Jordan Klassen w/ Chersea @ Biltmore -- 05/31/14

Wrapping up a month-long Canadian tour, Jordan Klassen returned home for a show at the Biltmore. Which was especially enticing, as it also included one of my favourite new discoveries of this year.

Behind a mountain of equipment, Chersea took the stage starting off with a dark and moody song, which she dedicated to a friend who recently passed away. From there the set was decidedly more upbeat as she single-handedly looped combinations of keys, synth, drum machine, trumpet, and even harmonized with herself. The only song of the set she didn't loop was a brand new, never-before-played song that she was debuting.
Other highlights from the all-too-short half-hour set included "Mr. Cullum" a jazzy tune both named after and inspired by British jazz-pop legend Jamie Cullum, and the ridiculously catchy "I Could Lose It All" off her recently released EP Grey Matter.

Thanks to the curfew, it wasn't long before Jordan Klassen and friends took the stage. Often the last show of a tour can be hit-or-miss; either the fatigue of the tour weighs on the band, or they are more in sync than ever. This was definitely the latter, as the four members of the band were firing on all cylinders. Kicking the set off with "The Scribe of Doorposts", all four members of the band had a great energy, especially Klassen who can barely stand still on stage. One song near the end of the set, he and Jocelyn Price even jumped off the stage and into the crowd as Jordan tore at his acoustic guitar.
Working around a few patch-cord related technical issues, the set was full of songs that built to grand endings from his Repentance album, but they also covered "Falling", the only Haim song I know (I think), and sprinkled a few new songs throughout. One called "Miles" especially caught my ear.
After about an hour, they ended off with a bit of a crowd singalong to "Balcony" before quickly coming back for the encore, one last song before curfew, an explosive "Call and Answer".

I've seen Jordan Klassen a few times over the years, and this was was probably the best show I've seen yet from him. The intensity seemed like it was ratcheted up a notch, and whatever people mean when they talk about a band hitting "the next level", I think Jordan has done.

Paper Lions & Jordan Klassen @ Media Club -- 11/16/13

It seemed like the universe was against Paper Lions playing Saturday night at the Media Club. Three quarters of the PEI band had to make the drive from Edmonton to Vancouver the day of the show -- lead singer John McPhee had arrived early by plane -- and while they left Alberta with plenty of time, blizzard conditions, traffic accidents, highway reroutes, and Vancouver's infamous year-round 24/7 road construction caused them more than a little grief getting to their headlining set at the sold out Media Club.

In fact, their co-headliner, Jordan Klassen almost ran into the same problems, only arriving at the venue when the opening act was supposed to go on. A quick line check delayed the show by a little while, before Emilie Mover took the stage alone for her opening set. She had kind of a jazzy vibe, and her set included a couple covers, including a Townes Van Zandt song, and one in French which was probably the best song of the set. I feel she would have been a lot better with a full band behind her, but with just her, it wasn't necessarily bad, just not very memorable.

After a little bit of stalling, and some more quick sound checking, Jordan Klassen was up next with his newly slimmed down band. Now a four piece, the band consists of old members Jocelyn Price on keys & backup vocals and Simon Bridgefoot on drums, as well as newcomer Mike Noble. They managed to capture most of the same scope of the larger band, and had just as much energy. Especially Jordan, who is always bounding around the stage while switching from guitar to banjo to ukulele.
With a set featuring songs off his recently released Repentance album, Klassen started with "Call and Answer", starting quiet and growing to a rambunctious ending. His rich folk-pop ran from the big and intense "The Scribe of Doorposts" to the much quieter  "Goodhart's Law" which almost got the Media Club silent (no easy task).
He wrapped up the set with the whistley "Go To Me", another song that builds to a big ending, and the more mellow "You Are The Branches"

setlist
Call and Answer, Anatomical Literacy, Ranchero, Balcony, Strengthen Me With Raisins, The Horses Are Stuck, The Scribe of Doorposts, Piano Brother, Goodhart's Law, Sweet Chariot, Go To Me, You Are The Branches.


At this point in the night, the remaining Paper Lions were still a little over a hundred kilometres away, but since John was there and ready to go, he took the stage for a short solo acoustic set. Explaining the situation, he started with a song about their previous tour van's unfortunate run-in with a moose, and played a really strong set. Keeping it loose, John told stories between songs, and getting everyone to sing along to his acoustic jams, including a nice cover of Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill".

Had worse come to worst, that would have been a pretty good show, but not long after John finished, the rest of the band showed up from their 16 hour drive, and immediately set up & started their set -- hitting the stage at 12:30, two hours after their scheduled time.

The stunning harmonies of "Philadelphia" kicked off the set as they channelled all their pent up energy and frustration into high energy rockers like "Don't Touch That Dial" and "Sweat it Out", the chorus proclaiming "I'll sweat it out from 9 to 5, to sweat it out on Friday night". The set spanned from new and old, from the ridiculously catchy "Pull me In" off of the new album My Friends, to the explosive "Strawberry Man" that goes all the way back to when they were known as the Chucky Danger Band.
They got everyone singing once more for "Little Liar" and "Lost The War", and wrapped up the set with "My Friend", John jumping into the crowd to tell individual members of the remaining audience "I know you are my friend".
Despite that it was almost 1:30 when they wrapped up, the crowd still clamoured for more, and they obliged with one last song, "Sandcastles" for an energetic and emotional ending to a long day.

The potential for disaster was all there, and I would not have blamed the band at all if they had just decided on a shorter set. But the fact that immediately after driving for 16 hours, they put on a top notch set was incredibly impressive.

setlist
John solo: The Night That We Survived, Polly Hill, Solsbury Hill [Peter Gabriel cover], Ghostwriters, Trouble, I'm On Fire, Travelling. 

Band: Philadelphia, Don't Touch That Dial, Sweat It Out, Pull Me In, The Sheriff, Bodies in the Winter, Little Liar, Strawberry Man, Stay Here For A While, Travelling, Lost The War, My Friend.
(encore) Sandcastles. 

We Are The City @ Vogue -- 07/04/13

Sometimes a lineup comes along that is almost too good to be true, which was the case for We Are The City's album release part. Celebrating their new album, Violet, they stacked the bill with local favourites for an incredible showcase of the city's talent.


Starting the night was an all-too-short set from the violin looping Hannah Epperson. She came out on stage, alone and barefoot, to create beautiful sonic soundscapes using masterful loops of nothing but her violin, sometimes plucking, sometimes tapping on it to get percussive beats.
A couple of the songs were just instrumental, but she added fragile yet captivating vocals to a new song, "Shadowless" and "We Will Host A Party", which ended the set.


After a short turnaround, Jordan Klassen took the stage, alone at first launching in to a song that started soft and tender before the band slowly joined him one by one and the song swelled to a rich ending. It's a formula that a lot of his songs follow, the quiet start with the slow build and climactic finale, and he pulls it off well.
Klassen also has a great energy on stage, full of enthusiasm with his pure joy infecting the audience, and he clearly has fun on stage; as demonstrated when he introduced his bandmates with a rap.
A few old members joined him for "The Horses Are Stuck", which was a very fitting song for a venue like the Vogue. "Sweet Chariot" started with a very impressive vocal display from Jordan and Jocelyn Price, and they wrapped up the set with another high energy ending on "Where Is Your Sound".


The last time I saw The Belle Game, I mused that the Vogue would be a perfect venue for their rich, dark, orchestral pop, and that was certainly the case. The six-piece was at their best, despite a brief microphone issue during "Blame Fiction", as they filled the room with huge songs like "Bruise To Ash", a bit of a sexy slow-jam, and Andrea Lo's incredibly powerful voice captured the crowd, most evident on "River".
The band had a strong energy and stage presence, too, including Katrina sharing a story, confessing their disastrous first show with We Are The City years ago.
They wrapped up the set, as they usually do, with "Wait Up For You", getting people moving and building to an intense ending.
It seems like The Belle Game has been a go-to "opening band" for a lot of local heavyweights recently, and they are always in danger of stealing the show. Soon enough, they'll be the ones headlining the Vogue.


That alone would have been a satisfying show, but of course we still had We Are The City to come. The stage was adorned with a couple video screens, linked to cameras perched on Cayne's keyboards and Andrew's drums, which they moved around throughout the set.
When they took the stage, they launched right into "Bottom Of The Lake", the first song on the new album, exploding with a cacophony of drums. Their dense sound was intricate and layered, creating a much bigger sound than should come from just three musicians.
With a mix of old and new songs, the trio went back to their debut album for "Time, Wasted" and the gorgeous "Astronomers", and played most of their High School EP. "Happy New Year" started only for Cayne to pause the band and urge everyone to "lose it", and restarted with the floor section around the stage jumping wildly, and the entire Vogue singing along.
The trio was in awe of the support of the fans, expressing how they were incredibly grateful to be there a few times, and they were feeding off their crowd's energy with their own amazing and intense energy, backing their gratitude.
Among the new songs, highlights were the emotion-filled "King David", the calm and hypnotic "Friends Hurt" -- during which Andy dove into the crowd to surf a little -- and "Baptism", a beautiful song that bursts into a massive ending.
And the ending seemed like a definitive one -- the band even choosing "Don't Dream It's Over" by Crowded House as the first song to play over the PA after they walked off stage -- but in what may have been a rare "actual encore", Cayne came back out alone to play one more song, "Mourning Song" after someone in the crowd shouted it out (unless he was calling for the similarly named "Morning Song")

We Are The City has been one of my favourite local bands since just about the first time I saw them live, when I knew they were going to be big, and it was incredible to see them perform in a venue like the Vogue. They've more than earned it.

setlist
Bottom Of The Lake; Legs Give Out; Get Happy; Time, Wasted; King David; That's It, That's All; Astronomers; An Angel in White; Happy New Year; Friends Hurt; Dark/Warm Air; Baptism. 
(encore) Mourning Song.

Peak Performance Project Showcase #1 @ Red Room -- 09/13/12

The Peak Performance Project is a multi-year contest in which The Peak, along with Music BC, picks 20 BC musicians/bands a year and makes them stars. Past winners are We Are The City, Kyprios, and Current Swell with a ton of great bands and artists included as well.
Part one of the project was a rock & roll boot camp where they went on a week long retreat to get lectures and advice from industry pros to help them refine their craft. Phase two is a series of shows at The Red Room, four artists a night for five weeks, each playing a 45 minute set. The bands are rated by a panel of judges, which will go toward their final score in the project, and they've also been tasked to learn a "Classic Canadian Cover" to play during their set. I always love hearing bands play cover songs, and I am definitely looking forward to see who each act chooses (and, as in the past, I am going to keep a running tally on how many Arcade Fire, Neil Young or Leonard Cohen songs we get).

And going in to this, I'm not going to pretend I don't have biases; there are bands this year I am familiar with and bands that I am already a big fan of, and this showcase was, at first glance, the one I was looking forward to the most. 


Ali Milner: The jazzy-pop sounds of Ali Milner started off not only the night, but the showcase series. Her backing band included some familiar faces; Erik P.H. Nielsen on bass and Rob Tornroos on guitar. I've seen Ali play a few times in recent months, and I would have to say this is the best set I've seen her play. Behind the keys with her gorgeous voice, her bubbly personality is infectious, and it translated into a fun and upbeat set, with dynamic songs like "Fly". 
Ali is no stranger to covering Canadian singers, and her cover wasn't new, rather a song that she's had in her repertoire for a few years, "After the Gold Rush" by Neil Young. It was a good cover, but I was hoping she would do something new.
The set ended with "Waiting", which saw Ali take out a box of egg shakers part way through the song and jump into the crowd to distribute them for people to play along -- and they all had numbers on them, with one lucky person winning some merch. 

I genuinely hope that Ali makes the top three -- which would make her the first female to crack the top three -- but I have a feeling this is going to be the hardest year to predict the outcome.

beekeeper: With the lights dimmed, and a robotic voice introducing them, the trio of Devon Lougheed, Luke Cyca and Brandi Sidoryk hit the stage with a high energy and did not looking back. Their genre-bending "math rock" may be hard to keep up with due to the frantic arrangements and seemingly constantly changing time signatures, but drummer Luke anchors them magnificently, and they put on one hell of a live show, which is either absolutely brilliant or incomprehensibly weird. Or both.
Devon was more focused on stage than I've seen him, especially between songs, still showing his manic energy and goofy sense of humour but not going overboard. He even took the set down for a moment with a sincere story and almost mellow (or, as mellow as beekeeper can get) song called "Drownings". 
For their cover, they teased playing Rush, but then launched in to "You Learn" from Alanis Morissette, which was definitely the most interesting cover of the night, giving it a "beekeeper twist", and even had Devon going into the crowd.
"Pinwheel Revolution" took a moment to show off Brandi's operatic past and her glass-shattering voice, and they brought the set to an end with a "family photo", pulling up as many fans as they could fit on the stage for a big group picture, and then letting everyone stay and dance for the last song, "Believe, Believe". 

Probably the most high energy and genuinely fun set of the night, beekeeper is another band that I really hope makes the top five, but I can see them maybe being just a little too "weird".

Redgy Blackout: The members of Redgy Blackout hit the stage looking slick, adorned in dress shirts and ties, with Scott also sporting a vest and top hat. They were immediately fun and energetic, with their unique mix of indie rock, folk and pop. Both Scott Perrie and Jeremy Breaks have a good live energy and play off each other really well, getting everyone moving to songs like "Coming Alive" and "Bottom of the Sea".
After what I thought was going to be an introduction into a Matthew Good Band song for their cover, they ended up going with Arcade Fire's "Rebellion (Lies)", giving a more up-tempo version, and getting the crowd to yell along with the "LIES!" 
Their final song they brought out Brandi from beekeeper to help out on backup vocals, enlisting the crowd as well, and scores of balloons being tossed throughout the crowd to wrap up their set. 

While I enjoy watching Redgy Blackout live -- they are tight, have great harmonies and write catchy songs -- I think they are just missing something, some ineffable quality to really push them over the edge.

Jordan Klassen: One of the more well known acts -- with a little bit of Peak airplay before the competition started -- Klassen ended off the first showcase. The first thing you notice about Jordan is his incredible energy on stage. He oozes enthusiasm, jumping and leaping around the stage; rarely will you see a more enthusiastic tambourine player. That energy definitely rubs off on his five bandmates, and even into the crowd. 
Klassen's rich, folk-pop sound gives way to grand songs that start slow and build to a soaring finish. Like the alternating slow burn and explosiveness of "Piano Brother", the lush "The Horses Are Stuck" and "Go To Me", which had a couple members mingle in the crowd with tambourines, creating a surround-sound feel for the song.
His cover was the 90s pop hit "Love Song" by Sky, which was not at all ironic, but endearing and appropriately cheesy. It was probably my second favourite cover of the night, as it was both a unique and interesting take on the song. The set, and the night, was brought to an end with "Call & Answer", which is probably my favourite song of his; another one that starts soft and grows to an energetic and huge ending.

I would not at all be surprised if Klassen makes the top three of the contest; he has almost everything they're looking for, and would definitely be deserving. 


And with that, the first showcase was done. Join me next week at the Red Room where we'll have the chance to see The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer, The Fugitives, The River & The Road and The Headwater. It's bound to be a good one. 
And hopefully the sound in the Red Room is better next week.

Jordan Klassen @ Media Club -- 02/17/12

Over the last few months, two local(ish) bands have been getting some big exposure from spins on The Peak. The first is Bed of Stars, from Evan Konrad's collaboration with Neverending White Lights and their own single, and the other, Abbotsford's Jordan Klassen. So it was of little doubt that the CD Release show for Jordan Klassen's Kindness EP would sell out the Media Club.

First up, though, was Northcote, which was Matt Goud on acoustic guitar, kickdrum and harmonica -- sometimes all three at once -- backed by Blake Enemark (briefly of We Are The City) on electric guitar. He had a straightforward folk singer-songwriter sound, but he was elevated above the generic with both the songwriting and the emotion he put into the songs. His set was fairly short, and I regret not picking up a CD, as I would definitely like to hear more from him in the future.

Second up was Bed of Stars, for a more synthy, electronic pop sound. While they have definitely had a fair amount of hype surrounding them, I thought their live show was just okay. It certainly wasn't bad, but nothing really stood out as songs flowed together, and his vocals seemed consistent through each one. But that being said, I can definitely see promise in the band; it was only their third show ever -- and first with their new guitarist -- and I can see them getting a lot better. After a cover of Kings of Leon's "The Bucket", they ended with the highlight of the set, their single "Falling Apart", which Evan Konrad sent out to The Peak for supporting them, Klassen, and local music in general, and was the high

And finally, the stage packed for Jordan Klassen with over a half dozen musicians backing him, including some familiar faces; Indiana Avent, Jocelyn Price, and Ben Appenheimer. The inclusion of violin, cello, keys and more gave Klassen's folk-pop a grandiose and rich sound that was nearly too big for the Media Club.
He kicked it off with "Call and Answer" from the Kindness EP and "Piano Brother", which will be on his upcoming full length Repentance, both of which set the stage for the rest of the set with the symphonic rises and falls. Klassen had a great enthusiasm on stage, despite admitting he was a touch nervous at the sold out crowd, and barely having enough room to move around at times.
As the set went on, the musicians came and went, with as few as two people -- Jordan and his ukulele, with the cello for "Threads" -- but everyone was back for three huge songs to end the set, which were my favourites of the night. "The Horses Are Stuck" started soft and swelled a chilling chorus with everyone on stage providing vocals; one that I didn't catch the name of, which absolutely exploded into a cacophonous ending; and finally "Go To Me", the single from The Peak that blossomed to a grand climax to close out the set. He was back out for one more, though, a softer, slower song called "Ask Me Not, Astronaut" to send off the crowd into the night.

Overall, it was a pretty good night of music, and I already can't wait to see Klassen again, no doubt in a well deserved much bigger venue.