In my admittedly sheltered experience, I find it difficult to imagine that the pop music industry could still be profitable enough to warrant this kind of behaviour. Don't get me wrong, I'm spending more money on music these days than I ever have, but it's certainly not on James Taylor or Kid Rock albums. In fact, I'm not even buying albums so much anymore.
My top 5 concerts of 2008
1) Holy Fuck, Plants and Animals
LOLA Festival, London, Ontario
September 29, 2008
I went to check out the Saturday night offerings at last summer's LOLA Festival to take in the Plants and Animals concert. It ended up being one of those delicious live music experiences were I was awestruck by a first time encounter with a band other than the one I had come to see. In my books, Holy Fuck is the first group since Pink Floyd to achieve a truly innovative and successful marriage of rock and technology (well okay, maybe Mike Patton's pretty good at it, too).
When I came across the band listed on the LOLA website, I had abruptly concluded that the name was the tragic and annoying result of a frat-boy perception of a clever moniker. By the time the first song had finished, I was drawn to admit the performance was leading me to rethink not only the appropriateness of their choice of band name, but my entire perception of what I had previously considered to be a tasteless expletive.
2) Iron and Wine
Phoenix Nightclub, Toronto, Ontario
November 13, 2008
It was a warm late autumn evening and Sam Beam and company played a lengthy set that encompassed a good assortment of offerings from all three albums in the Iron and Wine discography at Toronto's historic Phoenix Nightclub. Afterward we stopped at a kebab place for a snack before driving back to London. All in all, a fabulous evening.
3) The Sadies
Grand Stage Music and Arts Festival, Paris, Ontario
July 12, 2008
I'm not a big fan of North American versions of the outdoor summer festival. Too often the music seems to take a back seat to the underage drunk-fest in the beer garden. Thankfully the Sadies took the stage before the atmophere degraded into an alcoholic stupor. Well, to be fair, this particular festival never reached that point, most likely due to the excellent food options in the canteen (the pulled pork was delicious). Anway, the Good brothers were in fine, high-energy form and the thunderstorm in the distance that framed the stage with black clouds and streaks of lightning was a nice touch.
4) Great Lake Swimmers wsg Kate Maki
Lee's Palace, Toronto, Ontario
October 18, 2008
It was great to have the chance to take in one last performance from the Ongiara era before the upcoming release. My favourite band playing at my favourite Toronto venue - this concert probably would have been higher up in the list had it not been for the ridiculous heckler standing beside us.
5) Mother Mother wsg The Wooden Sky
Call the Office
London, Ontario
October 19, 2008
Ever since this concert, Mother Mother has been in heavy rotation on my iPod. They're just so damn fun.
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