Reviews

Josh Ritter and Elephant Revival Live in Toronto- Photos and Review

Josh Ritter with Elephant Revival

February 16th, 2016

The Phoenix – Toronto

“Winter’s over, be my darling
It’s been a long time coming
But now the snow is gone” – Josh Ritter

 

 

Nights prior to the Josh Ritter show, when Classified played at the Phoenix, it was unbelievably cold and on the day of the Josh’s show a snowstorm kicked up, dumping a heap of snow on the city.   But as Josh declared  “We’ve come out of the snow…we made it.”

 

Elephant Revival, a five piece folk music group from Colorado were missing Charlie Rose, but you’d never know it (sorry Charlie).  Their wearing harmonies and melodies were a pleasure to listen to and a band I’ll be sure to follow from now on.   They’ve been on tour with Josh for quite a few dates and I’d expect to see them on the festival circuit for years to come.

 

I can honestly say I’ve never seen a musician as jubilant to be on stage as Josh Ritter.   In fact, jubilant doesn’t begin to express his joy, excitement and gratitude.  Taking to the stage to perform “Idaho” as a solo piece he was joined by The Royal City Band for “Birds of a Meadow”.   Josh drew heavily from his fall 2015 release “Sermon on the Rocks” for his 19 song set.  Josh is a brilliant solo performer and his talents are wholly complimented by the Royal City Band.  Ranging form the barest subtlety to a cacophony; they create an atmosphere that draws the audience in.  Josh Ritter’s songs are testimonials and bittersweet love songs to the midwest he was born from, and carry on the legacy of Dylan, Cash and Roger Miller; with of great cover of Miller’s “Engine Engine No. 9” midway through his set.  I’m embarrassed to say that I hadn’t seen Josh perform until this evening but he won me over. And the legions of fans that filled the Phoenix on that snowy night would’ve told me that I’d leave as a fan.

 

We give this a 5 out of 6ix.

Review and photos – Classified live in Toronto

Classified“I’ve played in Toronto 11 times but this is my first time playing in the 6ix”

 

Classified with Son Real

Phoenix Nightclub

Toronto

February 13th, 2016

 

Fitting that with Canadian Hip Hop icon Drake serving as the 6ix ambassador for Toronto’s first NBA All Star game; one of Canada’s 1st major Hip Hop stars, Classified, was also in town with his fans braving Saturday’s sub zero temperatures to pack the Phoenix nightclub.

Declaring “I’ve played in Toronto 11 times but this is my first time playing in the 6ix”, Classified and his backing band tore through a high energy, fun and even set of material new and old.  Touring in support of the recently released “Grateful” (Halflife Records/Universal Music Canada), Classified still knows how to work a crowd (especially during ‘Higher’).

We’re big fans of live hip hop backing bands – because you just can’t beat that level of talent and interaction.   Classified sure loves his family with one brother serving as co-MC and another brother playing guitar along with a bass player, drummer and DJ.

Opening the show, and representing the West Coast hip hop scene was SonReal.   To be honest this set was really uneven and wasn’t doing much for us until SonReal played a brand new track off his upcoming album as it’s monster.   With it’s crossover appeal we expect that SonReal could have one of the biggest tracks of 2016.    Add a live band to his set and SonReal could have one hell of a show.   Getting to see Classified perform each night of this tour will likely elevate his game to get where he needs to be.

One of the best moments of Classified’s set was the old school hip hop medley.   No doubt this guy grew up on the best, and he and his band blew the crowd away with their choice of material.     (2nd best moment – Nintendo Power Gloves).

A solid set of all star hook heavy hip hop to make you jump around during a frigid All Star weekend.

We rate this one a solid 5 out of 6ix.

Review: Hollerado Live in Peterborough

Hollerado Live in Peterborough –  February 6th, 2016

By: Rhiannon Johnson

Being a bartender at a local music venue in a relatively small city, I see a lot of bands. Some more memorable than others, some I recognize, others that I don’t- Hollerado that just recently played has been one of the bands that I did recognize.

The first song that came to mind when thinking about this particular band was one of their original singles, “Juliet” an upbeat summer hit from their debut album “Record in a Bag” released in 2009. It was around this time, perhaps the year after that I saw them at Peterborough Wolf Stock, own play on Wakestock, or at least I think that’s what it was. I was in my very early 20s thrilled that I got to experience beer gardens on a beach, despite the $10 price ticket for a can of Coors Light and the beach having an inner city location with a nasty reputation of e-coli warnings.

Now in my mid-20s the roles have reversed and I’ve found myself serving a crowd of very early 20-somethings moderately prices domestic beers while the band gears up to play their catalogue of upbeat summer hits. That’s the first thing that I really notice about the show, how young the demographic is. Not that this is really surprising as their sound is reminiscent of late 90s pop-punk that packed small venues, similar to the Red Dog, with dewy eyed teens.

Taking into consideration that the band has released two albums in an almost ten years span, they delivered their hits accurately and with a surprising amount of energy most of which I found emanating from their newest member, a synth girl who’s smile never wavered.

I was taken aback by how many songs I did recognize during their set, which ended with a spirited Blink-182 cover. The show was over by 12:30am, which seemed surprisingly early since the first band went on at 10:30pm. While they have a few recognizable songs, the overall body of work is not entirely memorable or unique, and they can easily be lost in the sea of Canadian indie-rock found being played in any local music bar on any given weekend.

 

 

Review – Muse Live in Toronto

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Muse

Live at the Air Canada Centre – January 16, 2016

It’s fitting that the last full show review we did was for Garbage which we praised “A Garbage concert is audio and visual perfection.” Full Review  Saturday night found us witnessing both of these things on another level.

 

To put it simply; Muse are an extraordinary band   They have the showmanship and musical talent of Queen mixed with the otherworldly sense and anti establishment ethos of Pink Floyd.   Aside from solo tours we don’t have Pink Floyd anymore and 50% of Queen occasionally stages greatest hits shows.   Muse are those bands for this generation.  And Muse are staging shows that that very few acts are willing or able to do nowadays.

Speaking of staging…the real star of the show is the stage (videos / media designed by Thomas Kirk / Banoffeesky). Filling the spacious Air Canada Centre, the Muse stage looks like 3 ring circus with the centre being the main ring where the band resided most of the time (Drummer Dominic Howard and Morgan Nicholls [keyboards, backing guitar and percussion] were always here) and the other 2 rings reaching far towards the crowd giving Matthew Bellamy and Christopher Wolstenholme (bass) plenty of places to perform.  Muse have incorporated live drones, projecting mapping on unfurling material and a gorgeous lighting rig for an out of this world concert experience.   With the stage in the centre of the arena, this live in the round set up gives everyone the best seat in the house.  In fact I’d argue that the people that are seated the furthest away are treated to some of the best views.   Having seen Muse a few times and being blown away but their stage setups and production, The Drones stage production is the best I’ve seen from them.

But let’s not forget about the best part about Muse; their music.   I was introduced to them when a bandmate handed me a burned disc with “muse” scrawled on the front.   From then on my favourite song has been “Hysteria” and they launched into it only 3 songs in to which they tagged on part of “Back in Black” and “YYZ” by local heroes Rush.   The 4th song was a surprise, “Citizen Erased” from (Origin of Symmetry) which Bellamy claimed “maybe 10 people in the audience would know”.   Touring in support of their new album Drones they played a number of tracks from it – leading off the show with Psycho and Dead Inside and later dropping in more tracks including “Mercy” & “Reapers”.   Other standouts were crowd favourites “Resistance”, “Supermassive Black Hole”, “Madness”, “Starlight” and a great closer to the evening “Knights of Cydonia”.

Muse is a band that I think is a successful not from video or radio play but, like the friend with the burned CD, word of mouth.   Given that they’re played heavily on really only 1 Toronto station they easily sold out a huge venue and likely could have done it for a two nights.   They’re is the kind of band that you see once and commit to seeing them any chance you can after that; bringing the uninitiated along with you.

Music in the 6 rates Muse at the Air Canada Centre a solid 6 out of 6ix.