vintage

I have moved again. I am now living in a house with an actual internet connection. I don’t want to jinx it, but maybe now I can ACTUALLY POST, seeing as the WordPress dashboard loads when I open it. Amazing. It’s the little things.

Anyway, too much has come and gone for me to recap most of it, but I do want to briefly mention the Elvis Costello show at Massey Hall last week. Three words: a, ma, zing. I was thoroughly impressed with his latest incarnation, which is pretty solidly country/bluegrass. His backing band, the Sugarcanes, features formidable talents like Jim Lauderdale and Jerry Douglas — and all of that that ended up meaning two and a half hours (!) of total glee on my part. Yeah, I’m easy to please: a little twang and we’re off to the races. Seriously, though, it was one of the best things I’ve seen all year.

He reworked a lot of old classics like “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes” and “Mystery Dance” to be bluegrassier, and the new stuff fit in perfectly; a few unexpected covers came our way too, like “Friend of the Devil” and (thrillingly) “Not Fade Away”. I would have seen that show three times in a row at least — he’s an amazing live performer and obviously is having the time of his life on stage. There’s a very good reason why Costello hasn’t yet faded away himself.

I was going to continue this post with a nice long list of Stuff I’ve Learned As An Usher, but my actual Massey-versary is coming up in two weeks or something, so I’ll save it for then. I’d like to instead comment on the broken air conditioner at my other place of work: Starbucks. It breaks A LOT — it’s been down three times this summer. Still, everyone comes in and brilliantly asks the same question: “Aren’t you guys hot?” No. It’s 33 degrees Celsius in here, I’m standing in front of an OVEN, and I’m making you hot coffee. I’m feeling great. Bring me some tea. Seriously?

Every other exchange goes like this.

Customer: Holy cow, it’s hot in here. Why is it so hot in here?
Barista: Yeah, I’m really sorry — our air conditioner’s broken down.
Customer: Jeez. Shouldn’t you keep the doors open or something? It’s so hot.
Barista: We’ve tried that. We had a serious wasp problem, so we had to close them.
Customer: I’d rather that than be this hot! No one’s going to want to come in!

(Then leave!) Etc, etc, etc. I’ve been yelled at — because it’s clearly my fault the thing is broken and it’s 92 Fahrenheit inside — and chastised and informed, a thousand times over, that it’s really hot in here, haven’t you noticed? Can’t you see that people are uncomfortable? I just want to pick people up and place them in front of the oven, where we stand when we speak to them, and then see how the conversation progresses. I’m sure it would at least end a lot faster.

My favourite so far (“favourite”) is the customer who yelled that the heat was “retarded” — their words, not mine — and continued on in frustration to say they weren’t coming back until it was fixed for good. Well, we thought it was fixed for good last time, and the time before that, too … whatever.

It’ll be a relief when it gets fixed just so we don’t have to have this conversation with every single person who walks through the door, really. And so I don’t sweat through my shirt three times a day, but you win some, you lose some.

Oh yeah, and the new Massey Hall season is out. Go here to see what it is! You can also browse the calendar for Roy Thomson Hall (including the full Toronto Symphony Orchestra season) and the Glenn Gould Studio on the aforementioned link, as well as some dates at the RCM’s new Koerner Hall. Extra exciting. Massey highlights for the rest of 2009 include:

Ornette Coleman — September 24
Van Morrison — September 30 & October 2
Wilco — October 14 & 15
Metric — October 20 & 21
Frankie Valli (!) — November 6
Lyle Lovett & His Large Band — November 13
Downchild Blues Band ft. Dan Aykroyd — November 14
Gordon Lightfoot — November 18 through 21

And so much other stuff. Hope to see some of you there.
More fun things on the way! Hello Internet, I have missed you.

I’m in the land of a stable internet connection again (for a few weeks) so posts will be a bit more frequent. Hooray!

So I had the pleasure of taking in all three WestJet-sponsored gala events for the Toronto Just for Laughs festival last week. I am a terrible comedy reviewer, but I’ll list some highlights:

• Louis CK bashing the city of Buffalo and then launching into a tirade about milk cartons.
• John Cleese coming out on stage to a standing ovation and then repeatedly insulting the city of Toronto (and, once, Hamilton).
• John Mulaney’s bit about chasing a woman down a New York subway tunnel. “I’m not going to rape you! I’m a little boy!”
• The dry humour of Jimmy Carr. “When the Iraq war started, little did President Bush know.”
• David Cross‘ sketch about “If You Care” plastic wrap and the ensuing New York Jewish accent.
• Danny Bhoy writing a letter to the Royal Bank of Scotland (“one of the ones in the real shit”) informing them of being £500-billion overdrawn. “Perhaps we can come to some kind of compromise!”
• Ross Noble stopping in the middle of a sketch to stare in shock at a man in the front row who was wearing flip-flops (“At the nicest theatre in the city!”) and then proceeding to steal them and use them in his entire act. And the second show was completely different!

Someone needs to tell John Pinette and Gina Yashere that they can actually base their act around more than one subject. Pinette’s jokes were all self-deprecating lines about how overweight he was, and Yashere’s jokes were all about black people. Sure, some of them were funny, but it gets old fast — just because you are one of those things doesn’t mean every single other subject is barred!

Gearing up for the Calgary Folk Festival! Things kick off on Thursday evening with Los Misioneros Del Norte, Justin Rutledge, Umalali, Iron & Wine, and Michael Franti & Spearhead, as well as emcee Carolyn Mark. Should be a great time — look for reviews very shortly!

Classical piano phenomenon Lang Lang and jazz piano legend Herbie Hancock will be coming to Massey Hall on August 5 for their now-famous duel of the keys — Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, which they performed at the 50th Grammy Awards. They’ve taken their show to the Royal Albert Hall, and now they’re coming here; take a look at what’s on the programme:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Overture to The Marriage of Figaro

Ralph Vaughan Williams – Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra

Maurice Ravel — Ma Mère L’Oye

Leonard Bernstein — “Mambo” from West Side Story

George Gershwin — Rhapsody in Blue, arranged for two pianos & orchestra

Franz Liszt — Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, arranged for two pianos

Both performers will also play one solo piece each, to be announced from the stage. Tickets are available from Massey Hall. See you there?! (I can’t wait!)

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.

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!

Hello, blogosphere.

I’m sure at least one of you have noticed the lack of Tunesday post this week. Sorry about that — our internet went down for a few days and the stolen wireless was barely enough to load a page, let alone upload a track, so I decided to forego it until next week. Fortunately, the upcoming post will feature two tracks to make up for it … stay tuned!

We’re back in school at York and it seems to be leaving little time for blogging lately. Imagine that, I know. I hope posts will be appearing regularly in a week or so, once the giant paper has been written and the myriad of assignments are handed in. Sorry for the general silence!

In other news, though, Jim Cuddy played at Massey Hall last night and was terrific as usual. I only got to see about 2/3 of the show, so I’m not sure how much Blue Rodeo material he pulled out this time around, but I did witness a particularly excellent rendition of “5 Days in May” featuring a serious violin solo by Anne Lindsay. Cuddy can always be counted on for a great performance, solo or with Blue Rodeo, and he always looks like he’s having the time of his life on stage. To top it off, his voice has never been better. Highly recommended!

If you’re interested, the Toronto Star published an interview with him yesterday in anticipation of the show. Aww, Valentine’s Day.

Coming up: the double Tunesday post, Brent Randall & His Pinecones‘ new album, and an interview with yours truly. The fun never stops!

The fabulous Matthew from i (heart) music has been doing the Hottest Bands in Canada annual poll for quite some time now. I have had the honour of being part of the jury for two years so far, and this year’s list just went up — and some of my picks actually made it. I felt somewhat out of touch with Canadian up-and-comers this year at times, so it is nice to know some people agree with me!

You can check out the list right here.

My own band, Entire Cities, squeaked onto the list at #32. Thank you to whoever nominated us — that is totally awesome! I tagged us onto the end of my list as a laugh, but it seems as though at least one person did think we were worthy of a spot. This is great news! We’re in good company.

Just saw Buffy Sainte-Marie and Richie Havens at Massey Hall, but I didn’t actually see a long enough portion of either to properly review them (I was observing from outside a set of doors, so I heard it quite well but was often occupied). Richie Havens was amazing, though, and the fact that he had a cellist was an awesome addition. I really enjoyed what I saw.

I am going to try to procure a few albums this week that I have been meaning to get (such as Wolf Parade, Elliott Brood, and Chad VanGaalen), so look out for some reviews of those sometime soon. It is nearing year-end list time, and I am doing some thinking!

Last night was the much-anticipated performance by legendary David Byrne at Toronto’s Massey Hall, and let me tell you, all that anticipation was worth it. Byrne — sans opening act — rocked the house for a good two hours, including encores (three of them!), and the set featured a whole lot of classic Talking Heads material as well as new tunes from the record with Brian Eno (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today).

Notably, the large cast of performers included three dancers and three backup vocalists (the latter often doubling as dancers as well). The dancers were a pretty awesome addition, I have to say — even Byrne was choreographed into their routines much of the time, and what looked like a casual step back ended up being one part of a perfectly executed setup. Most of the choreographed tunes were old Talking Heads favourites, which included “Once in a Lifetime”, “Take Me to the River” and “Burning Down the House”. Byrne himself was relaxed and having a great time, smiling a lot and cracking jokes about the American election (“Why don’t you all drive to Buffalo and cast some ballots? They’ll never know!” — to which an audience member hollered “Drive to Ohio!”).

The new tunes translated really well to stage; the set opened with “Strange Overtones,” a nice solid way to start off the night. Also featured were “My Big Nurse”, “I Feel My Stuff” (particularly great), and, at the end of the night, “Everything That Happens”. The band was tight, the vocalists excellent, the dancing sublime, and Byrne himself was an absolute treat. I’m a Massey employee, but I was still getting my groove on a little during “Life During Wartime”. This ain’t no disco!!

David Byrne is clearly doing all this stuff because he loves it, and although not having Brian Eno on the tour was disappointing (though not at all surprising, since he never tours anyway), Byrne and company more than made up for Eno’s absence. It was an excellent show — well worth the excitement.

The record is also really good; it sounds more like a new wave album than My Life in The Bush of Ghosts did, but it certainly does a great job bridging the gap between Talking Heads and the aforementioned collaboration album. It’s out digitally right now (iTunes, Amazon, emusic, etc) and will be, as Byrne put it, “manifesting itself in the physical world” fairly soon. Expect a review when I have had more than three days to digest it!

In quick news, Stephen Harper unveils the new Cabinet to create the “right team for these times”; one cheeky commenter on the CBC website wonders “Two weeks ago, everything was fine and dandy; Harper said that due to his foresight the Canadian economy was fine and would resist recession. Now we have the right team for these times. If the times didn’t change, then did we have the wrong team before?”

Last night was also Barack Obama’s 30-minute televised infomercial, which is making waves all over the place today. Check it out. More on both of those topics coming soon.