Tag: Alternative

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Live music galleries

Live music galleries: The Lowest of the Low [2025]

(I got the idea for this series while sifting through the ‘piles’ of digital photos on my laptop. It occurred to me to share some of these great pics from some of my favourite concert sets from time to time. Until I get around to the next one, I invite you to peruse my ever-growing list of concerts page.)

Lowest of the Low, live at Overflow Brewing Company

Artist: The Lowest of the Low
When: April 25th, 2025
Where: Overflow Brewing Company, Ottawa
Context: I’ve been a fan of the legendary Toronto indie rockers since I was a teenager and first fell for their debut album, “Shakespeare my butt” in the early 90s. I’d seen live them a handful of times already, each since their triumphant reformation in the early 2000s, but it had been more than a decade since the last time* so when I saw this show advertised, I hemmed and hawed a little but bit the bullet in the end. Part of the reason I pondered so much was because of the location** and given my recent medical issues*** but after everything, I was super glad I went. The show was the second on a month-long mini-tour in support of their newest album, “Over years and overnight” (due out this Friday). The problem with slogging an album not yet released is always that you can’t properly sell it at the merch table**** and that fans won’t have had the time to familiarize themselves with the new material. However, the band did push through a good deal of these new tracks, were mostly well received by the crowd, and definitely had me looking forward to giving the album a spin. Most of the rest of the set was pulled from the group’s classic debut*****, which had the whole crowd singing along, along with a sampling of the best of the rest of their output from over the years. Indeed, Ron Hawkins and the other gentlemen in the band displayed that are great show people, knowing their audience and their bread and butter, so of course, there were laughs and cheers and maybe some tears. So much fun.
Point of reference song: “The only one I see”

Ron Hawkins, frontman and lead vocalist
Michael McKenzie, lead guitarist
Lawrence Nichols, keys, backing vocals and legendary on the harmonica
Greg Smith, bassist and pogo dancer
David Alexander, drummer
Greg and Michael enjoying the jam
Ron Hawkins
Lawrence rocking the harmonica
Ron and Greg having a rest while David and Michael rock out
Ron and Lawrence performing ‘Black Monday’

*The last time being in September 2013, possibly one of, if not the last time founding member Stephen Stanley performed live with the band.

**The venue was at Overflow Brewing Company, a local craft brewery that is a bit out of the way in terms of transit, and definitely required a cab ride home given that I am still not driving.

***This was my first live show in more than six months and I was a bit unsure but in the end, it was the perfect show to get back in the saddle.

****Though frontman Ron Hawkins kept making cracks about us being able to pay to scan a QR code at the merch table.

*****By my count and not necessarily trustworthy memory, 10 tracks from the debut, including “Rosy and grey”, “Bleed a little while tonight”, “Salesmen, cheats and liars”, and “Henry needs a new pair of shoes”.

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Tunes

100 best covers: #37 The National “Pretty in pink”

<< #38    |    #36 >>

I don’t know how the compilation, “Reprises Inrocks”, ever ended up in my Apple music library*, which song it was that led me to track down the two disc compilation, but it did. And I did. And though, I don’t listen to it all the way through all that often, there are some great tunes on there that are not available anywhere else.

It was released in 2007 by French music and culture magazine, Les Inrockuptibles, whose pages upon whom I have admittedly never glanced, though I have admired a few of their other compilations in the past, most notably the wicked Leonard Cohen and The Smiths tribute albums, “I’m your fan” and “The Smiths is dead”. The twenty five tracks on this one are all covers, some by bands I love and others not, and many are ones that may not seem like they could work on paper, but somehow do nonetheless. Examples include: Ray Lamontagne’s stripped down take on Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”, Jose Gonzalez’s unplugged version of Massive Attack’s “Teardrop”, Nina Gordon channelling Frente but doing NWA’s “Straight outta Compton”, and Calexico’s spanish guitar folk rendition of The Clash’s “Guns of Brixton”.

One of the few tracks that I knew would work from the very beginning was Cincinnati, Ohio’s The National taking a crack at The Psychedelic Fur’s classic, “Pretty in pink”. I was still relative new to The National at this point, having just delved into their fourth studio album, “The boxer”, but I was already hooked on their dark and atmospheric sound and completely sold on the rich vocals of frontman Matt Berninger. Even though his voice is quite different from that of Richard Butler, more lounge and laconic than rough and punk, it still feels exactly right for the song.

Originally written and released in 1981, “Pretty in pink” gained a greater following and notoriety when it was re-recorded a few years later for inclusion on the soundtrack for the John Hughes teen 80s film of the same name. Both Furs’ versions are hard to argue with, raw and more guitar heavy, and more upbeat than The National’s cover. The song is a post punk classic and likely a huge inspiration for a band who have long since penned a bunch of post punk revival classics of their own.

I think both of these recordings are incredible and full of life, one sunny and one rainy, but I have to go with the original here, mostly for the nostalgia factor for me.

Cover:

Original:

*It would’ve been iTunes way back then.

For the rest of the 100 best covers list, click here.

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Tunes

Best tunes of 2013: #19 Chvrches “Recover”

<< #20    |    #18 >>

Chvrches (or CHVRCHES) is a synthpop trio out of Glasgow, Scotland that formed back in 2011. Ian Cook and Martin Doherty were university friends and had performed in a bunch of failed bands together over the years and were almost ready to call it quits and get ‘real jobs’. However, Cook had taken an interest in electronic music and was messing around with synthesizers around the same time that he was doing some production work for another band and he found that he liked the sound of their vocalist’s style. Lauren Mayberry was intrigued by Cook’s invitation to work together on some material and after some exploratory sessions, the three musicians realized they were clicking and might have something to build off of. They chose their name, not because of any religious connotations, but because they liked the sound of it and played with the spelling as a nod to a certain esoteric indie subgenre of music.

“Recover” is the group’s second proper single and appears on their debut album, “The bones of what you believe”. It is the first track that I ever heard by the group and though it hooked me immediately, I haven’t been a fan everything they’ve done over the years. They tiptoe quite precariously on the tightrope between indie pop and outright dance pop. I can only tolerate the latter sound for short periods but they do the former so well that I will never outright dismiss them. I also respect their integrity, the way all three members contribute equally, and how frontwoman Mayberry has never allowed big money music to focus on her and use her sex appeal to sell their music.

“I’ll give you one more chance to say we can change our old ways
And you take what you need, and you know you don’t need me”

“Recover” is a blast of energy, lasers streaming and confetti flying. It is dancing in a sweaty and crowded hall while the strobe lights transform reality and melt your ability to properly perceive space and time. You’re tired and all the bodies writhing around you are tired and it is way past midnight and still hours before the sun comes up but the music won’t let you and any of your friends rest. The synths play alternatively like washes, handclaps, backing vocals, distorted bass. It’s all very retro futuristic, like robots made from 80s muscle car parts. And all the while, Mayberry is your guide and ringmaster, breathless herself in her high octave, childlike voice, commanding though, demanding you to live and experience the moment fully.

Wow.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2013 list, click here.