Bruce Springsteen at Rogers Arena, Vancouver, Nov 26 2012

Bruce Springsteen at Rogers Arena, Vancouver, Nov 26 2012

Almost skipped this show but boy, am I glad I didn’t.

This was my sixth time seeing Bruce Springsteen and probably the best. Three hours of (almost) non-stop energy. Which is to say, “My City of Ruins” slowed things down considerably, but when the set includes “Streets of Fire” and “Darlington County”, I’m not going to complain. Much.

Anyway, here’s a few pics from the show, including a photo of Springsteen with a cardboard red-headed woman (a sign someone brought along to request the song”Red-Headed Woman”) where Bruce is playing with the articulated limbs, a photo of Springsteen and a Santa plucked out of the front rows (for “Santa Clause is Coming to Town”, during the encore), and the singer in the audience.

Bruce Springsteen at Rogers Arena, Vancouver, Nov 26 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ray Davies at the Vogue Theatre, Vancouver, July 13 2012

Ray Davies at the Vogue Theatre, Vancouver, July 13 2012.

It was kind of a last minute thing, but boy, am I glad we made the effort to see Ray Davies.

Originally I wanted to cover the show, his first in Vancouver since 2006 I believe, for my site, The Snipe News. But when the promoter (Perryscope) didn’t get back to us drastic measures were called for. Fortunately I noticed on Twitter that @weareperrsycope was giving away a pair of tickets. I RT’d, but knowing my girlfriend has all the luck (and more followers) when it comes to these things, I asked her to RT as well and voila!

We were on the beach (Wreck, but that’s another story) when we heard, so we didn’t have as much late-Friday-afternoon relaxing time as we would have liked. No matter; Davies put on a phenomenal show. He was backed up by second guitarist Bill Shanley (acoustic and electric) and, for a few songs, the opening band, L.A. power-pop quartet The 88.

This was the start of the songwriter’s West Coast North America 2012 tour, and I can promise that most if not all Kinks fans won’t be disappointed – as long as they’re not hoping for immaculate versions of Kinks klassics. Indeed, some of the songs approached garage-rock, with three electric guitars onstage for some tunes that appeared to have been, shall we say, under-rehearsed.

Still, Davies’ energy and charm, as well as The 88′s enthusiasm to be let loose on one of the best classic-rock catalogues ever, carried the show. Highlights for me included a rollicking version of “Where Have All the Good Times Gone”, a sweet “Come Dancing”, a sublime “Celluloid Heroes” and “Misfits” and even “You Really Got Me” – a played-and-covered-to-death number that I didn’t think I ever needed to hear again in my lifetime but which suddenly felt like we were witnessing the birth of the creation of the world, witnesses to the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle that underlies all rock ‘n’ roll.

Anyway. Davies only came out for one encore – “Low Budget”. We demanded more – I can’t remember the last time I was at a show where the audience kept up this noise level for this long – but it was not to be. It wasn’t enough, but then, he would have had to play all night.

Reviewing Elvis

Elvis Costello at the Orpheum Theatre, Vancouver, April 10 2012. Robyn Hanson photo

Man, when I was a teenager there was no one whose music I loved more than Elvis Costello’s.

My Aim is True, This Year’s Model, Armed Forces, Get Happy, Trust, and Imperial Bedroom – each new album was like a message from the gods. I listened to them obsessively and played them on acoustic guitar; the massive songbook A Singing Dictionary, which included guitar tabs and lyrics to the first four Elvis Costello albums, plus the B-sides compilation Taking Liberties, was my bible.

Growing up in Winnipeg, however, I never got to see him perform, although a close friend of mine, Eugene Osudar, saw him in 1977 at the Manitoba Playhouse (and raves about it to this day). Costello was then on his first North American tour, for his debut My Aim is True, and played for something like 35 minutes.

However, living in Vancouver – which also now happens to be Costello’s adopted hometown, since he married B.C. native Diana Krall – means I’ve had more than a few opportunities to see my teenage hero live.

Last night’s Orpheum show, which was the kick-off of his 2012 Spectacular Spinning Songbook Tour with The Imposters, was I believe my third time seeing the so-called “beloved entertainer” at the old theatre. Three years ago I also saw him outdoors, at the Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park with his band the Sugarcanes; and I vaguely recall seeing him perform with just keyboardist Steve Nieve in 1999 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (read the late Dave Watson‘s review here).

But this concert may well have been the best yet, and proved to me that the 58-year-old still has the punk fire in him, and that he can still rock ‘n’ roll when he wants to – even if at times Costello seems to have let showbiz go to his head (let’s just say he sometimes reminded me of that uncle who thinks he’s a lot funnier than he actually is).

I especially loved hearing/seeing him do “Strict Time”, “You Belong to Me” and “Five Gears in Reverse”, a few of the more obscure songs from his lengthy catalogue. Oh, and “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea”, inexplicably a fan favourite. And I mean that in a good way.

And you can’t beat The Imposters – whom Costello called “the best band in the world” – for tight, ferocious playing.

You can read my full review here.

Shoe star of the day – St. Vincent’s Annie Clark

St. Vincent at the Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, Oct 12 2011. Anja Weber phot

Photos – St. Vincent at the Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, Oct 12 2011

Virtuoso indie-rock guitarist/songwriter Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, played the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver Oct 12 2011. She’s our Shoe Star of the Week! Thanks to Anja Weber for the great photos.

(More St. Vincent at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver photos)

Shoe star of the day – Sia

Leave it to quirky Aussie bird Sia to flaunt her plumage – and her footwear. Here’s the singer in Vancouver at the Commodore Ballroom Aug 19, photos by Anja Weber (click on pic to see more).

Sia at the Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, Aug 19 2011. Anja Weber photo

Concert review – KISS in Abbotsford (director’s cut)

KISS at Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre, June 27 2011. Ted Reckoning photo

I recently posted an abbreviated version of Kyle Harcott‘s KISS in Abbotsford concert review on my online Vancouver entertainment magazine, The Snipe News. Here’s Kyle’s original review, with a few minor edits. Photos by Ted Reckoning.

KISS at Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Center, Abbotsford, BC, Monday 27 June 2011

- by Kyle Harcott

Perhaps it’s the age bracket, but for some of us, KISS is not just a couple of 60-year-old men playing 40-year-old songs as an excuse to hawk various cheaply-made trinkets bearing their logo and image. Yes, there are still those of us around who grew up with KISS as a band, not a brand, and to many their early canon (some say up to Alive II, some say beyond that) is beyond reproach. Even now I beseech you to name a better live (ahem) album than Alive! You can’t. It simply doesn’t exist. Be all that as it may, though, I’m not nostalgic enough, nor naïve enough to ignore that in 2011, it’s no stretch to say KISS has well overstayed their welcome.

Perhaps this is the reason why, on their latest We’re-Never-Going-To-Retire Tour, KISS is playing secondary markets, towns like Kamloops and Abbotsford, with smaller sheds – yet even still, only to three-quarters-full houses. I’ll admit, as a “lapsed” KISS fan (i.e., one who swears by the [early] albums but doesn’t drink the Gene $immon$ Kool-Aid [too expensive]), there is a certain perverse glee in knowing I am seeing the band in Abbotsford and not Vancouver – it somehow doesn’t seem right, and yet it totally does.

Nonetheless – even the cynical old bastard in me cannot completely suppress a jackassed grin when the lights go down and I hear The Voice: “AWWWWWRIGHT ABBOTSFORD! YOU WANTED THE BEST AND YOU GOT THE BEST! THE HOTTEST BAND IN THE WORLD: KEEEUSSSSSSS!!!!”  The curtain drops and there they are on the massive stage: Gene, Paul, and those other two dudes dressed up like Ace and Peter. Everything is very bright, the pyro is very hot. Instantly I am transported to that moment forever crystallized in my memory, some 30-odd years ago as my elder cousins showed me the jacket to Hotter Than Hell for the first time. I was transfixed then. I am surprised, all this time later, to find I still AM.

Kicking off proceedings with “Modern Day Delilah” from their 2009 album Sonic Boom (I know, right – KISS are still putting out albums?), the old men use the opener as a chance to preen and work the shooters in the photo pit – presumably because nobody particularly cares how bad they might possibly botch the new song amidst all the posing. With the new fluff out of the way, they dive right into “Cold Gin” and finally Abbotsford roars its approval – the crowd knows this one. And the next one. And the next. And save for one other new song early on in the set, the entire rest of the setlist is bonafide KISS classics – not a single B-side to be found here.

Of course, I could take the cheap shots: Gene’s puffy jowls during the blood-spit sequence make him look like something akin to a bloated black-metal Elvis, in monster boots instead of a rhinestone jumpsuit; Paul’s rude chest hair appears to have grown even more abundant in his senior years and his incessant (and incessantly bad) by-the-book stage banter (insert  an Abbotsford-approved Vancouver-diss here, interject a lookth-lahk-we-gonna-have-ourthelveth-a-rock-n-roll-pawty-tonight there) is still the most ludicrous (and mincing) in the biz; that-dude-dressed-up-as-Ace copping every nuance of Frehley’s classic performance and shtick (sorry, Tommy Thayer, nobody and I mean nobody should be allowed to sing “Shock Me” except Ace. Period. I WILL overlook the floating, firework-shooting Les Pauls. This time.)

Surprisingly, I’ve got no beef with dude-dressed-up-like-Peter, because everybody knows Eric Singer is ten times the drummer Peter Criss ever was, and his bombastic drum solo proved it beyond a doubt. But I won’t take the cheap shots. Truth is, I was having more fun than I’d expected to, and it was good to hear a lot of those songs played live again. Much better than when I saw the full original KISS back in 1996 on the first reunion tour, when a lot of the classics were played at what felt like half-speed, so the drummer could keep up. Say what you will about Tommy & Eric “playing” Ace & Peter, at least they can play. And they want to.

As such, the Abbotsford show was everything you’d expect a KISS concert to be: the big production, the fire, the smoke bombs, the blood. I’m guessing if I’d stuck around for the encore, I’d have gotten confetti and a levitating drum riser, too. We even got a bit of a Spinal Tap moment at the conclusion of Eric Singer’s drum solo, as he brandished a rocket launcher and fired upon a prop lighting rig, sending it tumbling to the ground. Too bad he had the weapon turned around and shot the loaded firework backwards. Thankfully nothing caught fire (that wasn’t meant to) and on went the show.

Even with all the gimmicks and trappings, a KISS show is still all about the songs, and for the most part, the setlist was rock solid, spanning the ‘70s heyday with a toe-dip into early ‘80s territory too. For the most part, the songs were even played note-for-note from the albums, though a lot of the time the sound in Abbotsford’s shed left a lot to be desired. I decided to beat traffic and split the scene halfway thru “Black Diamond”, before the encore, because to me, that’s the song a KISS show should end on. I really had no desire to hear “Rock and Roll All Nite” again.

So, while my starry-eyed inner five-year-old was sated by the big time rock show KISS put on, I’m happy to report my curmudgeonly inner mid-30s-year-old was equally sarcastically sated by what I saw. All it took was a trip past one of many merch tables set up throughout the venue to gawk at overpriced KISS junk (and there was loads of it). I realize that KISS will never again be what they represented to me in my childhood, but all the same I’m glad I got to see them again, if only because it means I now know I won’t want to on their next tour.

KISS in Abbotsford setlist:

1. Modern Day Delilah
2. Cold Gin
3. Let Me Go, Rock ‘N’ Roll
4. Say Yeah
5. Deuce
6. Firehouse
7. Do You Love Me?

Tommy & Eric jam / drum solo / guitar solo

8. Calling Dr. Love
9. Shock Me
10. God of Thunder
11. Love Gun
12. I Love It Loud
13. 100,000 Years
14. Black Diamond
15. Detroit Rock City

Encore:

16. Beth
17. Lick It Up
18. Shout It Out Loud
19. Rock and Roll All Nite

 

Shoe star of the day – Jenny Lewis

Jenny Lewis performing with Jenny and Johnny at Venue, Vancouver, May 29 2011. Anja Weber photo

Photos – Jenny Lewis with Jenny and Johnny at Venue, Vancouver, May 29 2011

Jenny Lewis was in Vancouver last week, performing with her duo Jenny and Johnny. Anja Weber took these shots, including this one, which makes Jenny Lewis our Shoe star of the, uhm, week…

Jenny Lewis performing with Jenny and Johnny at Venue, Vancouver, May 29 2011. Anja Weber photo

Shoe star of the day – The Pipettes’ Gwenno Saunders

Gwenno Saunders with The Pipettes at Venue, Vancouver, April 29 2011. Anja Weber photo

Photos – The Pipettes at Venue, Vancouver, April 29 2011

The Pipettes played Venue in Vancouver on Friday night. The British pop group is fronted by sisters Gwenno and Ani Saunders, who wore dresses with polka-dot tops and matching flower-print skirts. Gwenno also had on some cute shoes…. (Thanks to Anja Weber for the photos).

Gwenno Saunders with The Pipettes at Venue, Vancouver, April 29 2011. Anja Weber photo

Shoe star of the day – Braids’ Raphaelle Standell-Preston

Raphaelle Standell-Preston with Braids at the Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver, March 28 2011. Robyn Hanson photo

Photos – Braids at the Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver, March 28 2011

BRAIDS played Vancouver’s Biltmore Cabaret earlier this week, and myself and photographer Robyn Hanson caught the quartet’s set.

I’d been curious since my friend Eugene had raved about the Montreal-by-way-of-Calgary band’s Winnipeg shows. He reviewed the band twice for the site, including a set at Lo Pub in 2010.  Since then even mighty publications like Pitchfork and the New York Times have jumped on the BRAIDS bandwagon.

You can see a fuller (though not by much) review of BRAIDS‘ Vancouver set here. This post is about shoes – specifically, lead singer Raphaelle Standell-Preston‘s. She is our Shoe Star of the Week:

Raphaelle Standell-Preston with Braids at the Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver, March 28 2011. Robyn Hanson photo

Ween in Vancouver

Ween at Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver, Jan 24 2011. Tamara Lee photo

Photos – Ween at Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver, Jan 24 2011

Depending on who you ask, Ween either played a total fuck-you show to its Vancouver fans last night or, according to one first-time Ween concert attendee, “It was a train-wreck but it wasn’t a total loss – just the ending…” Hmm, maybe it depends on your expectations.

Anyway, we have some photos, courtesy Tamara Lee, before the Queen Elizabeth Theatre show went to hell in a handbasket.

Photos – Ween at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver, Jan 24 2011

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