Miss Quincy w/ Skye Wallace & Chersea @ Biltmore -- 07/16/15

It's like someone booked this show just for me. Three of my current favourite local acts came together to play a show on a Wednesday at the Biltmore: the "Queen of Dark Folk" Skye Wallace, the "Queen of Blues Rock" Miss Quincy, and the "Princess of Pop" Chersea (as Chersea herself described the three of them).

Starting the night off was the synth-pop looper Chersea. On stage alone with a mountain of instruments -- keys, synth, drum pad, trumpet, & more -- she started off with a very moody, bass-heavy song that gradually built layer upon layer, driven by her powerful voice. 
From there she shifted into more of a pop/dancey mode with upbeat songs that had the crowd moving, and even participating in her loops; during "Mindporn" she drew the audience up to the stage to record & loop some clapping.
I feel like every time I see Chersea, she's debuting or working with new songs, and this time wasn't different as she wrapped up the set with a pair of new songs. One she had recently re-worked, and the other the only song where she used pre-recorded loops, but it was a big, catchy indie-pop song that's bound to be a hit.

Taking the stage next was Skye Wallace and her band, which included a small string section of Devon Kroeger on violin and Michelle Faehrmann on cello. The strings really gave weight to the noirish, alt-folk sound, as heard right off the bat with the spine-tingling "Monster", setting the tone. In fact later on in the set she picked an apt cover for her sound, doing a stirring rendition of Timber Timbre's "Lay Down In The Tall Grass". 
Most of the set focused on her latest album, Living Parts, but one of my favourites of the night was a powerful new one called "The Guiltiest Hymn", which saw Jody "Miss Quincy" Peck jump on stage for some backup vocals. Jody would pop on and off stage a few more times throughout the set to provide vocals, and then once more during another highlight of the set, the haunting "Dead Things pt II" to shred some electric guitar.
She wrapped up the set with "Scarlet Fever", the hidden track from her last album, as I realised that every time I see Skye Wallace perform live, I like her more and more. Her performance, but especially her songs, are so captivating, in both sound and storytelling. They will burrow into your brain to be stuck there for days. 

And last but not least, wrapping up the night was Miss Quincy, joined by her backing band The Showdown, Jessie Robertson on bass, Jen Foster on drums, and Christie Rose on keys. They kicked things right into high gear with some blues rock, before getting the crowd to stomp & clap along with the hymnal "Take It To The Well". 
From there the set just continued to grow in energy, as they played mostly songs off the latest album Roadside Recovery. "Damn You" has Jody's sultry voice promising "This one's gonna hurt", and "Making Money" with a sexy, slow jam breakdown in the middle of the song, where she slipped in a few (gender-swapped) verses from the blues standard "Good Morning, School Girl". They also played a newer song called "You Remind Me Of Myself", which Miss Quincy dedicated to every person in every relationship who not-so-subtly asked her if she wrote songs about "people".
The set drew to a close with two of my favourites, the pounding, badass "Bad Love" and the gritty, unapologetic "Wild Fucking West". They didn't bother with a faux-encore (which was nice, since it was already after midnight), just playing straight through to the end, finishing off with a killer version of Peaches' "Boys Wanna Be Her". It's a cover that you would never expect, but when you think about it, makes all the sense in the world. Which is my favourite kind of cover. 


Unsurprisingly, all three put on strong sets, and I am already itching to see any of the three perform live again.

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Photos by Jessica Brodeur

Bear Mountain @ Celebrities -- 04/04/15

I am going to be honest here: I am not an electronic music guy. Of course, there are a few bands in the genre I like, but overall? Not really my thing. So I never thought I would be partaking in the 2015 Seasons Festival, an electronic music fest with headliners like Diplo and Eric Prydz.
But then I spotted a Bear Mountain show as part of the fest, and with their blend of electro, pop, and indie, they would definitely get me to Celebrities (perhaps the only venue in Vancouver I still had yet to see a show at).


Another plus was the opening act, Chersea. She explored a bit more of the "electronic" side of her electro-alt-pop sound for the festival. She still had the same bubbly energy and soaring vocals, they were just a little more 'robotic' than usual, with synthesizers and drum beats and at least one bass drop in the set.
Most of the set was newer songs, as she looped a myriad of instruments from keys to drum pad to synth and even a trumpet, and even the one familiar tune, "Requiem" off her Grey Matter EP, was punched up for the growing crowd to dance.
She ended her short opening set with another new song and a bit of participation, getting the audience in on the looping action, holding the microphone out to the growing crowd to record and loop their clapping along, which was pretty cool.


Next up was Sabota, featuring one half of Humans Robbie Slade and Max Ulis. The duo's set was a lot more what you would expect from an electronic festival, with both guys standing behind a table of equipment and Robbie providing live vocals. It was definitely more of a house music sound, and thus not really my speed... but they had a full dance floor moving for the set, so even though it was not to my tastes, they were clearly doing a good job.

And not long after -- the show was tightly scheduled so Celebrities could kick everyone out at 11 -- Bear Mountain took the stage. One of the thing that always impresses me of their shows is the visuals, as Kenji Rodriguez does these live on stage (as well as playing the keytar). So you get a really cool and dynamic show, different every time. Images projected on large triangles behind them, with a giant LED 'BMTN' looming over the stage, and even the house lights part of the show. At one point the stage went dark for sparse white lights to twinkle overhead, giving it a stellar feel.

They kicked off the set with the familiar "Congo" getting the sold out club jumping, and bursts of confetti came early and often, as lead singer Ian Bevis frequently asked if the crowd was ready right before songs burst forth into giant hooks. The first half of the set mostly featured older songs, like the ridiculously and insanely catchy "Faded" before they teased some new material. Bevis announced their new album was finally, after two years, done. Mastered and everything. The new songs sounded even more punchy and dancey, so I'm looking forward to it.

And I'm not sure if it was by design, to mimic the feel of a DJ for the electronic festival, but there were hardly any breaks between the songs; they transitioned from one to the next flawlessly. After nearly an hour, the band brought the main set to an end with an explosive song (I think it was "Swim") before coming back out for one more, "Two Step", a the bouncy and uplifting genre-bending song to cap off the night.


Since seeing them for the first time a few years ago, rocketing along Canada on a train as part of Tracks on Tracks, Bear Mountain has continually impressed me with their live shows. This night was no different, and I can't wait to hear the new album.

Then & Now @ Wise Hall -- 10/10/14

Now in its third year, Then and Now is a simple concept; take a handful of local artists, and get them to play a brand new song & an old song -- their newest, shiniest song, and one of their first songs -- and tell stories about both. Put on by Altered By Mom's Devon Lougheed, and Leigh Eldridge, the night was also a fundraiser for Megaphone Magazine, a local publication that is sold by the homeless or low income people, who get to keep the profits of their sales.

Even though Devon was absent from the event, the night was hosted by Caitlin Howden (The Sunday Service) and Stu Popp (SADCAST, Fat Kids On Basketball), who kept things rolling along and even started an impromptu auction of things they took out of the musicians pockets. Such wondrous items included a guitar pick, an unused bus pass, an american $10 bill, and a partially used Earl's gift card, all of which helped earn over $40 more for Megaphone.

Each of the eight acts was slotted two songs, so even with a little bit of setup in-between a few of them, the night never seemed to drag on.

The night started with the husband & wife duo The Wild Romantics and the first song they sang together, a cover of "Valley of Decision" by The Horse Thieves. Their 'now' was a new one called "Memphis, TN", fitting of the duo's alt-country twang, as they ended the song forehead-to-forehead, sharing the microphone, their voices blending together beautifully.

Badgerchild made some of the crowd feel old as she told the story about her then-song, the first song she put up on YouTube as a teenager, Vince Vaccaro's "Costa Rica" after being inspired to pick up the guitar after a breakup. She followed that up with breathy vocals on a new song called "Out of my Head".

Next was CityReal, supported by Tonye Aganaba on guitar, for some acoustic hip hop. He said it was the first time he had ever performed his songs acoustically, as he played on a djembe with Tonye's voice mixing quite well with his rapping.

The first half of the night wrapped up with Hot Panda. Lead singer Chris Connely came out alone on guitar, singing a cover of the first song he ever performed live, "Steak For Chicken" by The Moldy Peaches. Their 'now' turned into a hilarious performance art piece, after Chris claimed guitars were done, and technology was the future. First he pulled out his phone to get Siri to play the sick beat they made, then once that failed, he went to the tablet... which was out of power. And finally just went to the laptop for some (acceptable) backing tracks and brought out the other two band members in their DJ personas, on "synth" and "instagram video". No text description can live up to the performance, but the song itself was ridiculously catchy.

After the intermission, the second half began with CAST, a really interesting and unique performance by the jazzy drum & vocal duo, with Ben Brown on drums, who were accompanied by a tap dancer.

Tonye Aganaba returned to the stage next, taking the concept to heart with her first song being how she felt about love then -- raw and unbridled emotions -- and her now being how she more currently felt, her amazingly impressive voice silencing the hall.

Going to the very extremes of "then and now" Wide Mouth Mason singer Shaun Verreault -- like a few others during the night -- played the very first song he ever performed in front of people, Black Crowes' "She Talks to Angels" while his 'now' was the most 'now' he could have gotten, a brand new song which he had just finished writing while at the show itself, as he silenced the hall with his effortless and amazing guitar playing.

And finally, after one more short break to set up her gear, the night came to a close with Chersea. The singer/songwriter/looper went back to the very first song she wrote on a loop station, a gorgeous a capella song called "Classy" that showed off her own incredible voice, and her new was also the newest song she had in her arsenal, an upbeat and high energy dancy song.

Like the first two iterations, the night was fun and eclectic, zipping through genres with stories about why each performer chose the songs they did. It's always interesting hearing the change in artists over time, or seeing some of the influences of their work, and I hop it'll be back again for a fourth year.

Rich Aucoin @ Fortune -- 09/16/14

Regular readers of the blog (all twenty six of you) will know how much I rave about Rich Aucoin, especially his live shows experiences, and that one of my favourite new discoveries of the year has been Chersea. So when I found out that they would be doing a show together, you could say I was pretty excited. And with the addition of Lowell -- who is, much like Hansel, so hot right now -- that seemed like a pretty damn strong lineup.


Starting things off was Chersea, normally a solo looper, this time she was out with a gentleman friend, drummer Drew McKay. It was the first time I had seen Chersea without Chelsea Laing on (literally) every instrument, and while a couple brief times it felt like McKay was just playing alongside her instead of with her, for the most part he provided a good backbone to the songs without being overpowering; a nice supplement, since the focus was (and should be) on Chersea's loops and powerful voice.
Armed with a mountain of keys and synth, a drum pad, and even a trumpet, her songs ranged from the dark synth of "Grey Matter" to the more upbeat and catchy, danceable "I Could Lost It All". It's always amazing watching someone working loops, building layer upon layer, and "Mind Porn" as it grew to an explosive ending.

Oh, and the two of them were also joined by a third person on stage, but not playing any instruments: a girl with a light-up LED hula-hoop dancing just off to the side the entire set.


After draping the stage with white fabric, Lowell was out behind the keys, backed by guy on guitar and a laptop, celebrating her new album, We Loved Her Dearly, out on the same day.
Early technical problems slowed things down right after the first song, but "Cloud 69"got the crowd right back into it, as Lowell came out from behind the keys, dancing at the front of the stage in her very mesh shirt, name emblazoned across the front Wonder Woman-style, very strategically placed.
She's a very strong songwriter with ridiculously catchy alt-pop songs, the anthemic "I Love You Money", and "LGBT" -- the chorus proclaiming "don't hate our love" -- but her live show didn't quite live up to the songs I had heard off the album. I'm not sure if her voice wasn't quite as good, or if it would be better with a bigger backing band, but her live set just fell a little short.


And finally, one day removed from his birthday, Rich Aucoin came out to introduce his usual show opening. He orchestrated a sing along to the 20th Century Fox fanfare before a recorded monologue which can be summed up with "we're all so lucky to be alive" and "Be Awesome", then the usual "opening credits", picking out people Rich knew was going to be at the show and giving them amusing and heroic attributes.

As the intro came to a climax, they burst into "Meaning of Life", the first song off the new album Ephemeral, right away uniting everyone in yelling along. Over the next hour Rich controlled the show from his pedal board and sampler, hardly standing still for a single moment, with his partner in crime Tony Dallas crashing on the drums. Aucoin was all about the stage, in and out of the crowd, getting everyone to form a giant circle before rushing into the middle to dance, blasting confetti cannons, and of course, bringing out the famed giant rainbow parachute (like from gym class) which everyone danced under to "Are You Experiencing?", a physical and emotional manifestation of the lyrics "When you give it all up, you get it back".

His shows are always set to visuals as well, many times movie clips or internet videos to go along with the songs, like introducing "I Am Sorry" with a montage of famous movie apologies, and "Want To Believe" having the appropriate X-Files accompaniment.

It seemed far too short when he brought the set to an end with "It", making everyone vow not to "leave it all in our heads", before gathering everyone in the venue at the stage for a giant group picture. He also, as usual, left his name and phone number on the big screen, promising that if you text him, he'll send you some music.

I always say, it's nearly impossible to simply describe the full scope of a Rich Aucoin show, or even show someone in photos. It's something you have to experience. Every single person in the room is on the same page, and looking around the venue you see nothing but giant smiles. Rich Aucoin can bring everyone together like no one I have ever seen.

setlist
Meaning of Life, Undead, Four More Years, Yelling In Sleep, They Say Obey, I Am Sorry, Let It Go, Want To Believe, Are You Experiencing?, It.