Matthew Bateman

Post image for Review | Cuff The Duke at Electric Owl

Review | Cuff The Duke at Electric Owl

by Matthew Bateman on November 5, 2011 · 0 comments

IMG 2266 645x429 Review | Cuff The Duke at Electric Owl Concert Addicts

I’d never been to the Electric Owl before. It was very small, though it had a large selection of booze on display, which I thought was odd. There was a black display sign blocking off the area where the ropes didn’t cover…

Oh, right. This is the entrance to the liquor store area of Electric Owl. Not the actual venue itself.

After heading outside and taking the CORRECT entrance and getting Cali and myself in, a different picture was painted. The place was actually really quite big for what I was expecting from the outside.
There was plenty of room to sit spanning one end of the place to the other, and still enough room for a decent sized stage, a large floorspace for getting your groove on however you’d like to (which at this particular show had quite a range), and two separate and very accessible bar areas on either side of the floorplan. I have to say, I really quite liked the place. What made things even better?

Coat-check in a downstairs area! No more tears trying to shove your way past people to get outside.

We were a bit late from acquiring food, so we only made it in time to hear three and a half of Hooded Fang’s set. A five member band out of Toronto (2 guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, and a whole lot of
singin’) they had a surf-rockish sound to them that was nice and groovable (as shown by members of the audience). Couldn’t tell you the name of their songs for the life of me (sorry guys), but whatever the last song they played was really made my malleus dance. They released a new album recently, so give it a look-listen. There’s a good selection on their website listen-y dealy.

Alright, now you put on the theme to “The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly”, because that’s exactly how Cuff The Duke’s set started.

Have it on now?

Part-way through?

Great.

Cuff The Duke is Wayne Petti, Paul Lowman, Dale Murray, Corey Wood, and François Turenne (vocals/guitar/harmonica, bass/vocals, guitar/vocals, drums, and MORE GUITARS). They’re from Oshawa, Ontario, and they’ve got a sweet alternative country sound that makes me happy that country music exists, even if the majority is NOT my thing. They played ‘Time Is Right’ from their new album leading out of the aforementioned theme song, which got the audience all worked/warmed up for more.

Now here’s where I play the setlist guessing game as per norm. Feel free to fill in my blanks with what your heart tells you is right. ‘Count On Me’ (the first single from the new album) was up next, followed by ‘I Really Want To Help You’ (a personal favourite), and ‘Listen To Your Heart’. ‘Follow Me’ made everyone’s heart melt a little as we sang along with those sweet words. ‘Rockin’ Chair’ and a new album song ‘Standing On The Edge’ preceded something that I can’t remember (HAW HAW sorry). ‘Rossland Square’ was dedicated to a friend from back East in the audience who (not quoted to exact words) “took a wrong turn and wound up in Vancouver”.

Now for this one I’m somewhat confused. There’s a song called ‘You Don’t Know’, and one called ‘What It’s Like’ following it on the new album, so I’m ASSUMING it’s a two parter that creates a song called ‘You Don’t Know What It’s Like’ that they played next, but at this point, I’m not positive on that one either.

I’m also not positive on what the next song was.

Moving on to ‘Belgium And Peru’ (RHYME), which is another one of my favourites. Now, at this point I had to move over because of someone getting up in my grill (more on this later), but I THINK it was ‘Promises’, but my ability to hear lyrics was greatly diminished by having to stand in front of a dopey old speaker. But it was a GREAT song, and if ‘Take My Money And Run’ hadn’t finished the set off (which wasn’t a bad thing at all as it’s a great song as well), it would’ve made an awesome finisher.

Now it was time to shout encore (though people were yelling “Cuff The Duke”) and the band came back out and blew us away with a four-song encore, which was a lot more than I was expecting.

Which apparently wasn’t the case with everyone’s perception of how the set would go, as Mr. Petti made mention of a complaint about how their set wasn’t long enough. Cuff The Duke played for almost (maybe more? Wasn’t really checking.) 2 hours. ‘Nuff said as far as length of a set goes.

‘Remember The Good Times’, [fill in correct song in your mind here] (which included the dropping of a bottle of beer, which is totally fine, it happens. But don’t just kick it to the side; if someone is drunk {which clearly people were as it was dropped in the first place, and Cali and I had people who didn’t understand the concept of “other people do in fact exist even though you want to dance in a 10 foot radius of yourself” rubbing against us at points} they could slip on beer and fall on it, or something equally as unlikely yet possible. It’s just kind of poor form not to get it removed as quickly as possible.), ‘Ballad Of A Construction Worker’, and a heart-warming “C’mere and gimme a big ol’ hug” sing along version of ‘You Were Right’ gave us our final Cuff The Duke fix.

Overall, the show was great. We got a good dose of Hooded Fang (or I assume so, sorry I missed most of the set), and 1000 cc’s of Cuff The Duke shot right into our eardrums. More than enough for a $15 dollar
ticket.

And then, after all this, we got to experience the BEST part of this venue:

The one and a half block walk to the skytrain. Just beautiful.

Post image for Review | Zeus at Biltmore Cabaret

Review | Zeus at Biltmore Cabaret

by Matthew Bateman on October 24, 2011 · 0 comments

“Hey, so we’re here. It’s pretty empty but I think the first opener takes stage soon”

That was the text I received from my friend Stefan at 7:21 PM Friday night as I lounged lazily on my couch. I was being a fat piece of crap on the couch, and didn’t really feel like moving my body around much, but it was looking like that wouldn’t last much longer.

See, Stefan, Arash and I had decided the previous Friday that going to see Zeus would be a great idea (which it was, more on that later), but there hadn’t been any communication in the meantime. Naturally this meant I never got around to going to Zulu and getting a ticket, so after a .05 second decision to go to the show, I hopped a bus and shambled my way to the door at the Biltmore.

The bouncer at the door popped the ID question, and then said, “Cover is, well you’ll see inside.” Which I have to admit seemed a touch foreboding but thankfully I was rewarded with the knowledge that the ticket was only a bonus 2 dollars on top of the pre-show ticket price of 13 (should’vegonetoZulu).

I met Stefan and his wunnerful fiancée Sharlene at a table (Arash was M.I.A), at about..oh, let’s say 7:50. The show was an early one (doors opened at 7) which meant that it started at 7:30 (though it didn’t) and ended before a bizarre 10:30 curfew. After a bit of a chat, things got started up with Daydream Vacation.

I’d never heard of this band from Seattle before, and I gotta say, I was impressed. A fella (Dave Einmo of Head Like A Kite) and a lady (Asya of Smoosh) shared vocal duties, and were backed up by some electronic beats and a drummer. It was a light flowing electronic pop sound (I’m no genre master), and I was lovin’ the phone receiver microphone with the distortion it had going on. Since I know nothing of them, I can’t really impart a good feeling of the job that they did but check out their website and take a listen it’s very worth it. Really the only bad thing about the set was the fact that they were a band that went well with a big drunk dancin’ crowd and unfortunately there were probably only 4 people on the dancefloor (with a max. of about 17 by the end of their set).

By the time Sun Wizard got set up and started playing more people had arrived, and there was a crowd rather than a sprinkle of individuals. Once again, never seen/heard of the band before, but, double once again, a pleasure to hear. They had a shoegaze/southern rock sound, and some mean moustaches. They played one song, World’s Got A Handle, that reminded me of a song I’d heard before. Stefan and I narrowed it down to Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’, but I still have my reservations (great song though). I feel like they’d be more at home opening for Deer Tick (who I love), but they played a good set, so I’ll say check ‘em out too. Support your local music, yes?

Now it was time for the main event to hit the stage, and boy did they. I’d never seen the band’s selves before, so it was quite a surprise when a curly haired, moustached Jimmy Fallon (Carlin Nicholson), a bearded Conan O’Brien (Mike O’Brien, coincidence?), a taller/thinner/younger Gary Oldman (Neil Quin), and what I felt to be a mix of one of my professors and one of my classmates from school (Rob Drake, I’m sorry I couldn’t be reminded of someone famous for you), took the stage, and started off with something I didn’t recognize.

This was because, come 2012 (in March I think they said?) there’s a new Zeus album rolling into town. They followed up with another new song, and I thought that both of them were solid, but not particularly exciting. Then it was time for ‘Kindergarten’, perfect. Now this is where it gets fuzzy. Not because I’m a drunken mess; rather, I’m just awful at keeping the order of a setlist unless I write it down ASAP. So from here on in, let’s pretend I’m correct about my setlist recollection shall we? This was followed by ‘Greater Times On The Wayside’ which flowed into ‘River By The Garden’, which was as wonderful a coupling as it is on the album. Their cover of Genesis’ ‘That’s All’ brought cheers and smiles from the crowd, and though I never really liked listening to the recording as much as their other songs, this live version was more aurally pleasing I thought. ‘Gotta Tell ‘Er’, ‘Heavy On Me’, and ‘Marching Through Your Head’ (my favourite song off the ‘Say Yes’ album), were all rocked out in excellent rendition. I’ll take a segue right now to mention that during the whole event, Mr. Nicholson, Mr. O’Brien, and Mr. Quin were jumping around bass to guitar to keyboard and back, showing that as far as the three instruments go, they knew their musical instruments (and chairs).

This was my favourite part of the night. Mr. Nicholson got on the keyboard and they moved into an instrumental jam which sounded INCREDIBLE to my ears (maybe an exaggeration, but I absolutely loved it and hope it’s included on the new album), which moved into a song from the new album ‘Love Ain’t A Game’. There was a beaut of a three-part harmony to start it off, and from the sound of things, it’ll be my favourite song on the new album. They finished their set up with ‘The Renegade’ and the new single from the upcoming album ‘Are You Gonna Waste My Time?’, which was another hit in my opinion.

Then we played the old encore game, and they came back out to play ‘Hot Under The Collar’ from one of their 7”s (I’d never heard it before, but it’s a good song, worth a listen), and they closed with the first song from ‘Say Yes’, ‘How Does It Feel?’. It felt great (HAW HAW HAW).

All in all? A great show.

I was really hoping to hear ‘Cornerstones’ from their ‘Sounds Like Zeus’ EP, and I was betting they’d close on ‘At The Risk Of Repeating’, BUT I’ll live without those two favourites.

Let’s not forget that I also got to hear two new bands, both worth looking into, that made the extra two dollars at the door more than worth it.

My advice: listen to Zeus a lot, and if you can, see them live, they put on a great show (especially if you can catch them with Sam Roberts somehow).

Post image for Review | Broken Social Scene at Malkin Bowl

Review | Broken Social Scene at Malkin Bowl

by Matthew Bateman on September 28, 2011 · 0 comments

It all started with a bus ride.

The reason I’d decided to go and see Broken Social Scene in the first place was because a friend of mine had been a right sweetheart and bought two tickets to see them as a birthday present for his girlfriend this past Saturday at Malkin Bowl. When he told me that he was going and asked if I wanted to join in, I jumped at the chance, as I’d loved Broken Social Scene ever since I first heard Cause = Time.

So, back to the bus. We hopped onto the 8 Fraser, and were greeted with a most pleasant fellow taking up at least 3 seats. He had some wispy facial hair in patches all over his face, was wearing a darling do-rag (in case anyone was wondering how hard he was), and from the looks of it, was delirious from a fever of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and therefore was on all the drugs known to man. After switching sides to follow the woman who had moved to get away from him, he sat looking like he was practicing his impersonation of a Mortal Kombat character while not moving, or possibly as if he was going to thunder chunder at us. Thankfully all was well and we didn’t have to go back home to change.

Next was the 19 from the Main Street skytrain station, which held a few of our fellow concert-goers, all excited for the night to come. Until the bus had to stop its route short and dropped us all off at least a 35 minute walk from Stanley Park. And naturally, we figured that if doors opened at 5:30 and the concert started at 7:00, we may as well just leave at 6:00, because in the 45 minutes it took us to get there, we’d be set for the opening act, Ra-Ra-Riot. So we walkedwalkedwalked, until a cab came by, and we rode in style the rest of the way.

About nine bucks later, we were in the venue, which was the lovely Malkin Bowl. I’d never been there before, but we had a nice open area for getting your moves out, a hill for sittin’, a merch table, and places to get food. It was a beautiful, amazing night for the concert. It was too warm for a jacket, but there was a cool breeze blowing through that kept you from getting too warm. As far as food went, apparently enormous bags of popcorn are popular, who’d guess?

So Ra-Ra-Riot was playing as I entered, and although I’ve never really listened to them before, I was diggin’ the sound. The only song I recognized was ‘Can You Tell’ from The Rhumb Line album, which I quite like. I spotted a cellist and a violinist which made my heart beat, especially since both were appealin’ for the eyes to behold. I rather like the look of the body-less cello (if that’s the right term for it, it had the body outline, so correct me if I’m wrong), though the glitter violin made me give a bit of a whaa-, head tilt. Unfortunately, even though they did a great job, not knowing much about the band and their musical selection, and the fact that I missed probably 15 minutes of their 45 minute (another whaa- head tilt) set, means that I can’t do a very good job of reviewing their brief appearance.

Then came the fun wait for setting up equipment for Broken Social Scene, which had me antsy for action. At around…8:06 (?), the fellas took the stage. Andrew Whiteman, Brendan Canning, Kevin Drew, Sam Goldberg, Charles Spearin, Justin Peroff, and who I believe to be John McEntire, all took the stage. NOT that this is a bad thing, but I have to say, from seeing pictures of Brendan Canning before, it looks like he’s aged about 20 years in about 4 years, and at first I had quite a hard time placing him; he did, however, turn out to be the most energetic up on stage, jumping and swinging his leg high when he deemed necessary.

The first song they moved into from a nice little intro was the above-mentioned Cause = Time. This of course started my night off beautifully, as this was the song I’d first heard by them, so I got to start the night with a little nostalgia. They then brought out Texico Bitches from the new album, which brought on some good “WOO”s from the crowd as Kevin Drew leaned to sides of the crowd with his microphone. 7/4 Shoreline brought out the lovely Lisa Lobsinger, whose sultry voice, melted the hearts of fans through-out the downtown area. I was terrified that they might not play the horn parts near the end of the song, but a stagehand handing Mr. Spearin an oddly shaped trumpet (or so I believe it was), and David French stepping out with his sax allayed my fears and pleased my ears. Moving along quickly now, Stars and Sons turned into All to All, turned into Fire Eye’d Boy, and then Kevin Drew made a wee speech for the crowd. He said that they were going to play a song that’d become rather close and meaningful to the band lately (this is not verbatim, I am not that good at memory), and that we might recognize it. Without telling us what it might be, the band then covered The World at Large by Modest Mouse. I was hoping that Isaac Brock might appear out of nowhere to help out (like he will do on the Oct. 1 show in San Fran), but unfortunately he didn’t.

I want to take a moment now to acknowledge how bittersweet this cover was for the night. I hadn’t known that BSS was going to be going on an indefinite hiatus when I bought the ticket, and when I did find out, I was thankful I didn’t miss my chance to see this incredible group of musicians take the stage. When Kevin Drew had said that this song had taken on a lot of meaning for the band, it was a bit tear-jerking. Listening to the lyrics come out of Kevin Drew’s mouth was like hearing the reason why the band why going on hiatus in the first place. It was sad to hear that the band was feeling like it needed to move on to greener grasses and that, at least some members, just felt that it was time to leave behind the old and move on to something else. It was a somber moment to have, but I quite liked their interpretation of the song, and I liked the idea that we were being let in on how the group may’ve felt without being told directly.

Once that wrapped up, they played something I can’t quite put my finger on, but it contained elements of Late Nineties Bedroom Rock for the Missionaries, as well as Shampoo Suicide. Upon that ending, Kevin Drew said something about weight and not going to the YMCA enough, which led to Brendan Canning busting out some Village People for the crowd. Hilarity ensued. Mr. Canning then informed us that he had poor timing with humour as it was now time for Sweetest Kill; a sweet ditty about divorce. To be honest, I never really gave this song a second thought before, but after hearing it played live, I can’t get it out of my head. It’s just such a smooth, haunting melody, with a beat that’s not too fast and not too slow. Ibi Dreams of Pavement was next up to bat, followed by a version of Major Label Debut with a tempo that fell between the slow album version, and the fast EP version. Kevin Drew then informed us that they would play a song he always really liked (once again, I’m improving his voice), which turned out to be Looks Just Like the Sun, a beautiful number from You Forgot It In People. Anthems of a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl, Meet Me in the Basement (with an extended triple ending), and (naturally) KC Accidental wrapped the night up. Mr. Drew said goodnight, and we all clapped and waited for the encore.

Which I called from the very beginning. There was no way they weren’t going to finish the night off without It’s All Gonna Break. I was waiting for it, and they delivered it with gentleness of an open palm, but the strength of a closed fist. It was an incredible 10ish minutes, and they all looked so happy up there on stage, giving it all a final go. The guitars were being shredded, the horns were making that sweet brassy sound that I needed to balance out the sound of the rest of the band, and Mr. Drew’s voice was positively beautiful when alone, or amongst others. It was a long and incredible ending to what had been an astounding night and career.

As I left the venue, I said goodbye to the trees, the warm night, the cold breeze, and those that I had danced amongst. And I said a goodbye to 10 years of touring, writing, and performing on the part of an amazing collective of musical talent.

Here’s to Broken Social Scene; you made all of our nights, come back anytime.