The Malahat Revue w/ Said The Whale, Hannah Georgas, Aidan Knight & Jeremy Fisher @ CBC Vancouver -- 07/07/10

For a few years now, my "dream show" has been one where three or more related bands join forces on stage to play their own, and each others, songs. That dream was fulfilled last year when Monsters Of Folk (consisting of Yim Yames [My Morning Jacket], Conor Oberst [Bright Eyes] and M. Ward [M. Ward]) did just that superbly. And then it was perfected with this years Bonfire Ball with Jason Collett, Zeus and Bahamas. Of course, since a lot of the bands in Vancouver are so intertwined, it was only a matter of time before they tried something like that. The Malahat Revue sees Said The Whale, Hannah Georgas, Aidan Knight and Jeremy Fisher combine their musical might for an eight show bike tour of Vancouver Island and then back here for the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. Initially I was disappointed that there would be no Vancouver date other than the VFMF, as I would love to go, but am too monetarily challenged. Luckily, not two days ago, they announced a surprise show in front of the CBC building downtown to kick off the tour. And the best part? It was free!

As it was a free afternoon show, it was somewhat short, lasting about an hour, but they got trough about a dozen songs. Kicking things off with "False Creek Change", they hit at least three from each act. Aidan's "The Sun" was a perfect song to be played on such a nice day, and "The Light Is You" was highly energetic, and had at least a few people dancing. Mostly, though, the [generally younger] crowd was content to bask in the sun and the sounds on the patch of grass. "Camilo (The Magician)" had Hannah joining in on vocals, which was an interesting twist on the song and the set ended absolutely perfectly with Knight's "Jasper".

Seeing as many of them had played together before, I don't think it's any surprise how great they all meshed on stage, and if this is how well they play together at the beginning, I can't imagine how they'll be by the end of the tour. Unless they're too exhausted from all the cycling...
I think now I'm even more jealous of those who will be in attendance at the VFMF, as they will no doubt be playing a longer set, too. But I guess some Malahat Revue is better than none!

In the introduction to the show, the emcee mentioned that the CBC was recording the broadcast to be released online, which will be great for anyone who happened to miss it due to pesky things like work. And I snagged a few videos; the first one at the top being "The Light Is You" and "The National", and the second is the big finale, "Jasper". "False Creek Change", "Let's Talk" and "BC Orienteering" can be seen here.

Malahat Revue setlist:
Flase Creek Change [StW], Let's Talk [HG], BC Orienteering [StW], The Sun [AK], All We Want Is Love [JF], The Deep End [HG], Land's End [AK], Cigarette [JF], The Light Is You [StW], The National [HG], High School [JF], Camilo (The Magician) [StW], Jasper [AK]

Hey Ocean! @ David Lam Park -- 07/04/10

Vancouver JazzFest came to a close yesterday with some free shows at David Lam Park in yaletown. There were a few bands playing, but I stopped by just to see Hey Ocean!, as I'd never seen them live before, so what better than a free show to check them out?

Admittedly, I'm not as familiar with them as I should be. I've heard the latest album a few times, and while I think it's good, I guess it just kind of fell through the cracks for me. But their live show, wow! Not to seem detrimental of their recorded material, but their live show just seemed so much better. Full of energy and incredibly engaging. The show started with everyone seated in the grass, but a few songs in they threw out a new one called "New Dance" which got everyone up and moving.
The set lasted over an hour, which is awesome for a free show, playing a mix of old and brand new, from the upcoming album, and even threw in a cover. Mid-set they decided to do some 90s reminiscing (the amount of people that cheered when Ashleigh Ball asked "who was born in the 90s" made me feel old) and launched into a cover of The Cardigans' Love Fool, which somehow segued into the theme from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, with accompanying kazoo.

The set wrapped up with more audience participation for "Fish" before they were brought back for an encore -- surprising for a free show like this, but the crowd was going pretty nuts. They played a couple more before finally ending the set, and I am pretty sure they have made a fully fledged fan out of me.

Henry & The Nightcrawlers @ The Media Club -- 07/01/10

What better way to spend Canada Day than with some Canadian music? After a day of BBQing at the beach (in full defiance of Vancouver's less-than-ideal weather), we headed down to The Media Club for a night of music. Just narrowly missing Teen Daze, we arrived just in time for the band we were there to see.

That band being Henry & The Nightcrawlers, with the eponymous Henry being Henry Alcock-White, formerly of Bend Sinister and currently a member of The Zolas. But even though the band consists of Zach & Tom of The Zolas, as well as sharing the same drummer, they shouldn't be considered a side project, rather an entity of its own. The sound was a bit lighter indie pop rock, with hints of funk that had people dancing (some of them even doing synchronized choreography). Highlists of the set were "Amberly", "Daytime Friend" -- a relatable concept -- and the attention grabbing "The Fucking", which proclaims "it's better to be fucked than to do the fucking".
As much as I liked the set back in January, this time they seemed to be better on every level. Perhaps it's that they've been touring a bunch, as both this band and The Zolas, but Henry sounded great and the band was meshing together quite well, as evidenced both by their playing and the stage banter between Henry and Zach.
They had a five song ep for sale, as a teaser for the album which should be out sometime later this year, and I can't wait to get a hold of.

Saskatoon's We Were Lovers was up next, a more electro-dance-indie duo, consisting of Ash Lamothe on guitar and Elsa Gebremichael on vocals, with some laptop-based dance beats accompanying them. They both had a pretty good energy, and Elsa's voice was a great match for the catchy dance numbers that got the place moving. For the last song she even hopped down into the crowd to join everyone up front, even dancing with a few people individually. I think they mentioned that it was their first time in Vancouver, and I would probably be interested in catching them again next time they roll through town.

The last band of the night was Petroleum By-Product, and maybe just because it was getting late, but the crowd seemed to have thinned out a little by that time. They were not bad, per se, but most of their songs seemed to blend together and have a very similar sound to them, and were somewhat forgettable. Perhaps, though, it was just the toll of the full day setting in, as my companions and I were all feeling pretty exhausted.

A good end to a good day full of good friends and good music.

Run With The Heard (w/ The Zolas & Analog Bell Service) -- 06/30/2010

Every year the Vancouver International Jazz Fest sees almost two thousand of bands descend upon the city for various shows over a two week span. A lot of the shows are not really "jazz", but just great music, and this night was part of the event.

The first band was Analog Bell Service, who I wasn't overly familiar with, outside the odd song I had heard on CBC Radio 3 (and speaking of which, the band included R3 personality Chris Kelly). They immediately won me over by the first song, a cover of Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now". I've always said bands need to do more awesome covers live, and not only did they do that, but also Corey Hart's "Sunglasses At Night" later in the set, which was just fantastic. The rest of the set consisted of new material for the band, and the band had an insanely high energy and enthusiasm. Their poppy art-rock was spacey at times, flat out rocking at times, but always interesting and captured the crowds attention. They said that this may be their only show for the summer, but hopefully I'll be able to catch them again sometime soon.

At this point, the stage was rushed with fangirls, as The Zolas were up next. Their set was a nice length, considering they were not headlining. Starting with "You're Too Cool" -- which got a pop for mentioning the Biltmore, and had most of the crowd singing along -- they hit most of the songs from their album, Tic Toc Tic. But also thew in a new song, "Guest", which I have seen live a few times now and get stuck in my head after each time. As high energy as Analog Bell Service was, The Zolas managed to ramp up the intensity, with Zach especially being a ball of energy, and just oozing charisma on stage. At one point the band had flowers thrown on stage (no garments of clothing, though) and he mentioned they had some cookies baked for them earlier (though he didn't want to share).
Near the end of the set, for the end of "Queen of Relax" (I believe) they actually took the keyboard, while Tom was playing, and carried it into the front of the crowd to finish the song there. At that point, they just decided to stay, with Henry joining them in the crowd, as they had one more song left. The set ended as Zolas sets usually do, with "Cab Driver", a song that always, somehow, manages to top the rest of their set, energy-wise.

The final act of the night was Run With The Heard, who are, according to their website, a "multi genre electro acoustic audio visual band from Vancouver". They started out playing some almost psychedelic rock riffs, but then once the guy got on vocals and started... rapping... things went strange. The rest of the set was a strange combination of rock, dance beats and rapping that never quite seemed to come together. At the beginning, the crowd seemed completely apathetic, but a few seemed to warm up and dance after a couple songs. Though the crowd started to thin, so it was clear people were there more to see The Zolas. There was one cool thing, though, even if I didn't see it for myself; they had a banjo out for one of their songs, but apparently the "banjo" was actually a Guitar Hero controller modified to replicate the sound.

correction: I have just been informed, by Alex from Run With The Heard that "There in fact was a banjo being played live, it and the guitar and vocals are run through FX and chops that are controlled by the guitar hero midi controller and a nintendo power glove. I know its hard to understand wtf is going on especially if you aren't up close."
Ok, that sounds pretty cool.

Despite the... questionable choice to follow The Zolas (and Analog Bell Service) with that, it was a pretty great night of music.

By Divine Right (w/ Aidan Knight & David Vertesi) @ Media Club -- 06/29/10

I have mentioned this for a few other shows I believe, but there have been a lot of shows this year which feature multiple excellent artists on the same bill. This was yet another example of that trend.

David Vertesi was up first, who you may know from Hey Ocean! He hit the stage alone, and proceeded to woo the crowd with his smooth baritone voice and songs that were a little folky, yet not without an edge to them. And if the attentive silence was any indication, the crowd was sufficiently wooed. He played songs off his upcoming album, Cartography, which I can't wait to get my hands on, though part way through the set he mentioned a new Hey Ocean! album in the works, and had band mates Ashleigh and Dave jump on stage and join him for the next song, which was pretty cool.
Last time I saw him, opening for Hannah Georgas, I had mentioned that I would be interested in hearing the songs with a full band, and for his last song of the set, a couple of the members of By Divine Right joined him, for a fuller sound, but not one that departed too drastically from the rest of the songs.

Next up was Aidan Knight. You might think an album like Versicolour might be hard to pull of live, as it is pretty lush at times, and especially in a smaller place like the Media Club. But he was joined by some great musicians, and with instruments like a stand up bass and rotary flugelhorn, the live set sounded as good, if not better, than the album. He started with "The Sun", which started calm before built up into an epic finale, and then treated us to a new song before a few more off the album. Another highlight was "Knitting Something Nice", with its building intensity and, of course, "Jasper", which ended the set with an incredible energy and just about everyone in the room was at least clapping, if not singing, along.
A couple times he mentioned needing to practice his stage presence, but his awkward nervousness translated more into charm than it did, well, nervous awkwardness, as he owned it and joked about it, rather than let it get to him. That, and when he was playing you could see just how at home he was on stage. I look forward to the next time I have a chance to see him live, and hope it's a show of his own, and not just another opening set.

Finally, to round out the night was By Divine Right. To be quite honest, I am woefully unfamiliar with the band, and was there more to see Vertesi and Knight. However, based on what little I had heard of the band, and their reputation alone, I was definitely interested to see them, and they did not disappoint. With just the three of them, they rocked out and I think it would be fair to say they had the crowd completely enrapt. The highlight for me, though, was near the end of the set, they started one song with the three of them on guitars and proceeded to blow my mind with a song that was comparable (if a little less "grandiose") to Explosions in the Sky or Sigur Rós. The way it just rose and rose in intensity, and the crazy effects used at the end to slowly bring it to an end, was incredible. They ended shortly after that, but came back for the required encore, which saw David Vertesi start a dance party at the front of the stage. Then after some convincing from the crowd, and despite a broken guitar, they played one more, possibly their most well know (to me at least), "Five Bucks". That ended with them "trashing" the stage -- mostly just pushing the drum kit over... right on top of the drummer.

Again, another fantastic night in music, and another testament to the current Vancouver music scene. It is really cool to look through the crowd and see members of other bands, there to support their friends and there because they actually like the music. And just more proof that someone needs to make some sort of "Vancouver Musician Bingo" cards to play at the shows.