however, do we really need another poppy falsetto band?

Then there are The Mowgli’s, with their errant apostrophe (Really? You couldn’t trust fans and media to catch on if you mentioned it a time or two, just like Torquil Campbell has trained folks that ‘his’ band is called Stars, not the Stars) and forced faux happy pop on the way courtesy of the only song I knew by them, the massively overplayed San Francisco. For this reason, in my heart of hearts, because the website only listed one opener, I had (not so secretly) hoped to miss them. But, if I did, I was resolved to give them the opportunity to impress me. After a quick changeover, a band with numbers to rival those of The Arcade Fire filed on stage. It appears to be a shoes-optional night, as a blonde man with tightly-wound curls was barefoot and the only female was in stocking feet. I hope someone gave the stage a good sweep earlier in the day at least. They strike me as being a really good festival band, they really are quite high in the energy department and anyone who’s not playing an instrument is at centre stage dancing and singing along or playing the tambourine or encouraging the audience to clap along. In green gaffer’s tape, words like “Love”, “Dance”, “Smile”, “LA”, “Mosh” have been spelled out covering any number of equipment boxes – and this is definitely something they project. Positive messages such as ‘dreams do come true, if you believe in them and work towards your goals, they’re the proof of that’ are communicated again and again. I have to admit, they’re not as annoying as I thought they’d be. They’re certainly better than the facile San Francisco they’re known for. What also works in their favour in a live setting is that there’s a better balance between vocals and instruments. Even though quite a number of them are singing at one time, you can still hear rhythm guitar, bass guitar, drums, lead guitar, keyboards and/or auxiliary percussion well. Recorded, more importance appears to have been given to vocals, and those to me were the annoying parts. The audience knew the words to Say It, Just Say It well enough to be awarded a solo chorus part. Their 6th song had a back and forth that reminded me of Of Monsters and Men, for the 7th, the audience were singing and doing overhead side-to-side arm waving and it was quite a lovely song. Our barefoot friend (who is very natural and charismatic when talking to the audience in between songs) does the primary vocals and goes into the audience, not to crowd surf or for moshing, but just general mingling whilst singing. The bass player seems to be the odd man out. The only person he interacts with is the drummer, but he’s usually just rocking out by himself and his bass, smiling, head nodding in time to the music. The drummer, is having a grand old time but as he’s singing along with the music, even without a microphone, he seems more a part of the band than the bassist, who seems more apart. The Mowgli’s did 12 songs over their 50-minute set that I was beginning to wonder if the website had mislabelled them as an opener rather than a double bill. As a band, they’re still fairly new (not as new as Smallpools, they’ve only been around since earlier this year with an EP coming out in 2014!), so perhaps they just appreciated being able to play their CD? So yes, while I will still continue to mute THE song the radio still plays way too often, I now know they’re much better than just that song and resign myself to that first-hand knowledge.

By 10:25 pm, the audience was READY. Under the rubric of “soundchecks are fun”, as every instrument was being checked one final time, the crowd cheered. When Walk the Moon’s backdrop came down to cover the back wall, they cheered. At 10:35, finally, the lights went out, excerpt from The Lion King’s Circle of Life beginning with the tribal chant (to go with the marking on band members’ and fans’ faces) and as the lights hit the stage Walk the Moon arrive. Even during the first song, Next in Line, I’m again impressed by how much dancing singer/keyboardist/auxiliary drummer Nicholas Petricca can achieve while playing the keyboard (even if it’s just holding a chord) – he’s got range and energy, and is using both to their full. Their show has grown with their popularity (this show features blackouts after the conclusion of every song – are we prepping for arena shows?). They have the capacity to adapt to venues of different sizes – a little more contained when they’re the support act, and when they headline – let’s just say this was not the same show I saw last November at The Venue, and, to a degree, it’s not the same band. They have just shy of an additional year’s worth of experience under their collective belts and will soon be recording their second full-length release. This experience is beginning to bear fruit – guitarist Eli Maiman has a few more rockin’ moves in his repertoire (first noted during Quesadilla during which he non-verbally leads the audience’s remedial of the syncopated claps. They definitely pass), and although the first time I saw them, I had said something about drummer Sean’s choice of wardrobe, I will say that he seems to have acquired more of a sense of style and henceforth I promise to concentrate on the things that matter more: the music, which, in all of their cases, has always been beyond any kind of reproach.

Lisa Baby comes with a potentially seizure-inducing light show during Eli’s guitar solo. The band have added steel benches with grate-style surface area in front of Eli and bassist Kevin Ray and already Eli seems to like the opportunity to showcase.

Nicholas has a few words of welcome for the audience at this point and mentions that they’ve written “a bunch of new music over the summer”. The next song, one of these new ones is played next: Spend Your Money and it has some seriously cool guitar riffs and bass lines combining for some catchy hooks. Nicholas uses the majority of his vocal range – starting off in a head voice & falsetto and in a nice chest voice range by the middle through to the end. I likes it.

Audience favourite Tightrope was next on the setlist. Even the folks in the mezzanine where I was were dancing in their chairs. Very few got up, but few kept still. No worries about the ground floor – they and the band were high, high energy. On a personal note, and maybe it is just wishful thinking, but I’m putting it out there: considering how much fun everyone has with this song, it could be longer live.

For the next two, we go back to the Tightrope EP Anywayican: Nicholas, with able assistance from Eli and Kevin, taught the audience ‘their’ part — an ooh-wah-ooh combo that in the song, caught everyone a bit unawares when it was time to sing it during the chorus. I like the disco vibe to it and Kevin even gets a bass drum to bang on. Followed by Tête-à-Tête with a distinctive ‘80s groove to it (one part reminiscent of the intro to Cyndi Lauper’s Girls just want to have fun and fat keyboard chords more New Edition) mixed with a modern feel, and another potentially seizure-inducing light show during Eli’s brief guitar solo. The song itself is also brief, I believe the running time on the recording is under 3 minutes.

Nicholas expresses his thanks to the two opening bands and how much they’ve enjoyed touring with them. For those who were at the last show at The Venue, Walk the Moon toured with Family of the Year, and at that show, the bands cross-pollinated – WtM joined FotY’s set for a song and FotY returned the favour later in the show. This was not the case tonight – but maybe it was for logistical reasons, FotY is half the size, after all.

Right, back to the present, another new song: Boyfriend. To be honest, lyrically, it’s a bit simple, but, is it ever catchy. So, two songs from the next record, I’m already thinking, if it ends up being anywhere NEAR as good as the taste-test we’ve been getting, I’m going to stop reviewing this band and join the masses dancing my arse off in General Admission downstairs. If it’s at the Commodore, I virtually guarantee this is what the plan is.

Familiar ground with Shiver Shiver bringing with it a return of the ‘mezzanine chair dancers’. The falsetto is in fine form tonight, that’s for sure. One repeat of the chorus is a capella. For the last minute of the song, fake snow is blown from the lighting truss at the ceiling, and Eli realises the irony of that mentioning that was the first time they’d ever dropped snow on Canadians, and how it’s much cooler in front of a crowd, say, in California. But it was fun and funny, so whatever, right? Everyone’s in super high spirits, it’s all good.

Writing in my notebook the number 10 (it’s the 10th song), I also write Noooo! When the setlist goes into double digits, it means it’s almost over and this is one of those bands you wish could play for much, much longer than they actually do. Or is it just me? Especially with Nicholas’s disclaimer of being a song to shake your ass off, the audience responds to the super-rhythmic elements of Me & All My Friends (from i want! i want!) and the nice big finish. Before it, he surveyed the room for people who had been at their first Vancouver show, when they opened for Kaiser Chiefs – few were and for people who were there for the first time – those cheers were much louder.

When the first chords for Iscariot were audible, a whack of smartphones appeared for recording. I wish I had. It sounded perfect. As was the mood, right down to the effect the spotlight on Kevin gave for the parts during which he supplies the backing vocals. The build on that song in volume and intensity and passion is just spine-tingling and by the “my friend/my brother had it coming” repeats I think the entire ground floor and parts of the mezzanine were singing in full voice. It’s a song with wow factor, if you’re listening, it gets under your skin. And even if you’re not listening fully, you’ll feel it get under your skin.

Fixin’ gets the audience active again and even doubly so for I can lift a car. The way the band end it, it feels like it might be the end of the set with the multi-coloured light show and the emphasis on audience participation. Hands reach into the front rows and they in turn strain to reach back. Anna Sun is the last song of the set and it is fun-fun-fun from beginning to end, with everyone on the ground floor jumping and dancing and a good two dozen people in mezzanine stood up to dance as well, and I’m finding that I’m rusty on the lyrics. Kevin and Eli’s synchro-jump off their respective platforms is, well, fun.

There were maybe 60 seconds between the set and the one-song encore during which square lights on stage spelled out the band name. Good thing too, otherwise it would’ve been impossible to get the mezzaniners back on their feet. Jenny was the song and Sean was briefly featured via a bit of an extended drum solo. As far as single-song encores go, it ran a good 6 minutes, so people had one last gasp at ‘leaving it all on the dance floor’. The band stayed on stage after the house lights came up to shake hands and toss drum sticks into the crowd. Well trained that a Vancouver audience is, and there were probably a good 700 people there (I *think*) they began leaving en masse before the last band member left the stage. To me, that doesn’t seem quite right – I mean, it’s just shy of 11 on a Tuesday night, it’s not like there’s traffic??? Oh well, I got what I came for – see yas all next time! 

Setlist
Next in Line
Quesadilla
Lisa Baby
Spend Your Money
Tightrope
Anywayican
Tête-à-Tête
Boyfriend
Shiver Shiver
Me & All My Friends
Iscariot
Fixin’
I can lift a car
Anna Sun

Encore
Jenny

Stereophonics - Commodore Ballroom - Sunday, October 6, 2013

This review was written for and first published by Concert Addicts. Photos, including the one below, are copyright of Jamie Taylor. 

It looked to be a full house at The Commodore Ballroom on Sunday, October 6, 2013. The Wind +The Wave from Austin, Texas were on stage when I arrived just after 9 pm. They performed with two guitars, one acoustic and one electric, and what seemed to be pre-recorded percussion tracks, on this, their first visit to Vancouver. The female primary vocalist’s style did seem country-ish, but overall, if I had to put them in some kind of pigeonhole, after the 6 or so songs in their set, I’d place them in that wide-reaching genre of ‘indie folk’. They appreciated that so many people were already squished on the dance-floor and made repeat offers to interact with the audience at the merch stand. The band were also extended their thanks to Stereophonics for having them on their North American tour – and promised we would be hearing all the hits that evening. The Wind + The Wave currently have no new CD to promote, that one is being released in January of 2014, but the audience did offer decent applause, and there were even some whistles, after every song. All in all, I think this was not an unsuccessful night for this duo.

After half an hour of roadies and stage techs doing their thing, the Commodore was ready: when the lights went out at 1 minute to 10, minor pandemonium ensued and the Stereophonics were on – Catacomb, from their most recent CD Graffiti on the Train, started the night off as a solid rock ‘n’ roll number, right down to the light show. At first, I thought the vocals were up a bit too high, but they balanced out before too long. On the whole, I would’ve expected more jumping around, but then, I believe the new CD only came out in early September here in Canada, and I find that often happens when the new release is that new in a market. Regardless, right out of the gate, the Stereophonics set a great foundation for the rest of the night. The first of my favourite songs, Superman, followed and this time there was a proper response from the crowd starting with the first few chords. This is my first time seeing this band live in an interior setting (I saw them in Hyde Park for the Opening Ceremonies concert in London, 2012, but that was a festival stage and the endorphin levels were high) and I’m both pleased and impressed at how the vocals and instruments have the same quality as on the CDs I have – it shows consistency, it shows how little tinkering is done to make them sound ‘better’ during the recording/mixing/mastering process – they actually DO sound that good live; the only difference is, everything truly just gets amped up and this is when the tinkering happens: longer instrumental parts, big finishes, not to mention audience interaction – every element that makes a live experience meaningful is represented.

Right, we continued with A Thousand Trees, an audience favourite I should think because that lovely chorus was also sung full-voice by the people in attendance. There was a brief clapping part for them as well. It definitely seems like a short song, but the band rounded it out with a big instrumental finish and the Commodore responded with hoots, hollers, whistles, applause – yours truly included. Chief songwriter and singer Kelly Jones mentioned it was good to be back (later on he would mention the band had been coming to Vancouver for the last 16 years) between songs and extended his gratitude to the opening band for their support on the tour. The next song was the new CD’s title track Graffiti on the Train and I think I now understand why this song is on the CD: so they can perform it live. Jones puts in a great vocal performance and this really sad song comes alive in a way. It’s a mood piece, one of Tony Kirkham’s keyboard synthesisers provided the ‘strings’ as heard on the recording, wonderfully climactic cymbal crashes courtesy of Jamie Morrison and his amazingly expressive curly hair add drama, and I certainly won’t listen to it the same way again. I see a number of phone screens on as they record the song for their collections. Also from the new CD was We Share the Same Sun which began with a spotlight on Kelly Jones while the rest of the stage was awash with red. I found it had more of a rhythmic drive to it than what I’m familiar with and I’m loving that. This song in general is typical of this band’s rock style – anyone I’ve talked to about the band in recent weeks, this is the song I play for them as a kind of ‘audition piece’. If they like it, they’ll like the majority of the rest of the catalogue. No surprises, just a great song.

The first few rows of the audience did overhead claps for the duration of the intro to Indian Summer – I finally saw a Red Dragon, the Welsh flag, in the crowd. It’s not too high so I don’t think the band saw it, but it was good to see the one at least. What I saw a lot of during Have a nice day were cell phones – over a dozen recorded this oldie, but what a goodie. As soon as Jones mentioned that it was written in San Francisco, I (and a large part of the audience) knew what was next and the first notes confirmed it. It had a warm luscious sound that was only complimented by the lighting. For Vegas Two Times I absolutely adore that edgy rock guitar riff and live, that alone sounds even edgier. I wouldn’t be surprised that this would be when newbies get surprised that there’s so much more to this band’s sound than Have a nice day and I think it’s perfect to have them back-to-back in the set. Vocals remain constant – solid, strong, never strained. How does he do that night after night? My point is pretty much proven right away as the band go straight from this into Mr Writer, another favourite of mine (yes, I have many) – a quasi-ballad with melodic oohs in the background and Jones’s hypnotic voice carrying you along. It’s not easy to knock a ballad out of the park; this band, this song – they certainly do for me.

In a Moment has a heavier guitar presence (2 electric guitars, 1 bass guitar, 1 acoustic guitar, so considering there are 5 people on stage, it’s all guitars and drums) and a great hook. This one was newer to my ears, but it rocked, through and through. Same Size Feet takes us to the debut album Word Gets Around from 1997, so, probably before my time, or so I thought, and then I heard the riff heading into the chorus and it’s on Decade in the Sun so I do know it. I’m a little amazed at how long this band’s music has been on the periphery of my music consciousness, but Decade is a brilliant 2-CD set of catch-up. 

Nothing Precious at all I didn’t know on any level. Nice piano part. At first blush, it’d be what I would consider a filler track on an album. I don’t think the audience felt much of a connection to it either. Not so for Maybe Tomorrow – I can hear the crowd sing the chorus. Adam Zindani is quietly confident, almost understated for the central guitar solo, and actually does spend it centre stage instead of stage right, but it gives me the sense of controlled tension, like it could go off somewhere else if it weren’t for the rest of the band grounding him. Meanwhile, on the other side, bassist Richard Jones does what so many bass players seem to be able to do in spades: exude cool. The audience solos the chorus at the end and really does take it away home. Aaaah. Very satisfying.

Roll the Dice – on the new CD. I like the levels (full on and quick contrasted with slightly slower and quieter). Kelly Jones and Zindani appear to have a friendly guitar-off – rhythm guitar vs lead. Again, great vocal control enhanced by echo effect. Muse’s Matt Bellamy’s got nothing on this guy. Violins & Tambourines takes a bit to get going, you’re lulled into it almost to the point when you’ve given up on it and are waiting for it to peter out when all of a sudden it gets fast and loud and really good, even a bit thrashy by the end. Been Caught Cheating is quite bluesy with a keyboard synthesiser part that’s trying to emulate a Hammond organ. I read somewhere that this song may originally have been meant for the late Amy Winehouse. That would’ve been something, but in the hands of the composer, it’s got plenty of appeal.

To take us to the end of the set, the audience get a couple of familiar songs. Bad grammar aside, Just Looking is one of my favourite songs by Stereophonics and they deliver to a T, as with Local Boy in the Photograph – love it, love it, love it. So much singing, so much audience participation. With all the singing and cheering, I’ve actually given myself a headache and I still could have them go on for hours yet. Within two minutes of just that (cheering and such, not headaches), Kelly Jones returns to let the audience know that he hadn’t performed Caravan Holiday in a long time; he just started doing it again this week. It’s just him playing an acoustic guitar and singing. I see several lighters above people’s heads and it’s perfect like that. Jones (Kelly) then sits down at a piano keyboard that’s been placed downstage while I can see the band huddle in the shadows until it’s time for them to join in the innocuously titled I stopped to fill my car up that succeeds in finishing up as a full-on rock number. If the rhythm section wasn’t consistent throughout, one would think it continued into a new song, just an instrumental one, so let’s just say this was the extended version.

The Bartender & the Thief (which I tend to just call Gone Fishin’) continued the encore and, what could I possibly say at this point: It rocked? (yes) It was bouncy, blow the lid off the Commodore fun? (yes) And they weren’t done yet: Dakota was their final offering, and another one I adore. Last chance for the audience to dance and sing their hearts out and they took advantage.
  
At quarter to midnight it’s all over and I’m so sad. I don’t want the proverbial chariot to turn back into a pumpkin, or the horses into mice, and return to the real world. This magical bubble in which Stereophonics play one favourite of mine after another (even if I missed Pick A Part That’s New and It Means Nothing) and I did end up hollering myself into a pounding headache, I know it can’t last, but that doesn’t prevent me from wishing it so. This show was all that I hoped for and every bit as good as I expected; one I’ll remember for a long time to come. 

Setlist 
Catacomb
Superman
A Thousand Trees
Graffiti on the Train
We Share the Same Sun
Indian Summer
Have a nice day
Vegas Two Times
Mr Writer
In a Moment
Same Size Feet
Nothing Precious at all
Maybe Tomorrow
Roll the Dice
Violins & Tambourines
Been Caught Cheating
Just Looking
Local Boy in the Photograph

Encore
Caravan Holiday
I stopped to fill my car up
The Bartender & the Thief
Dakota

Noah and the Whale - The Vogue Theatre - Saturday, September 28, 2013

This review was written for and published by Concert Addicts. Photographs, including the one below, are copyright of Pavel Boiko.
 
For the second night in a row, I was at Vancouver’s Vogue Theatre, this time to see Noah and the Whale (now I know there is no ampersand in the name), whose 2011 show at the Biltmore Cabaret I recapped on my blog then. Now we are in September of 2013 and the band are promoting their latest release Heart of Nowhere. 

Their support act was supposed to have been LP who were unable to be there, instead the local band No Sinner filled in. I arrived just before 9 pm (the ticket and website said it was meant to have begun at 9:30 pm, good thing I came ‘early’) and the band were already playing. A four-piece (drums, bass, guitar, & vocalist in a cute summer dress that I am now on the lookout for) was rocking out but the singer’s voice was the stand-out element. People ask where the women of rock are these days and I think I’m looking at one. She has a set of pipes that remind me of the singers of Nico Vega and Cold War Kids – a powerful voice that comes from emotion rather than effort. They have a good rapport with the audience, mention more than once the name of the band, their gratitude at being called for this last-minute gig and to Noah and the Whale. The audience is also told the guitarist, Aaron, is the guitarist and lead singer of his own band The Dirt. The other two band members are introduced as well, but I’m afraid I didn’t catch their names. The singer’s name, I think was Colleen, and I thought it different how after her part was complete in the last song (their 8th perhaps), she left the stage (very conscious of the length of her skirt, holding it down as she jogged off), leaving the remaining three to see the song home instrumentally. Bass and drums watched the guitarist like a hawk as he showcased his skills, in part in the noodling tradition of Eddie Van Halen. Stylistically, they are definitely rock, a little bluesy in parts, a little Motown in others, but most definitely rock. They were done and packing up by 9:30 pm while the audience cheered enthusiastically. 

The ground floor of the theatre looked fairly full, the first level of the mezzanine was about 2/3 full with a handful of people in the upper half. I wasn’t expecting the sold-out house that Jake Bugg had enjoyed the night before, but I would’ve anticipated more people in the audience. Irrespective of size, they do sound enthusiastic during the show. 

When the lights dim at just after 10 pm, slightly spooky music comes on over the speakers and I think it ends up being the theme to 2001: Space Odyssey, but jazzed up a bit. The first song of the night is Tonight’s the Kind of Night and I’d just like to say it’s nice to see the lead singer Charlie on his acoustic guitar be able to move around the stage. By comparison, the Biltmore Cabaret must have felt claustrophobic (there are five of them and keyboardist Tom also plays the violin elsewhere so essentially has two marks on-stage). As before, they dress for the occasion – a couple of suits, a couple of ties, collared shirts – not dressed the same, but snazzy (do people still say that?) nonetheless. The title track of the CD is next Heart of Nowhere and the violin lovers, or violinist lovers, rejoiced. Every time that instrument is featured, the screams increase. I liked the song a lot – it has a really nice dynamic to it. The band continue right away with Waiting for a Chance to Come from the previous CD Last Night on Earth. I enjoy the easy pace of this song. For the first time this evening, the band’s sound seem to fill the theatre and it sounds warm and rich. Next was a new song for me All Through the Night and it struck me how this song could be sooooooo incredibly radio-friendly, especially since the ‘80s are back in vogue, and this song has a touch of that. Much of this band’s music is very radio-friendly, but it gets played so rarely, which is a shame. 

Give it all Back is the next song. I love the piano keyboard part in it – to a degree it reminds me a little of Schroeder from the Peanuts cartoon. It’s a great upbeat number and gets a big finish at the end. Clearly a favourite? There’s an instrument shuffle for the next one: if I remember correctly, guitarist Fred moves to keyboard, Tom moves to violin, and bassist Matt switches to guitar. It’s L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. and it’s got a bit of opportunity for audience participation for the chorus and I could hear very little from below and even less around me. Perhaps much of the audience are newbies? Not to worry, a different tactic was coming. The introduction of Give a little Love got a number of “yaay”s from the audience. The band did a lovely atmospheric build during the instrumental part at the end with keyboard and guitar working to try and blow the lid off the place and then, in an instant, the song is done. Loudest applause of the night here, someone even yells for a repeat. Charlie has a bit of a chat to the audience instead. Throughout the day in Vancouver, we had some monsoon-quality rain. Charlie had had to purchase an umbrella to get around and in only 5 minutes, he felt his $10 had been well spent. No sights seen, they just went to see a film – can’t blame them, not much else to do when it’s raining so hard the raindrops are bouncing to meet your knees. Ironically (intentionally), this served as a great segue way to Blue Skies. It’s a little quieter but only marginally. The entire rest of the band, even the as yet unnamed drummer Michael, provide backing vocals for it. I don’t think it sounded familiar to my ears, but I thought it a really nice one. For Old Joy the audience is invited to sing along to function as a gospel choir. This time Charlie provides a lesson for the “day by day old joy comes back to me” line. He purports Vancouver puts the Seattle audience to shame, but he did also say “a lot of soul can compensate for pretty much anything”, so, unless you were in that audience, who’s to know? 

My Door is Always Open according to Charlie doesn’t get played a lot. It is a rather quiet song that skirts the periphery of country in genre. During the still moments, shouts of “I love you” ring out – some for Charlie, some for Tom (well, they do have the best hair), but there’s also really annoying chatter going on upstairs and below. Well timed – it had to be the quietest song you had to talk through. Fortunately, it does pick up in speed and volume so the talkers were drowned out. The multi-part harmony of the band sees them through to the end of the song and the ring of the final chord. My choir director at the VSO School of Music would’ve called it a ‘heaven chord’, I’m sure. 

There will come a Time is all poppy and peppy at the same time, even during a bit that mainly features drums and vocals. I remember Rocks and Daggers as being the song with the fun syncopation with percussion and violins. It also flirts a little with the country genre and despite my dislike of that type of music, the song remains vocally and musically/rhythmically interesting. Love of an Orchestra has Tom plucking and bowing his violin strings, and Fred takes over on keyboards. It’s a toe-tapper from start to finish and the audience are really into it as well. 

Still after all these Years is introduced by way of a guitar-off. Charlie describes how the film they saw was about an intense rivalry in F1 racing (the film they saw was Rush) but it’s nothing in comparison to Fred and Matt. While the latter two do their funk guitar parts, Charlie provides the basslines and Tom is on keyboards. The rivalry, of course, was exaggerated – there was a smile on everyone’s face and they look so comfortable and happy just playing together. As Charlie put it so nicely, “despite the rivalry, the only real winner is music”. Well, and the audience. 
 
Lifetime has a good steady rhythm, again with the toe-tapping and head-nodding. The violin carries the theme of the verse melody through the chorus. It’s catchy enough, it won’t be one of my favourites, but it’s on the CD, so who knows, it might find an audience as a single. Speaking of singles, the one that turned me onto this band Five Years Time, their first one, as it happens, missing a possessive apostrophe, was the final song before the encore, and I felt a bit lonely singing Laura Marling’s part by myself. I wasn’t alone in clamouring for an encore though – I was cheering and clapping as loudly as anyone else in the house – and we did not wait long. They probably took only enough time to wipe their faces and take a swig of a chilled beverage of their choice. I didn’t know this one: it starts off with mallets on cymbals and drums, has a plaintive and wistful violin part to accompany the drums during the introduction. The band have a wonderful use of dynamic – mezzopiano to forte and right back down to somewhere around mezzopiano just before the end of a phrase – and it is gorgeous. Independent of what’s going on in the vocals, they act as a kind of foreshadowing to all the richness of the instrumental parts. It’s a great choice for a one and only encore song as it runs a gamut of emotions, none of them ‘spring-like’, more like spring on the calendar with winter hanging about having worn out its welcome, but there’s a hint at what’s to come. 

At about half past 11 the lights come back on. Up until then for a few minutes I could sense the audience was hopeful there might be a second encore. After all, it was only one song, even if it was about 5 minutes long, but no joy. 

I do enjoy this band a lot. They don’t often make it on a playlist for me; as far as music goes, they're what I call one of my 'binge bands'. I need to be in the mood, but then I’ll listen to my CD from start to finish. Plural now, I bought Heart of Nowhere before I left and I like it. A lot.

Setlist 
Tonight’s the Kind of Night 
Heart of Nowhere 
Waiting for a Chance to Come 
All Through the Night 
Give it all Back 
L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. 
Give a little Love 
Blue Skies 
Old Joy 
My Door is Always Open 
There will come a Time 
Rocks and Daggers 
Still after all these Years 
Lifetime 
Five Years Time 

Encore 
First Days of Spring

Jake Bugg - The Vogue Theatre - Friday, September 27, 2013

This review was written for and published by Concert Addicts. Photographs, including the one below, are copyright of Jamie Taylor.

The first and last time I saw Jake Bugg perform, it was almost a year ago – he was the support act for the double bill of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Snow Patrol (my review of that show is here) in late October of last year. When I heard he was coming to Vancouver to headline, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to see and hear him for a headlining gig at the Vogue Theatre on Friday, September 27 – and my inner music nerd is happy Concert Addicts made it happen.

Jake Bugg’s support act was a Nashville-based band called Honey Honey. Although not every band based in that town is a country music act, when I saw the female singer with a banjo (she also plays fiddle), my suspicions were immediately confirmed. I am not a fan of country music by any stretch of the imagination, but I didn’t mind this band. The singer, Suzanne Santo, does have a pleasant enough voice with strong vocals and both the percussion-playing acoustic guitarist along with the cowboy-hat-wearing, mandolin-and-electric-guitar playing band member provided tight vocal harmonies (both are named Ben). The band started promptly at 8 pm and after 8 songs that had a stylistic range of bluegrass to country rock ended at about 20 minutes to 9. The drummer/guitarist handled lead vocals for the 5th song (he also takes care of the majority of the banter department with the audience) and the band and audience was pretty much completely rocking out to the 6th song, which I kind of liked, in spite of myself. The rest of the audience was also enthusiastic, the downstairs moreso than the mezzanine, although, I did see quite a few heads nodding to the beat and a bunch even stood up at the end of their set.  


To begin the set of Jake Bugg, at shortly after 9 pm, the sounds of 1930s/’40s southern blues came over the house speakers and the screams began with the first flash of a torch lighting the way for the young musician touring his self-titled release. His first song was Fire and was performed just on acoustic guitar. As of the second song (Trouble Town), 2 musicians joined him on stage: a lanky bass player and a drummer. Bugg is in good voice and the audience responds accordingly with screeches and screams between songs. As the show progresses I’m struck by the veritable assembly line of guitars that are tuned on stage right – the tech started tuning in the middle of Honey Honey’s set; I guess he wanted to get a headstart on his duties. Too bad he’s actually in full view the entire time. The bass player appears to have his own tech to hand him freshly tuned instruments as the need warrants. Not to take anything away from the quality of the performance, Bugg hasn’t really grown any more chatty in the 11 months since I saw him perform. He will introduce songs, but conversely, never introduced the musicians sharing the stage with him. There’s not a lot of interaction between the three, they just all get on with it really. Of the three, the drummer looks like he’s having the most fun. Simple as This was the fourth song and hoots interspersed the instrumental parts of the ballad and people downstairs singing along with the chorus. The next song, Ballad of Mr Jones, was also a ballad, but by tempo only – it seemed harder, with an edge. I loved the bass line of the chorus in this song. It has a great hook and a Bugg’s guitar solo on the electric guitar was really nice. Nothing overly complicated but rhythmically very complementary to the rest of the song and what else was going on. For Country Song, the ‘band’ disappears and it’s Bugg, his acoustic guitar, and his unique voice. The song is short and sweet in length, but not short on applause it generates. Saffron is also performed on acoustic guitar only and is also a brief one. His picking is really quite lovely, very much in the folk tradition, I think. Song About Love was introduced as a brand-new song. Again, just Bugg and his acoustic guitar and he goes full voice on this song. It has rather anthemic qualities and it’s nicely powerful all around. The audience approves. The higher notes in it could pose a problem for when his voice is tired but if this song takes off, he won’t have to worry about it – it’s perfect for an audience sing-along. Speaking of which, a female voice calls out “You’re perfect” after its conclusion. Bugg gives a shy smile and I can hear giggles from below.

Someplace is introduced as one of the oldest songs Bugg has. The ‘band’ is back to support him for it and the drummer opts for brushes on the snare instead of drumsticks. It’s an incredibly pretty ballad. The next one Me & You is also a new song and it sounds vaguely country, but old style (like ‘60s country). Two Fingers is also reminiscent of American music history, but I can envision it more at a ‘50s sock-hop with the way the rhythm works in the chorus. The “I got out, I got out” refrain reminds me of something else though – have a listen for yourself and if you think of something, I’d welcome the suggestions because even a day and a half later, I still can’t place it. The audience claps and sings along and offers the loudest applause of the night so far after it’s done. For Taste It, the tempo is a bit faster and parts of the chorus kind of remind me of Oasis (or, by extension, The Beatles), in a way. Couldn’t tell you why, it’s just what’s tugging at my memory. Moves along very well, quite the toe-tapper, head-bopper. Slumville Sunrise is rather quick in parts and the rest of the time there’s a real urgency meshing between vocals and drums (they’re rather punchy during the verses) with a walking bass line that seems like it’s trying to ground the other two, but they manage to hold on to the tension. REALLY liked it!

To throw echoes of yet another genre into the setlist, I think What Doesn’t Kill What Doesn’t Kill You positively has punk roots. It’s quick and done and gone. They clear the stage at about 10 to 10 pm. 

I do take it back – the demands for the encore and seeing Bugg and the band return are the loudest I’ve heard the audience. Sadly, the audience liked their increased volume and so when they got their wish of Jake Bugg’s return they forgot to pay attention or something. Broken is a gorgeous ballad, many people sang along and got out lighters; it would’ve been moreso if people would just shut up, especially during a quiet song. Have some respect – those are real life people up there on stage. It’s not a lip-syncing-dancing monkey or a film you’re looking at - if I can hear you where I am, then I’m pretty sure they can too. As soon as Bugg mentions the next song is a Neil Young cover, the house erupts. The first chords elicit another great response. There are many people on their feet in the mezzanine level dancing along. As far as covers go, he stays fairly close to the original. I would wager it’s a bit quicker, but other than that, it is very recognisable. The final song of the night is Bugg’s biggest commercial success, Lightning Bolt, which is an interesting move. It’s the song everyone knows, for many, it’s the song that got them to purchase a ticket and brought them here. I think Bugg is performing a bit of an extended version. The majority upstairs and downstairs clap along and many again are dancing. A standing ovation ends the show and I begin reflecting.

As an artist, Jake Bugg is a bit of an anomaly. His voice and music sound like he’s not from this time, and yet his lyrics are more current. When I saw him open for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Snow Patrol, it was just Bugg and a guitar and yes, he was a year younger (18), but it was as if the venue (GM Place/Rogers Arena) dwarfed him. This venue, the Vogue Theatre, suited him to a T. Two people backing him up suited him. For where he is now in his career, in North America, this was a great fit.

People I spoke with afterwards were very impressed by him and on the street, folks were raving about how fantastic they thought the show was. One woman even remarked how he wished he were older so he could play longer.

The historical music influences are clearly identifiable in Bugg’s music – the Robert Johnson style of southern rock & roll, as well as flavours from the ‘50s and into the ‘90s. He’s a walking, playing “rock & roll through the ages” troubadour with 21st century sensibilities. Kudos to whoever introduced him to the greats of old who in turn set an even younger Jake Bugg on this path. Well played, all around.

Setlist 
Fire
Trouble Town
Seen it all
Simple as This
Ballad of Mr Jones
Country Song
Saffron
Song About Love
Someplace
Me & You
Two Fingers
Taste It
Slumville Sunrise
What Doesn’t Kill You

Encore
Broken
Hey Hey, My My (Neil Young cover)
Lightning Bolt