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.
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