2010 was amazing for live music in Vancouver, most notably due to the Olympic games and its twin component the Cultural Olympiad in the earlier part of the year. With all that being said, the cream floats to the top, and certain shows stand out as definitive. There's always those few shows that you mention over and over to friends, those "and when so-and-so did this... I FREAKED OUT!" moments that you can't help but relive. Below are those shows for me in the past year. I'd love to hear what yours were as well!
This past year, I had the pleasure of seeing several Vancouver-based artists several times, including Hannah Georgas, Said the Whale, We Are the City, Aidan Knight, and Dan Mangan. I was fortunate enough to cover the Vancouver Folk Music Festival once again, as well as play witness to the first rendition of the Live at Squamish Festival. For the full list of shows I had attended, you can check out my concert listings.
Without further ado... the top 10 ticket stubs of 2010. Links to original reviews or photos when available.
The always eclectic and creative Hawksley Workman collaborates with Oscar and Genie Award-nominated animator Christopher Hinton to create the video for "(The Happiest Day I Know Is A) Tokyo Bicycle." The track is from the album Meat, which was included on the 2010 Polaris Long List. His new album, Milk, is set for release on August 10, 2010.
Hawksley Workman will release Milk, the follow-up to his Polaris long-listed Meat, on August 10 2010. The album, which thematically is linked with lust of all sorts, features collaborations with Tosha Dash (Candy Coated Killahz), Ali Shaheed Muhammad (A Tribe Called Quest) and Shad, who makes a cameo appearance on the track "Some People."
Hawksley Workman - "Not Your Parents' Music":
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The Mountains and the Trees, born Jon Janes, will be gracing us Vancouverites with his presence this Thursday. Below are his upcoming tour dates as he heads out west and back, and then flies across the pond for some European dates. His debut full length, I Made This For You, will drop August 10 2010.
22 July - Vancouver, BC @ Little Mountain Gallery with The Wilderness of Manitoba
24 July - Mission, BC (House Show) with The Wilderness of Manitoba
27 July - Edmonton, AB @ Haven Social Club with The Wilderness of Manitoba
29 July - Bruno, SK @ All Citizens Shop with The Wilderness of Manitoba
30 July - Saskatoon, SK @ Caffe Sola with The Wilderness Of Manitoba
31 July - Winnipeg, MB @ West End Cultural Center with The Wilderness Of Manitoba
1 Aug - Gimli, MB @ Islendingadagruinn
5 Aug - Ottawa, ON - Blackbox Concert Series @ Cube Gallery with Daniel Romano
11 Aug - Windsor, ON @ Phog Lounge with The Wilderness Of Manitoba
12 Aug - Toronto, ON - Summerworks @ Lower Ossington Theatre
14 Aug - Saint John, NB @ Fundy Fog Festival
18-22 Aug - Woody Point NL @ Writers at Woody Point
9 Sept - London, ON @ Borderline with Elliot Brood + Ladyhawk
11, 12 Sept - North Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival
24 Sept - Hamburg, Germany @ Reeperbahn Festival
25 Sept - Leipzig, Germany @ Paris Syndrom
28 Sept - Reutlingen, Germany @ Better2Gether
----- K-Oswill be releasing an album named Anchorman Mixtape August 6, 2010 online and in what he dubs the "Motown Model" approach, which includes several physical singles over a span of time. These tracks will be posted in full here for a limited time.
The first singles released will include "Faith," a collaboration with Drake, and "BlackWater," a collaboration with Sebastien Grainger. "BlackWater" will also appear on Playlist for the Planet, a music project sponsored by the David Suzuki Foundation as part of its 20th Anniversary celebrations.
Track list:
Start Me UP
SheClipse
Faith (featuring Drake)
Big City
BlackWater (featuring Sebastien Grainger)
Holy Cow
The Lonely Ones
Beauty Is A Loaded Gun
I Wish I Could Believe
Dance In Your Car
Here's K-Os' latest video for "Zambony" from his current album Yes!.
----- Mishka, raggae/surf-rocker hailing from the Caribbean islands, will be playing a show at Vancouver's Venue night club on August 12, 2010.
I assure you the belatedness of this live blogging business is due to obligatory bodily demands such as sleep and food. I'll try to have a blog entry or Flickr photo set for every night that I attend shows for.
At this point, Canada was 4th place in terms of medal count. 90+% of Canadians had watched at least part of an Olympic sporting event on TV. And by Wednesday, February 17, 2010, the cultural component of the Olympics brought out the big guns with one of Canadian indie's hottest exports Feist and Chilly Gonzales playing a paid show at the Orpheum, and hurtin' Albertan Corb Lund playing LiveCity Yaletown. And of course, the shows below.
It's fair to say that I had no expectations whatsoever of Karkwa when I entered the Air Canada Stage at la Place de la Francophonie at an early 6pm. I had heard raving reviews of them from good friend Kirk at 3amrevelations and decided to venture out to Granville Island, on a sort of blind musical date. It's more than fair to say that Karkwa got a second date; they were a shock and a delight. Like fellow Francophone rockers Malajube, the members of Karkwa have a knack for knitting together elaborate, dazzling rock compositions that astound you with their beauty but knock you backwards with their force. And what a force! They had both percussionist Julien Sagot and drummer Stéphane Bergeron pounding on floor toms for many of the songs. Lead guitarist and vocalist Louis-Jean Cormier complemented the complex musical backdrop not by an overpowering voice, but by using his voice as another layer.
Next up, we have the lovely Jill Barber at the Richmond O Zone. After Karkwa, my company and I rushed from Granville Island to the nearby Vancouver suburb to catch Barber as she wraps up the first song in her set. With only a keyboardist and guitarist accompanying her, Jill Barber put on a stripped down show consisting equally of songs from older albums, as well as from her jazz-infused latest Chances. Her sultry presence and set full of romantic songs about love and loves lost had couples slow dancing in the audience, and the rest of us feeling kind of nostalgic.
After Jill left the stage, the crew hands set up the stage for the last anticipated act-- Hawksley Workman. Fronted by Ryan Corrigan (aka. Hawksley Workman) and backed by his companion Todd Lumley, aka. Mr. Lonely and full backing band, Hawksley put on not only a musically entertaining show, but showed his prowess as a performer with a hilarious and banterful stage presence. Always engaging, with stories that range from sexual dreams to moving to Amsterdam for a lover and so much more, Hawksley engaged us for the full hour and a bit that he was on stage. The set was heavy on new material off his newest Meat and Milk, with only the last three songs being older favourites-- "Smoke Baby," "Your Beauty Must Be Rubbing Off On Me," and "The City Is A Drag."
For live tweets from more Olympic shows, check out my Twitter.
