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I just spent two wonderful evenings at Toronto’s beautiful Massey Hall, Tuesday, October 12 for Belle and Sebastian and the next night, October 13 for Sufjan Stevens.

Belle and Sebastian are touring in support of their new album, “Belle and Sebastian Write About Love”. I’d never seen them before and was becoming more and more excited in the weeks leading up to it. I made playlists on my iPhone of sets from setlist.fm and listened to them obsessively. Of course the set they played on Tuesday night was pretty different from what I’d been listening to, but that’s not such a big deal because they were incredible.

The crowd was quite a mix of ages, which isn’t a surprise, and it didn’t take long for people to rush to the stage and dance. (I, naturally, was not one of those people.) There was a collective “Awww” from the crowd when a little girl got up on stage and joined the handful that were brought up to dance to “The Boy With The Arab Strap”.

I love the earnest, sweet and clever tone of their songs. I usually feel like I’m hearing something fresh when I listen to them (yes, I know they’re considered “retro”). At one point I leaned over to my friend and said, “They’re so cool” and he just laughed because, well, Belle and Sebastian are pretty awesome.

Here’s a video I took of the band playing their final encore song, “Judy and the Dream of Horses”. Actually, he started into “This Is Just A Modern Rock Song” and then had to stop because he couldn’t remember the rest!

While Belle and Sebastian own the stage with confidence, experience and an essentially flawless performance, Sufjan Stevens‘ charm is the complete opposite: his presence is chaotic, nervous and unpredictable. Opening the set with a 10+ minute version of “All Delighted People” definitely set the tone of the evening: It starts off with a capella vocals and the next thing you know, almost out of nowhere, it’s a huge eruption of sound from the horn section, guitars, bass, keyboards, multiple vocalists, and stereo drums (one drummer on each side of the stage.) It was a pretty insane stage setup and I’m surprised that they weren’t tripping over cables all night.

Sufjan’s latest record, The Age Of Adz, features songs and song-cycles that, on first listen, may seem like a huge departure from the relative sweetness that we’ve gotten used to. In reality, however, “Adz” is a pretty logical musical and conceptual progression from his previous work. It appears that Sufjan kind of “found himself” in the years since “Illinois”, especially after reading of how he was questioning his feelings towards continuing to share his songs with the public (i.e., release albums and tour).

Indeed, Sufjan did a fair bit of explaining (justifying?) in between songs. He talked about things that influenced/inspired his creative direction (mainly the work of Royal Robertson) and alluded to a difficult period in his life to which writing and recording this album was therapeutic. My point is that it seemed like he felt a genuine need to explain himself and his “weird music”. While I do find his new material challenging, riveting and beautiful, it was still cool to hear him kind of justify it.

The entire show was pretty much a spectacle. It was a feast for not only the ears, but the eyes as well, as the instrument swapping, choreographed dancing and projections made for a lot of things to watch. Sufjan himself isn’t too bad to look at either now, is he?

The standout for me was the 25-minute “song cycle about love”, “Impossible Soul”. This song was performed in its entirety and I can’t really describe how amazingly satisfying it was to experience it.

The only thing that was likely disappointing to some is that there wasn’t more older material covered. Aside from the final three songs (“Chicago”, “Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois” and “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.”), the entire set was new stuff. I wouldn’t have minded hearing some earlier stuff but not if it meant sacrificing any of what he did perform.

Here’s a couple of videos I took from my first-row seat. The first is “Heirloom” from the All Delighted People EP; the second is “Too Much” from The Age Of Adz.

This is a video I took about a year ago, on October 1, 2009. Sufjan was doing a mini-tour and John and I were able to get tickets to his stop in Toronto’s at Lee’s Palace (I should specify that I was fast asleep in my home while John got the tickets for us – thanks!). Sufjan played a few songs that ended up appearing on his recent release, “The Age Of Adz“, and the one in the video below, “Impossible Soul” was definitely a stand-out; a 25-minute studio version ends his new album.

I went to Lee’s Palace a couple of nights ago to see Friendly Fires and White Lies with Barb, Justin, John and Thilo. John loves Friendly Fires but unfortunately we only got to see a couple of songs when they opened for Lykke Li back in the spring. They were great and a lot of fun… and that singer does not stop dancing!

White Lies were good, too, but it’s difficult to compare the bands as they are so different. Friendly Fires clearly has more experience and is more comfortable on the stage. White Lies did a good job but I think they’ll be much more confident after a couple more tours. They looked exhausted and also a bit frightened! I’d been looking forward to seeing them and I clearly wasn’t the only one, seeing as the show was sold out.

Here are a few pics and videos that I took:

Here are a few pics from tonight’s Radiohead concert. I’ll add a link to the full gallery later.

My friend Vicente and I went to check out Irish singer-songwriter Fionn Regan. It was a great show, except for the annoying girl who kept asking me to move over, but who was talking continuously through each song.

Here are some pics and videos from the John Vanderslice concert from a couple of weeks ago.

Concert Buddy and I went to see Sondre Lerche at Toronto’s MOD Club on Friday, April 2. I’d seen him before while he was supporting the album Phantom Punch.

It was packed and a ton of fun! He’s a great performer and really knows how to keep a crowd entertained (I mean with things other than his music). Below are a couple of video clips that I took from the show.

On March 26, 2007, Funky Barb (aka “Concert Buddy”) and I went to check out Mew at Toronto’s MOD Club. I first heard this band through my friend Jason/Willis/Eldon/Zwerg a few years back. It’s hard to describe their music – it’s like a bunch of ex-metalheads who like fairies, girls and cute animals. (They don’t actually sing about fairies; it’s just easy to picture them flying around while you’re listening to them. Maybe it’s just me.) They are from Denmark and are apparently huge there, so that made it even cooler to see them in a smaller club setting.

Below are a couple of clips I took – enjoy!

I’ve only been listening to Joseph Arthur for a few months, but I’ve been looking for him for years. I heard a song in the film Saved a few years ago and it stuck with me, but I never knew who it was. Every once in I while I would remember it but never knew where to find it (of course I didn’t just go buy the soundtrack). Then I heard it again in an episode of Scrubs and thanks to this website I was able to find it! Within an hour I had three of his albums (and also realized that I had one already). The song I’d been looking for was “In The Sun“.

On Thursday, March 8, I went with my sister Irene and Funky Barb to see Joseph Arthur perform at Healey’s. It was a solo performance which he apparently doesn’t do anymore. This guy is amazing – his voice is so strong and full while maintaining an edgy vulnerability.

He played for about 45 minutes and then went “backstage” (actually Healey’s kitchen). When he came back out, he said that he wasn’t nervous anymore and proceeded to play for another 45 minutes. He is such an earnest and intense artist, but not stuck in his own little world; the second half included a fair amount of dialogue with audience members and a few stories here and there.

Highlights included what I’m sure are standards: “In The Sun”, “Honey and the Moon” and “I Donated Myself to the Mexican Army”. What stood out, however, was his cover of The Smiths’ “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”, which he dedicated to Elliott Smith. Below is as clip of it that I took, as well as clips of “Devil’s Broom” and “In The Sun” (careful – “In The Sun” had a problem converting and there’s some loud white-noise at the end!):