Seabear

Horseshoe Tavern
Cost: 12.00
Hand Stamp: Some sort of blurry shield with a commemorative date.
March 31, 2010

Move over Björk Guðmundsdóttir and Jón “Jónsi” Þór Birgisson of Sigur Rós, and make way for new Icelandic indie music darlings, Sindri Már Sigfússon and his six other band mates (with even more international characters in their names) that are Seabear!
The musically historic Horseshoe Tavern with all its rustic charm complete with old Bye Bye Birdie vintage Broadway billboard type panels above the stage was the perfect venue for the band, since it was small enough to feel intimate, yet large enough to accommodate the rather impressive turn out. Although, it was unfortunate that the band awaited their performance in a small room across from the ladies washroom, yet the band seemed content regardless. After setting up their own equipment, the band began their set with lead singer Már Sigfússon introducing the band, and explaining that this was their first time in Canada and, “You have great Jamaican food here.” Walking past, The Real Jerk around the corner from the Horseshoe on Queen, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was where the band had eaten this great Jamaican food. Már Sigfússon, straight-faced announcing the song title before each song, and sometimes reiterating the title again afterwards was a bit different, but the simplicity was nice. In addition to being a musician, Már Sigfússon is also an artist which could be seen in his his t-shirt with almost hand-drawn geometric shapes and animals along with his tattoos that went beyond the average stereotypical tattoo.

The band had some troubles getting their sound levels right as Már Sigfússon asked for adjustments throughout the night, and their guitar player was having difficulties playing since the lighting was so dim. At one point he even struggled with his English to try to help another band member asking, “Can we get some more light on this (something in Icelandic) motherfucker over here on the guitar,” which resulted in some likely unintended laughter from the audience. While it is primarily Már Sigfússon who sings in English, he seems to be more fluent than the rest of the band, but surely the more they tour North America, the more English they will pick up. On violin, backing vocals and a multitude of other instruments including the harmonica, Gudbjörg Hlin Gudmundsdottir was really amazing and provided the backbone of every song.

While their music is more on the mellow side, it was great to see them perform live and actually see all the musical layers: the vocals, horns, keys, guitar and percussion that go into the creation of each dream-like song.

Spoon + Deerhunter/ The Strange Boys

Sound Academy

Cost: 20.00 (below face value purchase)

Hand Stamp: None

March 29, 2010

Despite its name, The Sound Academy has to be one of Toronto’s worst venues for live music. Unfortunately, it is so far away from downtown Toronto that most people are forced to drive and pay $15 for parking, take a cab for roughly the same price, or struggle with the infrequencies of public transit. Once you arrive, you will pass by at least three street meat vendors, and if you weren’t hungry by the first one, you will be by the last. Then you are put through a literal maze just to get in, and despite the fact that this was an all ages show, everyone was asked for ID, even though it was not necessary; presumably in efforts to encourage drinking. Then you’ve made it, you survived the trek, fought off pushy hotdog vendors, and survived the scrutiny of a series of ‘security’ personnel, and you’re finally inside. This is when you realize how angular and narrow The Sound Academy Actually is; then you look around and realize that it’s packed before the second of two openers hits the stage, oh and it’s excruciatingly hot, to the point where you want to be at the back just for the breathing room and normal temperature.

Deerhunter (not to be confused with The Dear Hunter) describe themselves as “ambient punk”, and after seeing them live, neither one of those genres fit, separately or together. It seemed more like meandering, disjointed electronic noise. ‘Vocalist’ Bradford Cox really seemed out of it, and at one point professed to the crowd, “I’m fucking hungry.” Only to later dedicate a song to, “All the kids that suffocate when their parents ignore them.” When dedicating another song to The Black Lips, Cox referred to them as “Our brothers, our lovers, our covers when we cover this song.” Some members of The Black Lips joined them onstage, one of them took a beer bottle and strategically placed it by Cox’s crotch and proceeded to lower his head towards it.

Although, that was pretty tame compared to an incident in 2006 at New York's Mercury Lounge:
“[Lead singer of the Black Lips, Cole Alexander] started urinating on the stage…He gets up, grabs his dick, aims it towards his face and starts pissing in his own mouth! To top it all off, he then spits his pissy saliva all over the goddamn crowd." - Matt Saturday, a Brooklyn-based blogger.

Since Spoon was dual-headlining with The Deerhunter, they both received a full set, and by the time Spoon started their set, there was hardly any standing room even towards the very back of the room by the sound booth. Around the corner from that point, a few feet away and just out of sight of the stage was a screen with a hazy view of the performance; this was where I tried to listen and get a glimpse of the band. Even though many of the first few songs they played were on the mellow side, Britt Daniel’s voice was impressive and carried in this crappy venue quite well. Daniel even commented, “This room is really narrow.” After a handful of songs, including an odd keyboard-heavy rendition of “Got Nuffin’”, the frustration of everything became too much, and I left without hearing “Written in Reverse,” which I was looking forward to. Although, I did leave with a five-dollar 7” inch coloured vinyl of the single, which was somewhat appeasing.

One suggestion to The Sound Academy: Provide everyone with these shoes that make everyone the same height so that I can at least lean around the crowd from the back.

Bend Sinister

The Rivoli
Cost: FREE
Hand Stamp: None
March 24, 2010

After recently taking third place in the Peak Performance Project, sponsored by the Vancouver radio station, The Peak 100.5, Bend Sinister finds themselves living, recording and playing in and around Toronto for the next three months. On this particular night, they played a rather short notice set at The Rivoli, but as they noted on their website, they would be willing to play house parties as well. And with three months with ample time to play in between recording, it’s a great way for them to get their music out to as many people as possible.

After casually talking with what appeared to be friends and fans alike, at 8.30pm sharp, singer Dan Moxon took to the stage in his vintage looking headband and Michael Jackson t-shirt , while drummer, Jason Dana sported a ZZ Top shirt instead. They played a really great set, with Moxon even jumping off stage at one point, and into the rather laid back thirty-something crowd. He also dedicated one song to, “All the homeless people who never found their spring romance,” touching. Later in announcing a song from their new album, Moxon earnestly asked the crowd, “Please don’t steal it.” The song, “The Same Things” really had a Bachman Cummings feel. Even though they didn’t play it that evening, they also have a pretty impressive version of Bachman Cumming’s “These Eyes.”

One thing that can be said of Bend Sinister is that each of their songs really reflects a particularly distinctive musical ear, yet somehow their sound is still cohesive. Closing with the uplifting, “Things Will Get Better,” it was a great song to close the evening. Hopefully this BC based five-piece will enjoy the rest of their time in Ontario.

The Sheepdogs + Slightly Left + The Ascott Royals

Two Doors Down (Brantford)

Cost: $5.00

Hand Stamp: Tiny X in pen

March 12, 2010

What’s the best way to describe the Two Doors Down bar in Brantford? In a word: tiny. This place could be described as having rustic charm, but it’s probably more honest to say it’s a dive with very little standing room. Atmosphere aside, this night was to make up for missing The Sheepdogs at The Casbah (Hamilton) last year. Having arrived a little early, Slightly Left, a band consisting of four barely legal drinking aged kids, were still on stage. Having professed their admiration for The Strokes several times, and even closing with one of their songs after having already played three others, it was clear these guys were stuck on that particular sound. But, they’re still really young as evidenced by their appearance, sound, and the fact that the lead singer forgot the name of the band that played before them, and admitted that they had never heard The Sheepdog, but hopefully a little time is what they need to get themselves together.

This place was so small that the entire Sheepdogs band was sitting on some of the leather couches and chairs by the door, which is also where the tiny stage was located. They seemed fairly content to just sit back and drink while watching Slightly Left, and when their set was done all they had to do was grab their gear and walk right up to the stage. The bass player was sporting a t-shirt from the Hamilton band, Young Rival, likely from the last time they played the Casbah together while the rest of the band had a real 70s clothing style. Playing a selection of songs from their new album, Learn & Burn, their soulful CCR like sound was even more impressive live. Lead singer, Ewan Currie even commented on how much he enjoyed playing the venue for a second time. Maybe he saw something more than I did, but I get the feeling that even with their growing popularity they would still make time to play the little, often ignored venues.

Make Your Exit + Everything All The Time + Dinosaur Bones

Steam Whistle Unsigned Indie Music Series #14
Cost: $5.00
Hand Stamp: Against the Grain
February 21, 2010

In support of The Artist’s Health Centre Foundation which provides services for over 20,000 professional artists living in the Toronto area, the fourteenth Steam Whistle Unsigned Event since 2007 brought in the largest audience and in turn, raised the most money to date. Having this event at the Steam Whistle brewery located directly next to the Rogers Centre (but still known as The SkyDome to most) is a prime location, and has a great atmosphere with exposed brick and brewing equipment. The downside (or upside depending on how you look at it) of holding a concert in a brewery is that Steam Whistle tall boys are plentiful and as a result, the crowd was a little more intoxicated than usual. So much so, that from the back of the room it was even difficult to hear the music over the mindless crowd chatter. Make Your Exit were up first, and since they had been compared to Fleet Foxes in terms of their vocal harmonies, they had a lot to live up to. The first two songs were actually quite enjoyable, but as the set went on (and it did for close to an hour) it was clear that they were definitely not comparable to Fleet Foxes as the harmonies quickly fell apart and started to feel like more of an impromptu karaoke session than anything else. This isn’t to knock their music abilities because they certainly are talented musicians, but their harmonies definitely could use some work.

By the time Everything All The Time began their set it was close to 11pm, and the crowd had quickly filled the entire room, which was impressive considering at 9pm there were only a scattered handful of people. Their upbeat pop melodies quickly filled the space, but unfortunately so did the consistent microphone feedback which was so distracting that I had to call it a night. I was, however, impressed with their crafty merchandise which included a hand drawn illustrated t-shirt, as well as CDs stitched with thread sealed with wax, something you won’t see in mass produced packaging. Personally, I was disappointed to miss out on Dinosaur Bones, but it was nice to see so many people coming out to support such a worthy cause.

Phantogram/ Junk Culture

The Drake
Cost: $11.00
Hand Stamp: Against the Grain (yet again)
February 21, 2010

On this particular night at The Drake, the crowd was relatively passive as most people remained sitting off to the sides even once Illegal Art label electronic artist Junk Culture (aka Deepak Mantena) began his set. Making light of the lackluster audience, Mantena commented, “Did you all just lose your jobs? Cause I’ve got some depressing music I can play.” He also informed the audience that his drummer would have been with him if not for the surgery he just had to reduce the size of his penis. Mantena’s performance may not have garnered the crowd reaction he may have been looking for, but his cheeky personality certainly made up for that.

Luckily, a larger crowd gathered for NYC duo, Phantogram made up of junior high school friends, Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel. When you consider that their first album, Eyelid Movies had just been released two weeks prior to this show, there was a fairly large and enthusiastic turn out. In fact, one particularly vocal crowd member was even able to predict many of the songs played as he yelled out song titles. Opening with, As Far as I Can See, Barthel swung her short dark hair intensely as she sang and played the keyboard; she couldn’t have looked happier to be performing live. The clear crowd pleaser for the evening was the infectious single, Running from the Cops where Carter took over on lead vocals. The heavy electronic sound lends itself really well to both singers’ vocals, and it was nice to see an equal balance throughout the evening. Junk Culture even joined the crowd to cheer on Phantogram just before their encore, so at least he got the crowd participation he was looking for, even if he had to provide it himself. Since they will be returning to Toronto in the next few weeks to open for Hot Hot Heat, it was nice to see them headlining a small show like this because it won’t be long before they’re headlining bigger venues.