The curators of this sort-of annual one-day fest graciously took to the stage during the second-last timeslot of the day, beginning with the sun setting and ending at dusk. Between was a whirlwind of musicians and a roaring set full of a heckuva lot of new tracks off
Forgiveness Rock Record, their first legit release since 2005. Album and concert opener
World Sick was played by a pared down band of only seven, but they quickly ballooned before even reaching song two as people stepped up midsong, including a first appearance by Lisa Lobsinger. Although she was highly praised by BSS-circus ringleader,
Kevin Drew, while introducing her for her lead vocals on
All to All she was relegated to back-up on other songs and not given the respect I think she deserves. It's hard to hold the limelight though when stars such as
Leslie Feist arrive to sing
7/4 Shoreline.
Fighting through some early technical difficulties they played on, bringing out Sebastien Grainger sans guitar for a few, as well as introducing Ms. Emily Haines to sing too. There was a duet between Feist and Haines on Sentimental X's which caught them face to face as the sun made a final burst through the clouds minutes prior to setting that was particularly beautiful. There was so much swapping in and out that its difficult to capture it all so here's some notes.
- Leslie and Emily separately breaking out some mean air-guitar during Almost Crimes
- One track that went over better live than on the album in my books was Water in Hell
- Andrew Whiteman took lead for Fire Eye'd Boy
- With four guitars going, including some heavy hitting by Charles Spearin Cause=Time burst forth from the stage.
- The Sweetest Kill ballad was particularly nice, breaking up a set that had gotten rocking in the middle
- Some others from the set list: Texico Bitches, Forced to Love
After Lover's Spit concluded the band hit new decibels with Meet Me in the Basement that was almost too much to bear from my range 15 rows from the stage. When they came back for the inevitable encore of Ibi Dreams of Pavement (considering Pavement was closing the night) I was glad I'd stayed to take in all 19 members pour on-stage to finish off the love-in.
Pavement's performance was spectacular, and the primary reason for attending in my case. I showed up just as World Sick was playing. Did you happen to catch Beach House by any chance?
ReplyDeleteCaught Beach House, and most of the rest of the bands but haven't gotten around to posting about them yet. In brief the music was alright dreamy pop, as you'd expect from the record, but there wasn't much stage presence to keep the crowd engaged in the blistering sun.
ReplyDeleteYeah. I never really expected them to be that great live. Love their latest album though.
ReplyDeleteI can't get with the new BSS really. I've listened to it several times, and it's really lacking something. I don't know. It just doesn't do what their first two did for me.
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