I’d have been remiss if I didn’t follow up Thursday’s post, exhorting y’all to go see Dog Day at the Drake Underground on Saturday night, by showing up myself. So between other engagements I popped by the Drake to catch their compact set.

Considering the band had been on tour since mid-September with only a week off, I expected them to a) be really tight and b) be really tired. Two for two. Well, the former was obvious as the punched through material from Night Group quickly, efficiently and proficiently while evidencing some Pavement-y and early Built To Spill-y influences that weren’t as obvious from the record.

To the latter point, I can only speculate based on the fact that the band have been living out of a van and criss-crossing the continent for six weeks. But whatever the reason, Dog Day’s performance evidenced a good deal of concentration if not intensity, letting the strength of the songs carry the show rather than their stage presence. Of course, it could be that that’s how they are even after a week of bed rest and three squares a day – their deadpan demeanour is part of the charm of the album, I suppose it makes sense that it’d carry over to their live show. So this past paragraph? Never mind.

Either way, they crammed a lot into their barely-40 minute set and even if the opening of “Lydia” didn’t come off quite as apocalyptically heavy as I’d hoped, it mainly reminded me how good a record Night Group is (not that I necessarily needed reminding having listened to it incessantly last week). And they were done in time for me to make it to a friend’s party at exactly the stroke of fashionably late. That’s what we call a good night.

Photos: Dog Day @ The Drake Underground – December 1, 2007
MP3: Dog Day – “Oh Dead Life”
MP3: Dog Day – “Use Your Powers”
Video: Dog Day – “Oh Dead Life” (Blip)
Video: Dog Day – “Lydia” (YouTube)
MySpace: Dog Day

Kevin Drew discusses the state of Broken Social and his solo works with The Montreal Gazette. Drew and his crew are at the Kool Haus on Saturday night.

Reveille offers up video (and transcript) of an interview with Stars’ Torquill Campbell and Pat McGee as well as live footage of the band performing in Minneapolis last month. NPR has an interview and session available to stream.

Chart talks extensively with Rolf Klausener of The Acorn about the process of making Glory Hope Mountain.

Thom Yorke talks to The Sydney Morning Herald about Radiohead’s decision to release In Rainbows online, PWYC and in the process become a verb (and an annoying one). In Rainbows is out in shiny, plasticy physical form on January 1 though those of you who splurged for that fancy-pants box set version should be getting yours right about now. Which means, of course, another four billion blog posts from people reviewing and dissecting every bonus track contained therein. Whee.

The Toronto Star has a nice feature celebrating the 60th anniversary of The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern. The Toronto institution officially turns 60 next Sunday but the festivities start up this week beginning with a free show from the Lowest Of The Low tomorrow night and carrying on through the rest of December. This first week, in particular, is going to be more than a little nuts – if anyone’s looking for me, just check the ‘Shoe. And writeups of the events may be a little slower in coming than usual… An almost-complete list of the anniversary shows is up at the venue’s MySpace page and as for the remaining surprise guests, The Star accidentally let one of the names not officially announced slip – Blue Rodeo, most likely on either the 17th or 18th. How long do you think the line for THAT one is going to get?

The Movie Network offers a helpful guide to drug culture lingo to help you get into the right mindset for season five of The Wire, premiering in just over a month on January 6. Season four comes out on DVD tomorrow.