Brand New, Live at MacEwan Hall

Last night Anita and I tried to blend into a crowd of young kids at the Brand New (<-- that's the band name) concert at Mac Hall, and largely failed. While waiting for the doors to open, we scanned the crowd, and could not find anyone remotely close to our age... eventually we spotted two folks that appeared to be at least 30, and we were like, "YES! We just doubled our contingent!" Our age disparity to the rest of the crowd was fairly obvious when all the kidlets would snap photos and videos on their phones and immediately share them on Snapchat/ Instagram/ Twitter/ Text, while I was taking pictures with a device that was NOT also my phone (ie: an actual camera).

Anyways, we enjoyed ourselves, despite the terrible stage lighting that essentially backlit the band as silhouettes the entire night (see the photos below for examples). The only thing I could have used a lot less of was the "All you can eat buffet" of fuzz guitar feedback they insisted on pounding our ears with. We were foolishly standing near the left bank of speakers/ amps, and 24 hours later, my left ear is still ringing. If you have something to say to me, literally, please talk into my good ear.

For fans that are familiar with Brand New, but weren't there last night, they closed their show with a haunting version of the sing along crowd pleaser, "Play Crack The Sky," and it was just so perfect.


Backlit


Backlit


Backlit


Oh look, more backlighting.


What have we here? Lighting... from behind.


And... yes. More backlighting.

Mumford and Sons, live at the Saddledome

Mumford and Sons, live at the Saddledome last night, was such a great show. Photos taken from the nosebleed seats, because Ticketmaster is the most evil entity on the planet aside from ISIS and Impark. Seriously, I hate you Impark. Just because I parked DIRECTLY in front of the giant sign that said NO PARKING for transit customers, doesn't mean you need to be a total douchenozzle about it. You compassionless parking pricks. The parking lot at Sunridge Mall has 1000+ empty stalls, because let's face it, that ghetto trash mall doesn't see a thousand shoppers in an entire year. Yes, I realize I'm mildly (completely) in the wrong, but that doesn't change my opinion about your prick-ish-ness.

Anyways, on to the photos. The little point and shoot Sony RX100 (mark I) was having a wee tough time with the lighting, but these were the best I could get from way on up in the peasant seats.


Marcus Mumford, lead singer, is a ridiculously talented dude. He has an incredibly strong voice, and plays multiple instruments. Amazing.




Smartphones - the new concert "lighter in the air"...

Of Monsters and Men - Live in YYC

Of Monsters and Men played a sold out show at the Grey Eagle Casino Events Centre last night. It was fun, it was energetic, and if you like how their music sounds at home/ in your car/ through your earbuds, you'll be relieved to learn that their live show is a very sound (pardon the pun) rendition of what you already know and love. Unlike so many bands that are unable to live up to the fullness of their vocals, instrumentation, and sounds when performing live vs. the overproduced sound on their records, seeing OMAM live was like listening to a really loud and amped up version of their album on your stereo. And their acknowledgement of our weird weather (two hail storms, flooding, and a tornado in the two days they spent in our city) certainly endeared them to the locals. Crowd pleasing, for sure.









And as far as opening acts go, local outfit SAVK, did a more than admirable job of warming up the crowd with their set.



For the photo nerds out there, all shots taken with the Sony RX100 point and shoot. It packs a 1" sensor in a compact enough body that doesn't net any attention from security. A good tradeoff between crappy iPhone shots, and much more capable (but possibly won't be allowed in to a concert venue) mirrorless or SLR cameras.

Modest Mouse, Live at MacEwan Hall

Anita and I caught the sold out Modest Mouse show last night at MacEwan Hall. We missed the boat when they played here 7 years ago, cause I had Campylobacter jejuni (food poisoning) and couldn't be away from a toilet for more than 5 minutes at a time, so this was that 'FINALLY' moment for us. Hardcore fans will pickup that I name dropped a song title into that previous statement. Yes, I'm that much of a super nerd fan.

The show openers, Mimicking Birds, were unfortunately, a huge let down. They played a series of mellow shoegazing tunes, while spending far too much time changing guitars, and tuning said guitars, in between songs. When the roadies doing sound check get louder cheers than you do as the opening act, you're doing it wrong.

Second act, Kevin Drew, showed far more experience currying favour with audiences, putting together a snappy and energetic set. I've always liked Broken Social Scene, and after seeing Mr. Drew live as a solo project, I will definitely give his records a spin.

Headlining the evening, Modest Mouse came out to HUGE roars from the crowd, and played a fan appeasing set list spanning albums dating back to 1997's Lonesome Crowded West, as well as a couple new songs that I hadn't heard before. Way to welcome both newer(-ish) fans while also showing love to longtime followers. As the face and voice of the band, Isaac Brock was engaging, funny, energetic, and expressive (his stage presence and exaggerated movements gave you the feeling that he LOVES playing these tracks as much as you love to hear them).

The whole set was "scream along out loud if you know the lyrics" fun and intense. But then, the unthinkable happened. They exited the stage after their encore performance of 'The Good Times Are Killing Me'... leaving fans to believe, surely, there MUST be a second encore. How could they possibly NOT play 'Float On' (and I was also secretly hoping they would play 'Spitting Venom'). Surely, this is one of those 'make the fans really work for it' to hear a second encore where they would just kill it with more crowd pleasers. But as the minutes wore on, and our collective voices wore out with strain, the house lights came on. And still we chanted, hoping this was just some 'Nah, we're just messing with ya' shenanigans. Only when the security crew shouted 'Go home' did the reality set in. They were actually done, and they DIDN'T play 'Float On'. Ballsy. But dammit, the set they did play was a feast for your ears.


Mimicking Birds, looking much better in silent photos than they were in live performance.



Kevin Drew, with various members of other inter-related Canadian indie/alternative bands in tow.





Modest Mouse. Nuff said.

Sold out of Scorpion Pizza?!!

By most standards, our adventures in Stampeding this year were a fairly successful mix of: free admission, destroying the competition at wac-a-mole, yelling at a Korean man for calling us rude (which I guess sort of proved him right, but whatever), eating delightfully amazing cream cheese glazed red velvet mini donuts on a stick, and wandering around aimlessly for hours, before capping off the day with the Tokyo Police Club show. And yet, I left the grounds slightly disappointed in not having sampled the scorpion pizza (a $10 slice of pizza topped with five scorpions). Not because I chickened out, but because they had somehow SOLD OUT completely of the scorpions for toppings, only 3 days into the 10 day event. Who knew there were that many 'strange food' folks like us in this town. You freaks!

If any of you make it down to the show this week, and they mysteriously have imported more scorpions (it's not like you can just go to Safeway to buy these things), let me know so that I can scratch off another animal from my list of 'food' to eat.


Cream cheese glazed red velvet mini donuts on a stick.


Jumbo bison bratwurst, with onions, 'kraut, and spicy dijon mustard.


Our traded up prize at Wac-a-mole.


While the scorpion pizza toppings were sold out, there were plenty of meal worms left. Gross!


Beef jerky in progress, in the Indian Village.


Tokyo Police Club!

Tokyo Police Club

Just a quick sneak peek of a photo from the Tokyo Police Club show at the Stampede tonight. Good show, despite the sudden downpour during the final song of the encore. It's late, so the rest of the photos from our Stampede adventures will have to wait. G'night!

"There are a lot of girls in tight pants here."

On a whim, we went to check out a live show at the Republik on Friday night. Funniest overheard quote while standing in line (Anita excitedly says, "To get ID'd!!") - the bouncer's walkie talkie suddenly comes to life, and someone on the other end of the walkie says, "There are a lot of girls in tight pants here." Fittingly, the handful of girls in tight pants in front of us laugh.

And as for the bands, Boreal Sons (Calgary) and Royal Canoe (Winnipeg): we hadn't actually heard of either band before, but that's because we're not hip and cool twenty somethings anymore. I was actually yawning by the time we got in the car to head out to the show. Grandpa G. When openers, Boreal Sons, got on stage, I thought maybe the voice on the walkie talkie may have been referring to the hipster guitarist dude with a girlie haircut, who was wearing skinny jeans a couple sizes too small. Am I showing my age again? Sorry. They were a decent piano rock band, but I thought a stretch of 3 exceedingly slow songs was a bit much, and their request that we tap our neighbours on the shoulder to shush them while they played these yawn inducers was a tad self-indulgent, Calgary natives or not. Seriously, I'm so judgemental.

The headliners, Royal Canoe were a six piece with funky beats, and a few blasts of some bone rattling percussion (2 dudes on drums will do that). I enjoyed a bunch of their songs (despite only hearing them for the first time). The only thing I didn't care for, was the excessive use of autotune/ vocal effects throughout their set.

Boreal Sons




Royal Canoe




You might recognize this song: Royal Canoe performing Exodus of the Year on Q with Jian Ghomeshi.

Muse with Band of Skulls, Live at the Saddledome

Anita and I caught the Muse show last night at the Saddledome. When I looked up my receipt (they were paperless tickets, so I had to figure out how we would actually get into the show), I was a little annoyed that I bought General Admission tix because I'm an old fogey that has no desire to stand for hours on end anymore. But after having experienced the show on the floor from right in front of the stage, I'm glad that I wasn't stuck sitting down on the sidelines.

First off, the opening act, Band of Skulls, surprised us with how good they were. I'd heard of them before, but had never sat down and really listened to their material. So getting a first hand introduction through a live show was the perfect way to sell me on them. They put on very minimalist show in terms of visuals - three piece guitar/bass/drum band, with little in the way of stage props or design - but made up for that in their funky beats, great harmonic vocals, a bit of blues, bone shattering drums, and a WHOLE LOT OF ROCK! Thoroughly enjoyed them.

Contrast that with the headliner, Muse, who's stage design was elaborate and multi platform, and incorporated a huge set of moving LED walls and panels suspended above and inset into the stage itself to create an incredible visual feast that matched the sonic assault they played to the delight of the thousands in attendance. I've heard from various sources that Muse puts on a hell of a live show, and this concert confirmed all that hearsay. In a word, AWESOME!















And a couple shots of Band of Skulls.




Photos taken with the Sony RX100. For those of you considering this camera, PULL THE TRIGGER. For a point and shoot, you can't beat this. Larger sensor than most of it's peers, incredible low light performance for a point and shoot, an abundance of manual controls, and a surprisingly usable set of high ISOs. All of the above photos were shot RAW at either ISO 1600 or 3200. No noise reduction done on any of them in post, and in fact, I added back some grain to a few to give them more of a concert feel. Buy it now!

Hannah Georgas, Live at the Republik

If you don't know who Hannah Georgas is, that's okay. I didn't either until I saw a print ad for her show the day before. She's a Canadian based singer/songwriter type, and while those seem to be a $0.10/12, she has a certain sound reminiscent of Feist, with a bit of Amy Millan-ish vocals mixed in as well. I don't feel like writing a full on review of the show from last night - just know that it was pretty good as long as you remembered to check your masculinity at the door (it's a good thing I'm such a girly man and have no problems in this type of environment). A 'Three Inches of Blood' show, this was not.

I liked the Republik as a choice of venue, it was large enough that you weren't packed in like sardines, but small enough to have a very intimate feel. Me thinks I may be hitting up shows here more often, regardless of if I know the band or not.