Thursday, July 29, 2010

Kings of Leon - July 28, 2010 - Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, Toronto, ON

If you don't know Kings of Leon, you've been hiding under a rock.  Last summer in particular, I found that I couldn't take a step without hearing one of their tunes blasting out of the radio....and I rarely listen to the radio... but man, they seemed to be everywhere - restaurants, the gym, bars, shopping malls, etc.  They have some damned fine marketing folks!  I generally get ticked off when beat over the head in such a manner because I find that real genuine artistic talent rarely makes it to airplay.  The difference, for me, with Kings of Leon (and the reason I've not shunned them completely due to my disgust at talentless hacks that enjoy commercial success due to a good marketer as opposed to word of mouth fan discovery), is that I think they are pretty good, generally speaking.  They've got an interesting sound, and they have an incredibly cool story. (who DOESN'T love a good "family of religious freaks shun the church, form a band and go rock 'n roll" tale?!)  I like 'em.  And Caleb Followill has one of the sexiest voices in rock.  (although just had a discussion on that topic with some of the girls here and they don't seem to share that sentiment...just me, maybe?  It makes ME weak in the knees....)

Was my first concert of the 2010 season at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre on the Ontario Place grounds.  This is a fantastic venue for live music - open air (yet the first 3 sections are covered from rain with a nice breeze off the water wafting through), good acoustics, and holds a large hoard of people (16,000 I believe?!).  Only problem is, with a night like last night, where it poured rain, it's a bitch to get to and from because it's literally in the middle of nowhere.  Regardless, a little soggy, we managed to get there and navigate the paperless ticket situation (none delivered, had to have my credit card I purchased the tickets with scanned), and enter the venue with very little problem until they confiscated our cameras. (!)  We were told that it is the band's choice, which I don't get at all....perhaps someone can enlighten me on this? 

Anyway, moving on.  We got the cameras back at the end of the show, while waiting in line with a large majority of fans who had had their umbrellas confiscated.  (yep....sigh...raining....outdoor venue....seriously?!  Savages!).

The Stills, a band from Montreal, were the openers.  I need to look into their stuff a little further.  Not because I loved them, but because I was still in "meh" mood when they came out.  In addition to being rained on and having my camera taken from me (and navigating a mess of humanity to get our seats), I had just paid $9.75 for a beer.  Thinking perhaps I wasn't all "open minded-y" at the time and willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

After intermission (monster lineup for bathroom, monster lineup for another $9.75 beer, grrrr (but got asked for ID!  Yay!), Kings of Leon hit the stage in a cloud of red smoke and high power lights.   I stood with cranky face with a "you better rock my world" attitude....  Pleased to say that they did, indeed, do just that. 

By the second song in, ("Notion"...my new favorite), my mood was completely turned around.  Add to that the immediate follow up of "Taper Jean Girl" off  the Aha Shake Heartbreak album with it's heavy bassline and funky feel and I'm actually beaming at the stage, fully invested and letting it flow through me, singing along ("uh, huh, sheeey heeeee").  Friggin' Awesome.  I.  AM.  IN!

There was a good mix of tunes with plenty of their older stuff thrown in (good...less polished than the current album), and they even threw in a couple of new tunes that are to make an appearance on the yet to be released album that were very cool.  AND, they tossed in a cover of the Pixies' "Where is My Mind" (of note, one of two Pixies songs I have on my ipod 'cause I kind of like it but can't call myself a Pixies fan) and took it's repetitive feel, roughed it up a bit, and rocked it out.

The boys were on.  Caleb held up my expectations with his voice that sounds like auditory booze and cigarettes blown over fine gravel - sexy as hell.  I stand by that.  The rest of the boys all had their stand out moments, and they sounded fantastic.  And I also learned something....I had no idea that the "wha, wha, wha" sound in Closer (one of my faves from the Only By the Night album) was actually created by putting lips to guitar strings and blowing with a little bit o' tooth manipulation...cool! 

Least favorite moment would have to be the crowd pleasing "Sex on Fire"....way overplayed and definitely not my favorite of their tunes by any means.  For a band who's whole vibe shoots off a lazy (in a good way) yet effortless, bluesy, sexy feel (screw Barry White, play some KOL), this just seemed to be overkill.  But man those twenty somethings sure did like screaming along to it.

All in all, their hour and 45min set was highly enjoyable.  As Jakki so accurately stated "Rain, stinking sweltering heat, the sweaty masses and long queues all added to the overall enjoyment. The show itself was an oasis in the middle of all the madness".  Yep...agreed.  Would see them again in a heartbeat (and I'm currently enjoying a little "relive" concert via ipod this morning!).  They turned around Cranky Lindsay...not an easy feat...good on 'em!

Set List:

Crawl

Notion
Taper Jean Girl
Immortals
Molly's Chambers
Fans
Milk
Mary
Closer
Four Kicks
The Bucket
Radioactive
Where Is My Mind? Pixies Cover
Sex on Fire
On Call
Southbound
Trani

Encore:
Knocked Up
Use Somebody
Black Thumbnail

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Bon Jovi - Rogers Center, July 20, 2010

Am I getting old?  I might be getting old.  (nah....I don't feel old!  Impossible!)

We got talking about Bon Jovi yesterday before the show and I came to the realization that I was listening to him waaaaay back in my teenage years.  We're talking early 80's here and I have vivid memories of Bon Jovi being a large part of that.  From the posters on my wall (Jon had the BEST hair and was sooooo dreamy!), to sitting on my living room floor with the girls around the video countdown swooning over Jon eyeing the camera, to rocking out singing into my hairbrush (yep!  Did it!) in my bedroom to "Runaway" playing via cassette tape from my ghetto blaster (KNOW there was even a little Richie tribute on air guitar!).  I guess it kind of amazes me that this many years later, Bon Jovi is STILL selling out massive arena venues like the Roger's Center on a regular basis 2 nights in a row.  We are talking in the ballpark of 42,000 capacity x 2...full up.  I relay the words of a friend (who's musical taste I respect greatly) when I sheepishly admitted to having tickets for this show:  "don't feel bad about going to Bon Jovi, their longevity has earned them respect in my book, and who doesn't like a good Bon Jovi anthem?"  Indeed!!  While their music may not be groundbreaking, it can be argued that they are still somewhat current, in that they produce new material every couple of years.

So, the show....

Kid Rock was the opening band.  I like Kid Rock.  I even own some Kid Rock.  Bob Ritchie, the guy, I don't really care for a whole lot - think he's the epitome of redneck sleaze (he wears it proudly in fact), and man, the whole unwashed look he's got going on is really gross, but as a musician, I think he's got some chops.  Again, not groundbreaking musical poetics, but he is talented  (took to the guitar, piano and even rocked the turntables last night, and he's got a very versatile vocal range and a multi genre aesthetic that sort of fascinates me).  He worked it with a capital "W" and everything was BIG.  The flaw I found however, was that he was just too much for an opening act.  He had 45 minutes to do his thing, so there was no build to insanity, you were just sort of plopped into it - very "in your face", and his slow down midway by inserting the Country ballad "Picture" (then immediate ramping back up into guzzling from a bottle while asserting he's the the mo'fo bad ass) seemed out of place.  As an opening act, I wasn't prepared for, nor did I have time to assimilate into his circus...I'll repeat what I stated to a friend on my FB wall last night during the performance that sort of sums things up:  "There is a lot of fire!  And he has a shiny belt buckle!".  Not sure I'd attend or not, but I'd be very curious to see what a headlining show of his would be like.  Where I come prepared for his brand of thrill ride, strap in and go "whoo hoooo" for the duration.

Bon Jovi took the stage at exactly 9pm.  The stage was huge, and so were the screens, which was a good thing as the vastness of the Rogers Centre made the band look like ant people.  I hate watching a band on a screen, but knew this was going to be the case for this show if I wanted to catch any form of their personality.  I HATE the Roger's Centre as a venue....won't digress into this - for full description of why, check out my Eagles review where I go off on a lengthy side rant.  I will say that this will be the last time I darken the doorway of the Roger's Centre for a concert....will have to be an awfully big lure to get me back in that building again.

Bon Jovi KNOWS their audience.  They KNOW that people are coming to see them in large part based on the nostalgia factor, and in such, they played 27 years worth of material, with all those aforementioned rock anthems taking their place in the set list.  There were only a couple of songs off the new album, with a few off albums from the last decade's offerings, but the majority were the crowd pleasers from days gone by, and the stadium full of hot sweaty people ate it up and sang along.  You could feel the "whoosh" of the crowd's excitement when one of the familiar riffs started up - Bad Medicine, You Give Love a Bad Name, It's My Life (envision the "buh, buh, na na na na..na" with fist pump following the lyric "This is a song for the Broken Hearted").  And then there was the converse, the entire crowd swayed to the ballads - Bed of Roses (can't tell you how much I loathe the syrupy sweetness of this one, but seems I'm alone in that sentiment), I'll Be There For You, and one of my personal favorites, Always (sickly sweet, but there's a message there I identify with....you take things for granted, you're going to lose them and regret it big time later when it's too late).  It was a great mix, with the only ones I felt the real lack of enthusiasm for being Lay Your Hands on Me (which is a shame, because I usually enjoy when Richie takes over fronting vocal duties), Keep the Faith (seemed the boys were running out of steam), and We Got it Goin' On.

The Boys came back for an encore and played the aforementioned "Always", and then "Wanted:  Dead or Alive".  Yeah, it's kinda kitchy.  But for a song born out of the 80's where the "on tour trials and tribulations ballad" tune was a staple, I think it's a well done song with some neat metaphors and it still holds up today in my very humble opinion.  And of course....they capped off the show with their signature tune......one of the coolest concert moments of recent memory, was Jon saying "you know this one right?", stepping away from the mic and letting 42,000+ people belt out the chorus to Living on a Prayer in complete solidarity - made me smile and feel at one with the crowd before the band picked up and they brought the house down with the full song.  I'm not a people person (especially a "drunken, weaving, hollering mess of mass morons" people person), but these are the moments that I'm happy to be one of tens of thousands in an arena.  As someone who much prefers an intimate setting where my soul is moved by an artist performing, and forming a connection to the songs due to that intimacy and artistry, it takes a moment like this to make fighting the sea of drunken humanity, temporary hearing loss and sweating my ass off all worth while. 

Was even softened (somewhat, but still not coming back) on the choice of venue...Jon thanked the fans for coming, acknowledged that the venue likely WASN'T their favorite place to see a live show, but that in the span of their career, they had played every venue in Toronto from the El Mocambo to the ACC...with this one exception, the biggest, so they wanted to give it a try....

All in all - 'Twas good!





Crowd filing to Union Station post concert.  Five minute walk took about 40 minutes.