Broken Social Scene with The Rural Alberta Advantage @ Commodore Ballroom -- September 22, 2022

It seems like the last few years have seen a lot of anniversary celebrations for albums, which -- aside from making me feel old -- has been a wild trip back through time. Case in point, Broken Social Scene struck out on tour to celebrate their breakthrough 2002 release, You Forgot It In People. Their first stop? The Commodore Ballroom here in Vancouver for a pair of shows.

Opening the night was The Rural Alberta Advantage — and fun story, when I was on vacation earlier this year, I happened to be in Los Angeles the same night as their show there, so this was my second time seeing the trio this year, in two different countries.

They started with "CANDU" off the latest EP The Rise, with Nils Edenloff’s distinct vocals ringing off songs like “Bad Luck Again” and the tempestuous “Tornado ‘87”.

Mid-way through the set, drummer Paul Banwatt and keyboardist Amy Cole took a break for Nils to perform a song on his own, one written for his wife (before they were married five days previous to this show!) "Ten Feet Tall".

Once the band returned, they slowly built back the intensity with "White Lights" before a few more, and ending off the set with the explosive "Terrified".

Not long after, a full compliment of Broken Social Scene members took the stage; Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Charles Spearin, Andrew Whiteman, Sam Goldberg, and Ariel Engle, along with Evan Cranley (of Stars), and special guest drummer Loel Campbell (of Wintersleep) a last-minute fill-in on this tour for Justin Peroff. Throughout the night members changed instruments, running around stage, with Drew and Canning, and occasionally Whiteman taking lead on the male vocals, and Engle doing all the female vocals.

As a celebration of You Forgot It In People, they started off the set with "KC Accidental" and then went through the first half of the album, including the chilled out "Looks Just Like The Sun", tropical instrumental “Pacific Theme”, and a raucous "Cause = Time". At one point, Drew said he was inspired to not just play the album front to back after seeing Alanis Morissette live, and immediately went into a few songs from their self-titled: "7/4 Shoreline" and "Fire Eye'd Boy", a pair of crowd-pleasing singalongs.

After dedicating "Hug of Thunder" to Gord Downie, coming up to the fifth anniversary of his passing, a gorgeous version of “Lover’s Spit”, and soaring “World Sick”, they thanked everyone again and launched into “Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)”, a cathartic song, especially with Drew encouraging the crowd to just scream everything from the last couple years out.

That was supposed to be the encore break, but as everyone was leaving the stage, Drew didn’t move and just waved everyone back for one last song, one that was conspicuously absent from a set celebrating You Forgot It In People. With Ariel Engle taking main vocals once more, and dedicating it to every woman who was ever in the band, they capped off the night with an incredibly emotional singalong to perennial favourite, “Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl” to send everyone home happy.

A few times during the show, while the band was paused between songs, the crowd just erupted; it was the first show on Broken Social Scene’s tour, so the members on stage were all visibly emotional to be back at it, and the crowd was more than happy to welcome them. How could we not with a pair of bands like this?

BSS setlist
KC Accidental
Stars & Sons
Almost Crimes
Looks Just Like the Sun
Pacific Theme
Cause = Time
7/4 Shoreline
Fire Eye'd Boy
Shampoo Suicide
I'm Still Your F
Hug of Thunder
Lovers Spit
World Sick
Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)
[encore]
Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl

RAA setlist
CANDU
Bad Luck Again
Tornado 87
3 Sisters
10ft Tall
White Lights
Frank AB
Brother
Terrified

Aidan Knight with Brandon Wolfe Scott @ Fox Cabaret -- September 21, 2022

It’s been six long years since Aidan Knight was last in Vancouver for a show, but luckily that changed last night at the Fox Cabaret. A de facto album release party for his 2020 self-titled release, Knight had longtime friend, Yukon Blonde’s Brandon Wolfe Scott along with him. The two shared the same band all evening; Graham Jones on drums and Jackson Gardner on bass, with Scott and Knight trading off leads for their respective sets.

Brandon Wolfe Scott was up first, playing from his own 2020 EP, Burden on Your Shoulders.
His folk-tinged songs drifted through a growing crowd of attentive listeners, with highlights included “Summer on Fire”, inspired by the effects of climate change on BC; his latest single “Fade Out”; and an as-yet unreleased song (possibly called “Take it in Stride”?) which I’m definitely gonna keep an ear out for when it comes out.

After a break and “costume change”, Aidan Knight returned with the band, started with the opening track of his self-titled, “Julia in the Garden”.
From there, Knight played primarily off the new album, including the victorious “Veni Vidi Vici”, the melancholic “Mary Turns the Pillow” and “Renovations”, with a simmering intensity that also saw Brandon pull out an omnichord. The only one not from the new release was my favourite off his previous album Each Other, “What Light (Never Goes Dim)” a slow-burner that builds to a grand finish.
Throughout the show, Knight joked with the crowd between songs, asking if anyone had questions, or rhetorically asking if we were ready for another sad song (answer: yes), and for the most part, the crowd hung on every work he sang, with barely a noise during the songs.
After about an hour, he ended off the main set with “Rolodex”, but Aidan and Brandon almost immediately returned for the encore, each playing a song on their own before getting the rest of the band back for an incredibly fun singalong to a cover of The Wallflowers’ “One Headlight”.

I would probably rank Aidan among my favourite songwriters, and it was great to see him back after so long. Especially at a venue like the Fox, and especially with support like Brandon Wolfe Scott. Hopefully we won’t have to wait that long before the next one.

Aidan Knight setlist
Julia in the Garden
La La
Sixteen Stares
Veni Vidi Vici
What Light (Never Goes Dim)
Mary Turns the Pillow
Renovations
Houston TX
Rolodex
[encore]
Angel Dream [Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers cover]
St Kierans
One Headlight [The Wallflowers cover]

Brandon Wolfe Scott setlist
My Oh My
Need You Now
Summers on Fire
Fade Out
Something Real
(New Song)
Burdon on Your Shoulders

PHOTOS: Dear Rouge, Metric @ The Orpheum Theatre - August 13, 2022

Dear Rouge, Metric
The Orpheum Theatre
August 13, 2022
Christine McAvoy Photography

Read Kirk’s review of the show HERE.

PHOTOS: Rich Aucoin @ Red Truck Brewing - August 13, 2022

Rich Aucoin
Red Truck Beer - Concert Series
August 13, 2022
Christine McAvoy Photography

Metric with Dear Rouge @ Orpheum Theatre -- August 13, 2022

With their latest album Formentera released a little over a month ago, Metric hit the road for the Doomscroller Tour. The west coast log of the tour included Vancouver’s own Dear Rouge, and made a stop at the gorgeous Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver.

The very first time I saw Dear Rouge perform -- at the Red Room, as part of the Peak Performance Project ten(!) years ago -- I distinctly remember thinking they gave off Metric vibes, so I was really happy that they were opening this show. Especially since the last few times I saw them were at outdoor music festivals, so it was great to get them in a proper venue, particularly one like the Orpheum.

With a large neon 'Dear Rouge" sign behind them, the band opened with "Relationship Problems" off their latest album Spirit. They split the short set between new songs, like the biting takedown of influencers, "Fake Fame", as well as older tunes, getting everyone to sing along to "I Heard I Had".

Performing at the storied theatre seemed to put the always-energetic band on top of their game, Danielle McTaggart’s voice ringing through the theatre as she bound across the stage, backed by Drew McTaggart ripping it up on guitar, and the rest of the band holding their own.

They closed out the set with their ode to the best movie theatre in Vancouver, "Meet Me At The Rio", building to a huge and raucous finish.

After the brief intermission Metric took the stage, with a setup that included some "modular" keyboards -- four different keyboards all on stands with castors, so they could be rearranged at a moment's notice -- and an intense light show.

They kicked off the show with the tour's namesake "Doomscroller", the 10-minute epic going through almost as many twists-and-turns as the entire rest of the set. From there they went on to play cuts from the new album, including my favourite so far, the moody & ominous "All Comes Crashing", as well as classics like "Gold Guns Girls" and the thumping "Help I'm Alive", Emily Haines’ incomparable energy leading the fist pumping through the crowd, as Jimmy Shaw’s guitar wailed.

Part way through the set bassist Joshua Winstead and drummer Joules Scott-Key took a break, so Emily and Jimmy could perform a couple acoustic songs, including "Combat Baby" which got an overwhelming response from the crowd; literally, as Haines had to pause and compose herself at the bridge before continuing, and could barely get the last line of the song out at the end.

The band returned for more singalongs to “Gimme Sympathy” and “Sick Muse”, before the main set ended appropriately enough with the final song on the new album, “Paths in the Sky”. But of course, they weren't done and returned moments later for an encore consisting of another one of my all-time faves from them, "Black Sheep" (coincidentally being performed on the 12th anniversary of the release of Scott Pilgrim) and capping off the night with Emily Haines saying how after the last two and a half years, she could have stayed on stage forever, but reluctantly ending the show, sending the crowd home with "Breathing Underwater".

A lot of the shows I’ve seen so far this year have had a sort of catharsis to them, like a collective exhale. Maybe it was the size of the venue, the fact that it was still early in Metric’s tour, or a combination of various things, but this show felt a perfect example of that. There was an energy in the theatre, both on-stage and buzzing through the audience, that’s not going to be matched any time soon, and it made the bands, and the show, all the better for it.

Dear Rouge Setlist
Relationship Problems
Live Through the Night
Fake Fame
I Heard I Had
Black to Gold
Gimme Spirit
Tongues
Meet Me at the Rio

Metric Setlist
Doomscroller
Gold Guns Girls
Dark Saturday
What Feels Like Eternity
All Comes Crashing
Help I'm Alive
Formentera
Cascades (acoustic)
Combat Baby (acoustic)
Enemies of the Ocean
Gimme Sympathy
Sick Muse
Now or Never Now
Paths in the Sky
[encore]
Lost Kitten
False Dichotomy
Black Sheep
Breathing Underwater