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2005-04-26 - 23:40

Dance, monkey

Two more concerts down. For the second weekend in a row, I did a Montreal Sunday show and an Ottawa Monday show.

Sunday was Arcade Fire at the Corona Theatre. They certainly put on an epic performance. Most of the night saw them play with eight or nine members (some combination of guitar, drums, bass, violins, keyboards, accordian, upright bass, xylophone, percussion, or harp). I was most impressed by the expansiveness of the sound. On many songs, every member of the band joined the chorus; and each player showed a lot of energy, even when they weren't playing.

I'd say that my favourite part of the concert was watching Reed Parry and Timothy Kingsbury attack each other during idle moments, with drumsticks, a cymbal, and a flag all coming into play.

Last night was Sage Francis, making a rare trip to Canada. That was another stellar concert. The start time was as late as usual for a Babylon hip hop show; but once they started, there was zero downtime. While a couple of local acts made a good impression, as did the combo of Pip Skid, John Smith, and Skratch Bastid, it was Sol.iLLaquists of Sound who made the biggest impact, on their own and as Sage's backing squad.

As for Sage, what can you say? He was as on the mark as he was at Coachella. While this show had fewer twists, having released an album in the interim left Sage with a ton of great material to lean on. His delivery was just as intense; and he still got some laughs, even without a bag of broccoli.

My only complaint is that Mr. Dibbs never made it to the show (an absence that was never acknowledged). Even that loss wouldn't have been so bad, if it weren't for the high percentage of knuckleheads in the crowd. That was definitely one of the worst audiences that I have been a part of, as far as people being dicks and shoving their way through everyone they saw (oftentimes, only to shove their way back out within two minutes). A Dibbs-induced mosh pit would have been a big help in clearing out a bit of space and getting some of the dumb girls out of the way. On the plus side, though, the audience really had a lot of energy and knew the songs very well, so it wasn't a total loss.

(Oh, and the other plus about last night is that it was my first sighting of a Halifax Windjammers shirt in over a decade. Who-oo-oosh!)

I'm on a concert break now, as I don't have anything lined up until Death From Above in a couple of weeks. That should probably work out well, since I have some things to take care of around the house and could use the downtime.

J.

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