Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Live Review: Beady Eye
Sound Academy, Toronto
June 20, 2011


If the story isn’t old enough already, Beady Eye is Oasis, minus leader and chief songwriter, Noel Gallagher, and it’s been almost three years since the Beady Eye members were last seen around these parts. To be exact, it was September 7, 2008 at the Virgin Festival in Toronto when a crazed fan somehow snuck backstage and interrupted Oasis’ set by blindsiding Noel Gallagher mid-song turning him into a human bowling pin right on stage.

Fast forward to Monday night and four fifths of that Oasis line-up were back in Toronto this time as Beady Eye to make one of only four North American stops to promote their debut album, Different Gear, Still Speeding.

Compared to other markets, Toronto has always been a huge Oasis supporter since the band’s inception, therefore, for Hog town to be included as part of the Beady Eye’s North American mini-tour certainly had to have been a no-brainer.

Even if Beady Eye is basically a sans-Noel Gallagher Oasis, it was a real treat to be able to see the group perform in just a 2,600 capacity club, even if it was the cavernous and inconvenient-to-get-to Sound Academy generally known for its narrow sightlines and poor sound, opposed to the massive and unfriendly stadiums Oasis were stature for.

Amongst a sea of Oasis t-shirts, the mostly 30+ crowd packed the club with more curiosity than anything to get a first time look at Liam Gallagher strutting his stuff without big brother in tow. Decked out in a dapper thigh length Union Jack coat and sporting a massive shaggy mop-top of hair, he was his usual charismatic self, sneering centre stage in his trademark hands-behind-the-back singing crouch, rounded out by guitarist Gem Archer, guitarist Andy Bell, drummer Chris Sharrock, plus touring bassist Jeff Wootton and keyboardist Matt Jones.

Near the end of their career, Oasis were renown for their motionless and statuesque type performances often looking like a disgruntled lot just punching a clock for another day at the office, but this clearly wasn’t the case for Beady Eye. Maybe a brand new start and scaling back to club scene again is all that was needed for igniting energy and getting the band moving. Dare I say it, Liam Gallagher and co. were actually having fun. I guess that’s what happens when you eventually become your own boss.

The electric vibe inside the Sound Academy and smiles all around when the house lights went up at nights end was proof enough a great night was had by all. Not a bad feat at all considering not a single Oasis lick was heard in a room packed full of Oasis faithful. Highlights included single “The Roller”, the raucous ode to heroes, “Beatles and Stones”, the charging bass driven “Man of Misery”, and the atmospheric “Wigwam”. The only thing that might have made the evening all the more better was if in-house screens could have actually displayed subtitles for every time Gallagher spoke in his thick Mancherterian accent.

The tunes were great so Liam gets a free pass.

Live Review: Foster The People
The Mod Club, Toronto
June 18, 2011


L.A. based indie pop trio Foster the People rolled into town for the second time in just over a two month span on Saturday night at the Mod Club Theatre.

Riding the wave of their newly released and well received album Torches, a faithful crowd consisting of everyone from college kids to 40+ musicphiles all packed the venue to capacity to get a look at what is arguably the year’s biggest buzz band.

Saturday’s show was definitely a series of challenges. Just getting your hands on a ticket for this highly anticipated show was a task in itself. Secondly, for those who had tickets, having to make like a herd of cattle just getting to the club, located smack dab in the middle of the Taste of Italy festival on College Street, was not only exhausting but quite trying. Being such a young band and presumably inexperienced, a tinge of skepticism was had going in, but all it took was just half of one song to throw that theory out the window. Right from the get-go, Foster the People are all business. Frontman Mark Foster’s stage banter and audience interaction was at its barest minimum and performance energy at its maximum. It was all completely clear the moment the fivesome took the stage launching into the track “Warrant” that it was all about hyper for the rest of the evening.

Other than drummer Mark Pontius, all members are multi-instrumentalists and took turns jumping from keyboards to guitar to each taking a turn at aggressively beating a stand-alone floor tom centre stage like it owed them money. For a band that’s only been together since 2009 and its members more than likely only a few years removed from high school, they’ve pretty much already mastered the art of perfect ear-worm pop songs. Torches is entirely full of them, and with that being said, live interpretations of these songs are just as tight live as they are on record. They had the roughly 600 capacity crowd in the palm of their hand — jumping and dancing while singing in unison and filling the room with an infectious vibe. Really, not bad for an ensemble that’s still relatively new at this game. The biggest highlight of the night had to have come with the light show and bubble shower from the rafters that accompanied the most anticipated song of the night and summer, “Pumped Up Kicks”. From that point on, the place was just a sea of grins from ear to ear.

It was at night’s end where FTP scored the highest points with the audience — they left the stage at set’s end, only to return just 30 seconds later for the obligatory encore. No long-drawn out build-up, no denying the inevitable — just getting it done. Bravo. Speaking of encores, can we abolish these things already? We know you’re coming back for at least one more.

If you’ve missed out on the two times Foster the People have been by already, they’re back for a third time this year on October 1st playing the much larger Sound Academy — a Saturday night to boot too. Don’t just think about it, just go. You won’t be disappointed and be humming these tunes for days.


Warrant
Miss You
Houdini
Waste
Call It What You Want
Life On The Nickel
I Would Do Anything For You
Broken Jaw
Pumped Up Kicks
Don't Stop (Color on the Walls)

Encore:
Helena Beat