We've returned from our month long adventure in South America (mostly Chile, with a brief stint in Argentina). And while we were dreading leaving the 30+ degree weather in Chile to return to the -30 degree cold of wintery Alberta, we were greeted instead with a mild and balmy +7 and sunny blue skies on our return yesterday. I'd like to think that we brought the warm weather back with us. You're welcome.
There are 18 rolls of film to be developed, and far more digital photos to sort through, so it may be a while before I start unloading a bunch here for you to see. In the meantime, here's a quick set I shot surreptitiously with my iPhone of a three piece band playing an impromptu show on the Subte (Metro) in Buenos Aires. I shot these clandestinely only because we were running low on Argentinian Pesos to give them when they finished their set and came with caps in hand. Street performers are probably used to people thoroughly enjoying their shows, only to have those same people conveniently have to take a phone call, or otherwise walk away when the time comes for donations/ collections. I'm not sure that me pretending to not be watching/ enjoying their show (while actually taking photos of it) was any better than pretending I had an incoming call when the show ended, but whatever...
Anita and I went to catch the Stars and Metric show this week at the Stampede Corral. First off - the Corral is one of the WORST venues in the world for concerts. You could hear a better show by tying an a.m radio to your head, putting on some earmuffs, and diving underwater. Just SHIT acoustics for anyone who isn't directly in front of the stage. We didn't shell out the 120 bucks for general admission floor tix, so we were relegated to the peasant seats (shudder) around the rink, which exacerbated the acoustical nightmare even more.
The show itself was also a bit of a let down for me because I'm THAT guy in the crowd screaming for the band to play their obscure older material (ie: circa early 2000's). Many kids in the crowd were probably still single digit aged then. I may as well have been demanding the merch table be stocked with cassette tapes... GAAAWWD I'm old.
Anyways, a few photos for you - two of the Stars, who despite playing only a couple tracks off their fantastic LP Set Yourself On Fire, still tickle that warm and fuzzy spot for me. And the latter two photos are of Metric, whose set largely ignored their two brilliant LPs Old World Underground and Live It Out in favour of recent radio friendly singles. blegh... But at least they did play Black Sheep, which some of you may recognize as one of the songs from the movie, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Check the video below I captured of that one.
For the camera nerds: all photos and video shot with the Sony RX-100. Shot at ISO 1600 because the lens slows down to f/4.9 at the long end. The jpgs straight out of camera were so clean that I ended up adding back some 'grain' to give the images a more concert feel to them.
Anita and I went to the Death Cab for Cutie show this past week in Calgary, almost 5 years to the day we first saw them together locally. That was our first concert date, shortly after we'd just started seeing each other, and I have vivid memories of the intense feelings of euphoria we experienced that first time Ben Gibbard and co. made sweet love to our ears with his melodic voice, emotionally charged lyrics, and live act that amazingly managed to match, if not outdo, all the different nuances and richness to their recorded work. So here we are, 5 years later, 5 years older, but the crowd around us largely hadn't changed. They were still the 15 - 25 year olds, and WE were now the elder statesmen, minus the one old dude beside us, who appeared to be chaperoning his two kids. At least we weren't THAT old. But as it turns out, that 'old' dude had made his way to Coachella recently specifically to see Bright Eyes, and so Anita and I didn't feel like we were young by comparison anymore. :(
I won't go into a full blown review of the show, as there are far more qualified folks that could do that. All I will say is that the set list spanned a really nice range of their discography, and I may have peed my pants a little when they played the first few bars of "Movie Script Ending". Oh, and the way the drummer POUNDED his drums to the ending of their encore set closing "Transatlanticism" was one of the most visceral images I've seen in a long, long time. Absolutely sonically and visually mesmerizing.
And I guess I should also mention that Bright Eyes opened the show with a really good set as well. I (echoing almost every other girl in the crowd) screamed like a schoolgirl when Connor played the first couple notes to "Lover I Don't Have to Love". Okay, gotta go. Enjoy. And check out both bands if you're aren't familiar with their work. Youtube is your friend.
Enough rambling, on with the images. All shot with the Leica D-Lux 4 point and shoot, including the 720p video of "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" at the end of this post (if you're reading this on facebook, you may have to hit 'View Original Post' to see the video).
Ben gave a bit of a spiel about how he hates it when bands insert names of cities into their songs... that is, until they actually have the chance to play those songs in the named city. In this case, the crowd goes a bit nuts as expected when he does a solo of "I Will Follow You Into The Dark."
Just discovered this music blog called La Blogotheque that features 'Take Away Shows'. You get to see some of your favourite bands playing live impromptu accoustic shows in some weird venues. Spoon plays 'Black Like Me' at the back of a deserted hotel, Yeasayer perform crazy awesome acoustic versions of '2080' and 'Tightrope' at one of their buddy's houses (where an angry neighbour informs them of the excess noise levels mid-set), and Phoenix plays Liztomania on the open air top deck of a hop-on/hop-off bus in Paris (complete with onlookers who have absolutely no idea who Phoenix are). Totally Rad!! And some of the bands allow you to download the sets as MP3's, while others give you the videos in iPod format.
