Whitehorse @ Roy Thomson Hall

August 11, 2020April 22, 2021 by haterhigh

. : : June 15th, 2019 : : .

The most recently posted Whitehorse recording, about two entries back, came only a few short weeks after shuttering the previous version of this website.

My family had grown bigger, money tighter, and my web host was being a punk. I wasn’t getting any feedback from readers, leading me think everyone had (rightly) gone off to more fertile websites.

I also wasn’t entirely sold yet on Whitehorse’s full band dynamic, so when they announced their follow up Toronto date at Massey Hall — the MOST overrated venue in the city, if not the country — I skipped out on buying a ticket in the name of penny-pinching.

I justified seeing them two more times that year: once, the duo show with the erstwhile retired Kathleen Edwards opening in Port Perry (and it was free!), and another time in Ottawa at the historic National Arts Centre while I was in town visiting an old friend and fellow fan.

Although they came close, they never quite hit a public gig in Toronto in 2018, so I took a Whitehorse sabbatical that year. I likely would’ve taken 2019 off, too, given they had outgrown the best-sounding venues in the city and were moving on up to the bigger stages with the muddier sound systems, and ticket prices had inflated in tandem.

Live Recordings

Whitehorse @ Phoenix Concert Theatre

August 5, 2020April 22, 2021 by haterhigh

. : : April 20th, 2017 : : .

Memory’s a funny thing.

I’ve written (I think a couple of times) in earlier blog entries that this was Whitehorse‘s record release party for Panther In The Dollhouse.

I understand why I’m misremembering it as such. The band had been using social media to create some pre-release hype for the album throughout the recording sessions, making its release feel imminent. The lead single, Boys Like You, had been hit the airwaves three months prior. They’d previewed a couple of additional tracks from the disc at the end of the set, giving that exciting, brand-new feel. Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland even used some in-between song banter to recognize and thank producer Gus van Go, who was in the audience (and I believe about 8-feet from where I was standing).

In retrospect, the biggest reason I likely made that mistake was because of how much this felt like the beginning of a new era for the group.

Live Recordings

Whitehorse @ Danforth Music Hall

October 27, 2016July 10, 2020 by haterhigh

. : : December 2nd, 2015 : : .

Not dead yet. Happy Halloween.

Live Recordings

Whitehorse @ Massey Hall

April 3, 2014July 10, 2020 by haterhigh

. : : March 2nd, 2013 : : .

I’ve held back on posting this recording for a while now for a couple of reasons.

First, it occurred only a week and a half before the birth of my son — so I was otherwise preoccupied much of the time. Secondly, the online hype you’ve read about the sound quality at Massey Hall is grossly overstated: its legendary status is more for the names and performances that have graced the stage rather than the quality of sound being pumped from the speakers. Third, the members of Whitehorse were making such a big deal of the performance, going so far as to name the entire tour and a EP of cover songs “The Road To Massey Hall” that I wasn’t convinced an official recording of the set wouldn’t be eventually released. And I wasn’t completely wrong, either; the band did sell a recording of Emerald Isle from this show to benefit the victims of the infamous Boston Marathon bombing victims.

Live Recordings