Posted inLive Recordings

Paula Perri @ Drake Underground

[caption id="attachment_1573" align="aligncenter" width="500"]Paula Perri @ Drake Underground Paula Perri @ Drake Underground[/caption]

. : : May 10th, 2012 : : .

 

I regret that this Paula Perri recording hasn't seen the light of day in almost a decade.

 

It was recorded May of 2012, in a busy mid-month week packed with a handful of other Hater-High favourites (including Rocky Votolato and Amelia Curran), opening for Pearl and the Beard at what is in my estimation the best sounding venue in town: the Drake Underground.

 

But as a sapling among the tall trees, this tape was left to dry out. It was EQ'd and tracked, but abandoned somewhere between encoding to FLAC and creating a text file.

 

Listening back now, I'm glad I didn't put it out as it was. The original EQ pass I did was thin, brittle, and doesn't do Paula's performance justice. This new version is more balanced, with the bottom-end brought up significantly to balance out the lack of bass in the performance.

 

Unfortunately, I'm a day late and a buck short. In the nine years that have passed, Paula transitioned from a promising performing career with an ardent fan base to a booking manager, event programmer, promoter, professor and VP of an event planning firm.

Posted inLive Recordings

The Elwins @ El Mocamobo

[caption id="attachment_1542" align="aligncenter" width="500"]The Elwins @ El Mocambo The Elwins @ El Mocambo[/caption]

. : : December 10th, 2011 : : .

 

The Elwins may have been the hardest working band in Toronto.

 

For a hot moment, it seemed like I couldn't shake a stick without it getting tangled in the band's gear. They were perpetually performing opening slots for a variety of artists I'd trek out to see across the city in all kinds of venues, for artists big and small.

 

Somehow, although it seemed like I was accidentally catching their act every couple of months, I only ended up with one recording in my archive that has hitherto never seen the light of day.

 

At the time of this performance, the band had two EPs to their name but have since padded their resume with an additional EP, 10 singles, and four LPs. Coupled with constant touring with the likes of Dashboard Confessional and the Fast Romantics, you can see why I'd bestow them the title "Hardest Working."

Posted inLive Recordings

So Many Dynamos @ KEXP Studios

[caption id="attachment_1533" align="aligncenter" width="550"]So Many Dynamos @ KEXP So Many Dynamos @ KEXP[/caption]

. : : October 22nd, 2006 : : .

 

I'm still trying to get through the backlog of unreleased or lost tapes I have, and it stretches pretty far back.

 

The good news is, it's been a great way to rediscover fantastic music that may have fallen by the wayside in recent years.

 

Take for example, So Many Dynamos: my favourite dance-punk band who's barely made a peep in the last seven years. They seem to still be active, but barely; their Facebook has a single post from May 2020, and nothing since or before until you scroll to July 2017.

 

Although it's not my usual taste in musical genres, their 2006 album Flashlights (oh my god, it's been 15-years!?) was an instant hit for me. I shared it with friends, shouted it from rooftops, and played it endlessly.

 

I even scoured KEXP Radio's now sadly defunct lossless radio archive and captured this excellent performance the band put on in their studio shortly after the album's release.

Posted inLive Recordings

Nicole Atkins @ Public Square Park

[caption id="attachment_1525" align="aligncenter" width="500"]Nicole Atkins @ Public Square Park Nicole Atkins @ Public Square Park[/caption]

. : :September 5th, 2020 : : .

 

Nicole Atkins' fifth album, Italian Ice, was released just shy of a year ago. The world was a different place then. Sure, COVID-19 was a thing, but it was still on it's first escalation. Musical artists were struggling with whether to postpone albums and upcoming summer tour dates amid the uncertainty and, artistically speaking, we were at a comparative standstill.

 

Unable to keep the LP under wraps, Nicole proceeded with the album's release, and promoted it with radio appearances and a weekly streamed "porch performance" from her home, featuring a variety of musical guests.

Posted inLive Recordings

Nicole Atkins @ BBC Television Centre

[caption id="attachment_1512" align="aligncenter" width="500"]Nicole Atkins @ Later...With Jools Holland Nicole Atkins @ Later...With Jools Holland[/caption]

. : :September 16th, 2008 : : .

 

Combing through Ye Olde Archives of Tapes Unreleased to upload, I came across not only the previously posted early Nicole Atkins & The Sea recording I made from the band's performance at Lee's Palace in Toronto, but also a capture I made of her performance on the BBC's legendary Later... With Jools Holland.

 

I grabbed this from a rerun around 2012, but it's original air date is from September 2008. I couldn't get concrete details on the filming data, but it's presumably in that vicinity.

 

Unlike my personal recording, this one is professional and sounds fantastic. Nicole performs two of the most accessible, powerful songs off her celebrated debut album. This would probably be a much better introduction to the band, and I should've posted it first. Oh, well. Live and learn, I guess!

Posted inLive Recordings

Nicole Atkins @ Lee’s Palace

[caption id="attachment_1504" align="aligncenter" width="500"]Nicole Atkins @ Lee's Palace Nicole Atkins @ Lee's Palace[/caption] . : : February 17th, 2008 : : .  
There was something I loved about British girl-group, the Pipettes, that defied all logic.  
I mean, they were the product of everything I hated about those late 90-s girl-groups (and boy-bands); contrived, manufactured, and reliant on that grrl-powered gimmick that the Spice Girls perfected a decade earlier.  
Maybe it was the nostalgic 60s sound and matching costumes, or the infectiously cotton-candy sweet songs, but I just couldn't get enough of them, and was thrilled to catch them performing at Lee's Palace.  
I knew nothing of opening band Nicole Atkins and the Sea, and it was a clever (but risk-taking) promoter who teamed her up with the Pipettes. While the Pipettes were sugar-coated, 60's pop throwback with two-and-a-half minute, hook-filled pop songs, Nicole Atkins was orchestral-infused rock-teetering-on-punk with a voice so powerful it barely needed a microphone to be heard at the back of the venue.
Posted inLive Recordings

Dwayne Gretzky @ Private Rehearsal Studio

[caption id="attachment_1448" align="aligncenter" width="500"]Dwayne Gretzky's New Years Eve Dwayne Gretzky's New Years Eve[/caption]

. : : December 31st, 2020 : : .

 

Going to concerts in my twenties and going to concerts in my thirties have proven to be very different experiences.

 

In my twenties, I could quite literally go online, check out the line-up at a few of my favourite venues for the evening, and just choose to go out and see a performance impulsively.

 

In my thirties, it's a whole other affair. I have to arrange sitters for my kids, schedule work around the evening, worry about back up plans if the sitter bails last minute, etc.

 

Whereas ten years ago, my only punishment was a mild level of sleep deprivation at work the following day, I now find that I'm yawning before the opening band even takes the stage and it can be a week following before I'm back to a normal sleeping schedule.

 

All of this is compounded for event concerts. Forget about travelling out of town or multi-day festivals: what do you think it's like to get a reliable, trust-worthy sitter on New Years Eve in suburban Toronto?

 

Needless to say, although it's been on my wish list since inception, I've never been able to make it out to Dwayne Gretzky's celebrated New Years Eve shows.

Posted inLive Recordings

Whitehorse @ Six Shooter Records

[caption id="attachment_1435" align="aligncenter" width="500"]Whitehorse Whitehorse @ Six Shooter Records[/caption]

. : : December 4th, 2020 : : .

 

I'm not going to preface this particular entry with too much context on COVID-19, 2020, and live music. I ranted and raved about it in excess on my previous post.

 

I will take a minute to talk about Whitehorse, a band many visitors to this blog are now well acquainted with, and give some context on their 2020 (if you would be so kind as to indulge me).

 

Whitehorse is a husband and wife musical duo with decades long resumes that cover the gauntlet and have taken them around the world. Their talent is immeasurable, and their success remarkable -- but not incalculable.

Posted inLive Recordings

Hannah Georgas @ SiriusXM

Hannah Georgas

. : : July 18th, 2020 : : .

 

2020 was … unusual.

 

Gripped by a worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, relegated to stay-at-home orders and curfews, live concerts stopped being a thing. At least, in the typical sense of the phrase.

 

Pivoting to engage fanbases, generate income, and continue to spark creative drive, musicians began to take up live-streaming performances en masse. Like many live performances, the quality varied.

 

Usually, things like the venue, PA system, and sound person on duty were deciding factors on sound and visuals, but now it was the artists' home studio set-up, internet upload speed, and network congestion. And to say it's been a learning curve for everyone would be putting it somewhat mildly. However, as the year wore on, the quality by and large improved.

 

The new challenge arising as 2020 came to a close was not how much will I enjoy this live stream, and turned more toward how many live streams can I enjoy?

Posted inLive Recordings

The Autumn Portrait @ Cameron House

[caption id="attachment_1409" align="aligncenter" width="500"]The Autumn Portrait The Autumn Portrait @ Cameron House[/caption]

. : : July 4th, 2012 : : .

Revisiting concerts from the better part of a decade ago has definitely proven to be an exercise in understanding just how poor my memory is.

I can't say I remember a ton about this particular set from The Autumn Portrait. I do remember the songs being somewhat pretty, the band fighting to be heard over the nosier band performing in the next room, and a radio personality from the local classic rock radio station being in attendance.

Listening back almost eight and a half years later, it's like I'm experiencing it again for the first time. The feeling is odd: the band is now defunct, but frontman Freddit Mojallal is still going at it, under the moniker Freddie Future.

Of course, with a name like Freddie Future and a former band name like The Autumn Portrait, you can probably get a pretty good idea of stylistic differences you might expect.