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Jeremy Schmidt (left) and Amber Webber contributed to Black Mountain’s cool stage chemistry at the Opera House Saturday night.

Photo By Paul Till

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The Scene

Shows that rocked Toronto last week

Thu, Sep 25

MY BLOODY VALENTINE at Kool Haus Rating: NNNNN

Thinking back on my wasted life spent at concerts, gigs, shows, whatever, I don’t recall ever being given a complimentary pair of earplugs upon arrival. My Bloody Valentine’s reputation for ear-destruction is legend, but I always thought the dangers had been greatly inflated. However, when security forced those rubber plugs onto us like vaccination shots, I knew it wasn’t myth.

This long-drooled-over reunion by shoegaze’s godfathers arrived with the dreamy chords to I Only Said. Kevin Shields’s over-amplified, effects-laden guitar, combined with his signature “glide” sound (sustained tremolo bar while strumming), created a dizzying yet transfixing effect. Both ghostly and sonically powerful, it’s like a guitar going in reverse. Meanwhile, the stoic and comely Bilinda Butcher delivered her whispery vocals like soft bombs on favourites Only Shallow and Soon.

The show’s coda – affectionately dubbed “the holocaust segment” – is where earplugs go from being band-aids to life support. The 15-minute wall of brain-busting torrential noise was so devastating, I realized those free plugs weren’t so much for the protection of our health as for the prevention of lawsuits.

Still, even if you did get tinnitus from this show, I imagine you’d wear it like a badge of honour.

Jason Keller

Sat, Sep 27

BLACK MOUNTAIN at the Opera House Rating: NNNN

BC-based psych/prog rockers Black Mountain certainly deserved the Polaris Prize (they lost to Caribou on Monday) if this live performance is any indication. The quintet translated every groove, organ flourish and reverb-soaked guitar note in a performance that managed to better the spacey vibe their records offer, making it clear just how good their chemistry now is.

They played through the majority of their latest with a cool confidence, thanks in part to co-lead singer Stephen McBean’s ability to look on the verge of being possessed, while vocalist Amber Webber shuffled about lazily, opting to focus on her haunting and commanding vibrato, which also upped the intensity factor. With an only decent light show, the band had to rely on a solid performance to keep the crowd – initially a little ho-hum after a sleepy set by openers Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter – engaged. But that took all of about a song to do.

Evan Davies

THE WATCHMEN at the Horseshoe Rating: NNNN

A reunion by Winnipeg’s the Watchmen isn’t like KISS reforming or the Police hitting the road after 24 years apart, but for the few hundred fans at the two sold-out shows at the Horseshoe, seeing their favourite 90s Canrock band play together again was just as sweet.

Though the foursome were a little rusty – Danny Greaves’s usually pristine voice was off-key a few times, and he missed a lyric here and there – for the most part the guys were still as solid as when they broke up in 2001.

For nearly two hours, they barrelled through the hits from all five of their discs, playing Boneyard Tree, Run And Hide and Stereo, plus a few more obscure tracks like I’m Still Gone from McLaren Furnace Room.

While it was great to see the band’s high-energy performance one more time, these guys aren’t an arena-filling act, so keeping their reunion to a few one-off shows here and there is probably their best bet.

Bryan Borzykowski

Sun, Sep 28

JANET JACKSON with LL COOL J at Air Canada Centre Rating: NNNN

Still on auto-pilot from his Ice Cream Fest show, LL Cool J used the same two DJs, tricks (saying “Now everybody screeeeam” a hundred times) and treats (roses, ladies?) as last time. He even professed, “It’s been a long time, Toronto,” though he was here two months ago! Meh. Delivering a dozen-plus hits from his immense catalogue while flexing his ripped physique satisfied the female-friendly audience. And his lip-lick/crotch-grab combination would make R. Kelly proud.

Janet Jackson was a whole other experience. Nearly matching Kanye West’s elaborate stage presentation, she proved she has what it takes to keep the Beyoncés and Ciaras studying hard. She alternated between dance-heavy lip-synching segments and authentic acoustic ballads, complete with 10 outfit changes ranging from sailor suits to tribal African garments to Michael Jackson-style mutated-moonwalker monstrosities.

Yet her two-hour 25-year-spanning spectacle worked. Videotaped guest spots with Q-Tip, Nelly, JD and Dave Navarro added to the show, and one lucky man got the French kiss of his life in the entertaining NC-17 dominatrix segment. Her superfan, strapped into a full-body harness and transformed into a lusty boy-toy, inspired envy. Then the intense choreography of Rhythm Nation took it back to 1989. Her encore was short but sweet, and she left few favourites untouched. And, yes, she did do the dancing chair sequence. Perfectly.

Addi Stewart

NOW | October 1-8, 2008 | VOL 28 NO 5

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Comments

Posted by j on 10/04/2008, 11:41 PM

While I can't say I'm too surprised that Now would go with the hype and give My Bloody Valentine five out of five, it totally did not deserve that. Really, the performance was very workmanlike; Shield's complaint about being unable to hear his mic midway through the show being really indicative of the band's attitude towards this show - "Another day, another performance." Two big things would've made the show much better: transitions between songs instead of three-minute song to dead air to three-minute song (and with a band like MBV it should be second nature, really), and if they were actually consistently loud instead of just played through the sound system at a high volume. It was only on a handful of tracks (those off of "Isn't Anything" in particular) where they actually showed some some gusto. If they'd kept that up for the whole show, then, yes, it would've been worth a five.

As for the 'holocaust segment', major cop-out. Please tell me I wasn't the only one who noticed that the sound system volume was bumped up twice just before "You Made Me Realise" turned to drone. And I can tell you I wasn't the only one standing around looking bored during that, and I *like* drone music. I could've dug it if they actually did something, instead of just making it an endurance test. One chord for fifteen minutes needn't be boring, really.

Sad to say, half the time I would've preferred to just be listening to their albums. And I'll say something blasphemous: A Place To Bury Strangers were louder the week before at Lee's Palace, even if the decibels weren't quite as high.