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.

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.

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.

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.