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Brief, miniscule concert report!
Quick pop out for a couple sets at the Rivoli tonight with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ksumnersmith: the band one of her workfriends sings for was playing at Pop With Brains, which is a bi-monthly indie showcase that donates the cover/proceeds to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. So we get bands, Karina's workfriend gets some cheering section, good charity donations are done, all's good.
I have no pictures for this one. See last post re: the cellphone camera, its stubborn refusal to, y'know, focus, and how I was going to take it in to get looked at this weekend sometime.
We grabbed some fancy Queen West burgers beforehand at BQM, which was pretty tasty if not so air-conditioned. I had one called the Ossington, which was the most gentrified burger on the menu (cow, grilled portobello, tomato, lettuce, garlic aoili, balsamic glaze, mozzarella). I am not sure if the name is a very subtle joke.
The show itself was in the back room of the Rivoli, which was sort of half-empty and weirdly reminiscent of the sorts of battle of the bands friend-of-friend's shows you'd go to see when you were 15, and this is not a criticism. Tiny cashbox at the door, very loud monitors (and not-so-great levels, honestly; I think they didn't have a dedicated soundperson), people who obviously know each other/know the bands. This was kind of amazingly nostalgic for me, even though it was always the Opera House or the Big Bop when I was a high school band groupie.
There were some other attractions going on: a clothing label selling some stuff, and an artist who was doing quick paintings of each band off to the side of the stage, in watercolour, which was neat. You'd stop every so often and look over at the easel to see how the painting was coming.
We were, sadly, the jerks who only stayed for the set we came to see* -- Karina has to be up early tomorrow, and I have had a somewhat long day here -- but I did catch enough of the first set to comment. The band was Drugs in Japan, and it was very metal: the bassist took this seriously and had the giant poofy metal hair that entirely obscured his face/head, as well as tight black pants with a giant zipper. As far as metal goes it was okay -- actually, I'm deeply impressed that the singer was the drummer, because that means offsetting your own rhythm, and that is not easy business. But mostly it was there, and it was okay, and it's not really my genre.
The workfriend's band, Dinosaur Dinosaur, was...actually, really, really good.
They're a three-piece: bass, guitar, and vocals, with occasional keyboard and other stuff, a drum machine in back, and some legitimate stage presence. And the sound is not easily definable: the things it reminded me of the most were that kind of lush eighties goth music; Shriekback or Sisters of Mercy with the occasional heavy rock guitar thrown in and a definite sultry, noirish, cabaret sort of thing on the vocals and rhythms, although not so much cabaret as Ruby Spirit, which we have established I did not like on the grounds of finding them to simultaneously be trying too hard and not really trying hard enough. It was a little hard to dance to until I figured out that yes, I should just dance like goth clubs, and then it all came together.
Really, really liked the first song -- I think it was called "Somniloquy" -- and a newer one they played, the name of which I didn't catch. I do remember one called "Vampires vs. Swear Words", which is all kinds of excellent.
They do not have an EP yet. This is sad, because I would have honestly bought one after that set even if I wasn't there on friend-of-a-friend grounds. But I am told that by the end of summer this will happen. But I have found their downloads, and I will rest content.
So we gothdanced a bit, and then headed out on earlier grounds of having to get up -- plus, the next band was named R.A.P.E. Tazer, and they were all dudes, and that sort of thing just doesn't bode well -- and I walked back up through Chinatown and Kensington in the soupy air, and around the raccoon sacked out on the sidewalk on Brunswick because it was just too hot to raccoon properly, and home. I have not been walking enough this week. My feet hurt just from down and back.
It is too hot to Leah too, so I am going to sack out myself. Although not on the sidewalk.
*This is something like the downtown twentysomething equivalent of the parents who go to the dance recital and only stay for their kid's number. Très crass.
ksumnersmith: the band one of her workfriends sings for was playing at Pop With Brains, which is a bi-monthly indie showcase that donates the cover/proceeds to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. So we get bands, Karina's workfriend gets some cheering section, good charity donations are done, all's good.I have no pictures for this one. See last post re: the cellphone camera, its stubborn refusal to, y'know, focus, and how I was going to take it in to get looked at this weekend sometime.
We grabbed some fancy Queen West burgers beforehand at BQM, which was pretty tasty if not so air-conditioned. I had one called the Ossington, which was the most gentrified burger on the menu (cow, grilled portobello, tomato, lettuce, garlic aoili, balsamic glaze, mozzarella). I am not sure if the name is a very subtle joke.
The show itself was in the back room of the Rivoli, which was sort of half-empty and weirdly reminiscent of the sorts of battle of the bands friend-of-friend's shows you'd go to see when you were 15, and this is not a criticism. Tiny cashbox at the door, very loud monitors (and not-so-great levels, honestly; I think they didn't have a dedicated soundperson), people who obviously know each other/know the bands. This was kind of amazingly nostalgic for me, even though it was always the Opera House or the Big Bop when I was a high school band groupie.
There were some other attractions going on: a clothing label selling some stuff, and an artist who was doing quick paintings of each band off to the side of the stage, in watercolour, which was neat. You'd stop every so often and look over at the easel to see how the painting was coming.
We were, sadly, the jerks who only stayed for the set we came to see* -- Karina has to be up early tomorrow, and I have had a somewhat long day here -- but I did catch enough of the first set to comment. The band was Drugs in Japan, and it was very metal: the bassist took this seriously and had the giant poofy metal hair that entirely obscured his face/head, as well as tight black pants with a giant zipper. As far as metal goes it was okay -- actually, I'm deeply impressed that the singer was the drummer, because that means offsetting your own rhythm, and that is not easy business. But mostly it was there, and it was okay, and it's not really my genre.
The workfriend's band, Dinosaur Dinosaur, was...actually, really, really good.
They're a three-piece: bass, guitar, and vocals, with occasional keyboard and other stuff, a drum machine in back, and some legitimate stage presence. And the sound is not easily definable: the things it reminded me of the most were that kind of lush eighties goth music; Shriekback or Sisters of Mercy with the occasional heavy rock guitar thrown in and a definite sultry, noirish, cabaret sort of thing on the vocals and rhythms, although not so much cabaret as Ruby Spirit, which we have established I did not like on the grounds of finding them to simultaneously be trying too hard and not really trying hard enough. It was a little hard to dance to until I figured out that yes, I should just dance like goth clubs, and then it all came together.
Really, really liked the first song -- I think it was called "Somniloquy" -- and a newer one they played, the name of which I didn't catch. I do remember one called "Vampires vs. Swear Words", which is all kinds of excellent.
They do not have an EP yet. This is sad, because I would have honestly bought one after that set even if I wasn't there on friend-of-a-friend grounds. But I am told that by the end of summer this will happen. But I have found their downloads, and I will rest content.
So we gothdanced a bit, and then headed out on earlier grounds of having to get up -- plus, the next band was named R.A.P.E. Tazer, and they were all dudes, and that sort of thing just doesn't bode well -- and I walked back up through Chinatown and Kensington in the soupy air, and around the raccoon sacked out on the sidewalk on Brunswick because it was just too hot to raccoon properly, and home. I have not been walking enough this week. My feet hurt just from down and back.
It is too hot to Leah too, so I am going to sack out myself. Although not on the sidewalk.
*This is something like the downtown twentysomething equivalent of the parents who go to the dance recital and only stay for their kid's number. Très crass.