Tag: Live Music

2022, Music

Archers of Loaf Live at Lee’s Palace Wednesday January 11, 2023

Last night I saw Archers of Loaf on the tour for their first album in something like 24 years. Like many ’90s bands, I got into them backwards (listened to their final album first) and can’t say I know them as well as many of their contemporaries. (I listened to their last album, then their …

2022, Music

The Joe Policastro Trio Live at The Rex October 26, 2022

A few weeks ago, I was browsing Cover Me’s Best Cover Songs of September and I came across a fun jazz guitar cover of “Take on Me.” I liked it. Jenn liked it. So I followed the group on the socials and saw that they would be in Toronto in a few weeks.

2022, Music

The Mars Volta Live at Massey Hall, Wednesday October 5, 2022

The Mars Volta have reunited, much like At the Drive In did five years ago. However, unlike that reunion, this is a very different version of the band, if there new album is anything to go by. So I was slightly worried about this show. But that proved to be unfounded.

2022, Music, TV

South Park 25th Anniversary Concert

South Park premiered just before my 16th birthday. Though it took me a little while to watch it, I was at the very right age for it. I was still 16 when BASEketball came out and I was only 17 when Bigger, Longer & Uncut premiered. I was only 23 when Team America was released. …

2022, Music

Wilco Live at Budweiser Stage Thursday August 18, 2022

I last saw Wilco in 2009 and it was the best show I’ve ever seen. Apparently I didn’t blog about it but they absolutely blew me away. Some of this was my expectations: I don’t know if I’d listened to or watched any of their live stuff yet but, if I had, I still wasn’t …

2022, Music

Riley Goes to Detroit to See Billy Joel Live at Comerica Park, July 9, 2022

You may be wondering, why did I see Billy Joel? I have made my feelings about him pretty clear. But Jenn really likes Billy Joel, so we went to see Billy Joel in Detroit. I had only ever gotten lost in Detroit and Dearborn many years ago, and I’d never actually been there.

2022, Music

The Chicks Live at Budweiser Stage, Friday June 24, 2022

We moved during the pandemic. And, because it was the pandemic, for a while, it didn’t really hit home how far east we moved. But, you guys, let me tell you, when you have to go to Ontario Place for a concert and you live in the east end, it’s far. It’s so far we …

2022, Music

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Live at the Phoenix Concert Theatre Thursday May 5, 2022

This was my first concert in possibly close to three years. The pandemic played a major part in that but I also don’t remember what the last show I was before the pandemic closed everything down over two years ago. It had been a little while. This was my third time seeing Godspeed. Regrettably, it …

1969, 1970, Movies

Woodstock (1970, Michael Wadleigh)

Note: I am reviewing the director’s cut, not the much shorter theatrical version. So, I’ve seen the majority of the musical performances in this film multiple times, and some of them many times. (Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner” in particular, but also the CSN performance and some others.) I’ve seen them because Woodstock used to be …

1975, Music

Alive! (1975) by KISS

For a long time I refused to even considered this record, due to the admission of overdubbing significant parts of this record after the fact. But, the thing is, everybody did this back then, or nearly everybody. Over time, we’ve learned that many of the great “live” albums featured extensive overdubs. (And some of them …

1970, Music

Sex Machine (1970) by James Brown

One of the things you discover when you start wading into Jame’s Brown’s immense discography is that there is just so much stuff; it is kind of overwhelming and very hard to really evaluate. Is record 15 way better than record 25 or record 35 or record 45 or record 55? Who’s listened to even …

2019, Music

Turandot live at the Four Seasons Centre October 27, 2019

I’ve seen a number of operas in my life, but I’ve listened to far more on CD or digitally. This is the first time, that I can recall that I have seen an opera I’ve listened to much ahead of time or at least, one I’ve listened to as many times as Turandot. So this …

2019, Music

Hootie and the Blowfish Live at the Budweiser Stage August 29, 2019

You read that right. Last night, I went to see Hottie and the Blowfish. The band I wrote this review about. I went because my girlfriend wanted to go. I hadn’t been to the Molson Amphitheatre Budweiser Stage in so long I almost forgot what it was like. It seems they have made it a …

2018, Music

Wolfe Island Music Festival 2018

This was the 20th year of WIMF – we have to say “20th year” because it didn’t happen in 2016 – but I must say that there perhaps a little less anticipation this year, because a lack of a headliner as prominent as previous years, and some concerns about the lineup. But I honestly enjoyed …

2018, Music, Theatre

The Nightingale and Other Short Fables live at the Four Seasons Centre, May 13, 2018

Back in 2008 or 2009 or so, the Canadian Opera Company put on a radically different performance of Igor Stravinsky’s “3 act” opera The Nightingale, buttressed by additional pieces in order to actually make the runtime somewhat comparable to a normal opera. (The Nightingale runs less than an hour.) I don’t know who initially curated the selections …

2017, Music

Secret Chiefs 3 Live at The Great Hall September 14, 2017

This was my second Secret Chiefs 3 show, in a much better venue than the last time. It was also a very different experience and I’m not sure whether that’s because SC3 are doing something different on this tour (apparently they are here opening for Dead Cross) or whether the venue made them.

2017, Music

The 2017 Wolfe Island Music Festival

After a year’s hiatus, the Wolfe Island Music Festival returned and I resumed my annual pilgrimage to the one and only music festival I go to. I think that, with one major exception, there was a general feeling among our group that this edition was better than the 2015 edition.

2017, Music

At the Drive-In Live at Rebel, Toronto, March 29, 2017

When I was young, band reunions were thought of as really awful: just a bunch of washed up musicians trying to make money. But times have changed: reunions are now viewed as normal and often something to be cherished. I think I’ve changed too, I’ve grown up a bit. When I was young, I had …

2016, Music

The Dillinger Escape Plan Live at The Opera House, Friday December 16, 2016

I wanted to go see The Dillinger Escape Plan in August but my friend who likes them had to work both nights. I figured I’d see them next time. Then they announced they were going on “hiatus,” seemingly permanently, and I thought, for the nth time, “Once again I have failed to see a band …

2016, Music, Religion, Society

The Tragically Hip Live at the K-Rock Centre, August 20, 2016

I wasn’t going to watch this show. The cynic in me found the sudden outpouring of interest in The Hip weird. I felt like people I’d never heard mention this band previously were now obsessed with getting tickets to shows, all because someone (Canadian) famous is dying of cancer. Instead, I was going to watch …

1790s, 2016, Music

A Little Too Cozy Live at Studio 42 at the CBC May 20, 2016

On Friday we saw a modernization of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, an opera I have never heard before. This adaptation sets the opera in a reality show where contestants are supposed to pledge their love to each other without actually meeting, similar to the original plot I assume.

2015, Music

The Bad Plus Joshua Redman Live at the Wintergarden Theatre, Toronto, Occtober 15, 2015

The last time I saw the Bad Plus they blew me away. But with Joshua Redman they are significantly more jazzy, significantly closer to the mainstream, far more within the tradition than I was expecting. It’s not that their old music wasn’t within the tradition – jazz musicians have been covering non-jazz songs since jazz …

2015

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Live at the Danforth Music Hall, Friday September 25, 2015

This was my second time seeing Godspeed You! Black Emperor in Toronto. The first time I had a terrible angle but was rather close to the stage (at Lee’s Palace). This time I had pretty great seats in the balcony of the Danforth Music Hall but they were quite far from the stage. I guess …

2015, Music

The 2015 Wolfe Island Music Festival August 7-8, 2015

The annual pilgrimage to Wolfe Island Music Festival (WIMF) got off to a bit of an uneven start but ended up being one of the better festivals I have attended over the last half decade or so.

2013, Music

Miami Pop Festival (2013) by the Jimi Hendrix Experience

This is an Experience concert from the 1968 Miami Pop Festival (obviously) containing remarkably little music from either Axis or Ladyland – which they had already begun recording. Actually I don’t think there’s a single song from the latter. It’s a strong set and it shows off the Experience as a great live band, which …

2011, Music

Symphonies Nos. 104, 88, 101 by Joseph Haydn (2011) performed by Philharmonia Baroque conducted by Nicholas McGegan

The so-called “London” symphony starts off with such a modern opening I almost thought I was listening to the wrong work – it’s practically Romantic. But the music soon settles in to what we would expect. Still, as first experiences with “The Father of the Symphony” go, it was quite shocking. Otherwise I guess it’s …