concert count

#30: Alexisonfire/Billy Talent (13-July-07) - Molson Ampitheatre

2 favourite bands + awesome venue + front row seats = one of the best concerts ever.

sandy came down for the concert b/c she loves billy talent, and i love alexisonfire, so this was pretty much our dream concert. we got front row seats, right behind the mosh pit, which was even more exciting. we got tickets on dallas's side, of course.

there were about 4 opening bands, and i would have liked to check out some of them, but by the time we got there, and squeezed our way through the crowd in front of the merchandise table, we only actually caught aof and billy talent.

aof came on first. and what can i say about their set. it was highly energetic, as to be expected. george was rocking his jean cut offs as usual. even though, technically, billy talent were the headliners, i was looking forward to seeing aof more. they played mainly songs from their new album, crisis, and threw in some old favourites like happiness by the kilowatt and .44 calibre love letter.

ian from billy talent came out to sing part of rough hands with aof, which was pretty cool. and that only meant someone from aof would probably come out and sing part of a billy talent song during their set. having front row seats were also amazing! i love the molson amphitheatre already, and having front row seats made it even better.

this is one is my favourite pictures i took of aof that night:

and here's one of dallas to end it off:

then it was billy talent's turn to end off the night. they started their set the same way they did at their last tour, with the screen, and ian, aaron, and jon slowly get revealed, then ben runs out in front of the screen before it drops.

we were sitting so close, check out this picture of ben in his signature singing position.

when billy talent were singing their new single, surrender, dallas came out to sing part of the song for them! i was so preoccupied to get a video, i didn't get a picture of it.

so all in all, a great show. i ended up buying two shirts from the merch table. one of aof and one of billy talent. the billy one i actually wanted to get at their last show, but they sold out by the time i got there. and i was lucky to get the aof shirt b/c it was the last one and they just started selling the ones off the wall. during the aof set, dallas said that it was when they were touring together in germany, that he and ben thought it would be a good idea to play a show together at the amphitheatre. i'm glad it actually happened!

it's too bad i didn't catch the other bands. i wanted to check out attack in black b/c they were just recording a new album, so they would have had some new songs. maybe next time.

upcoming shows: JT in aug, multiple city and colour shows in sept, maroon 5 in oct, and matt good in oct.

concert count

#24: Tokyo Police Club (04-Apr-07) - Mod Club

so my previous dilemma was averted, my friend james came to the show with me, but i was going to go alone if i didn't find anyone.

i'm glad i went b/c it was a great show! got there in time to see both sets, and they were both great. cold war kids opened up for tokyo police club, and i hadn't heard any of their music before, but wanted to check them out based on stuff i read about them. and they didn't disappoint. i really liked them and ended up buying their CD at the merch table. marco - they do a great live show, i wouldn't be surprised if you are right and they're the next big thing.

then tokyo police club came on and they were really good too. although, all their songs do kinda sound the same in the sense that they're all very high tempo, fast songs. they're from newmarket, so i'm all for supporting canadian bands.

as many concerts i've been to, and as many concerts that are at the mod club, i, surprisingly, had not been to a show at the mod club until this one. i like it, it's a good venue. ten second epic are playing there when they come back in may, so i'm looking forward to that show.

in other concert news: billy talent, alexisonfire, cancer bats, attack in black, and die mannequin are playing a show together at the molson amphitheatre on july 13th. i CAN'T wait for that show! love billy talent and alexisonfire already, have seen attack in black before and like them, want to check out cancer bats, and don't know who die mannequin are. i love the molson amphitheatre for shows too.

next up: john legend and corinne bailey rae at the hummingbird theatre.

concert count

#22: Chantal Kreviazuk (24-Feb-07) - Massey Hall

such a family affair. raine maida opened up for chantal, which was cool because i've seen him millions of times with our lady peace, but this is the first time i've seen him solo. he only sang one OLP song (innocent) and the rest of the stuff was new material. sounded pretty good overall, and i love raine, so it was cool to see him perform again. chantal came out to play piano on some of his songs.

then chantal did her set. i've never seen her perform live before, but i highly recommend it to anyone when she swings by your town. her voice is so clear and it was a really good show overall. i thought i wouldn't really know many songs since i've barely listened to her new album, but she sang quite a bit of the older, well known songs as well.

the other thing i liked about the show was that she talked to the audience quite a bit. i like those kind of moments at concerts b/c it makes a more personal connection with the audience. chantal kept saying umm alot, and she was trying to stop it, so she kept trying to replace the umm's with 'right then' because the british always say it in place of umm.

she talked about her kids and then at one point, between songs, her youngest son luca started crying backstage and everyone could hear it. so she called her kids out on stage and they sat on her lap and sang ba ba black sheep into the mike. it was so cute. then on the last song of the encore, her son rowan ran out on stage and chantal let her sit on her lap while she finished the last song. she whispered into his ear "you can sit here if you sit quietly."

one of the best things she did was for the first song of the encore, she came out to the edge of the stage, sat down with an acoustic guitar, and sang a song without a mike. because massey hall is a great venue, she didn't need a mike to be heard by everyone.

good show.

#23: Ten Second Epic (25-Feb-07) - The Opera House

i love going to different venues for shows. this was my first time at the opera house, and it's awesome. reminds me of the phoenix, and they both have similar rock shows all the time.

so there were 4 bands playing this particular night, but i only went to see ten second epic. marco got me listening to them since he knows some of the guys in the band, and it's totally my type of music. on top of that, they're from edmonton, so i gotta support the local talent!

they only had about a half an hour set, but it was high energy and fun. the lead singer was sick and had completely lost his voice in the morning. he went to the doctor and they gave him a prescription for steroids, and his voice came back. so when he told that story, he was saying he had roid rage and that his dream of winning the 100m dash is gone b/c he didn't want to be the next ben johnson.

their songs are fun and they're coming back to toronto in may, so i'll probably go see them again. their video is on heavy rotation on muchmusic right now, so i hope they keep riding this momentum. yay for edmonton!