Stars & Hey Rosetta! @ Vogue -- 02/28/15

Five years ago this month, I saw Stars with Hey Rosetta! opening for them at the Orpheum. It was a great show, which Hey Rosetta! nearly stole, so much so that Torquil even said something along the lines of "that's the last time they ever open for anyone!"
Well, I'm glad that's not quite the case, as the pair of bands wrapped up a Canadian tour with a pair of sold out shows this weekend at the Vogue Theatre.


I was even more excited given the fact that I hadn't even seen Hey Rosetta! live in almost four years.
In front of a giant golden backdrop, they filled the stage, seven members large (eight, when Stars' Evan Cranley joined them part-way thought the set), with everything from violin, cello, french horn, xylophone, members occasionally switching around, playing different instruments. The big band created Hey Rosetta!'s lush, sonic wall of sound, with powerful songs that erupted into a swell of strings and horns.

Starting off with a "Soft Offering (For the Oft Suffering)", and lead singer Tim Baker behind the keyboard, a lone spotlight on him before the rest of the band joined in. They grew the intensity with "Gold Teeth" and finally exploded with "Yer Spring", culminating in a jam that saw Tim Baker, now on guitar, taking a running leap off hey keyboard stool. Other highlights included "Red Heart", which had a little bit of "Black Heart" slipped in, and the incredibly emotional "Welcome". They ended with the beautiful "Bandages", starting with Tim on acoustic guitar before the rest of the band slowly joined in.

They played a nice, hour-long set which made it feel more like a co-headlining spot than an opening spot, which was as it should be. And I especially liked the lighting for their set. A lot of it was backlit -- but not so much that you couldn't see the band -- and a few times, they would dim the stage lights with a spotlight on the prominent instruments. It was a nice touch.


setlist
Soft Offering (For The Oft Suffering), Gold Teeth, Yer Spring, What Arrows, Young Glass, Neon Beyond, Red Heart / Black Heart, Kintsukuroi, Welcome, Bandages.


After a quick break, Stars immediately got the sold out theatre dancing with "From The Night" the first song off their latest album, No One Is Lost. The amazing energy from the whole band was immediately apparent, especially lead singers Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan. Besides both putting a great amount of passion into their singing, Torquil danced like he didn't care, and more than once Amy could be seen air-drumming along to Pat McGee.

As their shows are wont to do, the set spanned every possible emotion. From the vitriolic "We Don't Want Your Body" to the heartbreaking "Dead Hearts", from the bitter "One More Night" to the gorgeous "Elevator Love Letter", no one can go from love to death, from joy to sorrow, faster or better than Stars.
But the absolute highlight of the set was one of my favourite Stars songs, "Hold On When You Get Love and Let Go When You Give It". The song started and half of Hey Rosetta! emerged on stage in 80's gear, neon spandex and headbands, with an amazing choreographed dance to go along with the song. And perhaps because of that, if lifted both Torq and Amy for an amazing performance; I actually got chills as Torquil spat out the lines "But if you like it sing along / Sing 'cause you don't know how to say it" and "Take the weakest thing in you / And then beat the bastards with it". 

The set drew to a close after a rousing "Take Me To The Riot" with the opening synth of the title track to No One Is Lost started for the final song, only for Torquil to interrupt and make sure to slip in one more song. And after an incredibly heartfelt love letter to the fans, he got out his melodica for the opening strains of "Your Ex-Lover is Dead", the crowd singing along to every single word. 

For the encore, Amy and Evan Cranley came out alone, joined on backup vocals by Kinley Dowling of Hey Rosetta! by popular demand, for the soft and lovely "Favourite Book", before the rest of the band emerged. They did a quick audience poll for the last song, with "Calendar Girl" winning out, as they ended the night with Amy Millan's gorgeous vocals, and the conclusion of the song seeing Torquil drop his mic, rip out his in-ear monitors, and jump down into the crowd, yelling at the top of his lungs the final words of the song, "I'm alive"


It's ridiculously cheesy to put into words, but there's something about seeing Stars perform live that just makes me want to be better. Seeing the love the band has for their music, for each other, for the fans, even for Hey Rosetta! is quite something, and as long as they keep making music, I will keep showing up.


setlist
From The Night, Fixed, We Don't Want Your Body, Backlines, You Keep Coming Up, A Song is a Weapon, Are You Okay?, Hold On When You Get Love and Let Go When You Give It, Look Away, Dead Hearts, Trap Door, One More Night, Elevator Love Letter, Take Me To The Riot, Your Ex-Lover Is Dead, No One Is Lost.
(encore) My Favourite Book, Calendar Girl.

Hey Rosetta! @ Peak Performance Lounge -- 07/15/11

Since The Peak began having shows in their performance lounge, I have wanted to go, but just never had the chance (they're all win-to-get-in). But earlier today Hey Rosetta! dropped by and I was lucky enough to be able to go. It was an intimate, acoustic show in the lounge with about 50 or so people, and sofas arranged for comfortable viewing. (But also stool-chairs for slightly less than comfortable viewing).

The band played a handful of songs, and even stripped down they managed to pack a powerful punch of emotion to the songs. They played a few of their slower songs, starting with "Bandages" and also the absolutely beautiful "Red Song", one of my favourites of theirs that I don't think I've seen them play live. But they also managed to rock out with "Welcome", and they ended the set announcing they were going to do a cover -- I was hoping it would be "Time After Time" like earlier this year, but it ended up being "Do What You Can Do" by The Constantines.

It was a short, but still great show, and I was glad I was able to catch them since I will miss them tonight (they're playing Deer Lake Park with The Tragically Hip, while I will be enjoying Joel Plaskett Emergency at the Folk Fest.)

setlist

Bandages, Young Glass, Red Heart, Red Song, Welcome, Do What You Can Do [Constantines cover].

Hey Rosetta! @ Rio Theatre -- 03/04/11

Aside from their all-too-short opening set for Stars last year, it had been far too long since I saw Hey Rosetta! play live, so I was quite excited for their show last night. Especially at the Rio Theatre, which is a surprisingly great venue to see live shows in. Not surprising that a movie theatre has great sound, and the seats are incredibly comfortable. Which also have cupholders for your... beverage of choice. It also must be a rarity across Canada, as every show I've seen there, the band has made a comment about how odd it is to be playing a movie theatre.

Up first was Gramercy Riffs from St John's. They had a bit of a pop-rock flavour, with harmonizing male/female vocals, and were really fun to watch. The band was tight, and put on a good set, but while they weren't necessarily generic, they weren't really much of anything I hadn't heard before. A couple songs followed the 'start poppy and then explode into dense guitars and rocking drums' template, and the songs were incredibly catchy, but a bit repetitive. Ultimately, though, I quite enjoyed them and they were a pretty great pick to open for HR! and Perfectly Acceptable Music.

And then was Hey Rosetta!, taking the stage to an instrumental intro. They started the set off, appropriately enough, with "Welcome", from the set a high energy for the night. "Yer Spring" kept the energy up, as they went into some older songs. They played a good amount from their repertoire, spanning all three of their albums. They also proved how great a live band they are, as midway through "Another Pilot" all the stage lights went out and the band finished the song in the dark, without missing a single note.
Throughout the show, front man Tim Baker was oozing both charm and energy; talking between songs, joking about the movie theatre, and jumping and dancing around while playing -- even when he was on the keys, he was chair-dancing a little. Other highlights of the set were the intense "Young Glass", the beautiful "We Made A Pact" and the "closing" song "Red Heart", which got recognition applause.
For the encore, Tim came out wearing a Newfoundland (and Labrador) flag -- that someone had put on stage for them -- as a scarf, and his acoustic guitar for "Bandages", getting everyone to sing along by the end of it. Following that, Mara Pellerin from Gramercy Riffs came out for an awesome cover of "Time After Time". I always love it when bands do covers, and this was a great interpretation of the song, making it very Hey Rosetta-esque. The set wrapped up as appropriately as it began, with "New Goodbye", bringing the show to an intense and climactic ending.

There were a few songs that I was a little sad they didn't play -- "Yer Fall", "Parson Brown", "Handshake the Gangster", and "Holy Shit (What A Relief)" namely -- and at the beginning the sound mix seemed a little off, but it was fixed soon enough and the show was pretty amazing, those minor quibbles aside.

selist
Welcome, Yer Spring, Another Pilot, There's An Arc, Bricks, Young Glass, I've Been Asleep For A Long, Long Time, We Made A Pact, Swing The Cellar Door, Seeds, Red Heart.
(encore) Bandages, Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper cover), New Goodbye.

Review-kus.

My goal is to review every album I bought (or otherwise listened to) this year. But there are just so darn many albums, and sometimes I just don't feel like writing a full reviews. So to combat this, I have decided that I shall give a few really quick reviews all at once... in haiku form. Here we go!

Red Songs EP by Hey Rosetta!
A trio of songs
More mellow than expected
Yet still very lush

Download Who Is At My Window Weeping? (The Silver Dagger) by Hey Rosetta!

Caterpillar Sarabande by Vyvienne Long (first full length solo from cellist for Damien Rice)
Classically trained
Incredibly talented
Inventive and rich

Download Tactless Questions by Vyvienne Long

All In Good Time by Barenaked Ladies (first album after Steven Page left)
Quite interesting
Just not the same without Page
Still a good album

Download Four Seconds by Barenaked Ladies

Stars w/ Hey Rosetta! @ Orpheum -- 02/19/10

And to think, there was a moment when I wasn't going to go to the show. When it was first announced as an Olympic show, I was still in the mind-set of hiding in my house to avoid the two weeks of insanity the olympics would deliver. I had seen Stars a few times before, and the tickets were kind of pricey, so at first I opted out. But then the clincher came when I found out Hey Rosetta! was going to be the opening band. How could I not go with these two stellar bands on the same bill?

About quarter after eight, Hey Rosetta! hit the stage. They started off with "Red Song" (I think; if not, it was a new song) a new-ish song, Bandages, then went into "New Goodbye". By the end of that, they had the crowd hooked. With their rich sound, helped out by their own small strings section (a cello & a violin), superb songwriting, and of course Tim Baker's flawless and heartfelt vocals teeming with emotion, they put on a show that will not soon be forgotten by anyone in attendance. Playing mostly off of Into Your Lungs, they also threw in a few new songs; and if those were any indication, the new album is going to be brilliant. The way-too-short set ended with "Psalms" & "A Thousand Suns", and the band absolutely tore the place down. As they were leaving, they got an almost complete standing ovation from the crowd. The lights even stayed off for a few minutes, teasing us to the encore that was demanded, but it was not to be. The crowd actually started booing when the house lights rose again. My only complaints was that the 45 minute set was not nearly long enough, and they didn't get to a couple of my favourite songs. Other than those minor qualms... wow. Just wow. Even Toquil Campbell admitted they would have a hard time following that, and joked that Hey Rosetta! would never open for them again.
I am also pretty sure they had a new/substitute violinist. If only because he seemed to be reading sheet music as he was going. But not that he wasn't great, it was just strange.

Stars hit the stage around 930 and opened strong with "Set Yourself On Fire". They had a good mix of old and new -- and even brand new. They played three songs off their as-yet-unannounced new album. Campbell introduced "Dead Heart" by joking it was in the usual cheery Stars fashion; "Winter Bells" (or Balls, maybe) was played in the encore; but my favourite of the three was one I didn't catch the name of, but was insanely catchy and included my new favourite lyrics "I died just to I could haunt you". It was also great to hear some of the songs off the Sad robot EP live, since I hadn't heard those before. "Thread Cut With A Carving Knife" was especially great. Other highlights included the song-alongs to both the beautiful "Calendar Girls" and the energetic "Take Me To The Riot", Campbell hoping this was the year we booted Harper right before launching into the politically charged "Soft Revolution", and the strings from Hey Rosetta! coming out to help out with "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead". Campbell & Millan were, as usual, on the top of their game. And of course the rest of the band, Cranley, McGee and Seligman were just as great. The night ended with Campbell profusely thanking us for coming and supporting the band as they got closer to "Pete Townshend age" and then promptly flipped things by introducing the next song with "That being said, here's a song about fucking someone to death" and finishing with "One More Night" and coming full circle with the last verse of "Set Yourself on Fire"

This was my fourth time seeing then live, and while I think the show at Malkin Bowl is still my favourite, this one absolutely did not disappoint. Especially with the Hey Rosetta! opening.