We haven’t played an acoustic show in a very, very long time. It will be nice to get away from all the toys for a couple sets (not to mention break out our Hall & Oates cover!).
Live: The Tranzac with The Danger Bees
It’s been a while since we hit played at The Tranzac and even longer since seeing The Danger Bees, so this will be awesome.
Also, the drawing for the poster was sketched on my iPad. It originally had stronger colours, but I actually prefer the monochromatic version as a drawing. In the end it stands out a bit better with a bit of colour…
Live: The Central with Brodie Dakin and Deaglan Walcarn
We’re at The Central in Toronto on Thursday night! It’s going to be awesome.
Expect some new pedals, a few ukulele appearances and a new Replacements cover! We’re on at 8:15pm.
Dog Is Blue Live: Rancho Relaxo with Hue, James & Blackburn and Illitry
Photo by R.Mirsky
- When: Feb. 16, 2012
- Where: Rancho Relaxo, Toronto ON
- Who with: Hue, James & Blackburn, Illitry
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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.
Live: 100 Days of Batman Show with Henry Adam Svec
This is going to be awesome. Those of you in Toronto have no excuse, so come celebrate the end of 100 Days of Batman! Here’s the Facebook event…
Show Recap: Broadview Espresso with Bernice
- When: Sept. 8, 2011
- Where: Broadview Espresso, Toronto ON
- Who with: Bernice
- Set List:
- Dusty Bones
- Southern Ontario
- Thirteen (Big Star cover)
- This Will Be Our Year (Zombies cover)
- She Said
- Tortoise
- Song Written Upon Getting Cut By The Argos (CFL Sessions cover)
- Slow Boat To China
- Raise Your Dead
- Laura’s Song
A week before this show, when the poster to the right was still in pristine condition (I love taping one to the counter and watching it deteriorate over time…), one of Broadview Espresso‘s regular customers said to me “aren’t you worried about playing with Robin (front-woman for Bernice)? What if she blows you out of the water…you’re not going after her, are you?”
Funnily enough, we did play after her and I was a little worried that her phenomenal voice might be a tough act to follow. Thankfully, we’re nothing if not foolishly brazen.
These Broadview Espresso shows are often really intimate and not as crowded as others, so I thought it was a good idea to bring out my trusty little homemade tube amp, but when there are suddenly close to 50 people crammed in there 5 watts just doesn’t cut it. Laura’s Microkorg got rave reviews after the set though.
Oddly enough, of all the songs we played that night “Slow Boat to China,” a tune we usually avoid or butcher entirely, was the crowd pleaser (this happened when we played in Montreal as well, actually). We also debuted our version of Big Star’s “Thirteen,” a tune we may or may not be recording very soon (re: it’s 90% done).
All told it was another one of those wonderful shows that reaffirms why we do this in the first place…
…for the drugs, money and babes, obviously.
Show Recap: The Central with Tiny and The Mountain, Garbageface & Ryan Ringer
- When: Aug. 6, 2011
- Where: The Central, Toronto ON
- Who with: Tiny and The Mountain, Garbageface, Ryan Ringer
- Set List:
- Slow Boat to China
- Dusty Bones
- She Said
- People
- Southern Ontario
- Tortoise
- Raise Your Dead
- Laura’s Song
The summer gets away from you pretty damn quickly. We blinked and suddenly hadn’t played a show since our CD release party in June. Thankfully, our good friends Tiny and The Mountain, Garbageface and Ryan Ringer asked us to play their tour kick-off party at the Central to get us off our asses.
Oh, and it was Taste of the Danforth in our neighbourhood this weekend, so any excuse to get out of the East End was a good one…we did, however, stop by the street festivities first to get a couple of awesome bubble guns from one of the vendors, complete with noises and flashing lights. Mine instantly started leaking all over my pedals and I managed to zap a friend right in the eyeball with the laser (you can sort of see Laura using hers in the photo above).
All told, we were rough and out of practice, but had a lot of fun and even had a singer or two in the front row during “Southern Ontario.” It was also our first set using a Microkorg we picked up used last week, which I promptly used to completely derail “Laura’s Song” by choosing inappropriately heavy bass patches.
…if you can’t have fun and screw around then why the hell are you in a band?