Deaf From Above 1979

Death From Above 1979
Commodore Ballroom
November 21, 2011

Sebastien Grainger and Jesse F. Keeler make up DFA 1979, a notorious Canadian dance/punk, noise rock duo. They disbanded in 2006 but reunited for a long awaited North American tour. Selling out two shows at The Commodore Ballroom, the excitement in the venue was pulsating.
Distorted bass, reverberating synths, clashing drums and screaming vocals together created a huge wall of deafening sound.
This was by far the loudest show I had ever been to. It added to the incredible anticipation of seeing them for the first time.
They came onto stage and blew through their set playing audience favourites.
The crowd exploded into a frenzy and danced, pushed and shoved to the sounds of DFA 1979.
It was a memorable show, if anything, my ears still resonate their sound after all these weeks.

Strange Mercy

St. Vincent
Commodore Ballroom
October 12th, 2011
10:30pm

I spent the entire day attempting to study for my two midterms the following day. It was the usual hectic night before an exam for... I'd say most collegersity students.
You know, you feel like there aren't enough hours in a day for you to finish all the work you have to do. You wish that you could function through the night without sleep and still think rationally.
You also think ahead to the countless hours you will eventually spend with your eyes glued to your several textbooks that need to be read.

I decided at 10pm that studying would just have to resume after the St. Vincent show at the Commodore.
Having bought a ticket months before it seemed a waste if I didn't go to see this electrifying performer. I say electrifying because that is exactly what you would have felt if you had stood in the audience that night. Annie Clark and her electric guitar would ultimately lead to goose-bump inducing shredding.
It's a strange feeling walking in at 10:30 just minutes before she would take the stage and feel well at ease when you know that really it would end all too soon.

I'm a casual listener of St. Vincent -- I can't recall most of her songs by title, or sing along to her poetic and twisted lyrics. But I can through all this appreciate her unique approach to her songs, which are ultimately quirky, eclectic and particular.
I was blown away by her glamorous and classy stage presence.... It's odd to say that because Annie stood with an electric guitar and played it aggressively and intentionally. Shredding madness. I was taken aback by it, surprised--- I also was fully immersed into her performance. All of this juxtaposed with her soft and delicate vocals. A strange yet perfect mix of two contrasting sounds that when put together fit imperfectly and just right.

My favourite moment was when she performed "The Party" for the encore, stripped down with no electric guitar. Chilling.

This was the first song of St. Vincent that I remember listening to--
Actor out of Work:

Sia Furler, What a Charmer.

Image Source
Sia
Commodore Ballroom
August 19th, 2011
Guests: Ximena Sarinana / Oh Land

The We Are Born Tour.

The last time Sia played the Commodore in April of 2010, she collapsed a few songs in. This time however, Sia played the full ~ 90 minute set. She walked out on stage dressed in a combination of a ruffled dress / poncho adorned and patterned with vaginas of different sizes, shapes and colours, completed with a pair of heels with, yes you guessed it a vagina pattern attached to it. It was extravagant, indeed. The set opened with a couple songs off of her newest release We Are Born, it seemed that the show would play into a pattern of a song after song cycle.... but I thought too soon, because between every few songs Sia's personality and hilarious anecdotes broke the crowd of the hypnotic trance that I'm sure most of us were in listening to Sia belt out the lyrics.

She talked about her experience of trying to explain to her friend the type of vagina she had.... (her sudden candid and un-shy demeanor was unexpected but completely welcomed) --- only stopping the story to hastily ask if there were any kids there... hopefully not. What I learned was that you could easily describe yours truly as a 'flower'. Lesson learned.

The Vancouver show was the last of her North America tour stops. It was the last "show, for a long time" as Sia told us, I realized just how special this show was. The sold out show filled with excited audience members laughed along to the random antics of the one and only Sia. A devoted fan baked her Kale cookies, and if you follow Sia on twitter you would understand her recent obsession to Kale chips and how much this sentiment means.
Between songs she encouraged us to 'talk' to her, ask her questions, throw things at her ---- you know, the usual things any musician would ask an audience to partake in. She is quickly become one of my favourite personalities, in addition to being a brilliantly talented musician.
Her powerhouse vocals were evident in her ballads and even more so in her more sincere songs.

Let's just say that it was all that I expected and more. On stage, Sia may not move and dance like the former Britney Spears, but her talent obvious from her musicianship --- overlook that.

Sia came back for an encore after a short period after leaving the stage to "sing the to two songs [she] hates to play". I was surprised to hear this, but it was completely understandable. "Clap Your Hands" followed by "Breathe Me" received the warmest and most excitable responses. Everyone danced and sang along to "Clap Your Hands", and swayed and sang along to "Breathe Me." This was the first song I had heard from Sia. This song holds a lot of sentiment, it was the song that helped me transition to High School, it was the song that can easily move me to tears. In whatever way that it helped shape my taste in music, I am sure glad that it was a part of my teenage years. Hearing it live was to me, a moment that I want to remember, for a while at least.
Beautiful.

Oh Land opened the show, I caught the middle of her set onwards and thought she was an eclectic mix of pop and dance. Her set warmed everyone up for Sia to take stage... I was too excited to really invest myself to pay much detailed attention to the band. Sorry Oh Land.

The Georgia Straight has a more detailed and semi(not-so-much) decent review, despite the writer claiming Sia to be 'nuts' it's bearable to read, he obviously doesn't follow her on twitter.


(I love this stop motion video for "Breathe Me" --)

Long Overdue

Image source
Beirut
Commodore Ballroom
August 9th, 2011

I remember listening to Beirut's 2007 release The Flying Club Cup and finally understanding that if I ever wanted a soundtrack to all types of uncanny emotions at once, this album will do.
My favourite track 'Nantes' was to me the introduction to brass instrumentation onto my iPod. It to me, encompassed what I though lavish European lifestyles would be. Only to be pleasantly surprised Beirut called Santa Fe, New Mexico home.

I missed the opening acts and arrived just in time to see their highly anticipated performance.
Beirut sold out their August 10 date at the Commodore and so when they announced another date on the 9th, I jumped at the opportunity. I had been waiting 4 years to hear them play and see them perform flawless renditions of crowd favourites.
Admittedly, I hadn't heard their newest 2011 release The Rip Tide, this however didn't stop me from feeling like I was witnessing an incredibly talented group of musicians do what they do best.
Three brass players accompanied Zach Francis Condon who on vocals and the occasional trumpet swooned the crowd with his unique tenor vibrato. Percussionists and other musicians took place on stage to fill out the enormous sounds of what make Beirut absolutely authentic.

--- I made a friend at the show, Mike humoured me with drunken anecdotes of encounters with musicians and the like. What a charmer. No, really.

Deciding to see the show just after my final classes was a nice way to remind me that, yes it is summer and I should consider to partake in activities outside of burying my nose into a textbook.