In Canada, rail travel is pleasurable, but not at all comprehensive. There are great distances between stations, and even its coverage at that level is mediocre at best. There were trains every half hour from London to Manchester, and I could just buy a ticket and take most any train I'd want. I'd love to be able to regularly take a train to Montreal, but we're just not there yet.
I'm going somewhere, don't worry.
British bands can take advantage of this. When they're starting out they can travel from town to town and really hone their art. Once they get to that level, there's Europe right there, with more trains and buses and shorter distances between centres. A band can build up a base just touring around, playing gigs and little festivals and pretty much have a name for themselves and a honed live act before they've even put out a full length album. Look at Glasvegas, Friendly Fires, White Lies, and Florence and the Machine, all of which pretty much all hit the ground running when their LPs came out. Combine this with the British art school system and institutions like the Mercury Prize and you can start to understand why I have such a high level of Anglophilia in my music collection. (I cannot, for the life of me, explain the fascination with girl and boy groups in the UK. When I met Craig Gill, drummer from the Inspiral Carpets, in Manchester I wanted to ask why this was so, but felt like I would be picking at a wound).
This is the second time I've seen Franz Ferdinand. The first was a gig with TV on The Radio at the Ricoh Coliseum. This time was at the Kool Haus with Born Ruffians opening. Born Ruffians really exemplify the Canadian music experience: they are a great band with a fairly unique sound (think of it as a rawer Talking Heads, though I'm sure with some production Pitchfork will just call them 'Canadian Vampire Weekend', although this description is not apt), but their inexperience shows a little bit. Some of this might be the fact that they are in the opening band slot. The music is good, but the performance just isn't quite there yet.
Franz Ferdinand, however, know how to move a crowd. This was evident even when we saw them at the Ricoh. They have a live show that's full of energy and they know how to play to the crowd without being obsequious. Even with guitarist/keyboardist Nicholas McCarthy hobbled by a broken foot, the band still managed to convey a sense of abandon on the stage that then went through the crowd. The smaller venue of Kool Haus also suits Franz Ferdinand better, as they seem to get more out of a show where they can connect with their audience. Most bands do, but they seem to get a big kick out of their fans.
Musically, they have progressed a great deal. There was more experimentation and soloing in this show than in the previous one. They've incorporated more electronic elements into their sound but haven't become Bloc Party, just a slightly more hedonistic Maximo Park. At times the "jamming" did get a little self-indulgent, but they never approached Genesis levels.
That's not to say that the show was perfect. Each of their three albums was just about equally represented, but that also meant that some great songs got the short shift (The Fallen, for example, would have possibly blown the roof off the joint and even the mere mention ot Twilight Omens sent a ripple through the crowd). Maybe I've been spoiled by too many Pearl Jam concerts, but I like to think that once you have a few albums under your belt you can make the show time a little longer than you did on your first tour. (We had the same complaint about the last Kaiser Chiefs show). Adding a series of short films playing behind the band didn't really add anything either, though a pan of the band during some of their solos, including a little electronic ditty featuring both bands on stage, was nice.
Kool Haus as a venue is the very definition of love/hate: It has less than stellar sound, and getting in and out of it is a horror show. Last night was one of the first warm nights in Toronto, and nary a cooling fan was blowing. It could have been the heat from the crowd, but we were a good distance back and we were unseasonably warm. The crowd was a mix of true believers and tourists (explanation of those terms here), but there were a few hipsters, most of who seemed to be standing around me (Memo to guy in the Peter Bjorn and John t-shirt: you paid for the ticket, so stop acting like you're too cool to be there. If you're reading this, or one of your friends is, I know I'm blunt but I was THAT GUY for a while, and looking back I denied myself the chance to really enjoy some shows, and I know I adversely impacted the night of those around me when I acted like that).
Franz Ferdinand represent everything that I love about the recent crop of British indie bands. They are artistic without being self indulgent, ironic without being pandering, and danceable without being mindless. I did get the feeling that I could have had it so much better, but I'd still take it over an entire legion of what passes as indie music from this side of the pond.
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This kind of reminds me of my Wintersleep experiences. Particularly with their post-Juno award explosion and movement into larger venues.
I got into them shortly after they released their second full length album. (When they got "Best New Artist", it was after the release of their third.) The first three times I saw them were in the same venue... a place called "Broken City" here in Calgary. Fit maybe 75 people and the place was PACKED. They were really intimate shows with some good jams and variations of their current and old work.
Then they "moved up" to a bigger venue in Calgary called the Warehouse (which also has a great metal venue downstairs). Certainly a bigger place, but it wasn't the fire hazard that Broken City was. Maybe held 150 people... but it wasn't packed. Recognized a lot of faces from the Broken City shows. Still a reasonably good place for a small show. Not quite as intimate, but the band still had to weave in and out of fans to get their drinks. This was a few months before their latest release, so they dropped a new tune or two while doing their set. Odd how one of the songs I liked the least ended up becoming one of their bigger hits.
The next time I saw them was at the the Warehouse again, but shortly AFTER their Juno-winning release (but before getting the Juno). This time the place was packed, but it was still a good show, showcasing their new album, of course. They did it in a unique fashion - a 1:1, new song:old song ratio. So it was nice to catch the new stuff live and revel in some of the old stuff.
Now, the last time I saw them was after their Juno win. And they have since moved out of the pubs and into the University venue. (I've seen Modest Mouse, the Cat Empire, Rollins spoken word, Kevin Smith, Wolfmother, and a few others there). And it was sold out... and although not a huge venue, we're still talking about a thousand people now. I can't say it suited them. There seemed to be a certain disconnect between them and the crowd. And, of course, most of them were tourists. Screaming, "Weighty Ghost!!!" like they weren't going to play that song. (Which is one of their tunes I'm not that fond of, ironically.) And while I was at that concert, I also noticed that something had changed - by not changing at all. Although in a different order, they played the exact same songs as they did at their last show and "jammed" at the same spots. They were starting to rehash some of their material. And although it's easy to do with "only" 3 albums worth of material, they didn't do that with 2 albums worth.
So, I've missed out on Wintersleep the last couple of times they were in town. It's not that I don't like them any more, because I certainly do... but I'm not so sure I want to endure that sort of disappointment again. Where I got used to basically an hour+ jam session with some true believers, I now have to endure an hour+ recap with a bunch of annoying tourists.
Did any of that make any sense? I shouldn't write shit on your blog when I'm eating sandwiches. :)
I'm still trying to figure out why you'd want to come to Montreal on a regular basis *scratches head*
James: I know what you're trying to get at. The KoL show at the ACC was like that, with people who I don't think went to many concerts and so were shocked, SHOCKED when they played THE HIT. The Franz Ferdinand show was good, the crowd was a good mix (except for hipsters), just that I wanted a little more. Oh well, we have tickets for Pearl Jam in Toronto and Chicago, so that will soothe my jangled nerves.
JJ: We used to go to Montreal every year for the F1, and then also for concerts, and plus you always love where you aren't more than where you are.
Pearl Jam does a great show, even in a stadium/arena. I've only managed to see them once, but it was a blast. The biggest downside of big shows like that are the people that focus on getting drunk instead of enjoying the show. Jerkholes.
Last big show I went to was Metallica, who put in a pretty good show, too. But it's pretty much the same thing every time, so me and the girlfriend left early. Plus, I was mostly there for the opening bands. :)
I actually just came back here to say that "Knocked Up" is a great friggin' song. Sorry for the tanget and additional rambling. :P
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