Beach House:
I've said before that 2010 has been quite the year in terms of album releases, one of the best of which was Beach House's Teen Dream. The Baltimore duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally have quite the established sound, thick, poppy drone flushed out by Legrand's powerful, husky voice. With Teen Dream they added some more brightness, the songs tend to bend and shift. These transistions allow Legrand's voice to soar and match her keyboard's stride. As far as their performance here, they provided most of Teen Dream including Zebra, Used to Be, Heart of Chambers and Norway, as well as a couple tracks from 2008's Devotion. Legrand's stage presence is mesmerizing, a mass of hair covers all but 1/3 third of her face and she plays her keyboard with both a sense of grace and force. Scally is equally as impressive, adding almost waltz-y guitar lines to the band's lush, shinning pop. (Note: I saw Beach House play at Buffalo's Town Ballroom the night after the Island Festival. The show featured a similar set-list and was equally as incredible, I'll spare you the redundancy of a full review.)
Band of Horses:Also released in 2010 was Band of Horse's third album Infinite Arms. I agree with most that it's not the band's best effort. Their brilliant debut Everything all the Time and their more of the same (but still good) sophomore effort Cease to Begin put Band of Horses in the position to either shake things up or continue their journey laterally. They chose the later, but unfortunately for them, Infinite Arms lacks the ease and charm of their earlier efforts. Some of the songs feel a bit over produced, but mostly I get the feeling that they may have just picked the wrong songs to group together. Since their first two albums, BOH have added more members into the songwriting process, it seems the larger pool of songs to choose from didn't do them any favors. That being said, in the era of the mp3, it's easy to just put BOH on shuffle and ignore any of the challenges of song choice. Despite the mostly concurring opinions on their new album, Band of Horses' set at Olympic Island proved that the band isn't taking much of it to heart. I had high expectations for their performance given that Band of Horses was responsible for one of my favorite shows at last year's Lollapalooza. Even without the "we're playing over Jane's Addiction" allure, the band managed to put on an incredibly energetic show, including plenty of crowd-pleasers along with their new material. Despite their relative misstep with Infinite Arms, the heart of Band of Horses is still intact. Ben Bridwell's voice never ceases to impress and the band's jangly buoyant esthetic is as addicting as ever. After seeing them here it's hard to imagine this band doesn't have another incredible album in them.
Broken Social Scene:Being in Toronto, I knew that we were in for quite the treat from Broken Social Scene. The band's core members as well as their seemingly endless list of contributors are based in Toronto, giving the hope of seeing some of their more famous contributors a lot more weight. As is the pattern here, Broken Social Scene also released an album in 2010, and their much anticipated Forgiveness Rock Record did not disappoint. This is perhaps their most song-based album ever. The flexibility and looseness the band has enjoyed isn't lost here, it's just put to better use. There are still a few relatively indulgent moments (lengthy intros and outros), but mostly Forgiveness Rock Record is simply a collection of really great, accessible songs. Again, being in Toronto provided some guarantees, one of which was the excitement of the crowd. When it was about time for them to take the stage I felt the crowd start to pack in around me, and one look over my shoulder proved just how popular these guys are. The set-list started with Forgiveness' World Sick, and continued to include Texico Bitches, Fire Eye'd Boy, 7/4 (Shoreline), Lover's Spit, Stars and Sons, Sentimental X's and Water in Hell. As far as appearances go, Pavement's Spiral Stairs (Scott Kannberg) joined the band on Water in Hell, Leslie Feist sang her parts on a few songs including 7/4 (Shoreline) and Lover's Spit, and Emily Haines (of Metric) sang on Sentimental X's as well as the band's final song, Ibi Dreams of Pavement. Watching all of this unfold was almost surreal. Musicians left and joined the stage constantly, a horn section popped up now and then, and there seemed to be no less than 10 members on the stage at one time. Vocal duties were shared seamlessly by core members Kevin Drew and Brenden Canning as well as some playful microphone exchanges by Feist, Haines and newcomer Lisa Lobsinger. Overall Broken Social Scene put on quite the show, proving that despite their hesitation to adopt the title, they really are a super-group.
Pavement: When I named this blog Embassy Row (after track 7 on Pavement's Brighten the Corners), seeing them live was only a dream, one I doubted would come to fruition. As soon as word of the Pavement reunion spread, it became my mission to find a way to see them, if that meant flying to the far off land of California, I was game. Luckily, I was spared the expensive plane fare and only had to endure my traditional two hour drive to Toronto. For most music minded people, Pavement need little to no introduction. They were slacker 90's rockers whose lyrics were more about quirk than poetry, their low-fi sonics were innovations and ultimately influenced almost every relative band that followed. Pavement made legends out of members Stephen Malkmus, Scott Kannberg, Bob Nostanovitch, Steve West and Mark Ibold. The success of Pavement brought about an interest in Malkmus and Kannberg's pre-Pavement band, Silver Jews as well as later acts like Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, and a resurgence of Kannberg's Spiral Stairs moniker. Pavement's career spanned ten years, five full-length albums and established them as one of the most important bands of the 90's. Pavement played a 26 song set, beginning with the classic Cut Your Hair and ending with Stop Breathin. It seemed like Pavement knew what a reunion tour is about, their set-list was a string of crowd pleasing classics, but the band didn't seem to mind. Malkmus shared vocal duties with the bouncy, screaming Nastanovich, whose energy was really something to behold. Malkmus' awkward charm hasn't faded with age and he performed his duties wonderfully, even tossing his guitar around occasionally. Kannberg was equally as dutiful and content. The pattern of guest appearances continued here too, members of BSS (including Kevin Drew) and BOH's Ben Bridwell joined the band on stage. Despite their impact on the musical world, nothing about Pavement feels old or redundant. Every song still carries it's own weight, making it obvious that Pavement's cult following wasn't wrong in their adoration. Here's the entire set-list: 1. Cut Your Hair
2. Trigger Cut
3. Rattled by the Rush
4. Father to a Sister of Thought
5. Kennel District (w/ Kevin Drew)
6. In the Mouth a Desert
7. Grounded
8. Silence Kit
9. Elevate Me Later
10. Spit on a Stranger
11. Unfair
12. Starlings of the Slipstream
13. Fight This Generation
14. Shady Lane
15. Conduit for Sale!
16. Here
17. Stereo
18. Two States (w/ Kevin Drew)
19. Gold Soundz
20. Perfume-V
21. Range Life
22. And Then (The Hexx)
23. Summer Babe
Encore:
24. Date w/ Ikea
25. Debris Slide
26. Stop Breathin
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