Joel Plaskett at the Vogue Theatre in Vancouver back in 2009.
Halifax singer-songwriter/rocker Joel Plaskett played a one-off show on December 28 2010 in Victoria while he's on the west coast visiting extended family. The sold out 200 person audience in the quaint, lovely little St. Ann's Auditorium were treated to solo guitar (or $5 keyboard) renditions of material from his solo career, songs with the Emergency as well as oldies from the defunct Thrush Hermit. Plaskett played two separate sets and was called back out for 2 encores, taking many requests from the audience, as well as calling the seated crowd to its feet in joining his karaoke sing-along to hit "Fashionable People."
Below are 5 videos from that night. Although the video quality suffers from the dim lighting in the room (no spotlights!), the audio is crystal clear. I hope you enjoy the three new songs from Plaskett, and two "oldies"-- "Non-Believer," one of my favourites, and "Before You Leave" from the Hermit days.
The Island Girls and the Harbour Boys (New)
I'm Yours (New)
Absentminded Melody, transitioning into For Your Consideration (New)
That's what I like to see! Joel Plaskett Emergency played to a hometown crowd at Halifax's The Seahorse on December 17. My friends over at The Broken Speaker caught a video of him mentioning that the band has been churning out new material for their 3 night stint, before busting into a mandolin-led song possibly named "Lethal Weapon." True to form, JP returns to ol' faithful electric guitar to deliver a noodling solo before the song wraps up.
*** Update: There's more than one new song! The other videos, also put up by Broken Speaker, are tentatively named "I'm Only Happy When I'm Sad" and "I'm Yours." Videos below.
Arcade Fire appeared on NBC's Saturday Night Live last night, November 13 2010. They performed two tracks during the show as well as appearing in a skit. According to excitedtweets, they also performed a couple of songs after taping was over.
Merge Records has finally uploaded Arcade Fire's live video for "Ready to Start" from their latest excellent album The Suburbs after it floating around the web for a couple of days. In black and white, the video captures the intensity of the band's live performance in stark contrast. Enjoy!
Owen Pallett will be releasing A Swedish Love Story will be available on 10” and digital download. The first 20 pre-orders will also receive a bonus Lewis Takes Action 7".
"To contrast Heartland's convoluted record process, and also to cut myself a break, I recorded this EP in New York City over a week, using not much more than my violin, my Moog, a bass and a drum kit. It's closer in sound to my first album Has A Good Home than anything else. It's called A Swedish Love Story in tribute to one of my favourite films En Karlekshistoria and as a love letter to the Swedish pop stars who inspired it. This is probably the most posi record I'll ever make, enjoy the mood while it lasts."
Pallett has a few upcoming tour dates in Canada below:
Montreal's Arcade Fire has released a few videos of their secret house shows, interspersed with scenes of the band going around having a jolly ol' time, in the build up of their live Youtube-streamed show at NYC's Madison Square Garden tonight. It will be broadcast on their Youtube channel at 10pm ET / 7pm PT.
Arcade Fire is touring to support their latest release The Suburbs, which was out on August 3.
After playing a packed hometown show in Vancouver last night, Hannah Georgas is wrapping up her album release tour for This Is Good in Victoria tonight. With her undeniably catchy pop tunes, Hannah excited and energized a crowd filled with friends and family, including more fellow musicians than you can count with all your fingers and toes. And that certainly was a good indicator of the quality of Georgas' musicianship. Although she started the night on a slightly nervous note, which is understandable given that this is the hometown show of her first headlining tour, she soon loosened up after a few songs bolstered by the audience's affection of the fiery haired singer.
Hannah Georgas blasted through the majority of the material off of her The Beat Stuff EP and her recently released first full-length, This Is Good. Venue nightclub had emblazoned her name in lights as her and the band entered the stage, which was definitely a nice touch. Opening with the ukelele-led closer of her album "Something for You," she immediately transitioned into her single "Bang Bang You're Dead!" sans the help of the kids at her daycare, whom she got to sing the backup vocals (it was past bedtime, probably). This worked to her favour, as some of us that grew up in the era of scary movies narrated with children's voices might find it hard to take kids' voices in songs seriously. Other highlights of the set included the always, always awesome track off of her EP "Mama's Boy," which opener Colleen Brown earlier aptly defined as a "ball buster" of a track. This fierce yet totally relatable kiss-off song had, I'm sure, many girls mentally high-fiving Georgas.
After a short pause after her proper set, Hannah came back on stage for a three song encore. Fans were delighted by the more than night club friendly track "Dancefloor." In a move that somehow works due to Georgas' immense likeability, she slowed things right down with a new song "Ode to Mom," a more sombre ballad which she dedicated to her father's memory. The end of the song had Georgas singing the words, "if there's magic on this earth, it's in the water... if there's magic on this earth, it's in my blood." This vulnerable and contemplative theme carried over into the last track of the night, "Shine," which saw Georgas on the keys and probing, "is there a place for me in your eyes?" to which the crowd emphatically responded, yes, with their glowing smiles and loud applause.
Hannah Georgas was backed by David Vertesi on guitar/bass, who also acted as her first opener of the night. Better known as local favourites Hey Ocean!'s bassist, Vertesi has recently started churning out material of his own. And boy, did he look all alone on the wide stage of Venue nightclub. The lighting technician didn't entirely help matters either, often turning off the spotlight after a song, making it appear as if the set had ended. He played short set of about 5-6 songs characterized by quiet guitar strums and a deep baritone voice, which included a Hey Ocean! song "My Friends" which he dedicated to the following two acts, Colleen Brown and Hannah Georgas.
In between sets, the audience was treated to CBC Radio 3 trivia questions and swag giveaways by co-emcees Tariq Hussain and Chris Kelly. Chris in particular seemed very amped up and was hilarious on stage. If you need someone to introduce you for anything, I'd give him a call!
Colleen Brown is an artist that has dwelt somewhat under the radar since she started writing her own music in 2001. A damn shame, I say, because after seeing her open for Georgas, I wholeheartedly agreed with emcee Chris Kelly's advice, to go and thank Hannah Georgas for introducing us to this amazing singer-writer. As someone who grew up listening to rhythm and blues and musical theatre during high school, I'd always lamented the indie scene's relative lack of vocalists. If you're like me, take a listen to Brown, who slides in between octaves seamlessly, whose joy in using her voice permeates throughout her songs, which she admitted, were all "sappy love songs." But you won't find only ballads on her recently re-released album Foot in Heart if her live show is any indication; her playful and warm voice is punctuated by punchy keys that encourage dancing and swaying. Her set brought increasingly louder applause until the crowd was clapping and whooping when she left the stage.
For the complete photo set of Hannah's show, check out my Flickr.
Some live footage of Hannah Georgas at the Communitea Cafe in Canmore:
"Let's Talk"
Broken Social Scene perform "Forced to Love" off of their upcoming album Forgiveness Rock Record, due out May 4, 2010. You can also pre-order it now from Gallery AC.
Toronto crooner Matthew Barber performed live at Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver on April 15, 2010 in support for his latest release True Believer. Below are some dimly lit videos for your listening pleasure!
Toronto crooner Matthew Barberplayed an intimate, packed show at Vancouver's Little Mountain Studios on April 15, 2010 promoting his latest album True Believer. For the song "While Away," which was unplugged, he was joined by his sister Jill Barber on backup vocals.
As you can tell from the video, although the room was very dimly lit, the acoustics were excellent. Enjoy!
There are only a handful of tour dates left, but Mattber will be on the road again come fall:
16 Apr 2010 20:00
The Duncan Garage Showroom - Duncan, British Columbia
17 Apr 2010 20:00
Lucky Bar - Victoria, British Columbia
12 May 2010 20:00
The Mod Club - Theatre Toronto, Ontario
21 May 2010 20:00
Aeolian Hall - London, Ontario
Wow. Patrick Watson's drummer/percussionist Robbie Kuster never ceases to amaze me with his inventive accompaniment to Watson's floating falsetto. In this video courtesy of Watsonia, Kuster uses wine glasses to lay down a beat for "Big Bird in a Small Cage," played in a Japanese bar.
As an aside, if you go to patrickwatson.com, the results are pretty funny.
And of course, I'm not yet over my love-fest with the men of the Bonfire Ball. And of course, after such phenomenal shows, I think I'm allowed a good recovery period!
Like I previously mentioned, Afie Jurvanen, aka. Bahamas, does this cover of Al Green's "I've Never Found a Girl (Who Loves Me Like You Do)" which leaves no women and few men unmelted.
Next we have 2 new songs from Bahamas, which aren't on his current (and only) album Pink Strat. Tentative titles: "I've Got You" and "Never Again." I remember slow dancing to these songs during the show, and although the recording is not optimal, I assure you they were lovely.
Jason Collett does "Rave On Sad Songs" from his latest, fantastic album Rat a Tat Tat:
Zeus playing "I Know" off of their EP Sounds Like Zeus as well as their latest full-length Say Us. Featuring Carlin Nicholson on vocals and keys:
Vancouver band You Say Party! We Say Die! stopped by The New Gay and did an a capella version of their closing track for XXXX named "Heart of Gold." This recording shows that their harmonies hold up surprisingly well, which means that any vocal weaknesses in their live show must be from all the dancing and jumping around that Becky does on stage. A fair trade-off, I think.
And ... I did mention that this blog wasn't 100% Canadian focused... right? Christina Aguilera released her newest single from her website. Her newest effort, named Bionic, is slated to be released on June 8, 2010. Known for reinventing her image and sound, Aguilera went from pop princess to feminist diva, from old school femininity to this latest album, which seems very dance-oriented. Although her most recent greatest hits release was disappointing, I'm hoping this upcoming album will see her tapping into a similar creative vein that was evident in the double-disc Back to Basics.
