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.

Double-Header at the Rio: Guess I'm Seeing Some Movies This Week

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not big on movies, especially not seeing them in theatres. But as I've said, music-movies are the only movies I see in theatres anymore.

Playing (again) at the Rio tomorrow night is Justin Ludwig's documentary on hardcore Christian music. Ludwig will be in attendance to introduce the movie as well as answer questions afterwards:



Immediately following ChristCORE will be Poull Brien's first feature film directorial debut Charles Bradley: Soul of America. I could get into this double-header thing:

I Only See Music-Movies at the Theatre Now

A Band Called Death comes to the Rio Theatre August 18-20:

BC X R

Who else loves Vancouver as much as Kurt Vile seems to? Best Coast. But it's less surprising that the sunny beach-poppers play Vancouver so often - they're from the coast.

On August 12, Best Coast return to Van, this time playing the Rio Theatre. Interesting venue choice, as most bands that play there are ones you sit down for, so I'm curious to see how Best Coast will work in that environment. I just hope they don't switch venues again like last time when they were moved from the Commodore Ballroom to the far smaller but more appropriate Biltmore; I'd wondered how anyone expected them to fill the Commodore.

I've started trying to limit in how many times I see certain acts, especially with frequency considered, and though Best Coast may become one of those acts, they're playing material from an upcoming EP this time around. That may not translate to much new material, but ... well:

Listen to their Record Store Day single "Fear of My Identity," the first new song released since their second album, last year's The Only Place. Oh, and if the Rio is one of Best Coast's shows with Bleached, this will be a dream come true.