Sunny-Day Music: Cat Power Edition

Fuck, this song makes me happy. And makes me want to go for a sunny stroll all day long. The way she sings "my hand" in harmony just sweeps me off of my feet.

Sunny-Day Music: The Velvet Underground Edition

The sunniest Velvet Underground songs to me are the first three tracks from the their fourth album Loaded (Cotillion, 1970):

Les Savy Fav with Handsome Furs, Pt. 1

July 22, 2011
The Rickshaw Theatre
Vancouver, British Columbia

I'm going to talk about Handsome Furs separately from Les Savy Fav (for whom the Furs opened) because Les Savy Fav were in a complete league of their own.

Simply put, Handsome Furs were FUCKING LAME. They sounded good, but they only played songs from their newest album Sound Kapital (Sub Pop Records, 2011), so I didn't get to hear a single song I liked. The Furs also overdid it with their smoke machine which smelled terrible; it was the first time I could smell the dry ice from a smoke machine. Their lights, near-seizure-inducing as they were, were pretty good though.

Handsome Furs were way too histrionic for my liking. Alexei Perry, the female half of the band, collapsed to the floor after almost every song and writhed and kicked and kept pounding her chest in thanks of the audience. I've said before that I often love when a band thanks its audience profusely (well, maybe not profusely but at least when a band seems genuine in thanking its audience), but sometimes, no matter how genuine the band seems, its constant thanks just annoy me. Handsome Furs were one of the latter cases. Maybe it was because Handsome Furs' crowd didn't seem into them enough to warrant such over-the-top outpouring of gratitude, and I certainly wasn't going to be a single decibel over polite in my applause.

The worst part of Handsome Furs' set for me was when a guy in the audience shoved his way past me and hopped on stage. One of the security guards laxly grabbed the guy's ankle but let go after a second. The guy then started dancing and hopping and clapping and stamping like a madman all over the stage, getting pretty close to Alexei and her husband/bandmate Dan Boeckner. An awkward moment came when the guy helped Alexei to her feet after one of her "trademark" collapses and kissed her on the mouth (or did something questionable with his face right in hers). I guess he turned out to have been a friend of the band's or something, as he coolly walked backstage after the band finished its song, and he re-emerged with a shaker in hand for the rest of the Furs' set. In any case, the unofficial hype-man was a pain to watch, especially since I personally found nothing to be crazy about during Handsome Furs' performance.

The only kind of cool part of the Handsome Furs' show was that it was somewhat of a homecoming for them. As Dan said, he and Alexei started the band when they lived in downtown Vancouver years ago (Thurlow Street and somewhere). Alexei gave a shout-out to her dad, who was in the audience, and the band could be seen hugging and hanging out with friends and family members after the show by one of the bars.

To say I was extremely disappointed by Handsome Furs would be an understatement. I'd always really liked their first two albums Plague Park (Sub Pop Records, 2007) and Face Control (Sub Pop Records, 2009), and despite Sound Kapital, I was excited to see them; at least I'd get a chance to hear their songs I liked live, I thought. Oh, well. As much as I didn't care for Handsome Furs' show, I would have gladly endured two of their sets for what was to hit the stage (and floor - and sound booth - and balcony - and audience) after them that night at the Rickshaw Theatre. I'll leave that for my next concert review.

Click here for more photos of Handsome Furs live at the Rickshaw Theatre courtesy of the Snipe.

Sunny-Day Music: Atlas Sound Edition

Finally, after two rainy, overcast weeks, some sun:

Thurston Moore with Kurt Vile & the Violators and Hush Arbors

July 21, 2011
The Rickshaw Theatre
Vancouver, British Columbia

Hush Arbors opened night two of my four-day concert bender at the Rickshaw Theatre on Thursday night. Primary singer-songwriter Keith Wood played solo electric guitar during the first half of their set and was joined by a drummer for the second half. In short (because I don't have much to say about Hush Arbors), they were pleasant. I probably would have enjoyed them more, but they were far sparser and less psychedelic and folky than I'd remembered of whatever album of theirs I had a few years ago. Yeah, I'm clearly a fan of Hush Arbors.

Next up was Kurt Vile, the man I went to see. I'd always imagined that his songs would sound insanely epic and over the top with reverb live, but overall, they were quieter and less distorted than I'd expected. Yes, Kurt Vile & the Violators' swirling, sweeping guitars provided for some pretty serious psychedelic jams/freak-outs, but overall, everything actually sounded pretty clear. Also surprising was that he and his band did not stray too far from their songs' recorded versions.

I had absolutely no gripes with Kurt Vile's set list either, especially since they played "Freeway." That was definitely the most satisfying part of my night. It was another one of those increasingly frequent moments in which I got to hear one of my favourite songs ever (especially for driving and walking) live. There's just no feeling like hearing and seeing a song you've always loved unfold right in front of your eyes and ears. Frankly, I was surprised Kurt Vile & the Violators even played "Freeway"; it's always seemed like an "afterthought" song for them, considering the fact that it predates both of Vile's more critically acclaimed albums Childish Prodigy (Matador Records, 2009) and Smoke Ring For My Halo (Matador Records, 2011).

Finally, there was Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore. At this point, both members of Hush Arbors returned to the stage as members of his band.

Musically, Thurston's set was fantastic: the harp-playing was absolutely beautiful; his violinist was superb as well; and I always knew Thurston Moore was a good guitarist, but sometimes, it takes seeing artists play live to really appreciate their technical skill. Everyone in his band was tight, discernable and played off of one another flawlessly.

I was a little dismayed and/or surprised by a few minor things, however. For one, Thurston didn't know the name of Kurt Vile's album Smoke Ring For My Halo. After several guesses and even having asked his band mates, he still flubbed the album's title. He's your freakin' tour mate, Thurston, and someone whose praises you'd seem to sing anyway. Secondly, Thurston had a songbook with him on stage. I don't exactly know what was in the songbook (he seemed to have only paid attention to it between songs, flipping through the pages as if he was trying to see or decide which song was next), but during their final song, he read most of the lyrics from that book. Maybe he was really tired which I'd believe if he and his band actually did just get into Vancouver that evening after having driven for three days from the east coast like he'd claimed.

Out of Thurston's control was my final gripe. Unlike Hush Arbors' and Kurt Vile's crowds, Thurston’s was full of douche bags who just loved to yell out asinine comments that sometimes came off as heckling. Kurt had his share of turd-bag audience members too, such as the people in front of my friends who seemed like they were having more fun talking to each other than watching the show.

All in all, Thurston Moore with Kurt Vile & the Violators and Hush Arbors was probably the most surprisingly good concert I'd been to in a while. I didn't have great expectations prior to the show (I'd never been a huge fan of Thurston solo material, and I will always prefer Kurt Vile's former band the War on Drugs to his solo material), but everything was just so bang-on and God-damned right about the show - spectacular performances by all. This was Vile's third show in Vancouver since October, and I didn't go either time before, even though his first show here was only a twelve-minute walk from my apartment, but I will likely never miss a Kurt Vile show here again. He was just too damned good.

Final note: My friend Adam saw Thurston Moore and Kurt Vile two nights later at the Alladin Theatre in Portland, Oregon. According to Adam, Thurston described the Rickshaw as a "concrete box from hell." I don't blame Thurston for his negativity: the Rickshaw Theatre is one of my least favourite venues, and the idiotic crowd definitely didn't help win his favour.

Fucked Up x Fucked Up Or Close Encounters of the Fucked Up Kind

July 20, 2011
Fortune Sound Club
Vancouver, British Columbia

What good friends Fucked Up are to have played a free show for the proprietors of the Fortune Sound Club in Vancouver's Chinatown.

The RSVP-only/five-dollar-cover-after-11-pm show was scheduled to run from 9 pm to 2 am and feature a DJ and three bands, so I knew my friend Ben and I were going to have to spend a lot of time at the show waiting. The long waits weren't helped by the loudest pre-show music I'd ever heard (I attribute that to the fact that the speakers were serious dance club speakers). My ears had taken a pounding before the first band even came on.

As soon as that first band came on though, a "veteran" punk band from East Vancouver called the Strugglers, the crowd at the front of the stage instantly exploded into a mosh-pit, and I don't mean just a rowdy, pushy, energetic crowd: I mean guys with Mohawks and studded leather/denim jackets/vests beating the living shit out of each other, clawing, tearing and shoving like human wrecking balls. There was a difference between this moshiest of moshy crowds and the aforementioned tamer pushy crowds in which I've participated though: as rough as last night's Strugglers crowd was (and even during Fucked Up), it was very ... I think Ben put it best: respectful. The moshers always helped each other up and never dragged in anyone who didn't want to be a part of it. Bystanders around the pit's rim were, of course, subject to some damage, but they were always able to retreat. Anyway, what does one expect when standing in a human splash zone?

Not wanting to endure another set of loud-ass pre-show music or another opening band (Real Problems), Ben and I left the Fortune Sound Club for about an hour. We returned just in time to snag a good, slightly elevated spot to the left of the stage but not late enough to completely avoid the pre-Fucked Up in-house music.

By around 12:30, however, all of our waiting seemed irrelevant, as Fucked Up finally took the stage and proceeded to sonically rip us a new one. In a different, strictly verbal sense, Fucked Up also proceeded to rip Stephen Harper, the pigs, MTV, MuchMusic and Monster Energy Drink new ones, although Fucked Up also ripped the pigs in their song "Police."

Lead singer Damian "Pink Eyes" Abraham probably spent more time in the audience and on the bar-counters than on stage. Anything fans wanted to do to or with Damian was possible: high-fives, hugs, piggyback rides, screaming or, if one's more reserved, singing along into his mic, pouring beer all over him, even putting your shirt on him and drumming your clammy hands on his hairy, sweaty, powder keg belly - all while the rest of the band tore it up on stage in a maelstrom of flying sweat, flying booze and flying bodies (a never-ending stream of audience members hurled themselves on top of one another, cannon-balling themselves s or simply stage-diving and crowd-surfing).

Another highlight came when bassist Sandy "Mustard Gas" Miranda called out to iconic Vancouver MuchMusic/radio personality and all-round all-knowing music guru Nardwuar the Human Serviette. Unfortunately, Nardwuar didn't seem to have been in the house that night.

Scenes such as the aforementioned (the best fan interaction I ever saw), a balanced mix of songs from all three of Fucked Up's albums, profuse thank-yous to random audience members and show organizers throughout the night and a crowd that was fucking into it made Fucked Up one of the best, most fun shows I ever saw. The only thing I would have done differently was gone down on the floor into the thick of it, not that everyone who wasn't on the floor didn't get a good taste of Damian Abraham. Just ask Ben or the several others who were lucky enough to have received a sopping-wet bear-hug from Damian or me or the several others who had the privilege of screaming in Damian's face and/or vice-versa.

My only problems with Fucked Up's show was that they played so loudly, even their catchiest, most melodic songs often became distorted and thus sounded much the same, and in Damian's fervour, he often missed many lyrics or stuck the mic in the faces of fans who didn't sing loudly enough.

My ears are buzzing like they've never buzzed before, but as Damian sings on "Under My Nose," "it's all been worth it." Now, I'm listening to Thurston Moore and Kurt Vile in preparation for tonight's show at the Rickshaw Theatre on the lowest enjoyable volume possible.

Have You Ever Noticed How Much Steve Albini Looks Like Daniel Radcliffe?

I just did.