Recent shows

Well, three months later I'm back. Sorry - been lazy lately.

Among recent shows I've seen, I have to say that two really stood out to me, with a third not far behind. Calexico at the Mod Club about a month ago were terrific. I found their last show in Toronto a bit stagnant and slow, so finding the band energized and casting about their entire catalog in a very dynamic performance was a pleasant surprise. As a friend remarked after the show "Calexico rocked! At least as much as Calexico can rock..."

The next night I saw Alejandro Escovedo play at the same venue, and I think it might have been the best show I've seen in five years anywhere by anybody. (That's a pretty bold statement, I know.) It was a great rock and roll show, an opinion shared by virtually everyone I know who was athere. The only criticism I heard was one friend who thought there were too many covers at the end (which is sort of fair, though there were only three -- "All the Young Dudes" followed by "Beast of Burden" and the AE live standard "I Wanna Be Your Dog". Check out his album "Real Animal" -- one of the best of 2008 so far.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and drive 160 km to Buffalo's Town Ballroom, and I took in Spiritualized last weekend. What a remarkable performer/artist Jason Pierce is -- gospel music about intravenous drug use! The subject matter is so dark, but the music and mood is ultimately so uplifting, it was really a wonderful night. Highlights included the "Come Together"/"Take Me to the Other Side" set closer, followed by "Lord Can You Hear Me" as an encore to end the night in style. But the best song of the evening was "I Think I'm in Love" which was overpowering.

TFC and Destroyer

Friday night last weekend I went to see The Coast, a local Toronto band who were described to me as Britpoppy, at the Horseshoe. They were alright, but a few songs into their set I turned to a friend and said "these guys are pretty good, nice melodies, but I have a feeling I won't remember a thing about them tomorrow." And I was right.

The following morning I met up with a friend from Buffalo and took him to his first Toronto FC game, a 1-0 win over Salt Lake that pushed the club to .500 for the first time in its history (and marked only the second two-game winning streak the club has ever had, after last week's 3-2 win over the LA Beckhams.)

After the game, my friend and I did some damage at Rotate This! and Soundscapes on the way home, before heading to Lee's Palace to see Destroyer, the main creative outlet of Dan Bejar, who is a sometimes member of the New Pornographers. They were good, and Bejar uncharacteristically addressed the crowd a few times, even mocking himself for his clumsiness with stage banter, but overall it wasn't as good a show as the one I saw about two years ago at the Phoenix when Destroyer opened for the NPs.

Key purchases this week: the Girl Group Sounds box set, the Magnolia Electric Co. "Sojourner" special edition package, and finally the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss record, plus some British Sea Power, Okkervil River, Emily Haines & Soft Skeleton, and the Mystery Girls on vinyl.

Drive By Truckers at Opera House, March 19

The Drive By Truckers played Toronto's Opera House last night. I've seen them a number of times before, dating back to probably 2000 or 2001, but I haven't seen them in at least a few years and perhaps longer.

I was never a huge fan -- I think they are okay but find that after 20-25 minutes their songs all start to sound the same and I get a little bored. Still, it had been a few years and they have had some lineup changes so it seemed worth trying them out again. Plus, the Whigs, who I saw at SXSW and quite liked, were opening.

I got there in time to see four songs of the Whigs set, though I missed one while I was being frisked as part of TOH's ridiculous entry procedure. They (the Whigs, not the entry procedures) were as I remembered them in Austin: loud, fun and fairly melodic, with a killer drummer.

DBTs came on and I stuck around for about an hour, but still had the same impression I usually do. They are a good band, though on this night I thought the pedal steel/slide guitar player was way too loud in the mix. One of the last songs they played before I left I thought was excellent -- I was told by a friend it is on their new record. Maybe I need to check out that one.