Walked up to the River Run Center in time to catch the opening act, Bahamas. The walking scored me a free pin reading "Weak - Cons - Serve" since they are running a "Rock, don't drive" green tour. The River Run Center proved, once again, to be an exquisite concert venue, as was evidenced instantly when the two-piece took the stage. The sounds of their electric guitar and drums rang out clearly as they played unoffensive, though also unenthralling, rock music. The final song that included the hairless-headed (besides full-on-handlebar-moustached) drummer was easily the best, and the set ended with the white-jean and red-lumberjack-shirt-wearing guitarist/singer playing a song on his own.
The Constantines burst out with a rawkin' version of I Will Not Sing a Hateful Song which set a tempo that carried on through excellent rock tunes such Trans Canada, Hard Feelings and Hot Line Operator. Fronted by Bryan Webb and his uniquely appealing voice, the Cons really know how to bring it (along with an extra case of rock) for their live shows. Although their style is more suited to a cramped, sweaty dive bar where the beer flows freely, they still managed to make a solid impression in this large, formal theatre. The set did slow for a song on which John K. Samson joined the group to sing lead vocals before returning backstage. There were a couple more mid-tempo cuts in the midst of the set that meandered slightly too long, but using such hits as Night Time, Anytime (It's Alright) (as inscribed on the Ebar mensroom wall) they were able to amp the energy back up at the end to leave on a high point. In fact, it was the amp that did it - as a guitarist cranked all the dials on his amp during the last song and then picked up his guitar in a battle-axe fashion. For a moment I thought he was going to destroy the guitar as he began swinging it around over his head, until I realized he was creating phenomenal feedback to fit in with the rocking out that the rest of the band were doing. They left the stage to a standing O.
It was a near perfect set from Winnipeg's biggest indie export - The Weakerthans. They play live songs as though they were studio-produced, managing to reproduce their songs almost identically. This works however (especially with the sound quality at the River Run) because it allows you to more fully appreciate the songwriting abilities of this band. Plus, despite being Canada's most prolific lyricist, John K. Samson comes across as a completely humble and endearing fellow. The sold-out crowd hung on his every word, for both in-song and between-song banter. It is difficult to pick stand-out songs but to only name a few, I'd be forced to include Left and Leaving, Our Retired Explorer, Tournament of Hearts and both of Virtute's laments. However choosing the most unique solo of the night is a cinch. Beating out the One Hundred Dollars-t-shirt-clad trumpeter, was the pedal-steel player who grabbed a meter-plus-long flexible plastic tube and whirled it above his head, varying the pitch of the whistle by ever-so-slightly adjusting the speed with which he twirled it. Incredible!
Tremendous applause resounded throughout the theatre as the Weakerthans departed the stage and we jumped to our feet. The acoustics in the hall are so great that the few thousand of us sounded like a sold-out Madison Square Garden and we could not be denied an encore. After minutes of our hollering, John returned to the stage alone and broke into the much-demanded One Great City! which I'm sure satiated many people's desires (since I could hear them singing along). The full band rejoined him for another couple of songs before the Rolling Tundra Revue (II!) finished rocking, and rolled out of Guelph.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Rolling Tundra Review-ed
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Great Ohbijou Fantasy
The River Run Centre is a gorgeous theatre designed to hold approximately 785 spectators for plays and theatrical productions. Last night it stood as the setting for a three-band concert of indie proportions.
Ohbijou took the stage as a 7-piece that played easily twice as many instruments. Fronted by two petite sisters with surprisingly strong and lovely voices, the group played through a lush mix of light indie music. It was very well done though slightly sleepy at times.
A brief intermission didn't even allow us to leave our seats before a drumset, banjo, upright-bass, acoustic guitar and keyboard were taken up by the Great Lake Swimmers. The lead vocalist had a most interesting and excellent voice, which was nicely accented by the female keyboardist's backing. The upright bass player looked pretty mean with his full beard and tats but knew how to play. The drummer played a myriad of interesting ways and instruments, such as a washboard. The frontman also had a wonderful strum-plucking style that really did it for me on Ongaria greats like There Is A Light and Your Rocky Spine. Other songs included Moving Pictures, Silent Films and Changing Colours, though I would have liked to have heard the female take the lead on Imaginary Bars which was not on the set list. The set was absolutely lovely and could easily have been followed up by an encore - but despite the efforts to start a standing ovation I'm sure a lot of people were anxiously awaiting the main event. The one-man violining genious. Final Fantasy.
Owen was just about to start up his looping extravaganza. He came on humbly dressed in a t-shirt and pants and without much lead-up launched into his tunes. The set seemed somewhat ad-libbed. With Owen doing whatever grabbed him, including two covers of a man who he says he is planning on doing a full album of. The two-songs had funny and interesting lyrics but were solely piano-based and are definitely a departure from He Poos Clouds. The second song of the set had me grinning the entire time at just how phenomenal it was. It was a rendition of the title track from the inaugural Polaris Prize winning album and it was admittedly a tough play for Owen, in fact partway through he paused momentarily and mentioned how difficult it was to play, but this just made my grin grow wider as I was simply amazed. A total highlight. A few other highlights were This Lamb Sells Condos, Many Lives for 49 MP and the CN Tower Belongs to the Dead. Once again words cannot describe all of the ways that Owen produces noise from his violin, nor the visual display that Stephanie puts on with the overhead projector. It was another incredible set, capped off with a two-song encore including Song Song Song, that had Owen beating up his violin a couple times more before the end of the night. This simple word was uttered more than a few times last evening; "Wow."
