November 16th 2019, Eisbaer Night Two at The Garrison and Kaelan Mikla at the Dakota Tavern

 

The second night of Eisbaer 2019 was lined up for Saturday November 16th at the Garrison, and coincidentally Kaelan Mikla and Solstafir had also been booked for a showcase gig that same night at the Dakota Tavern around the corner as part of the Rejkjavik Calling series. Kaelan Mikla had never played in Toronto before and I had been waiting a while to see them, so I suggested to my friend Ryan that we should try and hit both venues for a two show/five band night. Unfortunately there were no advance tickets for the Rejkjavik show, so we had to line up in advance around 5pm which made for a long wait outside during that bitter mid-November period when winter has finally made it's arrival but there's no snow on the ground to insulate against the chill of the wind. 

Despite the weather we were committed to our mission though, and around 7pm we were able to get into the Dakota. Ryan and I were rewarded for our perseverance with a spot right at the front of the stage for Kaelan Mikla's set, so we were pretty pleased with everything when the band came out and started their first song. They sounded amazing, howling vocals over a haunting bass and synth driven noise that conjured images of banshees and late night rituals. It was intense and unsettling and absolutely awesome, but it was also the only song they were able to play. A bad flu had been following the band around the last couple of weeks prior to the Toronto date and that combined with exhaustion from their tour meant that the lead singer wasn't able to continue with the show. That kind of thing can't be helped and I felt really badly for the band, but I'm glad that they took the opportunity to rest and take care of themselves. I have faith that Kaelan Mikla will make it back to Toronto again sometime in the future, and you can be sure that I'll be there when they do.

With the extra time in the schedule Solstafir opted to do an extended set rather than the showcase they had originally planned for, and I was really impressed by them. I had never heard them before but they played an awesome show, very Metal, and the lead singer played a flying V so that gave them extra Metal credibility points in my mind. Definitely another great musical discovery for me from that weekend.

After Solstafir's set we went around the corner to the Garrison, and made it just in time for Black Dresses' set at Eisbaer and they were incredible. Proudly declared "Punk as Fuck" by headliners Adult., Black Dresses were raw, intense, and all sorts of amazing, playing with the energy and passion that comes from a true love and belief in what they're doing. Absolutely incredible stuff that was a total  highlight among all of the acts that I saw that weekend.

Dreamcrusher were up next and I was completely blown away when they gave one of the most powerful shows I've seen in a while. Immersing the venue completely in darkness for the start of their set, a quiet mix of opening tracks abruptly shifted to a burst of stark strobe lighting that pulsed aggressively while Dreamcrusher stalked the stage delivering a raw and bloodcurdling vocal performance. This was Theatre of Confrontation at it's best, a physically demanding and immersive live experience that shook me right down to my core. Having seen this performance at Eisbaer I would totally recommend that if you ever have the chance to experience Dreamcrusher live that you really should check them out... 

Adult. closed the night with a senses shattering set of Dark Electronic that fully captured why they're universally recognized as legends in the genre. Pulse pounding intensely controlled mayhem at its very best, Adult. have never really been a band that I've felt comfortable describing, they're more an act that you have to experience for yourself, and their performance at Eisbaer 2019 was an incredible experience to say the least. As I write this they've just announced a new album and tour for 2022, and while there's no Toronto gig scheduled yet I'm optimistic that they'll make their way through the city again at some point. Definitely a band I'm looking forward to seeing again.

So yeah, that was night two of Eisbaer 2019, an excellent conclusion to an excellent festival, one that I'm hoping we'll see again in 2022. We've always been very lucky to have a lot of exciting musical events happening in Toronto, and as we slowly ease back into the swing of things in our current Post-Pandemic world I hope that we'll see more well-curated shows like this make a return, and that there will be more opportunities to both revel in the excitement of seeing legendary artists perform and to discover new ones as well...

November 15th 2021, Eisbaer Night One at The Garrison

 

I've always appreciated the idea of a good music festival. A well curated collection of artists can be a rewarding concert experience, and it's often proven to be a great opportunity for discovery as well, introducing the audience to other artists that they may not have been aware of before. When it's done well it can be an excellent time, and the Eisbaer event at the Garrison on November 15th and 16th was an especially excellent time. Spread out over two nights the event featured a solid mix of local and touring artists with a wide range of styles and it gave me a good opportunity to see some bands I already knew as well as introduce me to some others that have become fast favorites. 

I went to the first night with my friend Carrie, and while it has absolutely nothing to do with the show, I feel the need to point out that on the drive over we saw a possum. I don't think I've ever seen one before, so that was pretty cool. I hesitate to say that possums are cute and cuddly, but there was a certain warrior's heart being displayed in this little beastie when it hissed at us, so I'm going to say that possums get two thumbs up from me for having both Edge and Attitude...

Anyway, I went to the first night with my friend Carrie, and it was a solid evening of entertainment. We got there early enough that we were able to get seats on the raised west side of the Garrison, close enough to the stage that we could see everything with a little bit of elevation, so that was good. Up first was Lee Paradise, who played a kinda funky and kinda synth-y set of Manchester-y groovy goodness. I had never heard them before, but I was impressed and the overall effect had me nodding my head and doing that little shuffly dance that I do in crowds at shows. They were really good.

The second act was Automatic and I had discovered them on Bandcamp a little while before so I was looking forward to a solid set of Retro Futurist Minimal Post-Punk Pop, and they totally delivered on that promise. Their set built on the short sharp staccato sound of their studio material and stretched out the songs into grooves that really opened up the musical space. I really like Automatic, and I hope that I'll have the chance to see them again sometime soon.

Black Marble played last and they played an awesome set, with the kind of velvet-y vocals and processed guitar that whirls and swirls and makes my heart swoon, a blend of Shoegaze and Pop sensibility that really appeals and inspires. It was an excellent set of songs and a great way to end the first night of the festival.

Over the years that I've known her, Carrie and I have often talked about the idea of Perfect Moments, those times where you feel a certain bliss just existing in a state of calm and happiness for whatever reason. I don't think we actually declared it as such at the time, but in hindsight I'm kind of thinking that drive home after night one of Eisbaer was a Perfect Moment. We didn't see any more possums on our drive back, but it had been a great night of music and both of us were riding that post-concert wave that happens after a really great show, and it just felt really good to be alive and to have spent an awesome night out with one of my favorite people. 

I think that definitely qualifies as a Perfect Moment...

November 13th 2021, Odonis Odonis at The Garrison

 

I went to see Odonis Odonis last night at The Garrison, and it was an awesome show on a number of levels. The band sounded great, and new tracks like Shadowplay and Impossible were excellent live. And to be in a space with others listening to music? It was... pretty amazing. I've missed that a lot. I mean, A LOT. The absence of live music has left a hole in my heart over the last twenty-ish months, and it's an incredible feeling to be able to experience it again. Thank you to Odonis Odonis, Transmit Presents, and The Garrison for putting on this show and for continuing to celebrate the joy and excitement of live performance. 

November 13th 2021, Bjork at the Opera House

I became a fan of The Sugarcubes when they put out "Life's Too Good" in 1988, a collection of eclectic and alien songs that were strangely compelling. It was an album that ran a gamut of moods and feelings, moving deftly between the joyful celebration of Birthday and the unsettling unease of Coldsweat with a skill that many bands at the time couldn't dream of. Over the course of the next few years The Sugarcubes released a handful of albums that challenged Pop ideals and aesthetics, randomly releasing tracks that were willfully obscure or brilliantly resonant until they broke up in 1992. 

You'd think that their break up would be the end of the story, but a year later lead singer Bjork released her first solo album "Debut", and, well, that kind of suggested that The Sugarcubes were the prequel to a whole different story. To say that "Debut" is anything less than a perfect blend of sounds and styles is an understatement. The entire album was immediately accessible and appealing, quirky yet connective, slick and sleek and thoroughly awesome, a bold new sound that laid the foundation for Bjork to be recognized as a significant and relevant artist who's distinct and unique work would continue to develop over the course of the next few decades.

It's impossible to imagine that she would have known where her solo career would take her at that point, but there was no question that Bjork was completely confident and sure of herself when she came to Toronto in support of the album. Her show at the Opera House was an excellent study in the mechanics of live performance featuring a complete run through the album along with a stunning version of Play Dead taken from a soundtrack that was released around the same time. She jumped around wildly during a spirited performance of Violently Happy, and during the instrumental parts in Big Time Sensuality she charged head first at her band members like a bull. It was a great show on a variety of levels, but most importantly it ably demonstrated Bjork's vast talent and creativity, one of her first steps as a solo artist on a unique and exciting musical journey that continues to this day...

November 12th 1990, Iggy Pop at The Concert Hall

It kind of feels like this blog would be missing something if I didn't have a post about Iggy Pop. Over the years I've seen him a few times and he always puts on an incredible show, a display of flailing limbs and raw energy, but it was the first time I saw him at the Concert Hall in 1990 that stands out the most to me. I went with Brooke and I feel like our friend Liz was there too and we had a good view of the stage from the balcony on the left side. Alice in Chains opened the night and I think this was the first time they played in Toronto, just before Grunge had really broke. They put on an awesome show, with low deep bass and brooding vocals and I was inspired to buy their first album the next day. Great stuff...

But as good as Alice in Chains were as openers, it was Iggy Pop that we were there to see and true to form he played an awesome set. He had a boundless enthusiasm, literally hopping to the centre of the stage at the start of the show, and then bouncing and contorting and shaking his thang all through the rest of the night. I'm pretty sure that he had some kind of vest on when he started, but by the end of the first song he was definitely shirtless, and, well, that's kind of what you expect at an Iggy Pop show, so it had that going for it.

He played a bunch of songs from his new album at the time, "Brick by Brick" and they were all fine, but it was the older songs that really stood out for me. My initial introduction to Iggy Pop years prior had been through the Bowie produced "Lust for Life" and "The Idiot", so I was happy to hear a handful of tracks from those two albums, and of course he played a bunch of songs from The Stooges, and they were all kinds of raw and grimy and passionate and awesome. I feel strongly that everybody should see a live version of I Wanna Be Your Dog at least once in their lives, and if there's the chance to see Search and Destroy played too then that's even better. My thinking is that any opportunity to discover the street walkin' cheetah with a heart full of napalm that lives inside of all of us is a good opportunity...

November 10th 1990, Skinny Puppy at The Concert Hall

 

In many ways Skinny Puppy were a revelation for me, an introduction to a new world of sound and the way that music could be made. Where a lot of the music being released in the mid- to late-eighties followed typical song structures and conventional instrumentation, Skinny Puppy pushed the boundaries of those forms, applying new ideas and approaches that spoke to a new ideal. They had a much more expansive sense of how sounds and samples could be used in their work, and they actively challenged the way people thought about music. There's no question in my mind that Skinny Puppy were different from any of the other bands that I was listening to at the time.

Yet even despite that difference in sound, they existed within an interesting era when Canadian content rules meant that radio stations were required to play a certain amount of Canadian music, and since Skinny Puppy were from Vancouver that meant they got a fair bit of radio play which contributed to a familiarity and popularity that may not have been as possible elsewhere or elsewhen. I'm not saying that they were at the top of the charts hanging around with Madonna and New Kids on the Block, but they were getting regular play and building a solid audience that were looking for something new.

The size of that audience meant that Skinny Puppy were able to play some pretty decent sized shows, including a pair of gigs at the Concert Hall in Toronto in 1990. I went to see them on the November 10th show with my friend Dave, and from our view on the right side of the balcony it was unlike any other show I had been to up to that point in my life. An eclectic and increasingly disparate wave of sounds washed over the crowd like a dark flood, while Nivek Ogre alternately growled and screamed and intoned lyrics with a sinister menace. There were scratchy distorted videos that played behind the band, and there was a dark tree on stage with claw-like branches.swaying and reaching out to the audience. They played Tin Omen and Worlock and I think that this was the tour where they debuted the Stilt Man routine with Ogre stalking around the stage on prosthetic stilts. It was all rather overwhelming, but it was also rather brilliant, an apocalyptic blend of sound and theatre and madness unlike anything I had ever seen before...  

Skinny Puppy's mad brilliance influenced a lot of people, and in the years following I saw tons of bands trying to capture the same kind of sound and style to varying levels of success. Some of them were able to reach similar heights, and some of them not so much, but I've always appreciated those efforts, that desire to bring together ideas in new ways that challenge our notions about what music should sound like and what performance should look like. I guess that idea plays a large part in my interest in seeing live music. Performance is always moving forward, always pushing boundaries, always trying to do something new, and Skinny Puppy completely embodied that idea with their work, opening doors for countless others to follow through, and while they may not have been the first band to do so, they were among the first to make me think about performance in new and different ways, and I'll always be grateful for them opening my mind to those possibilities...

November 4th 1993, Nirvana at Maple Leaf Gardens

As far as I know, Nirvana only came to Toronto for three gigs. The first was a club date at Lee's Palace in support of the "Bleach" album before Dave Grohl joined the band, and history and legend have conspired together to make that show kind of notorious, with bottles thrown and glass on the floor. I wasn't there but by all accounts it was pretty epic. The second show was at the Opera House around the release of "Nevermind" during that sweet spot in their career where people knew who they were but they hadn't quite exploded yet. My friend Brooke asked me if I wanted to go and foolishly I said no, but since then whatever excuse I might have had at the time is long forgotten to me and I've kicked myself repeatedly for having missed it. Brooke could tell you better, but I've heard that it was a pretty wicked gig.

But I did see them at Maple Leaf Gardens in support of "In Utero". Having missed the Opera House show I was determined to see them this time around, and they were every bit as awesome as their reputation would suggest. It was a short show, I don't remember it being any more than maybe an hour and a half with encores, but that hour and a half was packed with an impressive energy and passion. They played a dark and ominously heavy run through  Heart Shaped Box that built on all of the menace and paranoia of the album version, and All Apologies was a great song to end the set before the encores. The night was pretty evenly divided between tracks from "In Utero" and "Nevermind", with a couple of covers and one or two songs from "Bleach", a pretty solid overview of their career to that point. They didn't play Smells Like Teen Spirit, and more than a few people were grumbling about that after the show, but in hindsight it makes a lot of sense that they wouldn't have. Nirvana were so much more than just that one song, and the fact that they could play a great show without playing their biggest hit is an impressive testimony to the quality of their work and to their strength as a band...