Saturday, June 21st, 2003
Celebrity Grudge Match, round 1 – Pitchfork vs The Rub!
Round 2 – Canadian Idol vs Broken Social Scene! Vit Wagner encapsulates my thoughts on this whole ‘Idol’ bullshit pretty well.
Fight fight fight!
My Radiohead ticket farce story. I am on Ticketmaster AND W.A.S.T.E. bright and early, waiting. Multiple browsers are go. I hit refresh on W.A.S.T.E. at around 9:58 – server down. No response. Great. Again. Server cannot be found. That’s fine. To Ticketbastard. 10AM, I get the option page, make a grab for 4 tickets, best available. “Too many users.” Refresh. “Too many users.” Lather, rinse, repeat. Finally, I get some tickets on hold for me – 4 lawns, after taxes and service charge, $230. Fuck you very much. I am not paying $60 to sit on FUCKING GRASS and not see anything. But wait! W.A.S.T.E. is back up! And I have somehow managed to reserve four seats! Rejoice! I fill in my order info, hit send… Transaction error, card cannot be processed. Again. Again. I try a friend’s credit card. Same shit, different transaction error code. Back to my card. Transaction error. Again – FUCK YOU VERY MUCH.
Fuck Ticketmaster, fuck Radiohead, fuck American Express and their ‘Front of the line’ bullshit, fuck W.A.S.T.E. and their server run off a Commodore Vic 20. I’m going to go see some bands at the Horseshoe.
But first I have to go buy a wedding card for Bryan and Andrea. Married on the summer solstice, that’s nice.
np – Husker Du / Candy Apple Grey
Saturday, June 21st, 2003
Tonight was the fourth time I’ve seen Wilco in the past four years. They’re pretty firmly ensconced as my favorite band in the world right now, and every show is always cause for excitement and anticipation.
Opening quietly with a set of Mermaid Avenue tunes, the set consisted of mostly Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Being There material, with a handful of new tunes in the mix. The new songs were the most exciting part of the evening – they’re fantastic. Who knows if the arrangements will stay the same when they record them, but the new record could be even better than YHF, and considering how much I love that record, that’s some high praise. Curiously, they filled the whole show without playing a single number off of A.M. or Summerteeth. It says something about a band that can play for two hours and still leave you feeling like you’ve only had a sampler of their repetoire.
Jeff ran through a dizzying array of guitars through the show (I counted six electrics and at least two acoustics – he’s on a Gibson kick, it seems) and Leroy Bach’s role has been augmented by a second touring keyboardist. Ex-Wilco touring member and local boy Bob Egan, now of Blue Rodeo, was invited out to play some tasteful lead slide on “California Stars”, as he was a couple years ago at the Phoenix show.
Maybe the biggest surprise on the night was the sound – usually the Kool Haus is a terrible room for harsh and muddy sound (yes, harsh and muddy at the same time) but there was some aural magic going on tonight cause the sound was the best I’ve ever heard in that room. Every word of the vocals were loud and clear and the intstruments (mostly) perfectly balanced. At points the ambient synth pings and bloops weren’t sitting properly in the mix and as a result sounded odd and out of place, but not distractingly so.
I want to backpedal a bit on my comments about From Fiction. While on paper it still seems like a damn odd pairing, it actually wasn’t a terrible mismatch. There’s some definite common ground between some of what From Fiction were doing and Wilco’s jammier, noisier bits. It’s also worth taking into account that Wilco’s been on tour for the last while with Sonic Youth – that’s gotta figure into it. It was a great opportunity for a local band, and I’m damn jealous.
Thumbs down to the frat-boy jock types that insisted on going, “Whooooo!” at every opportunity (which to them was every second they weren’t swilling a beer) as if Jeff Tweedy was going to come into the audience and high five them. Shut the fuck up, nimrods. Also in the “boo” column, $40 t-shirts. The sound may have been better, but DAMN I still hate the Kool Haus.
UPDATE – Here’s the setlist from the show:
One By One / When The Roses Bloom Again / Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard / I Am Trying to Break Your Heart / Muzzle of Bees / At Least That’s What You Said / War on War / Jesus, etc. / Ashes of American Flags / Heavy Metal Drummer / Spiders / Red Eyed and Blue / Got You At The End Of The Century / I’m The Man Who Loves You / Poor Places / Reservations //
Encore 1: Sunken Treasure / Less Than You Think / California Stars //
Encore 2: Misunderstood / Kicking Television / Monday / Outtasite (Outtamind)
Saturday, June 21st, 2003
Something I’ve realized lately is that I LOVE the caper film. A good heist flick? Nothing like it. The Good Thief is a good heist flick. Stylishly directed by Neil Jordan (stylishness is essential to a good heist flick), the film (a remake of French film Bob Le Flambeur) plays the well-worn theme of an old thief coming out of retirement to make one last big score. Yeah it’s a bit of a cliche, but the caper isn’t about concept – it’s about execution. Nick Nolte is fantastic in the title role, a performance good enough to make you forget the haggard drunk in his well-publicized mug shots and see only a veteran actor in one of the finest roles of his career. Nolte quite literally embodies the broken-down, wasted man pulling himself together for one last shot at glory, and does so splendidly. Thumbs up.
Friday, June 20th, 2003
Heard some of the new Spiritualized album in Soundscapes today – someone had a burned version from the internet. It wasn’t the ultra-stripped down garage record that some had said it was – I still heard gospel choirs and some orchestration, but the production was a good deal drier and more immediate. It didn’t sound like Spaceman had spent weeks mixing one channel of one song, and while there has been some good music that’s come out of his obsessive-compulsiveness, it’s probably a good thing that he’s letting loose a little bit. There’s still no release date for Amazing Grace, but I wouldn’t expect anything any earlier than mid-Fall.
I picked up The Decemberists while I was there, to celebrate my new raise (yes I got a raise). I’ve already sang the praises of the Decembersists, so I won’t repeat myself, save to say it’s good.
Though initially they had said that tickets would be available at Rotate This, it looks like Ticketbastard is the only place to get ducats for the Billy Bragg show at the ElMo on July 11. For fuck’s sake, as if being taken up the ass for Radiohead tickets won’t be bad enough, now they get a second go-around for Billy Bragg? Wankers.
There’s a very interesting music festival going on in St Catherines on Sunday, July 13. S.C.E.N.E. will showcase 74 indie bands from Southern Ontario in downtown St. Kitts for only $10. I think that’s worth the hour’s drive? Pencil me in.
Speaking of local bands, From Fiction has been tagged to open for Wilco tonight. Chart describes them as “Dense math-rock with thrashy overtones. King Crimson goes indie-rock.” Okay, WHO thought this was a good idea? Bah.
Friday half-days allow me go see matinees at the Bloor, like The Good Thief this afternoon. Good times.
Oh shit, must remember to get a wedding card for tomorrow. Musn’t forget musn’t forget musn’t forget.
np – The Decemberists / Castaways And Cutouts
Thursday, June 19th, 2003
As predicted, a much… less sucky rehearsal tonight. We made up some set lists for upcoming shows, which provided a little more focus. Speaking of upcoming shows, here’s the (brief) itinerary for the next couple months:
Jul 21 @ The Silver Dollar Room, Toronto with Elephant Micah from Indiana
Aug 3 @ Wavelength 174, Sneaky Dee’s, Toronto. Other acts to be confirmed.
So yeah, after almost a year out of action, the Lake Holiday rock machine returns to terrorize the streets of Hogtown. Hide your daughters.
Where do you rank on the Political Compass? I sit at:
Economic Left/Right: -5.12
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -4.87
I’m comfortable with those results.
np – Pavement / Wowee Zowee
No Comments
facebook
![[Valid RSS]](http://www.chromewaves.net/images/interface/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed"){kind=small}