Tag: Rancho Relaxo

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Dog Is Blue Live: Rancho Relaxo with Hue, James & Blackburn and Illitry

Dog Is Blue Live at Ranch Relaxo, Feb. 16 2012Photo by R.Mirsky

  • When: Feb. 16, 2012
  • Where: Rancho Relaxo, Toronto ON
  • Who with: Hue, James & Blackburn, Illitry
    Set List:

  • Tortoise
  • Dusty Bones
  • Young Enough (Ukulele)
  • Till the End of the Day (Kinks cover)
  • Southern Ontario
  • People
  • Raise Your Dead (Ukulele)
  • Laura’s Song (Ukulele)

Shows like this past Thursday at Rancho Relaxo are why we play live music. All the bands sounded great, the crowd seemed to enjoy themselves as much as we did, we didn’t have any technical difficulties AND the sound was amazing. We should probably retire now.

Something clicked earlier in the evening when we decided to start the set with “Tortoise”. We usually ease in to that one, so it definitely signaled a “show them that 2 people can rock pretty damn hard” approach to the set that was a lot of fun. We also brought out the ukulele again for a few songs, which seemed to go over well (especially during “Laura’s Song”).

The whole shebang was put together by the good folks at The Indie Machine, so we definitely recommend checking them out for future shows.

If you’re looking for a less biased recap of the show with some great pictures (not unlike the one above by our pal R.Mirsky) check out the writeup at Buyingshotsforbands.com. If nothing else that review reveals the scary fact that some people are actually listening to the nonsense that Paul says between songs. Scary indeed.

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Show Recap: Rancho Relaxo with Smugshot and Richard Gracious

Rancho Relaxo

    Set List:

  • Dusty Bones w/Anna Atkinson
  • Southern Ontario w/Anna Atkinson
  • She Said
  • Tortoise
  • People
  • Young Enough w/Anna Atkinson
  • Raise Your Dead w/Anna Atkinson

This was the night of the “big snow storm” that had all of Toronto (not to mention southern Ontario and a good chunk of the U.S.) stocking up on canned goods, sitting in their panic rooms locked & loaded for the apocalypse. Of course, we only got about half of the expected white stuff here, so the show at Rancho Relaxo went on as scheduled.

Getting ready to record our new album this month, we used this set as an opportunity to work on some of the new material. Case in point, Anna Atkinson joined us on viola for a few tunes (complete with a great new haircut…) and “She Said” was played live for the very first time.

Of course, I’m an easily distracted mess, so new accompaniment and the debut of a recently built guitar pedal along with strange stage hum made for interesting results. Thankfully, I make it a habit to surround myself with beautiful, talented and dependable women who pick up my slack and slap me with it.

Given all the hoopla over the snow, it ended up being a good time. We were very grateful for an audience who actually braved the overblown weather, and both Smugshot (complete with Keytar) and Richard Gracious (who ended the night with a drunken dance party) were a lot of fun (and each covered bands I’d completely forgotten about—Wheatus and Afroman respectively).

Bring on the House of Miracles!

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