THE SPOONS OUTDOOR CONCERT - DUNDAS SQUARE, TORONTO:
















While I was in Toronto I discovered that The Spoons would be performing a one hour outdoor concert in downtown Toronto at the Dundas Square stage. It was part of Dairy Queen's 25th Anniversary of the Blizzard, a touring party that is stopping in 25 cities all across North America this summer. There was a lot of DQ hype before the gig and it looked liked many thousands of mini Oreo Blizzard's were handed out to eager Toronto residents. I got my Blizzard and made a donation to the The Children's Miracle Network.

The Spoons came on stage at 12 noon and played most of their hits in the hour long concert (set list below). The band fronted by Gord Deppe and Sandy Horne still sound great live and had the crowd dancing and enjoying themselves. The band is going to release an album of all new material this year (they recently saw their 1983 "Talkback" album get issued on cd for the first time). They played one of the new songs "Imperfekt" for only the second time live in concert and it sounded great. I had missed the band's recent 30th Anniversary concert in Toronto and was happy to be able to see them live outside on a nice sunny day. After the concert I noticed Gord and Sandy signing stuff for fans behind the stage so I went back and chatted with them and got my Talkback cd signed.




While at University I booked The Spoons and they played Convocation Hall in Sackville New Brunswick during the tour to promote their album "Bridges Over Borders". As a long time fan of the group it is great to see them still sounding great and working on releasing a new album.


















All photos copyright KulPop.



The Spoons - Dundas Square, Toronto, May 18th, 2010

SET LIST:

12:02 pm
Intro
Arias & Symphonies
Smiling In Winter
Romantic Traffic
Rodeo
Waterline
Bridges Over Borders
When Time Turns Around
Tell No Lies
Imperfekt (And Real) - new song
Old Emotions
One In Ten Words
Nova Heart
ended 1:00 pm
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TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB - WRONG BAR, TORONTO CONCERT REVIEW:
















Ireland's Two Door Cinema Club ended their North American tour with a gig at The Wrong Bar in Toronto on Monday May 17th. I was lucky enough to get on the guest list to this sold-out show and arrived at the venue before the line up had begun. I noticed the band's bassist Kevin outside the venue so I approached him and chatted and got my copy of "Tourist History" signed by him. I was disappointed to find out that MillionYoung whom I had been looking forward to seeing had all their equipment stolen in Montreal the night before so they weren't performing, just Bad Viens as openers. I went and grabbed some supper and walked back to the venue as the line up of fans had just started. I looked back and saw Kevin and guitarist Sam leaving the venue to grab some food so I went back and got Sam's signature on my cd. Then lead singer Alex joined them on the sidewalk and I got his signature also.

I wasn't overly impressed with Bad Viens from Cincinati and patiently waited for TDCC. When the band came on stage (with the addition of a drummer) they played a tight set with all the songs from their debut album plus a few extra tracks. Highlights for me were "Do You Want It All", "Something Good Can Work", and "Come Back Home" (see full set list below). The band sounded great, my only complaint would be that the lead vocals seemed to get drowned out a bit, maybe it was due to where I was standing that was fairly close to the stage. The guys seemed genuinely happy about the sold out crowd and the amazing response they got, and said they would be back again soon. I could see them playing somewhere like The MOD Club or The Phoenix Club on their return.



Two Door Cinema Club Wrong Bar Toronto May 17th, 2010
with MillionYoung (cancelled) - Bad Viens opened

10:22 pm
1. Cigarettes In The Theatre
2. Undercover Martyn
3. Hands Off My Cash
4. Do You Want It All?
5. Something Good Can Work (got on video)
6. This Is The Life
7. Kids
8. Costume Party
9. You're Not Stubborn
10. What You Know
11. Eat That Up It's Good For You

11:00 pm
Encores:
12. Come Back Home
13. I Can Talk

a-ha PERFORM FINAL CANADIAN DATE AT MASSEY HALL, TORONTO:
















I was lucky enough to catch a-ha in concert as part of their "Ending On A High Note" tour at Massey Hall in Toronto on May 10th, 2010. I have been a long time fan of the trio and decided I wanted to see them in concert and it was definitely worth the trip to Toronto to see them.

I arrived at the venue a bit early and found a crowd of fans around one of the stage doors and heard stories of how they had recently arrived at the venue and that Paul and Mags had stopped to sign a few things for people but that Morten said he would do that later. I was fun chatting with a few fans, one guy had waited for 14 hours at the Toronto airport only to miss them arriving in the city because he waited in the wrong terminal. I entered the famous Massey Hall and took my seat (fifth row centre isle) and waited for the concert to begin after the short set by opener Ray Materick.

Tchaikovsky's "Serenade in C major" started up as their intro music and the large video screen at the back of the stage ran various black and white cartoon drawing images of the band, then Paul, Mags and Morten entered to great applause. They started with the title track from their latest cd "Foot Of The Mountain" and basically played all their best songs in reverse chronological order (see full set-list below). Morten had an early false start on either The Bandstand or Analogue and cracked a smile with Magne once he realized his mistake. The band sounded great and was helped out with a drummer and keyboard player. Morten's voice was in top form which was nice as he has had some problems with it in earlier stages of the farewell tour (he managed the long sustained note in "Summer Moved On" with no problems). A couple of times Magne came out from behind his keyboard to encourage the crowd and even played some drums during one song (Morten also played electronic drums during "Bandtsand"). Mid set the guys got together in the center of the stage and performed "And You Tell Me" and "Early Morning" acoustically without the backing band. Ending with "Cry Wolf" the band left the stage and a nice video retrospective played on the screen, then the band returned to play out the final songs which were "The Sun Always Shines on TV" (during which a montage of old American movies and TV shows was projected on the video screen), "Hunting High And Low" and left the stage and came back to close the show with a great version of their best known hit "Take On Me". I managed to video tape the last song and you can watch it below.

After the concert I noticed a large crowd at the main stage door waiting to try and meet the guys. I walked around to the other side of the building where there was another smaller crowd and a couple of black vehicles waiting so I decided that this was probably the best place to stay and try and meet them. Paul came out first and I got his signature on my "Hunting High & Low" cd booklet. Magne followed and again I got the autograph I wanted. Lastly Morten came out and he said he would sign things first then take photos with fans (he must have spent at least 25 minutes with the fans). Got the final signature on the cd booklet and then thought I might as well get a pic with Morten also so I waited a bit longer and got a photo with him.







It was amazing to finally see the band live and meeting them briefly after the gig was a nice way to end the evening.




a-ha Massey Hall Toronto May 10th, 2010

SET LIST:

8:45 pm - Tchaikovsky's "Serenade in C major" intro

1. Foot Of The Mountain
2. The Bandstand
3. Analogue
4. Forever Not Yours
5. Minor Earth, Major Sky
6. Summer Moved On
7. Move To Memphis
8. The Blood That Moves The Body
9. Stay On These Roads
10. The Living Daylights
11. Scoundrel Days
12. The Swing Of Things
13. And You Tell Me (acoustic)
14. Early Morning (acoustic)
15. We're Looking For The Whales
16. Manhattan Skyline
17. I've Been Losing You
18. Cry Wolf
-- Video Retrospective 10:00 pm
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19. The Sun Always Shines On TV
20. Hunting High And Low
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21. Take On Me
ended 10:25
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BACK FROM HOLIDAY IN TORONTO:

















Well sorry for the lack of posts, I was in Toronto for two weeks and didn't feel like posting while I was visiting with family and friends. Had a great time, also managed to see a-ha, Two Door Cinema Club and The Spoons in concert which was fun (may post concert reviews soon). Also enjoyed going to some of my favourite restaurants and cd stores. A lot of the used cd stores have disappeared, and the majors are basically down to HMV and Sunrise Records.

New cds bought: Keane - Night Train, Tracey Thorn - Love And It's Opposite, Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History and The Spoons - Talkback (first time issued on cd).

Used cds bought: Colin Munroe - Don't Think Less Of Me, Starsailor - On The Outside, Semi Precious Weapons - We Love You, Yes - 90125, Passengers - Wicked Man's Rest, The Creeps - Blue Tomato and many more (great when you find a sale bin $1 each or 7 for $5 at a place like Neurotica).

Restaurants recommended: Green Mango (730 Yonge Street) - amazing pad thai and curried vegetables, Ghazale's (504 Bloor Street West) - still the best falafal in the city, Eastern Twist (505 St. Clair Ave. West) - still love their curry potatoe paratha wrap, and Ali's Roti (1446 Queen Street West) still making great doubles.
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VARIOUS BITS AND PIECES:






Interior of Massey Hall







I am off to Toronto soon to visit with family and friends as well as see a-ha live in concert for the first time at the great Massey Hall venue. Also hoping to see Two Door Cinema Club at Wrong Bar if I can get a ticket. I recently discovered MillionYoung who is opening for them so it should be a great concert.

Really love the new demo from MadFox called "No Surrender", definitely a band to keep an eye on.

Howard Jones is touring in North America in October with dates in Florida, New York, Salt Lake City and Toronto (some dates still need to be confirmed). No word on whether it will be the Human's Lib/Dream Into Action albums in the entirety concert or not

Check out Addicted To Vinyl's post on Will Owsley who died recently (he played guitar for the likes of Amy Grant & Shania Twain as well as releasing two albums of his own). They have a great live recording of Will covering the Steely Dan song "My Old School" that is definitely worth getting.

Not sure if I liked the new series "Happy Town" Wednesday night's on ABC but plan to watch it and see how it moves along.
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