The Triumph of Tired Eyes

Martha Wainwright kicked things off tonight and played a rather long set of her emotionally charged songs. The Beacon Theatre was sold out for The Swell Season which consists of The Frames Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. There was a palpable energy in the air and it began when Glen sang sans-microphone on the edge of the stage. They played songs from the Once soundtrack which is filled with songs of troubled romance and desperate love. Their 2 voices harmonize beautifully, whether Glen or Markéta is in the lead. The music was pure poetry and the Beacon was a great setting for it making it somehow feel very intimate. I had the same goose-bumps during the performance as I did during the movie and it was one the best performances I’ve experienced in quite a while.

Pictures and Audio from the show.

Canada’s Cadence Weapon was the opener tonight. I felt his slick rapping was an odd choice for the evening but Owen came out to play a song with him which was kinda neat. I’ve seen Final Fantasy several times now, and he has always put on a fun performance. I was a bit shocked that they booked him at Bowery but a big crowd did come out to see him. He played for an hour and encored with the always enjoyable cover of Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy”.

Pictures from the show.

http://www.cadenceweaponmusic.com/
http://www.myspace.com/owenpalletmusic

Very quick catchy pop songs came from Toronto’s Small Sins, and I found them to be quite amusing but musically perplexing. Why did they need 5 people to play the simplest of songs and a guitar player that added just noise over the electronic melodies? The lyrics were downright childish and tended to be repeated over and over like a bad nursery rhyme. The keyboard solo at the end was funny but I’ll pass the next time these guys come around again.

When I found out that Land of Talk cancelled their Tuesday night show, I quickly got rid of my ticket and hoped that they’d be back for Thursday night. The trio from Montreal showed up with a short haired Elizabeth Powell. I’ve been crazy about this band ever since I got their EP and they get my vote for best new band of 07. The music is dirty and sexy and I tend to raise the volume whenever their songs pop up on shuffle. Their live shows are more sensual and moving as they hook you with the hypnotic drone of Liz’s voice and then attack with powerful post-punk guitar and bass hooks.

Holy Feedback Batman! Film School swings by from the west coast to give us their dreamy pop music. Although I could never really get into them since their SXSW days, their live set was much more exciting than their recordings. Their psychedelic songs have a gritty edge to them and the introduction of some female vocals added another, but not too goth-y dimension to the music. The music did set a wonderful wash of sound but after a few songs it just got to be a little monotonous and all the feedback made everything too muddy. Nevertheless, the new album is quite good and wouldn’t mind them entering into the soundtrack of my dreams (at least for a little bit)

Pictures from the show

Links:
http://www.smallsinsmusic.com/
http://www.landoftalk.com/
http://www.filmschoolmusic.com/

I FINALLY get to see New Buffalo live. I’ve been obsessing over Sally Seltmann’s tender voice since her debut release. Her new album focuses more on piano and simpler melodies but has contributions with Jens Lekman, Beth Orton and Jim White. And boy was I elated when Jens quietly took the stage to play duet with her!! She only played a few songs to a small and timid crowd but what I heard was delightful, despite not playing “Recovery”.

Tonight was primed for Toronto’s Stars to play their lush songs about all matters of the heart, where lovers break-up, make-up, and have sex all night long. I still play Set Yourself on Fire and is one of my favorite albums of the past few years. The stage was beautiful, adorned with roses and paintings accompanied with a ligh setup that helped make the music more engaging. The crowd was awesome and the band played perfectly. You lose yourself when Torquil and Amy sing to each other as they gaze into each others eyes. The lyrical dynamism between the two is hard to find in many other bands. The band was extremely lively on stage and were very happy and proud to be playing in such a beautiful place in New York. Amy got a bit drunk off champagne during the show but still delivered an amazing performance. She even stopped the new song “Midnight Coward” because ‘it didn’t sound right’. Regardless, the never before played song was better the second time around and furthered my crush on her. They played until exhaustion and even when I thought Mr. Campbell couldn’t sing anymore they closed the night with an amazing performance of “The Night Starts Here”. They play again later in the month in Williamsburgh. Go and take the person you love or hate.

Pictures from the show.

http://www.newbuffalo.net/
arts-crafts.ca/stars

I guess CMJ week is starting early with this sunday late night concert at Knitting Factory. The best part was that it was only 1 dollar, which is good as I’d rather not pay more than that go to that venue. Neimo from France opened up with their catchy rock overflowing with sexy lyrics about love and girls. They were very lively onstage and were entertaining to watch but got bored with the music as soon as I realized all their songs sounded the same.

Despite having various technical problems and going on late (expected from this venue), Why? treated us to their folky surreal pop music. They have a new album coming out so they debuted a bunch of new tunes and they sounded pretty good. The set wasn’t perfect but for a buck you can’t complain too much.

A few pictures from the show.

http://www.neimo.com/
why?