So I finally got around to uploading all my videos from the show that I went to in Buffalo 2 months ago. I work slow, also I have been without a cardreader until recently and was unable to get all of the data from my memory cards.
Without any further ado, here are all the videos from Sloan in Buffalo, June 21, 2008:
Nothing can beat a good arena rock show. It is a totally different experience than seeing a concert at a small venue put on by an act that is only known by a relative few. Not better, not worse, different.
Rush has always been able to play large venues. Their first live album, that came out after their 4th studio effort (the legendary “2112”) was recorded in Massey Hall, which was probably the last time that they played a venue so small. This was the third time that I have seen Rush live, my first time being in 1997 on their “Test for Echo” tour, which I was lucky enough to end up in the front row (don’t ask me how that happened) and then I saw them last year on the “Snakes and Arrows” tour at the same venue, only in the very cheap seats, on the 4th of July. What better way to celebrate American Independence than with 3 Canadians? Those shows and this one had almost the exact same venue: a large, outdoor ampitheater with the partially covered, bowl shaped seating arrangement, pretty common. The view from the lawn seats at the Molson in Toronto is much better than the one I saw them at the first 2 times.
As usual with Geddy Lee and Co. there is no opening band. The show is nearly 3 hours of just Rush, which is enough to satisfy their rabid fans. This being a hometown show for them I was particularly excited about seeing them. It appeared that the band was having a good time too, as this was the most animated I’ve seen them. There usually isn’t too much in-between song banter, but there was a touch this time as Geddy gave us a taste of his “true Canadian accent” with the requisite “eh?” and “give’r” and what have you.
The set contained a pretty good retrospective of their entire career. From memory they played (though not in this order):
Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, YYZ, The Trees, the first two parts of 2112, Digital Man, Beneath the Wheels (awesome!), Where’s my Thing?, The Larger Bowl, Armor and Sword, One Little Victory, Workin’ them Angels, Ghost of a Chance, Dreamline, Witch Hunt, Limelight (I do remember this was the opener), The Spirit of Radio, and a bunch of others.
I am familiar, musically, with all of their material, but the names of some of the newer songs I don’t know. I know that they played a lot more newer material, but they did make it a point to play the classics. My friend and I discussed after the show how Rush is in a unique position from other current rock bands. They have managed to be active for 30 years and still are able to go on tour and not be viewed as “dinosaurs” or a museum type act like so many other bands that started at the same time as them. Styx is currently, as far as I’m concerned, a joke and a retrospective tribute band of themselves, as is Journey, Boston, Yes, Jethro Tull and countless others.
Rush is an arena rock band. That is what they do. They have been able to do it without selling their souls, or being overly or stereotypically “commercial”. Instead of letting the term “commercial” define them they choose, so it seems, to define the term for themselves. Throughout all their albums their sounds has evolved, significantly. They started by sounding like a bar band, developed into a prog-art rock band with songs that took up entire sides of albums, then they began creating 5 minute rock tunes that were extremely memorable in their own style. In the 80’s they delved into icy waters by taking a turn towards the realms of adult contemporary music, but then ushered themselves into the 90’s by becoming heavier, and still keeping their edgy sound they left off with 15 years prior. Throughout all this their fans remained with them, and in concert all of these songs can be played back to back seamlessly. They have always been true to themselves and I believe that that is truly shown in their music. There is a reason why they are a long lasting act as well as a top-selling act.
Unfortunately cameras were not allowed in the venue and although I had mine with me I did not remove it from my pocket from fear of it being taken away by a security guard. The videos that I present below are from the July 4, 2007 concert from Darien Lake (near Buffalo) New York.
“What about the voice of Geddy Lee? How did it get so high? I wonder if he speaks like an ordinary guy…”
There is always plenty of free music in Buffalo during the summer. They have their famous “Thursday at the Square” concerts which are a hot spot from people from all over, not just Buffalo, to come downtown, get wasted out of their minds while enjoying some free music. There seems to be new festivals popping up all the time in Buffalo and the surrounding areas. Sure, it’s a great thing. I like being outside and I like music, especially if it is free.
The first time I saw Sloan was at one of these fests, so it only seemed fitting that I continue the tradition. This show was part of North Tonawanda’s (suburb of Buffalo) apparently annual Gateway Park Concert Series. Sloan always plays things like this here in Buffalo, which I think kind of cheapens them a little bit, but it certainly opens them up to more people than would come and see them at a club south of the 49th parallel. I just get really territorial about bands that I love, they have never played a bad show that I have seen (except for their Grey Cup pre-game show which was not so good, redeeming quality in that I met my girlfriend there. They got lucky that time). The show this time around 
was part of the beginning of their tour for their 9th studio release, “Parallel Play”.
The album is getting a good amount of reviews, and opinion on it is pretty polarized. I, personally, love the album and listen to it often, and that is all that matters to me. The show was interesting, to say the least. All of my complaints with it don’t have anything to do with Sloan, but rather the organizers of it. The website says that the show starts at 5:30 and there was no mention of an opening act. I figured that there would be one, which is no big deal. One opener and then Sloan takes the stage around maybe 7:30, or 8 pm at the latest. It’s a festival type thing and on a weekend and there were no other bands being promoted. It turned out that at 5:30 the first boring local band of 3 (THREE!) for the evening began. In between each of these bands was “giveaways” and stupid radio guy promotion type banter. Sloan did not take the stage until 9 pm, which meant that I had been standing outside waiting for 3 and a half hours before the band that I came to see even took the stage, at which point the skies began to look rather grey.
Sloan played a great set, going through material from the new album as well as tried and true material from their past albums. The show was solid, featuring songs by each of the members. The disappointing fact was that, after all the standing and waiting the weather began to turn not long after they took the stage, and sure enough, just past the halfway point in their set, the skies opened up and it started pouring. Bassist Chris Murphy informed us that they would be going on and everyone was pleased, though the rain proceeded to get worse and after a little over an hour they left the stage.
They returned briefly for a hurried 3 song encore and then the show was over. I can not complain about their performance, it seemed that they were all pretty “on” that night, and had a pretty good mix, which is unusual for outdoor shows. I always love seeing Sloan, and I enjoy their music a great deal, I will certainly go out of my way to see them again. I would much rather see them in Toronto anyway.
I did take quite a bit of video at the show, but I have been quite slow in getting them up to my youtube page. I will do a quick post when I finally do up them. For now, here is a picture of the crowd at the show, taken by touring keyboardist Gregory MacDonald.
Buffalo, although one of the smaller big cities in the U.S. is still quite an important city for the arts. In the mid 1900’s it stood at the center of the New Music Scene and the University of Buffalo was an important training ground for cutting edge composers. This changed, for the worse, as the new millennium approached, but that doesn’t mean that great things aren’t happening there.
The director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, JoAnn Falletta, one of the leading conductors in the country and one of the only female conductors, not to mention the first, of a major American Orchestra, hosts an annual International Guitar Concerto Competition. Excitement in the area is high as the finals are set for tomorrow. Information can be found here.
This is an important event for guitarists that are just beginning their careers and I feel that Western New York is lucky to be host to a unique event such as this. If you are in the area I would suggest checking it out, or at the very least listening to the finals tomorrow on WNED, the Buffalo classical music station. You can also listen to the performances of all the semi-finalists here.
Traveled 2 hours East on I-90 to catch a great show in Rochester at the Auditorium Theater. The Joel Plaskett Emergency opened up for the Tragically Hip on Friday and it was a great show.
This is the first time I can ever remember being excited about the opening act just as much, or maybe even more, than the headliner. I admit that although I do love the Canadian indie-rock I am not a really hardcore Hip fan. There seems to be only one kind of Tragically Hip fan, and that is the insanely fanatical, which is good. I like bands that have intense cult followings. I have always known that Rochester was a Hip loving town.
Their latest release, “World Container” is a really solid album. There was a time where I was listening to it fairly regularly, but I guess I will have to admit that it never really caught on with me. “Yer not the Ocean” is a great opening track, and “The Lonely End of the Rink” is solid as well. They played both of those tracks at the show, and I was excited to hear them. Something familiar is always good to hear at a show is always a plus. They also played “Music at Work” which is another tune that I know. Other than that their set was pretty foreign to me. Not to say that their set was not good, it was very good. Energetic, spontaneous and long, the three most important things to any good rock show.
Gord Downie is certifiably a madman. His onstage antics were quite entertaining, flailing around a mic stand, wildly strumming an inaudible acoustic guitar and jumping around the stage like a lunatic and the like. His voice is pretty dead on, very passionate, and he is clearly frontman material, like a Freddie Mercury character, only I don’t think anyone was ever worried about Freddie having a breakdown on stage. It is certainly fun to watch the Hip if only to see what the hell Gord is going to do. It was easy to tell that he truly appreciates all his fans and that they are all having a great time up there.
The guitars were solid, rhythm section was tight and the form of their set was great. They moved from several energetic rockers in the beginning to some more subdued material towards the end. Every time they began a song a varying sized crowd would cheer wildly. Every song is a classic to crazed Hip fans, and that was good to see, I felt like I was missing out to a certain degree. I made a mental note to get to know more of their stuff.
Joel Plaskett I am much more familiar with. He opened with his power trio bringing down the house with the best opening act I have ever experienced. Song after song was a sing-along and Joel’s stage presence is something to be admired, he is quite charismatic on stage, and quite a great guitarist which was a nice surprise. Even missing some of the second guitar parts from the albums Joel managed to fill in the space nicely. I was trying to get a good view of the pedals he was using, especially the one large box that was in front of him that looked to have a large plunger on it, perhaps an old tape-delay or something. His band was tight and the solos were wild, as was Joel as he danced across the stage with the confident swagger of a headlining act. Maybe someday I’ll get to see a full set of his.
His newest effort, “Ashtray Rock” is one of the best albums released this year, and another solid classic rock theme album added to the Plaskett catalog. If you are interested in hearing more of his stuff I also highly suggest “Down at the Khyber”. It is fun to pick out the million ways that he is influenced (i.e. rips off) by Led Zeppelin, but the songs do stand on their own as well. I highly suggest.
For your viewing pleasure I recorded all but one song of the Plaskett set and put them on my youtube. They are here, below.
The concert on the whole was great. Sarah and I had great seats (yes, seats, always a plus) in the upper balcony that were cushy, and on my right side was a wall, which is perfect, seriously. During Plaskett we had a very clear view (hence the videos) of the stage, while during the Hip’s set we had a very clear view of the people in front of us, very drunk and dancing around and/or grinding up against the nearest female. Very entertaining all around. The sound of the venue was pretty good, very loud even though we were way in the back. I need to remember to bring my earlove to the Shellac shows in December.
Continue reading Show Review – Joel Plaskett/The Tragically Hip, November 2, 2007
I live in a college town, well actually not even a college town, I live in the town that is next to a college town. Over here in Dunkirk, which is a very poor city, one of the poorest in the state, there is no sports arenas for shows, there aren’t even any clubs, just some really dumpy bars. It’s a rather small city….and dumpy, have I mentioned dumpy? Anyway, thankfully we are situated just 45 minutes south of Buffalo. Who would have thought that anyone would be excited for Buffalo? Surely not I. Buffalo is much better than Rochester, who hosts no good shows at all, but I digress. This isn’t a post about the shitty upstate New York music scene, but about a great show by Canadian singer/songwriter Matthew Good.
Good’s new album, “Hospital Music” is one of the years best, trust me on this one. I realize that I haven’t reviewed it yet, but when I do, you will know, unless of course you own it already. The album is a very personal account of his hospitalization after having suffered a nervous breakdown, and dealing with his newly diagnosed bi-polar disorder.
The concert venue was an open area club type deal, there was a balcony, but it is my understanding that it was a V.I.P thing up there. In order to get to where the show was you had to walk through the bar area where people were playing darts and pool and what not, then in the back was the large, dark room, with the wall of fame prominently displayed. The wall of fame was quite entertaining. Did you know that W.A.S.P has played there….twice? as well as Jordan Knight, JC Chazet or however the fuck you spell his name…whatever, anyway….
Waitresses actually came up to us to offer us drinks, I was so taken aback that I didn’t know what to do. My stupified silence was taken for a negative response and I went drinkless for the entire show.When Matt took the stage, alone, with only an acoustic guitar I was worried that I would get bored, how could a show with one guy and a guitar possibly be entertaining? I was wrong, it was a great show. Good’s guitar abilities match his songwriting prowess. He is able and confident on stage, his voice is right on (except when his post-nasal drip gets in the way) and the banter in between songs helps to make the distance between audience and performer a little less.
He did not stick to a show completely consisting of songs from the new album, he drifted back to songs from the Matt Good Band rep, which gave them a new sound and a stripped down honesty. Being that I am more familiar with “Hospital Music” (the album that made me stand and take notice of him even though I have some of his other stuff in my possession) all of the videos that I captured at the gig are of songs off that album.He did play an encore consisting of, I think, about 5 songs, which means he played for a total of about 2 hours. The show certainly exceeded my expectations and I would certainly want to go see him again, perhaps with a full band so as to experience the contrast.
The drive back to Dunkirk was terrible. All of my friends from the show were heading back to Rochester, East on I-90, and we parted at the toll-booth as I headed West, regretfully.
Continue reading Show Review – Matthew Good (October 5, 2007. Club Infinity, Buffalo, New York)
