Opening the Vault: Library Voices and We Are the City

I’ve posted some new (old) photos up on Flickr! These shots are from back in April at the 560 Club in Vancouver. Because one just isn’t good enough the club had a series of opening nights, one of them being the indie night with Library Voices and (the inaugural Peak Performance Project winners) We Are the City. Highlights of the evening included when all the members of Library Voices jumped on stage with sparklers during We Are the City’s set, and when I snapped a picture of the setlist from Library Voices.

Library Voices Setlist

As for more current news on these bands, Library Voices are about to embark on a cross Canada fall tour with Bend Sinister and Paper Lions. The tour kicks off on September 16th in St. Catharines Ontario. From there the three bands will wind their way across the country with stops in Ontario, Quebec, PEI, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia before turning around and making their way back through Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and BC. The whole thing wraps up in Vancouver BC on October 29th. This tour is sponsored by the good folks at CBC Radio 3.

Upcoming stops in British Columbia:

October 23rd 2010 – Kelowna, BC – Habitat (Western Canadian Music Awards)

October 26th 2010 – Victoria, BC – Lucky Bar

October 27th 2010 – Duncan, BC – Cowichan Theatre

October 28th 2010 – Tofino, BC – The Legion

October 29th 2010 – Vancouver, BC – Pit Pub

A full list of dates can be found on the band’s MySpace page.

Library Voices

On August 13th, We Are the City made the sad announcement that David would be leaving the band to pursue other interests. The split sounds amicable though with the transition being slow – David will stay with the band until they find someone who is the right fit for them and he will play in the remaining shows of 2010. According to the released statement the band has plans to write new material this fall and winter with a new album in the works for 2011, so there is no hint that We Are the City is slowing down anytime soon.

Upcoming tour dates:

September 4th 2010 – Squamish, BC – Live at Squamish Festival

September 23rd 2010 – Victoria, BC – Rifflandia Festival

We Are the City and Library Voices

Arcade Fire, Rifflandia, and Rocking the Woods City-Style

Hot off the heels of a massive live-streamed concert at Madison Square Garden (not to mention a #1 album in Canada, the US, and the UK), the Arcade Fire have announced a pile of North American tour dates which fall between two blocks of European dates. Looks like it’s time to get out that bucket list and cross off “see Arcade Fire live”! Calexico, who have been working the summer festival circuit for the past couple months, will be the opening act for all stops on the North American leg with the exception of the Los Angeles dates.

September 22nd 2010 – St. Paul, USA – Roy Wilkins Auditorium

September 23rd 2010 – Winnipeg, MB – MTS Centre

September 25th 2010 – Saskatoon, SK – Credit Union Centre

September 26th 2010 – Calgary, AB – Stampede Corral

September 28th 2010 – Vancouver, BC – Pacific Coliseum

September 29th 2010 – Seattle, WA – Key Arena

September 30th 2010 – Portland, OR – Memorial Coliseum

October 2nd 2010 – Berkley, CA – Greek Theatre

October 5th 2010 – Big Sur, CA – Henry Miller Library

October 7th 2010 – Los Angeles, CA – Shrine Auditorium

October 8th 2010 – Los Angeles, CA – Shrine Auditorium

October 10th 2010 – Mexico City, Mexico – Palacio De Los Deportes

October 12th 2010 – Monterrey, Mexico – Banamex Theatre

Though ticket information is not listed on the band’s webpage, some information is available through Ticketmaster. Tickets for the Vancouver show go on sale Friday August 20th 2010 at 10am with presales starting Wednesday August 18th 2010 at 10am.

The music event that Victorians look forward to all year is nigh! Though an initial line-up has been public for a few months now, this past Sunday Rifflandia 3 announced their full line-up and schedule. With 157 bands playing at 11 different venues over 4 days, it looks like there is some tough decisions to be made on who to check out the weekend of September 23rd-26th. The best part? Wristbands for the entire weekend are only $65! I’m sure that I’ll be making many more posts about Rifflandia in the coming weeks, but in the meantime catch all the festival details at the Rifflandia website.

The Rock of the Woods Festival is relocating to the city and is now being dubbed the Rock of the Hood Festival. The acts initially booked to fill one day of music in the wilderness near Mill Bay, are being spread amongst three nights in Victoria.

From the festival’s website: “Due to a lack of support from the Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD) and Mill Bay RCMP, the Rock of the Woods festival is not able to take place in Mill Bay this year. Local authorities deliberated the event application for several weeks, and in the end decided to reject it, due to fears about potential safety risks. The Mill Bay region has never hosted a comparable event before and was uncomfortable with it going ahead. The ROTW organizers made several attempts to adjust the event plan to mitigate the municipalities concerns… When this still did not convince the RCMP and municipality that the merits of the festival outweighed the potential risks, Surge Ahead & the Oswego Arts & Cultural Society ( the event organizers), regretfully submitted to the CVRD’s wishes. The show will go on, but in an in-town location.”

Tickets purchased for the initial festival near Mill Bay will be honored for the new incarnation in Victoria, or they can be refunded by contacting the organizers. Tickets for the Victoria shows are still available and go for $45 for the entire weekend, with tickets for individual nights available at the door. Purchase information can be found on the festival’s website.

The line-up and schedule for the festival:

Friday August 20th at Sugar
Brasstronaut, The British Columbians, Sunday Buckets, Acres of Lions, and Smith & Lyseng

Saturday August 21st at Sugar
Junior Boys, Mat the Alien, The Mohawk Lodge, Humans, and Celebrity Traffic

Sunday August 22nd at Lucky Bar
Wrap-up party with Run Chico Run, Espionage, Bloody Wilma, and JP Maurice

New Photos on Flickr

EhBSeasides now has its own Flickr page! Feel free to peruse some of the photo sets posted so far:

• Versa CD Release Party (includes photos of Versa and Les Monstres Terribles)
• Malahat Revue in Duncan (includes photos of Jeremy Fisher, Said the Whale, Hannah Georgas, and Aidan Knight)
• Vancouver Folk Fest 2010 Day 2 (includes photos of Matt Epp, Bahamas, Shane Koyczan and Short Story Long, Timber Timbre, the Deep Dark Woods, and the United Steelworkers of Montreal)
• Vancouver Folk Fest 2010 Day 3 (includes photos of the Deep Dark Woods, the United Steelworkers of Montreal, Timber Timbre, the Gertrudes, Matt Epp, Colin Hay, and the Malahat Revue)

Enjoy!

A Full Weekend of Music: July 10th & 11th 2010

Well I guess it’s better late than never to get this up:

Though most of this week has been spent doing my listening homework for the Vancouver Folk Fest, I somehow managed to cram in a few shows last weekend. First up was the CD release party for Versa at the beautiful Alix Goolden Hall. Showing a bit of bad etiquette on my part, I ended up missing the first two openers and arrived just in time to catch a set by Les Monstres Terribles.

Les Monstres Terribles

In full disclosure, I’m friends with one of the members (heck I went to his wedding even) and I’ve had a drink or two with a few of the other members in the group. Don’t let my positive bias toward this band dissuade you though, back in March Les Monstres Terribles were voted the Most Welcome Addition to the Arts Scene at this year’s Monday Magazine M Awards.

The band pulled out all the stops for their first show at the Alix Goolden Hall. While the group normally consists of five core members, this set was backed by the Playing Dead Orchestra which consisted of a keyboardist, a brass section, a string section, and even a choir. The entire group of 15 or so musicians were decked out in black and white duds with white masks. Though the outfits were borderline gimmicky, the group looked pretty sharp all together.

Versa

After a quick intermission Versa took the stage. The whole evening was to celebrate the release of their sophomore album The Decline and Fall of…, which was included for free in the modest $10 admission. In all honesty I hadn’t heard of them prior to last week, but when I got a message from the fine folks at Ditch Records saying they had tickets to give away I entered my name into the draw on a whim. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that I was one of the lucky winners, and more so when I discovered that Versa plays some pretty awesome music to boot. Without the slightest bit of exaggeration, I’m really tempted to say that they are one of my great musical finds this year. Though the dark lighting in the hall didn’t bode well for my photos, it set the perfect mood for the largely instrumental set that Versa unleashed on us. One highlight of the show for me was the encore performance of LCD Soundsystem’s hit All My Friends. The band invited all the other musicians on the bill as well as any audience members so inclined to join them on stage. The result was an amazing stage party of controlled chaos.

You can next see Les Monstres Terribles at the Solstice Cafe on Tuesday August 3rd (event details). Keep your eyes peeled for new shows from Versa to be announced soon. The full collection of photos from the evening can be found can be found on the EhBSeasides Flickr page here.

Right after the Versa CD release party I ran over to Sugar Nightclub to catch the Victoria stop of the Malahat Revue, which combined the musical forces of Jeremy Fisher, Said the Whale, Hannah Georgas, and Aidan Knight. As what happens all too often at Sugar, the crowd that night was extremely rowdy. For some reason Said the Whale really brings out the drunk talkative types in Victoria. The girl behind me decided to scream to her friends throughout every single Hannah Georgas song. To the group’s credit they kept the set full of upbeat tunes that kept the crowd under control by jumping and singing along.

the Malahat Revue

On Sunday night I made the trip to Duncan to catch the Malahat Revue stop at the Duncan Garage Showroom. The vibe in Duncan was the total opposite of Victoria. The sold out crowd was so appreciative for the visit from the group. The night was broken up into two sets that rotated through songs from the catalogs of the four groups. When the second set wrapped up with Aidan Knight’s Jasper, the crowd leaped to their feet to dance and sing. The musicians were enthusiastically called back for an encore of a few more songs. The whole evening wrapped up with an unplugged unamplified rendition of Said the Whale’s Curse of the Currents. Even though I’ve seen Said the Whale a few times now, this was the first time I have heard Curse of the Currents live. It was perfect. I know that I wasn’t the only one in the audience with tears in my eyes by the end of that song.

The Duncan Garage Showroom provides a live video stream for all of their shows, so even if you are not planning a trip to Duncan any time soon you should definitely check out their webpage. While you do so, you can find the link for the archived stream of the Malahat Revue here.

There was a photography ban at the Victoria stop of the Malahat Revue, but you can check out the Flickr set from the Duncan show here.