vintage

I re-read my NXNE post (which did not get posted on time) and I discovered that I didn’t say much of note except for “This was really great!” and “That was terrific!” and so I decided to axe it. Here is the short version of the very, very, very small number of things that I attended.

The Burning Hell @ the Horseshoe Tavern: This band is amazing. They are coming off the release of their second full-length, Baby, and I think they get more energetic every time I see them. The bonus of this show is that they were almost all rip-roaring drunk, particularly Mathias (the frontman, brain, and master ukulele-man behind the project), which added about ten thousand energy points. “Grave Situation Pt. 1″ has never sounded so good, and I was amazed both at the number of people filling the ‘Shoe for their set and at how many of those people were raucously yelling along to most of the songs.

Six Shooter Records BBQ: For those unaware of the recent tradition, Six Shooter Records hosts a backlot BBQ on the Saturday of NXNE behind their store on Queen East. This year it poured fairly aggressively, but it was still packed full of umbrella-wielding, good-humoured folks; NQ Arbuckle, the afternoon’s host, definitely fits into the latter category. I believe the margaritas may have contributed to his good humour later in the day, but nonetheless, he did magnificently. There were great, and I mean great, performances by the likes of Justin Rutledge (including a rockin’ version of his “jellybean song”), The Beauties, Luke Doucet, Martin Tielli — yeah! — backed by Luke Doucet and Selina Martin, Rose Cousins, and a bunch of others too. Highlights included … well, the whole thing. I am sure you can imagine what the original post looked like.

And that’s about all I did. We played a show at Mitzi’s Sister on the Saturday night, though, and Chart magazine loved us. So that’s something! (I apologise for shameless self-promotion; in my defense, it has been quite some time since that happened around these parts.)

Much shorter than the last post, and hopefully you’ll actually get to read it this time! I hope things get interesting around here again so I have things to talk about. I am working my way through a couple of books (Claudia Dey’s Stunt and Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany), so when I finish them — which will be soon — perhaps you will see some musings.

Ho hum, summertime, etc.

Back to waiting out a strike — but this one will be city-wide, and considerably smellier. Local 416 and Local 79 in the City of Toronto have gone on strike. This will affect, among other things, garbage collection, day cares, Toronto Island ferry service (except for residents), parking permits, Registry Services (weddings), and City Hall and Metro Centres.

The City of Toronto’s official guide to the strike can be found here.

NXNE post coming tonight.

It is here, folks. It is here.

Arkells, Jackson Square
Jill Barber, Chances
Beast, Beast
Bell Orchestre, As Seen Through Windows
Bison BC, Quiet Earth
Bruce Peninsula, A Mountain Is A Mouth
Coeur de Pirate, Coeur de Pirate
Leonard Cohen, Live in London
D-Sisive, Let The Children Die
Elephant Stone, The Seven Seas
Elliott Brood, Mountain Meadows
Fucked Up, The Chemistry of Common Life
Great Lake Swimmers, Lost Channels
Handsome Furs, Face Control
Tim Hecker, An Imaginary Country
Hey Rosetta!, Into Your Lungs
Japandroid, Post-Nothing
Junior Boys, Begone Dull Care
K’Naan, Troubadour
K-OS, Yes!
La patère rose, La patère rose
Land of Talk, Some Are Lakes
Lhasa, Lhasa
Malajube, Labyrinthes
Metric, Fantasies
$100, Forest of Tears
Pink Mountaintops, Outside Love
Joel Plaskett, Three
Snailhouse, Lies on the Prize
Charles Spearin, The Happiness Project
Rae Spoon, superioryouareinferior
The Stills, Oceans Will Rise
Think About Life, Family
Timber Timbre, Timber Timbre
Chad VanGaalen, Soft Airplane
Martha Wainwright, I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too
Patrick Watson, Wooden Arms
Wolf Parade, At Mount Zoomer
Women, Women
Woodpigeon, Treasury Library Canada C/W Houndstooth Europa

Talk amongst yourselves.

The Polaris Music Prize shortlist will be announced on July 7 in Toronto, and the CBC Radio 3 source post can be found right here.

On January 19, 1971, Canada’s legendary singer-songwriter Neil Young gave a solo concert at Toronto’s Massey Hall. Audiences there heard for the first time several of the iconic songs that would later appear on his albums, including his best-selling LP Harvest - yet the live concert recording itself wasn’t released until 2007.

Now, as part of the Festival-wide Guitar Festival, a new generation of musicians, led by Juno Award winning music director Kevin Breit, will recreate that landmark concert, performing their own distinctive arrangements of the album’s eighteen classic songs.

That’s the description from the website for Luminato, the “festival of arts and creativity” that’s currently taking over Toronto. It sure sounds like a good idea in theory: paying tribute to one of the greatest musicians Canada has ever produced, and one of the greatest live albums ever, at the place that the album was recorded. And Kevin Breit would know a thing or two about the subject at hand, having won a Juno Award for Run Neil Run, an instrumental album of Young covers. Things are starting off promisingly.

Many of the performances were amazing: Jason Collett’s version of “See The Sky About To Rain” was a major highlight, including the audience participation moment (rubbing palms, snapping fingers, stomping feet, etc) where it truly sounded like it had begun to rain inside Massey Hall, and the trio of Emilie-Claire Barlow, Melanie Doane and Kathryn Rose did an absolutely shimmering rendition of “Cowgirl in the Sand” to close the first half.

Equally noteworthy were the Cowboy Junkies, who did both “Love in Mind” and “Don’t Let it Bring You Down”, both of them ethereal and haunting — it felt like we were in a church at three in the morning, a few half-broken floodlights on the stage carpets, dust in the rafters, making music because we wanted to. I’m sure Neil Young would have been all right with their treatment of his work.

However.

Holly Cole, Steven Page, and Issa should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. Cole’s butchery of “Old Man” was painful (I was wincing): her heavy-handed inflections were misplaced and distracting, and she sang it about as delicately as a construction worker tiptoeing in steel-toed boots. Page, for his part, turned “Journey Through The Past” into some kind of pseudo-Latin-flavoured hunk of junk, completely bypassing the entire emotional content of the song. Someone should have reminded them that it was a tribute to Neil Young, not a “look at me” contest; it’s not about you, it’s about the guy whose song you’re singing. Pay him a little respect!

Issa. Oh, boy. Most of you will remember her under her former moniker, Jane Siberry; she changed her name sometime in 2006, I think. Her version of “There’s a World” was unremarkable, but the problem lay in the post-performance conversation with MC Matt Wells (of MuchMoreMusic). Wells basically paid her a great compliment: he commented that Neil Young had stayed relevant throughout forty years of music history because he had stayed true to himself and had done what he wanted to do, and asked if Issa related to him because he thought she had done the same.

There was a long pause, and Issa shot back “Oh, is that how you stay relevant?”

It didn’t get much better after that. Wells stumbled in surprise and tried to explain that Neil hadn’t just followed every trend, but had created his own; Issa continued to be completely impossible and stonewalled everything Wells tried to say. It was a relief when that part was over. I’m not sure what she felt she needed to accomplish with that outburst, but it was unpleasant.

Roxanne Potvin, who followed that wreck of an interlude, picked the night back up magnificently with “Bad Fog of Loneliness” — she even borrowed Young’s bit of banter from the album, reminding us that they’d treat it like the Tennessee Three, which they promptly did.

Full list of performers and songs (from what I remember; I’ll pick up the program tonight and correct them if necessary) after the jump. The Luminato festival will continue through June 14. The Canadian Songbook Tribute to Neil Young was recorded for CBC Radio; more info to come about the air or post date when I find it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Toronto favourite Dave Bidini just doesn’t quit. Best known as a Rheostatic for 27 years (their final show was in March 2007 at Massey Hall, and it still tops the list of shows I regret missing — I was at a rehearsal literally around the corner), Bidini has also written a handful of books and adapted one into a play, and now he’s just released his first solo album with his co-conspirators under the name Bidiniband. It’s called The Land Is Wild, and also features Paul Linklater, Doug Friesen and Don Kerr, as well as a healthy list of guests.

To celebrate the album’s release, Bidini not only put on a show at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern last weekend, but also organized a “Hoser March”, beginning at Soundscapes with a Bidiniband in-store performance and working its way through Kensington Market to end at the Shoe. Stops on the way included She Said Boom!, with a fabulous reading by Claudia Dey; This Ain’t the Rosedale Library, including performances by Justin Rutledge and Gregory Samsung; Graffiti’s, with more Bidiniband (and a hilarious version of Joan Osbourne’s “If God Was One Of Us”!); and The Cameron House, with the Billie Hollies and Aurora Brown.

I must say that the march itself was a little anticlimactic — I was expecting to hoot and holler and stomp our way through the streets of Toronto, but it was more like a scraggly walk between venues. Some of the performances more than made up for that, though, including Gregory Samsung’s hilarious “The Book of Hosers”: reworked lyrics to “The Book of Love,” which we all sang on the street in front of This Ain’t the Rosedale Library, much to the amusement of the surrounding bars. Here’s a selection:

The book of Hosers is long and interesting
But everyone’s too drunk to lift the damn thing
It’s full of toques and literature and hockey
And instructions for rolling joints

But I love it when you give me things
You ought to give me wedding rings
I want to be like Geddy Lee
You have a dog with lotsa fleas
I dream of drinking from the Cup
You can you lend me 20 bucks

Blatant copyright infringement notwithstanding, it was an excellent singalong.

The Bidiniband release party at the ‘Shoe was kick-started by a performance from the excellently-named Tres Bien Ensemble, followed by Laura Barrett (avec magnificent band). I missed most of the former, but Laura’s set sounded terrific, and Randy Lee’s strings sounded better than most things I’ve heard at the Horseshoe. By the time Bidini and friends hit the stage, the place was still deplorably empty, considering the Rheos are mainstays there. Too bad. They sure didn’t let us down, though, playing most of the tracks from the new record and a large handful of other things besides (including a triumphant ending at 2:00 in the morning with “Horses” from the legendary Melville).

I’m unable to upload tracks since I still don’t have a stable internet connection — Tunesday is still on hold — but you can check out Dave’s official website … or watch the video of “The Land Is Wild” as Hockey Night in Canada theme song for Game 4 of Pittsburgh/Carolina here (!). There are few people more Canadian than Bidini.

Also happening in Toronto is the giant Luminato festival, co-presented by L’Oréal and billed as a celebration of arts and creativity. The ten-day culture explosion includes everything: music, dance, opera, theatre, film, photography, painting, etc. Part of their musical component is a bunch of programming centred around the guitar, and on Sunday, Yonge/Dundas Square hosted an all-day free music series with some pretty remarkable artists: I managed to make it there in time to see Jerry Douglas, bluegrass dobro player extraordinaire; Sonny Landreth, ridiculously soulful Louisiana guitarist (you might remember hearing about him before); The Campbell Brothers, who probably groove more than any other human beings on this Earth, maybe even Stevie Wonder; and Canadian producer and guitarist Daniel Lanois (solo). All for free! You don’t get much better than that, and it was pretty amazing. I think I’d like to hug the person responsible for programming that day. Do yourself a favour and see the Campbell Brothers and Jerry Douglas when you get the chance — I was blown away.

Kicking off the Luminato guitar festival was a show at Massey Hall on June 5 called “Three Girls and Their Buddy”: Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller. I probably don’t even need to talk about the show at all, since that lineup absolutely speaks for itself — it was, of course, terrific. Exceptional highlights included Miller’s solo cover of The Left Banke’s “Walk Away, Renée” and the three women singing “Didn’t Leave Nobody But The Baby” a cappella for the encore (if you’ve seen O Brother, Where Art Thou?, you’ll remember it sung by Emmylou, Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch). Whew.

Summer in Toronto! It’s a good one. Stay tuned for more Luminato and other stuff.

Hey there, internet. Did you miss me?
(… Don’t all answer at once.)

Well, I’m finished with school for good this year, and it’s about time. I have a lot to catch up on here — I still worked quite a few evenings at Massey Hall over the last month, so I have a bit of a backlog of reviews for you. Before that, though, quick news: Phoenix’s new record Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is in stores today. All right! Check them out here. I’ll review it as soon as I get it.

Also in the news, the Calgary Folk Music Festival has revealed its full 2009 lineup! Highlights include The Decemberists, Bell Orchestre, Steven Page, Alejandro Escovedo, Sarah Harmer, Chad VanGaalen, and so many more … the list is fantastic. And of course, you’ll see reviews of all four days here.

So like I said, I’ve seen a fair number of shows that haven’t been reviewed here yet, so I think I’ll just condense them into this post — they’re all belated anyway and I’d rather not put them off any further. Going in reverse: I was a patron for the first time at Massey Hall (after seeing nearly fifty artists there since September) on Saturday, where Joel Plaskett made his seated venue debut accompanied by the Emergency, his father Bill, and songstresses Rose Cousins and the palindromic Ana Egge. The first set, a brief 45 minutes, was just the Plasketts and the two women, mostly acoustic — slightly twangy and very intimate. Ana and Rose both treated us to one of their own songs as well, and some tunes featured Joel and Bill by themselves in a father/son duet (like Ashtray Rock’s “Nothing More to Say”). We also got a bunch of great versions of songs from Three: particular highlights of the first set were “Deny, Deny, Deny”, “Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’,” and the incredibly John Prine-ish “Pine, Pine, Pine”.

The second set kicked off with the Emergency (Joel, Chris Pennell and Dave Marsh)’s one-two punch of “Work out Fine” and “Extraordinary,” both from 2003’s Truthfully Truthfully. After that it was just one big party. Peter Elkas joined the Emergency’s ranks and Bill, Rose and Ana returned to beef up the stage and sound. Lots of tunes from Three — including a fabulous second-set finish with “Wishful Thinking” — and old favourites too, sometimes in interesting new versions. The encore started off with Joel playing solo versions of the Hermit classic “Before You Leave” and his own “Love This Town,” whose lyrics he had changed a little after a good show in Kelowna … glad to see that city’s not taking too much Plaskett abuse these days!

If the crowd was any indicator — getting up and dancing, singing along with all of “Love This Town” (Joel left the mic and sang it from the edge of the stage, a testament both to Massey’s great acoustics and the attentiveness of the crowd), cheering for everything — the Joel Plaskett Emergency’s Massey Hall debut was a resounding success. And I have a feeling that “Wishful Thinking” might be prophetic — “Thank you, good night, we’ll be back in the fall”.

Also recently featured at the Hall were Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer on the Unwigged & Unplugged Tour — you may remember them as the men behind This Is Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind and Waiting for Guffman. This tour saw the three guys tossing aside costumes and assumed identities and playing their material mostly acoustic. I think they did everything from the Spinal Tap film: “Big Bottom” (walking bass, lounge style), “Sex Farm” (I don’t even know how to describe that one — McKean did a bit of a rap in the middle!), and, yes, “Stonehenge”, complete with Nigel Tufnel intro from Guest and a video of trolls dancing around a miniature Stonehenge piece projected onto the screen behind them. Hysterical. They also did a great deal of Folksmen material including the theme from A Mighty Wind (”It’s blowing peace and freedom, it’s blowing you and me!”) and the Folksmen cover of the Stones’ “Start Me Up”.

While it was hilarious to hear these acoustic versions of Tap songs (”The Majesty of Rock” on acoustic guitars?), even more fun were the between-song banter and the other segments of the show, including the “audience participation,” where they gave one man 3D glasses and made him stand in front of them for an entire song, promising that the song was written in 3D and it would “blow your mind”. They also told stories about the making of various films, including the fiasco when NBC wanted to show This Is Spinal Tap on television shortly after its theatrical run (Shearer: “Well, it wasn’t so much a run as a power walk.” McKean: “Ah, those were the day!”). The head of whatever department they were dealing with watched the film and made a list of everything he wanted to censor, which was pretty much the whole movie. Lines included things like “The lyrics to ‘Sex Farm’ are unacceptable.” “Hand on girl’s breast.” “‘Shit sandwich’.” Yup — totally unacceptable!

And of course, I can’t forget to mention the Tragically Hip’s six-night run at the Old Lady of Shuter Street: May 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 19. I wasn’t there for all of them (thank goodness) but I experienced rather enough as it was. They did put on solid shows, although they were obscenely loud — I get it, you’re a rock band, but at least play to the hall a little! Downie was up to his usual madcap stage adventures, and while I’m not sure what the final mic stand casualty count was, there were certainly a few sent to their graves during the week. Their setlist changed around a fair amount from night to night, which was great for those of us who had to see more than one show; highlights included “Fireworks”, “Fiddler’s Green”, “The Bear” (apparently they’ve only played that one live a few times), “Yer Not The Ocean” and so on. The new album is okay — it’s no World Container, but the songs translated a bit better live than they did on record, I think.

In Hall news, recent announcements for summer shows include Sonic Youth (June 30), Steve Earle (July 11), Neko Case (July 14), Fleet Foxes (August 4), Tori Amos (August 10), John Prine (August 14), and Elvis Costello and the Sugarcanes (August 28). It’s going to be a good run! See you all soon — more posts on the way.

There’s no Tunesday today, and there probably won’t be for a couple of weeks — I don’t want to just toss a song online without actually having a reason and writing a reasonably good post about it. I’m in the crunch period of school: you might remember that nasty strike that hit York University this year, and it’s because of that strike that my semester has been extended. Everyone else is finished school but I’m just getting into the final papers. And boy, am I getting into them.

I have five papers to write in the next three weeks, so I don’t know that I’ll have too many words left over at the end of the day. Things are going to be a bit slow around here. I’ll try to post whenever I can, but just a heads-up that it will probably be a bit boring until I get these giant things out of the way.

In the meantime, Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs begins Thursday! Man those televisions!

I just want to post a little note about a recital I attended today at the University of Toronto’s Walter Hall. It was put on by The Aldeburgh Connection, named for the town in England where Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears and Eric Crozier founded a music festival that still runs today. You might recognize Britten from his operas Peter Grimes and Death in Venice, among other things; Pears was his life and artistic partner, as well as the Aldeburgh Connection’s founding patron.

The afternoon was the final one in the AC’s Sunday series of concerts, all of which feature afternoon tea at the intermission, and included soprano Allison Angelo, baritone Jason Nedecky, and pianists Stephen Ralls and Bruce Ubukata, as well as two students from the University of Toronto’s opera studio. Here’s what they say about it on their website:

As all of you know, the cup that cheers but not inebriates is one constant feature of our Sunday concerts. We discovered, surprisingly, that many songs focus on the theme of tea and, as a result, we have been able to create an anthology which also includes references to other events of the afternoon and to the eastern homelands of the tea-bush. Musical sources range widely, from Roussel and Debussy to Donald Swann and Vincent Youmans.

I highly recommend the AC’s performance — the whole afternoon was cheeky and full of laughter, gaiety, and other things that most people do not generally associate with “classical music” (more accurately Western art music, as nearly all the pieces on the program date from the Romantic and Modern periods, but that’s something for another day)! Between pieces they also featured humorous readings by both pianists, Stephen Ralls and Bruce Ubukata, including excerpts from Henry James’ Portrait of a Lady, part of a “very pink” manual called Taking Tea, and also a hilarious staging of the tea-party scene from Alice in Wonderland. Performances were all masterful, and incredibly collaborative — the communication between the performers was magnificent, and the three piano duets (including a great arrangement for four hands of Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) were delightful changes of pace.

One of the best moments of the program came near the end of the second half when Nedecky sang Donald Swann’s hilarious “Have some Madeira, m’dear!” — the audience was roaring with laughter throughout, partially due to the lyrics and partially to Nedecky’s theatrical performance. Angelo, for her part, was beautifully lyrical and agile, particularly in her performance of Erik Satie’s “Le Chapelier” (from Trois Mélodies de 1916) and in the tutti rendition of “Tea for Two” (Youmans) in the finale.

Who knew tea could be this interesting? I will certainly be checking out the Aldeburgh Connection further and I suggest you do too; their season is coming to a close, but I’ll keep an eye out and post their next schedule when it becomes available. Browse the past Sunday concert programming here.

I just want to mention that I’m well aware of how unorthodox my track of the week list is — most of them aren’t new releases or promotional for upcoming material, and that’s pretty strange in the music blogosphere. But I figure there’s enough people doing that right now that you can find it if you want to (Matt over at i (heart) music is excellent at that), so my job here is to pick out some old stuff you might not have heard, or maybe that you’ve forgotten about.

This one probably falls into the latter category: it’s a track from Hawksley Workman (born Ryan Corrigan)’s first album, For Him and the Girls, released in 1999. Since then, he’s gone on to win Juno Awards for Best New Solo Artist and Best Video, started a record label and put out albums by Serena Ryder, and recorded a duet with Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard. He’s released ten albums, one of which includes the continually famous “Jealous of Your Cigarette” (2002), and has toured everywhere. It is hard to not have heard of Workman — he’s all over the place.

Like I said, though, this track goes back to his beginnings. It’s pretty straightforward, and feels shorter than it is (it clocks in at exactly four minutes), but it’s immediately likeable. Best enjoyed on a moving vehicle of some kind, preferably at night: it’s a calm and quiet evening travel sort of song, and Workman’s almost-Martin-Tielli voice is perfect for it. And the lyrics are just awwww.

Tunesday 18: Safe and Sound

The weekend. The glorious, glorious weekend. That may have been one of the longest weeks I’ve ever experienced, and I’m not keen to repeat it!

I guess I have some blog catching-up to do as a result of that week. Thursday (April 9) I had the immense pleasure of seeing Willie Nelson at Massey Hall, supported by the incredible Ray Price and the petulant Billy Bob Thornton with his band the Boxmasters.

I know we’re all tired of hearing about BBT, but I suspect this review wouldn’t be entirely complete without a mention of his conduct. We all know what happened on CBC Radio on the 8th, but for some reason, Thornton decided it would be a good idea to try to “set the record straight” at his second night at Massey Hall. He called Ghomeshi an “asshole” and pontificated on how one is expected to keep the promises that are made, forgetting about two things in the process: one, that journalism is about all the facts, not some of them; and two, that his band isn’t very good and decidedly would not be playing with such country legends as Nelson and Price if he were not Billy Bob Thornton, actor, as well.

Anyway, there was no tossed gravy, but I heard later that security intercepted a guy with a container of it intending to do just that. I wish they’d let it go! Either way, Thornton was booed continually during his speech to the crowd and the next day bailed out of the rest of the Canadian dates on the tour. He cited an ill bandmate, but he probably just can’t handle Canada.

Here’s a review from the Globe and Mail about the Massey show and about his behaviour in more detail, and here’s a column by Russell Smith that pretty much sums up the entire situation perfectly.

Back to the show: Thornton’s band is not all that great, and there were five guitarists. Overkill in itself, but four of them were playing identical Fender Telecasters, and one guy had a steel-string. This did nothing to cover up Thornton’s lack of imaginative drumming when he got behind the kit during their extendo-jam, and the end was very welcome when it finally arrived.

Ray Price, who is a whopping 83 years old, delivered a beautiful set with a large band sounding more intimate than I have ever heard twelve people sound. It felt like you really were back in “the good old days,” two-stepping and wearing big skirts. His voice is among the best I’ve ever heard, and the string section were scored like horns — I’ve never heard strings act quite like that before, and it was magnificent. If you ever get the chance to see this man perform, do yourself a favour; he’s done so much more than most of us could even hope for, and he’s still going strong.

Willie was great, of course. He performed with a very stripped-down ensemble, in total contrast to the acts preceding him: the focus was entirely on his voice and amazing guitar chops, and rightfully so. He brought Price back out to sing “Crazy” with him, which is probably the only way that song could be any better than it already is; other favourites included “Always On My Mind,” “On the Road Again” and a fantastic medley of the classics “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” and “I’ll Fly Away”. I’m not familiar with a large portion of Nelson’s repertoire (he has an eye-popping 77 studio albums, so I suppose that’s excusable!), but it seemed like the setlist was hit after hit after hit, with a couple lesser-known songs thrown in here and there. The crowd loved it, and he proved to us — not that we needed convincing — that he’s legendary for a very, very good reason. And he’s only seven years younger than Ray Price, which is pretty remarkable too.

I also saw familiar funnyman Jerry Seinfeld last night, supported by Tom Papa, who I’d never heard before. The latter was really funny — good, clean, PG-rated comedy (I realised with some embarrassment that most of the comedy I have been watching lately has been significantly more than PG), and a lot of observational stuff similar to Seinfeld. And of course, Jerry was hilarious — the crowd loved it, and he really gave them a good set. He mentioned the cast of Seinfeld’s upcoming appearance on Larry David’s new show Curb Your Enthusiasm, which should be an interesting reunion: apparently they’re recreating the show on CYE? I have no idea. Stay tuned, I guess!

And finally, two news announcements!

The first is that Phoenix have announced their tour dates (see them here) … and their Toronto date is at, yes indeed, the Phoenix Concert Theatre. I guess it would be pretty hard to forget the venue for this one. They’ll be here on June 15; check out the tour page for the rest of their dates.

The second is that the Calgary Folk Music Festival have been releasing their Leak of the Week for quite some time, and the lineup is getting mind-blowing. Already. The full lineup will be announced on May 14, but for the time being, I’m already getting excited: artists confirmed include Mavis Staples, Akron/Family, Bell Orchestre, Justin Rutledge, The Acorn, Mark Berube & The Patriotic Few, Glen Campbell, and Iron and Wine. And that’s not even the full list of leaks!

The festival runs July 23-26 and tickets will be available starting May 14.

Have a lovely weekend!