Thursday 27 February 2014

The Fratellis Concert Review

Date: February 27th, 2014
Venue: Venue, Vancouver (WORST NAME FOR A BAR EVER)
Opener: Fever the Ghost

I'll start this review by saying that I am by no means a fan of The Fratellis. I knew their big songs like "Flathead" and "Chelsea Dagger," but that was about it. However, a combination of curiosity and friends got me in the door last night.

We got there about halfway through Fever the Ghost's set. THANK GOD. From what I heard, that was possibly the worst band I've ever seen live. It was just blaring noise with no emotion or anything. The reverb on the vocals was cranked all the way up, making whatever terrible string of words the singer was moaning totally incomprehensible. Talk about trying too hard! It was a relief to see their set end. The drummer rocked though; he should find a new band because there's little hope for that one...

The Fratellis jumped on stage right at 10 pm, and played what felt like a pretty long set ending around midnight with a four song encore. The crowd was rowdy and a sloppy mosh formed relatively quickly, but resembled some odd sort of off-time wrestling match instead of an actually fun mosh. It's clear the band has been playing together for a long time now (obviously). The set was super tight, but because of this, incredibly boring. There was no life in what they were playing. It felt like they were just putting in their shift on stage, and moving onto the next show. Basically every song dropped into a similarly paced quasi rock-a-billy march and droned on for a few minutes before ending. Lead singer Jon might mumble a few words into the mic between songs, which really added to the droning effect. YAWN.

The thing that really symbolized the night for me: the drummer wore sweatpants. C'mon really? Maybe I should have borrowed them to have a nap in...

So overall nothing especially WRONG with the show, just a bit lifeless and bland.

PS. I got the setlist but gave it away as it wasn't worthy of my wall.

Hate away :)


Tuesday 25 February 2014

My Name is Will, and I like Punk Rock.

That is all. Diversity is the spice of life! Indie rock, power pop coming soon :)


Saturday 15 February 2014

Album Review: Sam Roberts Band – Lo-Fantasy

Sam Roberts, Canada’s most handsome rocker, dropped his fifth studio album February 11th to relatively little fanfare, in the typical humility we have come to expect from Sam. Lo-Fantasy continues the great trend of his last album Collider, and, as with all of his albums, is centred on Robert’s fantastic knack for writing memorable, catchy lyrics. Sam and his band have also possibly taken cues from fellow Montrealers Arcade Fire in adding a distinct disco sound to Lo-Fantasy. This sound is most obvious on the tracks “Metal Skin” and the lead off pop-rock blast “Shapeshifters.” However, the classic Sam Roberts Band sound comes through loud and clear on a song like “We’re All in This Together,” which takes the place of Collider’s “Last Crusade,” with some epic sax riffage and a chorus catchy enough for Hockey Night in Canada. Nonetheless, this album presents an odd mixture of future looking, disco-tinged electro numbers, and rock tracks that follow the typical Sam Roberts Band trajectory. Perhaps the band was worried about alienating fans by going all the way with the disco electro feel? -Note the deluxe album comes with a addition disc of remixes that definitely do take this new theme all the way.

However, my favourite track, “Too Far” does a great job of bringing in the new with its distorted synth bass bridge and jangling guitars, all while blending with a classic SR catchy, anthemic hook. It’s a fantastic song.

Rating: 8/10

Favourite Tracks:

"Too Far" (linked can't embed)



Plus a track from the remix disc:








Tuesday 4 February 2014

Sasquatch 2014 Excitement

Sasquatch Festival lineup was released late last night to much anticipation, and for the most part everyone seems fairly pleased with the lineup, including me! It will be interesting to see if the two weekend experiment works out though; I still think one weekend would have been better. However, I'm really excited for the May weekend all the same! Here are a bunch of songs with no writing, because no one reads anyways.

Starting from the Bottom, moving to the top (Now we here?)

Dance Party !!!


This song is high up on my all time favourites:

SOOOO excited for Portugal. The Man, especially any track from this album:


Doubly excited for Cage the Elephant. I'll be right up front for this, mark my words.





HEY YA

pce out