BLOG HIATUS: MOVING CROSS COUNTRY TO VANCOUVER:















I've accepted a new job in Vancouver British Columbia and am moving there in the coming weeks. As you can imagine this is a major life change and I will be so busy initially that I won't have much if any time to post anything on this blog (not sure if that many people actually read it?)

Once everything settles down I may be back, depends on many factors, time and interest being the big ones.

To those would read and enjoyed my blog (and sometimes left comments) I thank you.

Regards,

KulPop

REVIEW: DARREN HAYES - MOD CLUB, TORONTO:





















Photo copyright KulPop

Darren Hayes returned to Toronto after seven years to a very appreciative crowd at The MOD Club last night. He apologized for the gap blaming the record company (SONY) for not bringing him to Canada for his 'Spin' and 'The Tension & The Spark' releases.

Darren played a sampling of new songs as well as some previous solo material and some Savage Garden tracks. A girl in the audience (the audience was full mainly of screaming young girls) told me he had been feeling a little under the weather a few days ago. During a couple of songs in looked to me like Darren was relying on his vocal tracks being played from one of the two computers he was using to flesh out the three piece band's sound (especially on the track 'Me, Myself and (i)').

Darren spoke about his difficult relationship he's had with his father before he performed 'How To Build A Time Machine', one of the stronger new tracks he performed that will be on his upcoming double album 'This Delicate Thing We've Made' that he is releasing on August 20th. Another standout track was the song 'Step Into The Light' as well as his cover of Prince's 'Baby, I'm A Star' that closed out his set before he came out and performed 'Void' as the encore (rough setlist listed below).





















Photo copyright KulPop

Darren is a seasoned performer and seemed to be really enjoying himself on stage and knows how to get the crowd excited. At one point he said that the crowd would probably scream at anything he said and someone in the audience yelled out 'Say fabric softener', which he did to even more screams. Darren did mention that he got married and asked if you could do that in Canada and someone yelled he should have done it here. He also took a girl's camera at one point and took some photos for her (later in the show he took the same girl's camera and rubbed it on the front of his pants as if he was cleaning the lense (I guess??). Darren also promised he would be back soon, so I'm guessing he will be doing a proper tour after the new cd is released.

It appears that Darren really enjoyed his time in Toronto, he wrote about it here





















Photo copyright KulPop

London's Temposhark opened the gig with seven song set with most songs coming from their debut cd 'The Invisible Line' (which was for sale for the first time ever for $10 so I picked up the first copy before the doors opened). They were pretty good, although I thought their cover of Madonna's 'Like A Prayer' was weak and maybe a mistake. Imogen Heap unfortunately wasn't there to add her vocals on 'Not That Big' (sounds great on the cd, as well as the Guy Sigsworth produced tracks). I would have got my cd signed but the lineup after the show to meet the guys at the merch table was moving slowly I decided to exit on to College Street that was closed off for the very busy 'Taste of Little Italy' festival. As I walked home I think someone tried to pick my pocket as my ticket envelope and setlist paper all of a sudden were removed from my back pocket and when I turned around they were on the ground.


Temposhark - The MOD Club

Not That Big
Paris
Invisible Ink (Prelude)
Blame
Little White Lie
Like A Prayer (Madonna cover)
Joy

Darren Hayes - The MOD Club - Toronto June 15th, 2007

Intro music
?
Who Would Have Thought
Carry On Dancing
Unlovable
Step Into The Light
How To Build A Time Machine
The Tension & The Spark
I Don't Know You Anymore
I Want You
On The Verge Of Something Wonderful
Me, Myself and (i)
Baby, I'm A Star (Prince cover)

Encore:
Void

REVEREND AND THE MAKERS - REMIXES:





















U.K. band Reverend And The Makers have been a 'buzz' band for a while now, and have recently entered the U.K. Top Ten with their single 'Heavyweight Champion Of The World'. They could be described as the Arctic Monkeys with a dance electronica feel. In fact they are managed by the same team that manages the Monkeys so they will likely be huge in the U.K.

I found a couple of great remixes by Jagz Kooner of the single and their song '18-30' (which I think is better than 'Heavyweight' - what do you think?) at this blog, definitely worth checking out.

GREAT 'NAKED EYES' NEWS, TORONTO DATE:















Naked Eyes have a new website and have announced a few more live dates. The best news is that they have booked a concert date in Toronto for August 10th!! I travelled down to Rochester New York last fall to see Pete and band and it was a great show.

There is also a new Naked Eyes - "Live at the World Cafe" DVD you can order and Pete Byrne's new acoustic covers cd (pictured above) "Fumbling With The Covers" will be released on July 31st.

JERICHO MAY RETURN TO CBS SCHEDULE:
















I enjoyed the CBS series 'Jericho' this season and was unhappy but not really surprised when CBS didn’t renew it for a second season. It had a great cliffhanger ending so I was happy to read this morning that fans have been sending lots of peanuts to CBS headquarters and there is now talk of a possibly bringing it back for at least an eight-episode mid-season run.

JERICHO UPDATE, JUNE 7TH, 2007:

CBS has announced that Jericho will be back for 7 episodes at midseason, with repeats of Season 1 over the summer. The DVD of Season 1 arrives on September 25th.

RANDOM NOTES:









I'm back from a short time away, Bermuda is a nice island if you ever get the chance to visit. I brought back some Barritts Ginger Beer so I can make a proper 'Dark 'n Stormy' as I've tried a lot of different brands of ginger beer here in Canada and none of them are quite right.

While I was away I missed some concerts I would have gone to if I was in the city, including Damien Rice and Keane.









I'm going to see Darren Hayes (former lead singer of Savage Garden) on June 15th, part of his small select North American club date tour. I never saw Savage Garden live so it will be a good show as I understand he is doing all their hits as well as solo material. He has a new album titled 'This Delicate Thing We've Made' that he is releasing on August 20th. You can hear some samples on his MySpace site.

Opening for Darren is the cool band Temposhark, wouldn't it be nice if Imogen Heap showed up to sing 'Not That Big' with the band.









I noticed Skye (former lead singer of Morcheeba) is playing a small club here in Toronto in late June, so I may go check her out as her 'Mind How You Go' cd is very good. I think it was 'XO's Middle Eight's' blog that first alerted me to the release, still enjoy the track 'Tell Me About Your Day'.

I see that there are a number of interesting remixes now on iTunes from Sweden's 'The Attic', hope to download them soon.

TELEVISION NOTES:

I was heartened to see that ABC decided to renew 'October Road' for the fall. As I've mentioned before I think the show has a lot of potential and look forward to seeing what the writers will do with a full season to work with.

I caught most of the season finale's for my favourite shows (missed Smallville though, I'll have to catch it as a repeat). Brother's And Sister's was pretty good, good to see it also got renewed. LOST was decent as was the 2 hour finale of 24. Not sure if I will watch another season of it as this past one was a bit weak.

American Idol had a pretty weak season ending also as some of the stronger singers didn't make it to the final. 'Canadian Idol' starts up it's summer run tonight, should be interesting to see how it goes this season.