Wish I had been there

Don't know if anyone else knows about this, but last Thursday and Friday night the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame celebrated its 25th Anniversary with a humongous concert that boasted a lineup so huge they needed 2 nights to fit everyone in. After having seen the videos and heard the collaborations, I would have sold all my internal organs on the black market to be there. Seriously? The list included appearances from Tom Morello, Billy Joel, CSN, James Taylor, Mick Jagger, Simon & Garfunkel, Stevie Wonder, Patti Smith, John Fogerty, Sam Moore, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Jeff Beck, Lou Reed, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Rait, U2, Sting, and John Legend. On Thursday the 'House Band' was The E Street Band and on Friday it was Metallica. I have scoured the web to find footage and audio of whatever I could and this is the result. Some of the audio is sketchy (in particular the Simon & Garfunkel stuff), but I'll take whatever I can get. Highlights for me were Metallica and Lou Reed doing Sweet Jane, Tom Morello and Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band with Steven Van Zandt on vocals covering London Calling, Jeff Beck's guitar solo in Superstition and Metallica and Ozzy doing Iron Man. My ears are still smiling. I particularly love how Hetfield noted that when initially approached about the collaborations - his thought was that Metallica are not really a 'jamming' kind of bunch but they had put aside their reservations and gone for it anyway.
The one unfortunate finding is that despite the fact that everyone else sounded in fighting form, Art Garfunkel sounds like shit - he has lost it, which sucks cause he had an awesome instrument.

This is going on my list of Top 10 things I missed in life. Really - Lou effing Reed and Metallica - does life get any better?

A girl can dream

I hope I'm still this fuckin good at my job after I've been doing it for 30 years.

We used to leave the blue lights on

So it took me a few years to 'get' Metric. It wasn't until I saw them live for the first time during the Live it Out era that I fully understood what they were doing. This week, I was lucky enough to see Metric 4 times and I want to go back to the me I was years ago and say "What the hell do you not get?".

Massey Hall is by far Toronto's best live venue. Yes, being tall I get squished in the seats - but the acoustics make it more than worth the discomfort. Metric had 2 sold out nights at Massey Hall this week and the only word for it is brilliant. Not that all 4 members of the band are not ridiculously talented - but I think I have isolated the source of their brilliance, and it's Joules Scott-Key.

Following those 2 marvelous Massey Hall nights, I attended the CASBY awards (Metric won 2 by the way) where Metric played live. The actual awards were awkward for me for unrelated reasons, but Metric were the obvious stars of the night and their performance was, again, brilliant.

Last night I went to Hamilton to see Metric for the 4th night this week. Again, performance - brilliant, venue however - shitty. The Hamilton Convention Centre gives Toronto's Sound Academy a run for it's money as shittiest Ontario concert venue.

If you get a chance to see them on this tour - I suggest that you do, hell, I suggest that you do 4 times.

So by this point, I am exhausted and hating the fact that I do not posses the ability to sleep in. I am now going to attempt to go back to sleep, cross your fingers!


Combat Baby acoustic Massey Hall

FYI

Since this is my blog, I reserve the right to delete moronic comments on my posts. A blog is by nature, generally an opinion expressed by the author in written form. I have a major issue with people misunderstanding the definition of the word opinion. Growing up in my house, my opinion was always different from everyone else – and therefore perceived as wrong. By its very nature and definition an opinion CANNOT be wrong – it can only be yours or mine.

If you have a problem with my opinions, might I suggest you stop reading them. Do not make stupid comments on my blog, I guarantee you the only result will be that I will swiftly remove them. I quite enjoy hearing the opinions of others, so if you have one to share in a calm and rational manner with appropriate language, I would be happy to read it and invite you to leave a comment – if you cannot follow those rather basic rules of common courtesy, I have no time for your bullshit.

This ends my public service announcement.

Feel Great Lost

So if you've read any of my previous entries you may have noticed that I am a bit of a musicophile. More specifically, a Canadian (and even more specifically Toronto) musicophile. I am constantly amazed by the spectacular art that comes out of a city that I have lived in all my life and for the most part I am generally unimpressed with. There really is no other word for my relationship with Broken Social Scene than to call it an addiction, so I thought I would share the song that started it all. In 2002 I was in the passenger seat of a car in Scarborough with the windows open stopped at a traffic light when I was immediately struck by the sounds coming from the car beside us. Going against everything in my nature, I stuck my head out the window and asked the other driver what they were listening to. It was Last Place, and the rest, as they say - is history.

Last Place

You're shitting me right?

"Metric are the Nickelback of Canadian indie music." says Cameron Reed. As a Canadian who is a tireless supporter of all of the GREAT Canadian music that is out there, I am offended on so many levels by this comment. I do not include Nickleback on my list of great Canadian music, hell they're barely even music, let alone great. The best I can say about them is that at least they all actually play instruments. To compare Metric to such pedestrian fluff is like comparing Leonard Cohen to Avril Lavigne - it just don't fly.

Strangely, I am unable to find any of Cameron's 'music' online to listen to so that I can compare it to something equally as shitty as Nickleback.

Once again, I say that I hate it when stupid people review art, it's so ugly.




Excuse me while I head out to go and see Metric live at the Polaris Awards - which would be awards for great Canadian music, funny how Nickleback has never even made the long list for Polaris . . .

This is what cool sounds like

Everyone should be listening to Afie Jurvanen all day, every day. Dude has skills.

Caught Me Thinking

Already Yours