Monday, December 30, 2013

Best Shows of 2013: Waxahatchee and Swearin’ at the Biltmore Cabaret, November 29

The night before Swearin's and Waxahatchee's co-headlining show at the Biltmore, the sister-bands played in Langley, of all places. "Where [in Langley]?" I asked in immediate disbelief. The late (to me) news made more sense when I learned that the Langley show was at Twin Towers, a frequent spot for house shows. As great as Swearin' and Waxahatchee were at the Biltmore, the house show - within the bands' DIY comfort zone - would have been the one to have seen.

Swearin' and Waxahatchee alternated headlining slots during their fall tour. At the Biltmore, it was Swearin's turn to open. They discharged their hyper-fast, straight-out-of-the-90s rippers, including "Kenosha", "Here To Hear", "Crashing", and "Kill 'Em with Kindness", with some of the greatest clarity I ever heard. Or at least it seemed like some of the greatest clarity I ever heard because I didn't expect Swearin' to have been so tight and hard-hitting. Maybe the disparity between expectation and reality is why typical adjectives such as "sharp", "dense", and "crunchy" somehow feel inadequate in describing the power of their riffs and solos.

Waxahatchee's breakthrough album, this year's Cerulean Salt, has been my go-to album for pretty much any occasion that doesn't involve other people. It soundtracks countless comatose walks to work at five- and six-in-the-morning. In addition to all of the times I want to listen to it, it fills the many quiet voids when I don't know what to listen to.

Waxahatchee was great, as expected, but I actually preferred Swearin'. I never thought that would have been the case. I didn't fully get into Swearin' until pretty close to showtime, and I'm still lukewarm on their second album, the much slower Surfing Strange. Swearin' were just that good. They didn't deplete the night's energy and leave Waxahatchee in a tough spot either; if anything, the crowd was still amped on Swearin'. But Waxahatchee's bedroom pop offered no release. You could feel the restless energy linger in the air, especially as the crowd chattered amongst itself, infiltrating - overtaking - what should have been extremely intimate moments.

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Best Shows of 2013: Pere Ubu at the Biltmore Cabaret, December 15

Seeing a decrepit David Thomas, his gigantic frame slouched on a chair, ratty in suspenders, boots, and a trench coat, eyes mostly closed and slit-thin behind equally thin spectacles (could he even see anything through them?), reading from a lyric book whenever he required a prompt, characteristically (caricaturistically) spouting essentially sexist in 2013 in 2003 in well any time comments and stories and half-truths and bold- read: scrunch-faced lies, flanked by percussion and a single guitar that bent around, stabbed through, knotted, seesawed, played sonic tug-of-war with each other within the radioactive sphere of charged Theremin sounds, each note an atom on a collision course, until it was show's over get the fuck out of here fuck the opening band whatever they were called I don't give a shit, Ford Pier Vengeance Trio happily eat it with smiles only because it's David Thomas, who struggles to stand, achingly limps, surprised there was an immediate encore, mere feet in front of my eyes, was one of the most powerful musical experiences of my life.

Sunny Side of Angel Olsen

Who says Angel Olsen never smiles? ^_^



Angles, Shadows, Geometry

Couldn't you just draw Blixa Bargeld all day?





Best Shows of 2013: Martha Wainwright Tribute To Edith Piaf at the Fei & Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, November 2

Two Martha Wainwright sets for the price of one. During the first half of the night, Wainwright exclusively covered "rarer" songs by French national icon Edith Piaf. The second half featured Wainwright's own songs, mixed with some old family songs by her mother and aunt, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, and a few more Piaf songs. Although Andrew Whiteman didn't join Martha this time, Thomas Bartlett, one of the best pianists I've seen, did.

Full review at Vancouver Weekly.

Best Shows of 2013: Rae Spoon at the Rickshaw Theatre, October 27

A frustrating tangle of miscommunication ended in one of the most surprisingly good shows I've seen. Based on a few songs, I thought Rae Spoon was an unadventurous electronic pop artist. There are plenty of electronic sounds on Spoon's latest album, My Prairie Home, and they are pretty adventurous for Spoon, but I was bright with glee to hear a majority of songs that leaned more towards drum-and-guitar indie pop. The Kingsgate Chorus, who joined Spoon for one of the night's final songs, made me wish I had the foresight to book off work that night. I still need to watch Chelsea McMullan's documentary My Prairie Home.

Full review at Vancouver Weekly.

Friday, December 27, 2013

Best Shows of 2013: Loretta Lynn at the Red Robinson Show Theatre, October 18


Given country legend Loretta Lynn’s age (81), she was probably at the top of my bucket list. She was everything I expected, from her glamourous dress to the way she talked, even to how early her show ended (at approx. 9:20, after fifty minutes).

Exhaustion forced Lynn to reschedule some shows halfway through her three-week tour. Considering her health (within the past two years, she had knee replacement surgery and was hospitalized with pneumonia), this not only could have been my last chance to see her, but it also could have been one of her last shows ever.

Full review at Vancouver Weekly.

Best Shows of 2013: The National at the PNE Amphitheatre, September 22

Photo credit: Kirk Chantraine

This was the National show I should have seen when they played the Orpheum a couple of years ago: front, nearly centre, nearly getting kicked in the face by a crowd-surfing Matt Berninger, bracing his legs while he stood on the guard rail. And the PNE's sound system wasn't as bad as I'd always heard it was. Seeing the National play some of my favourite songs ever was worth all the rain (it was an outdoor show) and my infuriating trek to the PNE; I was in such a bad mood due to the often incompetent transit system (and annoying fans) that I considered selling my ticket while I was in line.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Dark Dancing

"HOUSE DISCO FUNK TECHNO ITALO COSMIC". Add "minimal" to the list of descriptors. Everything on Feel My Bicep is good. I will always be delayed when it comes to electronic music.

Stating the Obvious: Cat Power - "Silver Stallion" (Live Highwaymen Cover)

Chan Marshall has one of the best voices I've ever heard. So gruff. So naked.

I just realized Cat Power probably isn't in my top fifty musicians, but I blog about her an awful lot.


Soft Side of Suppression Ring

For three years, I hesitated to check out Eddy Current Suppression Ring's albums besides Primary Colours because I feared that their other albums would not be as good. This summer, I finally took a risk and picked up Rush To Relax. Being so accustomed to ECSR's snotty, buzzing rock and anxiety-ridden lyrics, I still find it strange listening to Rush To Relax's "Gentleman", a love song:


Best Shows of 2013: The Sonics with the Vicious Cycles at the Rickshaw Theatre, September 20

The greatest rock 'n' roll band of all time, one of my top bucket list shows, and, as I expected, one of the best shows I ever saw (#5, behind the White Stripes twice, Les Savy Fav, and Japanther). Nardwuar the Human Serviette introduced the godfathers of garage rock with as much trivia about their history with Vancouver as one would expect from the music guru, which indirectly explained why Tacoma, Washington's the Sonics chose nearby Vancouver as the site of a one-off show.

The Sonics played allllllllll of their hits, but they really couldn't have done otherwise, given that all of their songs are hits, at least to me. Besides having been able to sing every word and having rocked so hard that my glasses flew onto the floor in the front row (surprisingly no damage), the best part of the night was when the Sonics announced that they'd just finished recording a new album in Seattle and promised another show soon.

I also have to praise openers the Vicious Cycles. Their greasy punkabilly left the audience lying in oil slicks, coughing up dust. I couldn't believe I'd never heard of the Vicious Cycles before, besides one mention from a friend during Khatsalano Fest a couple of months earlier.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Dinosaur - "Kiss Me Again"

I meant to post this song years ago. I think I had some comments in mind. But I can't remember them now. So just enjoy the song. And dance a little. Groove in your seat. Or get on your feet.

Dream T

I came across this photo of Johnny Greenwood on someone's Tumblr. Before I read the author's comment, I thought, "I want his shirt." And wouldn't you know it? That was the first thing the author said, verbatim.

Best Shows of 2013: Julia Holter at the Biltmore Cabaret, September 16

Julia Holter was slated to have been my first interview. I read every interview with her I could find - made sure I didn't ask the same questions I came across. I built off of her past responses. I thought my questions were solid - at least solid enough to have gotten me through my general social anxiety under which I was extremely likely to have crumbled.

In researching Julia Holter, I came to love her more for her ideas about art and music than her music itself.

But my chance to speak with Holter fell through. The day after I was notified, I saw her interviewed in that week's issue of The Georgia Straight. Snaked. I was disappointingly stuck with a pile of potential.

My review of Julia Holter was 1) a bit of an exercise for me, my first attempt to write more concisely, and 2) my first in conjunction with a photographer I personally knew.

As for why the show was one of the best of the year, it just kicked ass. Well, Holter and her band did. Review at Vancouver Weekly.

Best Shows of the Year: The Courtneys at the Biltmore Cabaret, August 17

I love the Courtneys, but as much as it hurts admitting it, they sound shitty almost every time I see them. Not on August 17 though. They couldn't have been more bang-on. Moreover, the show contained some of my favourite concert moments of the year: Nü Sensae drummer Daniel Pitout guested on the skins for one song and pounded out the most intense version of "90210" I've heard; I didn't know the song could sound so good that fast. Even Courtneys drummer/singer Jenn Twynn Payne shouted, "Too fast!!" with a laugh. The giggles continued when, during the same song, Hockey Dad Records founder and B-Lines singer Ryan Dyck paraded Payne around the Biltmore on his high shoulders, nearly smashing her head into the ceiling several times. Yet Jenn sang on. Trooper.

Speaking of Pitout, I have to note that he claimed yet another one of my top concert moments this year when he marched onstage during B-Lines, mic in hand, and launched into a SCORCHING version of "Busy Man".

The Courtneys FEAT. Daniel Pitout - 90210 at the Biltmore from The Courtneys on Vimeo.

Friday, December 20, 2013

Best Shows of 2013: The Dandy Warhols at the Commodore Ballroom, June 22

13th anniversary of Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia, the Dandy Warhols’ best album by far. One of my favourites of all time. Played the album in its entirety. Front and centre. My birthday. Hardly gets bigger - hardly gets better - than that. Full review at Van Weekly.

Worst Shows of 2013: Torres with Lady Lamb the Beekeeper at The Media Club, June 19


I’m frequently obsessed with Torres’ performance of “Come To Terms” in this video; it's fucking beautiful. But I've never been impressed by anything else of hers. Regardless, I thought she’d have been worth seeing for "Come To Terms" alone. I couldn’t have been more incorrect. Torres with Lady Lamb the Beekeeper was my first unmitigated negative review. It was… just such a bad show. Man, I don't even want to talk about it! Read why in my review at, where else? Vancouver Weekly.

Best Shows of 2013: B-Lines, June 15

Photo credit: Sylvana d'Angelo

Ryan Dyck, boss at Hockey Dad Records and one of the best, most commanding frontmen I've seen. Definitely my favourite local band live, and the "competition" is stiff. Snappy, breakneck punk. Consult a chiropractor. And maybe a psychiatrist.

Snippet from my Vancouver Weekly review:


If there was ever a time for me to see B-Lines, this was it. The B-Lines as I knew them were to be no more, as Nominal Records' showcase marked bassist Adam Fothergill's final show with the band.

When your life revolves around music – whether you play it, write about it, read about it or anything else – it's easy to become difficult to impress. I've become a tougher sell over the years, but B-Lines reaffirmed everything I ever loved about music in general, specifically seeing live music. Just try to pin back the grin on my face as I watched the "everyday Joe" Ryan Dyck who took my money, stamped my wrist and chatted briefly with me at the door proceed to leave his body, and let a manic, possessed surrogate take over the stage. Ryan spun; he writhed; he squirmed; he kicked; he fell to the floor and pounded the stage so hard, you could hear the full *thud* over the band's high-speed thrash. I'd never witnessed such an instant, dramatic metamorphosis. His tall, lanky, tapeworm-like frame whipped and twirled with the mic cord so that I couldn't tell where one ended and the other began.

With a glassy look in his eyes that stared hollowly into nothing in particular, Dyck yelped anxiety-ridden lyrics about social disconnect ("Social Retard", "Houseplants") and impending world destruction ("World War Four"). "I just wanna feel normal again," the chorus went on "Normal Again". Unless Dyck and company conform to the mould and abandon everything that makes them so electrifying and unique, he may never feel normal again. Certainly, after having seen B-Lines, I will never feel normal again. But I can live with that.

A word of warning: If you're seeing B-Lines, be prepared to be rained on as Ryan Dyck aimlessly launches wads of spit into the air. Although, I hear you'll be lucky if that's all that happens to you.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Best Shows of 2013: METZ at the Biltmore Cabaret, May 3

Photo credit: Azimut Brutal

Some bands fail to capture their live energy on record. Some bands fail to translate their studio dynamics live. Some bands manage to sound exactly the same live as they do on record but come off boring, robotic. "If a band sounds the same live, why not just listen to their albums?"

METZ prove that the problem isn't remaining too faithful to records but being a boring, robotic band in the first place. METZ are every bit as explosive live as they are on their self-titled 2012 debut album, and that album, as I've discussed in last year's best-of list, contains a despairing energy I've never heard in music before and didn't think could have been captured in a studio. There is no divide between recorded and live experiences with METZ: What you hear while safe at home or when passing as a detuned ghost in transit is what you hear while being moshed unstuck from beer-soaked floors at the bar - or in my case, a "cabaret."

Read my full review of METZ at Vancouver Weekly. And before anyone "quickly" points out, yes, I repeated much imagery between both the album and live reviews. If musicians can re-work demos, I can re-work my personal writings.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Worst Shows of 2013: The Thermals with Peace at Fortune Sound Club, April 26

The Thermals with Peace at Fortune Sound Club was only my third published review. With this blog having afforded me frankness and casualness (personal luxuries, professional detriments), I had yet to have any opportunities to practice being tactful with negative reviews. Without re-reading my article, I feel I was more than "fair": I highlighted the positives as much as I could. But truthfully, to be colloquial, the show sucked through and through.

I think Peace are one of the most wildly overrated Vancouver bands. The praise they garner mystifies me: Much of it comes from their close friends - other local bands, whom I love, including White Lung and Nü Sensae - but I'm still perplexed because none of them praise their other friends' bands as much as they praise Peace. Apathy and politely loose post-punk has never felt less inspired or genuine.

Combating Peace's blackhole charisma were the hyper-charged Thermals. They weren't bad live - they weren't sloppy, they played a standard-lengthed set, they appeased the crowd with encores - it just turned out I wasn't as big a fan of them as I thought. Even though I knew their reputation for generic power-pop, I expected their live energy to compensate. But for whatever reason, it just didn't. Even the hits, which are often worth all the duds, felt depressed in the homogenous mire.

If I was a diehard fan, I'd have eaten up the Thermals' set just like... everyone else at the club: Again, the ticket stub should have come with a "HIGH VOLTAGE" warning. But as the show turned out, I can see why The Body, the Blood, the Machine is really the only Thermals album casual fans may gave a shit about.

Read my full review at Vancouver Weekly, and maybe tell me I was wrong about having been tactful.

Best Shows of 2013: Angel Olsen at the Media Club, April 21





My first time seeing Angel Olsen, one of my favourite musicians of 2012. She lived up to all of my expectations and was the first good show I saw at the Media Club. It was also the first time I saw people sit on the floor during a headliner, but because they were in a focused hush.

The following excerpt is taken from my review of this show for Vancouver Weekly:


Up until Angel Olsen, I was starting to think the Media Club was cursed for me. My first time there was the only time I walked out of a show. I nearly had to leave during Chelsea Wolfe and King Dude because my mildly sore throat from the night before blossomed into a full-on fever during the show; simply standing still was painful, especially as I fought off the chills while wearing two layers and a jacket indoors. And Terry Malts, one of my favourite bands in 2012, only managed to pull off a lukewarm set at the Media Club despite their Ramones-ripping pop-punk.

“Luck” would have it that I walked into the Media Club this past Sunday with a killer chest cold, the same one that forced me to skip Nervous Talk and Crystal Swells on Record Store Day (if you were at Neptoon Records, you know how suffocatingly hot the store got during and after the Evaporators). But the St. Louis-born, Chicago-based Angel Olsen’s debut full-length album Half Way Home was one of my favourite releases of 2012, so there was no way I was letting anything stop me from seeing her live.

Angel Olsen kicked off week three of her current tour at the Media Club. It’s her first West Coast tour, but more significantly, it’s her first tour with a backing band. And though she’s expressed uncertainty as to where her writing and performing will go now that she’s working with a band, that was part of the excitement as much for me as I’m sure it is for her.

I don’t know how long Olsen’s been playing with drummer Joshua Jaeger, bassist Stewart Bronaugh and cellist Danah Olivetree, but they sounded so right together that I never would have thought they formed just for this tour. By the second song, “Drunk and with Dreams”, Olsen showed that with this new outfit, she could rock. The hardest rocking of all (and most altered from the recorded version) was “The Sky Opened Up”, my surprise hit of the night.

There’s always a question of whether or not voices that are usually only heard in intimate settings, especially voices as humanly fragile as Olsen’s, can be sustained when belted out. I was happy to hear that as loud and distinct as the bass, drums and cello were, Olsen’s voice rose above them all. The strength of her voice really showed when she sang acoustic over her own electric guitar and by how loudly her voice took over the room even when she stood a fair distance from her mic.

Olsen’s only mildly unimpressive moments were actually the two songs I’d looked forward to the most, the more uptempo “The Waiting” and “Sweet Dreams”. But they were only the slightest bit unimpressive because they were the only songs she didn’t give a unique, live band spin.

Half Way Home marked the beginning of a breakthrough year for Angel Olsen in 2012. Her rise only continues in 2013 with the January release of her new Sleepwalker 7” and her recent signing to Indiana label Jagjaguwar. If you hadn’t heard of Angel Olsen before, you surely will soon. And there’s a good chance when that happens that one of Olsen’s final lines of the night will resonate with you the way it resonated with me: as I left the Media Club, although I didn’t couldn’t identify the song, I found myself repeating her last words in my head: “I’ll never forget you all of my life.”

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Worst Shows of 2013: Half Chinese at the Astoria, January 23


I shouldn’t complain about free shows, but Half Chinese at the Astoria wasn’t even worth the $2.10 I spent on transit or the ~hour-and-a-half I spent in transit and enduring a shitty opener (form of dude at a laptop).

Half Chinese’s We Were Pretending To Be was one of my favourite albums of 2012. I’d missed them multiple times, so I was stoked to finally see them. But they played for about fifteen minutes, and most of it sounded like they were tuning. There was scarcely a string of recognizable notes.

Half Chinese still play often enough, but their fifteen-minute sound-check that cost me time and very little money was enough of a rip-off to strongly dissuade me from ever seeing them again.

Visit their Bandcamp page to listen to ALL the sounds I expected to hear at the Astoria.


Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Worst Shows of 2013: Chelsea Wolfe with King Dude at the Media Club, January 15

Okay, I fucked up my list already. This show (and tomorrow’s entry) happened two months before Martha Wainwright and AroarA.

That Chelsea Wolfe with King Dude was one of the worst shows I saw this year was no fault of theirs. The sorts of black magical forces they tamper with were exactly the ones that seemed to have been at work against them. She was sick. Members of King Dude were sick. I was sick. A full-on flu hit me at the show. My joints ached. It hurt to even stand still. I fluctuated wildly between suffocatingly hot and shiveringly cold, even though I wore two layers and a jacket. All of that befell me on top of usual cold symptoms. No way was I able to focus on Wolfe's or Dude's cauldron-brewed doom-folk. Still, I didn't have it as badly as one person in the audience who passed out and had to be taken away in an ambulance.

Chelsea Wolfe with King Dude continued my Media Club Curse (see paragraph three of my Angel Olsen review). In hindsight, the show was no big loss: Despite heavily getting into Nick Cave and back into Swans and Michael Gira this past week, I'm mostly past Gothic music, these days.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Best Shows of 2013: Martha Wainwright at the Rio Theatre, March 9

I’ve been a huge Martha Wainwright fan for years. I still think she has one of the greatest voices today. I’ve seen videos in which she’s played to entire opera houses, so I was shocked (but delighted) that I was able to see her for the first time at the Rio Theatre for only thirty bucks or so.

Surely enough, her voice was as huge as I expected, and she had a personality to match. One of the best parts of this show was that Andrew Whiteman, one of the core members of Broken Social Scene, who plays under the solo moniker Apostle of Hustle, filled in on lead guitar (his band with his wife, AroarA, opened). But it wasn’t great just because Whiteman played with Martha; it was great because his lightly ocean spray, lightly Latin-influenced guitaring came through in her songs, and being the underrated guitarist he is, his style totally worked.

This show was also my first published music review. Read the entire piece at Vancouver Weekly.