Tag: Live

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Live music galleries

Live music galleries: Middle Kids [2018]

(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.)

Middle Kids live at Field Trip 2018

Artist: Middle Kids
When: June 2nd, 2018
Where: Fort York Stage, Field Trip Festival, Fort York Commons, Toronto
Context: Six weeks ago to the day, I posted another one of these galleries and all the while bemoaning the fact that I haven’t seen any live shows for months. My, how the times have changed. While that post was being written and the photos being placed in some semblance of order, our government was still maintaining that the risk to Canadians from COVID-19 was low and life still seemed normal. A mere handful of days later, I was working from home, we were being asked to leave the house only when necessary, and ‘social distancing’ had become a thing. Seeing any new live shows seems a pipe dream at the moment so you can expect to see a few more of these pining live gallery posts popping up on these pages.

This particular gallery comes from 2018 and the last time Arts & Crafts Records put on one of its two-day Field Trip festivals in Toronto. I went down for the weekend in early June, stayed with my friend Tim, and we met up on each of the days with our friend Mark. Australian indie rock trio, Middle Kids, played a 6pm set on the first day, unofficially, the party day for me and my two friends. I had only given their debut album, “Lost friends”, a cursory listen beforehand but had enjoyed it so I dragged my cohorts to the side stage. Unfortunately, the three of us were more focused on replenishing our drinks at this point in the day. I now regret catching most of Middle Kids set from the beer queues because their album ended up being amongst my top five favourites of the year. I won’t make that ‘mistake’ again the next time I see them… whenever that may be.

Point of reference song: “Mistake”

Tim Fitz of Middle Kids
Cameron Henderson, touring guitarist extraordinaire
Hannah Joy and Tim Fitz of Middle Kids
Harry Day of Middle Kids on drums
Cameron Henderson feeling it
Hannah Joy of Middle Kids
Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: The Smiths “Rank”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: The Smiths
Album Title: Rank
Year released: 1988
Year reissued: 2011
Details: Remastered, includes promotional poster, double LP, part of box set that includes booklet and poster

The skinny: I’m finishing off this eight-part series (thankfully, for some) with the album that I will rarely be apt to spin, this out of all the pieces in this “Complete” box set. I am not really all that fond of live albums. Indeed, this is one of only three live albums in my vinyl collection and I likely would have never purchased this one had it not come included with the set. “Rank” was an obligatory release by the band’s British and North American labels, coming out over a year after the group split and over two years after the live show at which it was recorded.  It’s an interesting listen but would probably only be that to their most hardcore fans. However, it is one of only two places in this collection where one can hear the excellent track featured below, which as Morrissey admits on the live recording was the band’s newest single at the time.

Standout track: “Ask (Live)”

Categories
Live music galleries

Live music galleries: The Rural Alberta Advantage [2015]

(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.)

The Rural Alberta Advantage live at Dragonboat Festival, 2015

Artist: The Rural Alberta Advantage
When: June 27th, 2015
Where: Ottawa Dragonboat Festival, Mooney’s Bay Park, Ottawa
Context: It’s been almost six months since I’ve seen any live music and I’ve realized in the last couple of weeks that I’ve been (for want of a better term) seriously jonesing. Seriously. I’ve been habitually checking the concert listings, reading all the festival lineups as they are released, watching live videos on the YouTube, and I’ve even been finding myself wistfully flipping through photos of past shows that I’ve seen. And in so doing, I came across this series of pics that I snapped during a set by Toronto’s The Rural Alberta Advantage at Ottawa’s Dragonboat festival five years (!) ago. I’ve seen them a total of four times, each time was a riot, but this show was the last time I saw them. They were still touring their third album, “Mended with gold”, which like all their others, is energetic indie folk with a heavy percussion edge, this last provided by Energizer bunny drummer, Paul Banwatt, and bundle of dynamite, Amy Cole. She would actually leave the band the following year, to be temporarily replaced by a Robin Hatch, but is now back in the fold, and the word is there is new material in the works. Maybe I’ll see them a fifth time later this year. One can hope…
Point of reference song: “Terrified”

Nils Edenloff of The Rural Alberta Advantage
Amy Cole of The Rural Alberta Advantage
Paul Banwatt of The Rural Alberta Advantage
Amy Cole and Paul Banwatt going all percussion-like
Nils Edenloff rocking out