concert count

#40: Matthew Good (26-oct-07) - Massey Hall

the day before, raine maida was busking on toronto streets for 12 hrs to raise money to build a school in the congo with war child. then i had tickets to the matt good show the next day. it's like i'm back in university going to see our lady peace and matthew good band, but both have gone solo now. (although i don't know if OLP have broken up or if raine is just doing his own thing for a bit).

i really like matt good's newest CD, even though his other solo efforts have been ok, but not to the MGB calibre, in my opinion. it seemed like he had taken a long time between records, and in the meantime, he blogged about his battle with being bipolar.

so we ended up being late to the show b/c when i pulled out my tickets, it turned out that i brought one ticket and the receipt instead of the other ticket. i usually rip off the receipt (which is printed on a ticket and it's all connected when they mail the tickets), and pin the tickets to my bulletin board. but i guess i ripped it in the wrong place at the start and didn't notice until we were about to walk in. good thing i live downtown and the venue was downtown, so we just took a cab back to my place, and i found the other ticket in my file of receipts, and went back to massey hall. we missed 3-5 songs (depending on which usher you ask).

he had a glass of wine with him on stage, which was constantly refilled, and he was definitely slurring his words when he talked. the performance was great, but you could tell he was drunk when he talked, which was pretty funny. he was filming the performance (coincidently it was being filmed by duncan from our lady peace!), but he kept saying that he messed up so many times they probably won't use any of the footage.

i was hoping he would sing some old MGB songs, and he didn't disappoint. he sang apparitions and suburbia, my all time favourite MGB song from beautiful midnight. and the whole show was acoustic, which was really amazing.

between every song, he would talk. and lots too. at one point, there was someone with a laser pointer, so matt proceeded to make fun of the person. he's like "laser pointers are so 1997. i don't get the mentality of 'oh i'm going to bring a laser pointer to the matt good show. i'm going to point it at the guitar and no one's going to know it's me.'" and then another time he talked about how he wanted to do a record about the homoerotic tendencies of the lord of the rings.

he played for an extra long time too. he played for a little over 2 hrs in total, which is pretty amazing these days. he seemed to be alot more mellow than the usual ranting matt good, i think it was the booze.

so overall a good show. now if i went to the david usher show a few weeks ago, that would have rounded out my favourite-university-era-bands'-lead-singers-gone-solo tour.

i have no upcoming shows lined up either. maybe a little bit of a concert drought for awhile.

concert count

#39: Maroon 5 (04-Oct-07) - ACC

ahhhhhh. i was so excited to see this show. both maroon 5 CDs are amazing, and i was so angry i didn't get tickets to their club tour a few months ago b/c i thought that would have been a million times better than seeing them at the ACC. but that wasn't completely true, the show was still really good.

it was at the ACC. so think of a hockey arena and how the stage is always at one end of the rink. there are floor seats and then the regular seats. we had the first row of the seats on the side, so we were pretty close.

the opening act was the hives. i was looking forward to seeing them b/c they were always one of those bands i've wanted to check out b/c they're the type of band and music i would like.

i enjoyed their set. i think mainly b/c the lead singer was such a performer. he was hilarious and would keep talking to the crowd. at one point, he even said something about how he's meant to be on stage b/c he's so entertaining or something like that. their music was good, i can't say i was overly into their music based on their performance though. it wasn't like when i saw muse at virgin fest for the first time ever, and was so impressed with their show that i became a fan.

then the main act. oh adam levine. so cute. he kinda reminds me of a young sting. this is a picture i took without zoom to show how close we actually were sitting.

i hadn't really listened to their old CD in awhile, and i really forgot how good it actually is. and they sang so many songs from their first album, which was great. one of my favourites is still 'this love' and i took a long video of it (check it on my facebook profile to watch it). i made a conscious effort not to sing while taking the video b/c it's always hilarious when i watch youtube videos of live concert footage and either the person taking the video or someone beside them is singing so loud you can't hear the musician.

i was actually really impressed with their stage set up. i wasn't really expecting much. but they had two runways that went into the audience, and the light show behind them was good too. there was also a wide range of people in the audience. from the dad with his two kids under 12 years old sitting beside me, to the near 40 cougars in ed hardy tshirts, there pretty much was everyone at this show.i don't really remember much more about the show, except that i was super impressed by it and ended up having a even bigger crush on adam levine. i don't care if he's a manwhore, it's purely a celebrity crush.

i literally gasped when i saw that there's going to be an M&M meat shop opening right by my house. there's none downtown, and they're all out in the suburbs. so besides the one time i bought some stuff at the store near my office in the suburbs, i've never had any M&M stuff since moving out to TO.

i'm very excited about this one opening up. it looks like it'll be ready soon! i've never really had any of their stuff in edmonton before because i was lucky enough to get homecooking. but now that i'm living on my own, i'll be stocking my freezer!