You can say anything that you dare

photo credit to will hopkins

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: my first concert review in a dog's age! I'm sorry I've been neglecting this blog so much, but I'm still trying to get used to life in Saint John. It's not very appealing, as you might guess. If you know anything about my relationship with my hometown, anyway.

Usually shows at a khord, in my experience--even Saturday night shows!--have a pretty sparse turnout. Not necessarily a bad turnout (though when I saw Hospital Grade and some others play there a few weeks ago, you would have been hard pressed to find more than a dozen people around, but then that was a Thursday) but just a lower turnout than what I'm used to at Sackville and Halifax shows. The mindset of the people, too, is different. But that's not what I'm on about. Maybe it will be another day, but not today!

I think it was the opening act that drew out a lot of the crowd, from things I overheard and such. It was a group that I think is called Three Sheet but I don't know much about them. At least one of them originally comes from Saint John, though, and maybe more... Anyway, they bill themselves as Halifax's only Live Hip-Hop band, that is to say that every sound they make is produced by a guitar, a bass, a beatboxer, and two MCs live on stage. For what it was, it was pretty decent stuff. They put on a good set, and if I'd had a better vantage point I might have been able to enjoy it more, but it wasn't a waste. I enjoyed them as much as I could, given the circumstances -- that is to say, the crowd noise made it impossible to make out what the bloke there was saying. They were a little unsuited as an opener to the headliner, though.

So, enter Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful Bees. Now, they had done a soundcheck a few hours earlier at about 11pm (by now it was nearly 1) but it took the gang a while to get things under control. This seems pretty standard for the venue. And I didn't really mind; I'd found a couple people to chat with by this point. The show started, though, and out poured the electro goodness from Colin's synth setup. I had been worried that once they heard what the headliner sounded like, a good deal of the crowd would bail. And, of course, a few did, from the back end of the crowd. But, up where I was, everybody just danced like mad. Now, it's here that Saint John bothers me a little. People are a lot more selfish and pushy and just plain angry 'round these parts when it comes to dancing. I think it comes from a generation that grew up on hardcore shows. Oh well.

Rebekah et al put on one hell of a show. She was a little trashed, but that didn't hurt the performance even a little bit. The quality was gold. Gold, like Jason Vautour's gold lamé pants. The last time I saw these guys, it had been in the CHMA offices back in Sackville--a completely different sort of scene. Here, in a proper venue, with an actual stage, the whole thing behaved differently. Rebekah was so into and connected with the crowd, between the crowd-surfing, the feeding us with whiskey, and everything else that went on, it's clear she knows how to interact with the crowd to give everyone what they want.

Personally, I can't really decide which show I liked better for their performance. On the whole, of course, I preferred the Sackville show, just for the sheer quality of both acts. This one, though, RJATTB put on an absolutely balls-out performance, so much more intense than I've seen them before. For just the RJATTB set, I'd call this one the better one. The sound quality may not have been as good, and it was a full 8 hours later in the day, but, well, holy shit. They made all the detriments seem like nothing. The lousy crowd mentality vanished almost instantly, everybody, I think, fell in love a little bit with the band. It was certainly the best show I've seen at a khord since the Tom Fun Orchestra in December.

In short: Ruby Jean killed. Awesome show. Abso-fucking-lutely awesome, and not one I'll forget any time soon. It was Rebekah's stage (and off-stage) presence that was the real kicker for me; she's everything a band's frontwoman should be. Right down to the wardrobe changes mid-show and a bottle of something always in her hand. By the end of the show she was barely upright most of the time, crouching or lying on the stage, else out in the crowd, but her performance didn't suffer one bit. The opposite, really: it made everything that much greater.

I only wish I could put into words the sheer awesome fantabulosity of last night's show. But, I think, it was one of those that you'd have to be there to appreciate it fully.

Stereophonic, Day 2

all photo credit to lindsay sherrard

Stereophonic continues, and just keeps growing more and more awesome. Yesterday afternoon, at 5pm, in the CHMA offices, was the most incredible dance party of an electro-pop show I've ever dreamed of. The venue was tiny, TINY, and when I first arrived everyone was sitting down. I started to worry that everyone, or most people, would be sitting down for the duration. A few of us vowed to set the tone for the epic dance party that was to ensue. Luckily, Sandy, one of the brains behind this operation, told everybody to get on their feet before the first band started up.

That first band was Ruby Jean & the Thoughtful Bees, a Halifax band of Rebekah Higgs, Sean MacGillivray, Colin Crowell and Jason Vautour, who are on the road promoting their new (awesome) album, officially released tonight at the Marquee in Halifax. Of course, they had a few of these albums on hand at the show, handmade and individually numbered, and I got my hands on one of those. But the show! Holy mackerel. They played the album through from start to end, and I was a big fan going in. I have to admit to something of a legendary crush on Rebekah, as well. They opened the show as they open the album with You Don't Miss Me. It set the tone for the show, and holy hannah did it ever get people dancing. Jason, on the guitar, got so into the whole thing, dancing like some kind of madman and putting on one hell of a show--everything about him seemed to scream that, from the facial hair to the gold lamé "sweater-jacket" as woodhands' Dan called it. Rebekah spent any time she could dancing barefoot on top of an equipment crate, which she pulled into the middle of the crowd and continued to sing from there for The Best of All. It was a sweaty electro dance party and one of the best shows I've been to lately. I recommend to anyone, though, if you're going to be dancing up a storm, do not wear full body corduroy. Just don't. It's a bad idea.

Ruby Jean & the Thoughtful Bees - Girls You Love

After a little break which most of us spent downstairs at the pub we came back up, with my corduroy jacket tossed aside. Woodhands put on the most high-energy performance I could possibly dream of. Paul Banwatt is, I think, the most talented and prolific drummer in Canadian music since Neil Peart. Just putting that out there. The self-described 'dirty electronic music' of Woodhands is pumped up to such a level in their live show. Their album is amazing, and if you can get your hands on it, get your hands on it as soon as possible, but this doesn't near do justice to the live show. Dan Werb puts more energy into performing than anyone I've ever seen, putting everything out so that you half expect him to just drop dead at the end of the set. That these two men can put on such an absolutely entertaining and superb show so easy to get lost in speaks volumes about their talent and the overall awesomitude of the band. Also, in what I'll remember as being in the running for best cover of the year, Dan and Paul did their own dirty electro rendition of Katy Perry's I Kissed A Girl. I'll be frank, I don't know the song very well. I know the chorus and not even all of that. But I can tell that Woodhands made it their own, made it so much more than that original. Apparently they've recorded their cover, so keep tuned to their myspace, and maybe it'll make an appearance. Possibly their best known tune, Dancer, is not sung on the record by either one of them but a guest vocalist, a woman whose name escapes me. At the show, though, Paul put on his best falsetto (which was a damned good one) and they closed the show with an epic elongated version which saw Rebekah joining us in the crowd and building the most perfect close to such a radtacular show.

Woodhands - Under Attack (Live Remix)

Tonight is going to be a real change of pace, with Julie Doiron and Old Man Luedecke playing at the Vogue Cinemas downtown. I've been looking forward to seeing Old Man Luedecke since the first time I heard him, and now here it comes. Oh, Stereophonic, why can't you be every week?