I got tickets for this concert on a bit of whim, and then had trouble finding anyone to go with; seems a busy time of year for work, travel, work travel, and other. But though I could have exchanged for another, I had ended up intrigued by this guy, Cameron Carpenter.
He looks like a rock star. He’s young, good-looking, fit, has a mohawk, dresses in sparkly / paisly tights pants and shirts, and wear outlandish, heeled shoes.
And he plays classical music. On the organ.
Naturally, he doesn’t approach it in a traditional way. Notably, he prefers digital organs to traditional pipe organs. And he improvises on the classics. And composes his own arrangements, and entire concertos.
Saturday night’s KW Symphony concert gave us a taste of what this guy can do. I went to the Prelude before the concert (which I don’t always bother with) because it was a conversation between Carpenter and a musicologist. He’s a really interesting guy, and I learned a lot about organ (not that I knew much to start with), including the fact that every organ in the world is different, And not subtly different—so different that the extremes might as well be different instruments. And since organists do not travel with their own instruments, they have to arrive early and get acquainted with the particularities of whatever they will be given to play in that town.
I also found out that, somewhat to my disappointment, that Carpenter was only playing on two of the numbers in the program.
The first half was all Bach. The first was a short piece, Ricercare No 2, arranged by Anton Webern. The third was the longer Suite No 3 in D major, whose second movement is very well-known (I think I play it on the piano), but which ends with lively movements with dance rhythms.
Those were both nice. But there’s no doubt they were overshadowed by the middle bit, of Cameron Carpenter riffing on Bach’s most famous composition, Toccata and Fugue in B minor. My sixth row center seats couldn’t have been better for watching hands, and my goodness, could those move. And did you know organists also have a keyboard for their feet? The whole thing was just mesmerizing.
(A taste from YouTube, though I think what he did Saturday was even better.)
In the second half, we jumped from the 1700s to current-day. First up was just the symphony on Arron Copland’s five-movement Music for the Theatre. This was a very fun, jazz-inspired composition, with humorous bits to it.
And then Cameron Carpenter presented his composition for organ and symphony, The Scandal. Based on what he’d done in the first half, I thought this would be all about the symphony adding colour around his own demonstration of proficiency, but it wasn’t that at all. It was a true integration of organ and symphony in a beautiful and lively piece of music. The cello got a big solo moment, and until maybe the last three minutes, the organ wasn’t necessarily the major focus. I was impressed.
So was the audience, as the standing ovation felt more sincere than it sometimes does. And in an extreme rarity at classical music concerts, we got encores! I don’t know what the first was (I’m not that good at classical music edition), but the second was a wonky but awesome version of Oh Canada! Not bad for an American who now lives in Germany.
Some weeks are quiet, and others, you have something on every night. This past week was the latter.
Monday night we were out for ballroom dance practice, and there isn’t much more to say about that.
Tuesday night I had book club meeting (and Jean braved the grocery store all by hisself!), to discuss Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan. It was definitely a quick and interesting read, an account of how a 24-year-old suddenly gradually became more psychotic, to the point of spending a month in such a state of delirium that, to this day, she cannot remember that time. Yet most testing showed nothing wrong with her; a medical mystery. To write the book, she had to rely on eye witness accounts by her family, friends, and boyfriend, along with medical records and some hospital video footage.
So it made for some good discussion. Two of us had only the eBook version, and we both reacted the same way to seeing the physical hardcover: Picking it up in fascination at its surprising “heft” in “real life”. “I feel like I’ve brought in an ancient artifact,” friend-with-actual-book remarked.
Wednesday night we were off to see Jeans’n’Classics / KW Symphony rendition of “The Music of Annie Lennox”. But before that, we went out for dinner to Niko Niko Roll & Sushi. The level of service was a little weak, and the lack of a wine list a bit disappointing, but the food was pretty good. Not quite up to Watami Sushi level, but better than most “all you can eat” places. And, for the first time I can recall, we were actually at Centre in the Square a full half hour before concert start! That speed of service was much appreciated.
(I was told my speed of walking may have contributed, too. It was chilly out!)
The concert itself was very enjoyable. They had six different female singers covering the various Eurythmics and Annie Lennox solo songs, so you got to hear them interpreted through a variety of voices and singing styles. They all wore dresses in the first half, and men’s wear in the second, in tribute to Annie Lennox’s own range of fashion.
Thursday, we had a Jean work event at the Culinary Studio, to celebrate some achievements (that this isn’t the place to describe). Children and spouses were welcome to join. What we did was move from workstation to workstation, preparing a different appetizer at each: soup, spanakopita, crepes, spring rolls, and bruschetta. (The kids made chocolate chip cookies.) It was a lot of fun—and I’ve learned I’ve been chopping vegetables incorrectly for 25 years. (Gonna be a hard habit to break.)
We learned how to make spring rolls much like these
Then, we all ate what we had made. It was surprising how filling a small number of appetizers (and cookies) can be!
Friday we stayed home and watched a movie called Secret Things. There will be a separate post on that.
And Saturday we were out for a very special dinner, which will also merit its own post.
Songza is yet another streaming Internet radio station. I’ve been trying it out, and quickly discovered it had two advantages over Last.fm:
It’s free (not just for the first month).
Its app works on cell phones and tablets. Even in Canada. (Course, with the cost of Canadian data plans, one can hardly afford to use it too much, but that’s not Songza’s fault.)
What it doesn’t have, of course, is Last.fm’s “scrobbler” history of what you’ve listened to in the past. But it’s pretty intelligent at getting you started. Right now, for example, it points out that it’s Sunday night, and so you might be looking for music for:
Studying
Unwinding
Bedtime (is that for seniors? It’s 9 pm!)
St Patrick’s Day
But if you don’t want to be so led by the nose, you can click into Popular or All Categories to uncover a dizzying range of possibilities.
One thing that does annoy me somewhat is that having picked something, you then have to make more choices, and more choices. Like, OK, you decide Unwinding is what you want. Next choice is:
Easy Listening Pop
Haunting and Beautiful
Golden Oldies
Classic Rock Nights
Sophisticated Art Pop
And if you are then intrigued by Haunting and Beautiful, well, then, you have another choice to make, among three hauntingly beautiful playlists. (It’s this third one that really makes me sigh.)
But, creating an account, and doing a little rating of what comes up in the playlists helps it make suggestions. For example, after logging in, the “Studying” option went away for me, in favour of “Love and Romance”. Ooh la la. And the original Unwinding options included different genres: bye-bye Mellow Country, hello Classic Rock Nights.
The point of using this is music discovering, or re-discovery, so it’s bound to be somewhat hit and miss, especially at first. (If you rate a song with a thumb’s down, Songza will immediately move along to the next.) When Songza does manage to give you something exactly in tune with your current mood, though, it’s kind of magical. It can just make your whole day.
Pandora radio is this website / app that is, apparently, amazingly good at finding new music you will like, based on algorithmic analysis of music you already like. However, it’s never been legally available to Canadians.
Nevertheless, I have found my way through to it a few times. But I’ve never had the patience to stick with it long enough to see its amazing-ness in action. Because, of course, you have to “seed” it with information about your current tastes. This requires you rating songs it throws at you, or trying out shortcuts like naming a band you like.
I don’t have the patience to stick with the ratings thing for too long, and naming, for example, The Who, as band I like, results in a fairly unsophisticated playlist of bands like The Rolling Stones, Cream, and Jimi Hendrix, none of whom I’m that bowled over by. (So whatever it is I love about The Who, it’s not whatever musical commonality they have with those bands.)
But, then rediscovered Last.fm. Legally available to Canadians—albeit not on our smart phones!
I had actually signed up for a free trial with Last.fm a little over a year ago, but didn’t end up motivated enough at the time to switch to pay mode. However, I did allow them to continue to “scrobble” on my computer, even though I didn’t quite know what that meant. I just knew that after running iTunes to sync my iPod, it would ask if it could “scrobble” certain tracks, and I’d say sure, and it would apparently do that.
But I checked them out again recently and discovered that it has been essentially building up a profile of my musical tastes. It has lists of the artists and songs I’ve listened to most in the past year, 6 months, 3 months, or ever… Most of which are not a surprise, although the vagaries of the iPod shuffle do result in some weirdness, such as the fact I that I apparently listened to Abba’s “Thank You for the Music” more than any other song last year! (Geez, it’s not even my favorite Abba song…)
Abba, of whose music I am apparently very grateful
And then, if you pay Last.fm (a big $3 for a month), you get access to various “radio” stations based on your stats. You can use them to just listen to stuff you already own (to which I say, don’t I already have an iPod / iTunes for that?), or to a mix of your songs plus other songs they think you’ll like, or to entirely new music they suggest.
You can also build stations based on theme (like 80s music, classic rock, or dance), or other artists, which will also take into account your listening history.
I don’t believe Last.fm has the sophisticated algorithm that Pandora does. So, results are a bit uneven. For example sometimes my mix has just too frequent repetitions of weak-link offerings such Keith Moon solo songs or Queen without Freddie Mercury, or gets too heavily weighted toward female singers (maybe that’s the Abba effect?), leaving me with a testosterone craving.
A girl can only take so much Bjork…… before she needs a little Daltrey
Although The Who playlist (sigh) has too much Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and Rolling Stones.
Fortunately, though, you can always switch to another “station” if the current one is letting you down. I had great luck with “The Police” radio, for example, which seemed to result in playlist of all the 80s music that didn’t suck! And that magically seemed to improve my “Mix” when I went back to it after.
All in all, Last.fm is helping me find new (or old) music that I like, or had forgotten I like, even though I though I do have to skip forward through some tracks on the way. (I now know, for example, that Elvis Costello did a quite decent version of Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful”) For the impatient Canadian, it’s not a bad option.
I’m not going to call these “the best” (how would I know?), but here are ten songs originally written and recorded by men, later covered by a woman, where I think the cover surpasses the original. Not in any particular order (because I couldn’t make up my mind).
1. Working Class Hero by Marianne Faithfull
Originally written and recorded by: John Lennon
I love John Lennon’s original version, but Marianne Faithfull’s take, from her fantastic album Broken English (1979), featuring her upper-class accent and broken voice, is just darker and angrier and therefore, somehow, more awesome. Certainly better than Green Day’s fine but unexciting version on the Instant Karma John Lennon tribute CD (which is, unfortunately, full of fine but unexciting covers).
The video is a live version. I’m not sure it’s better than the studio version, but it’s good, and certainly more interesting to look at for six minutes than a static picture of the Broken English album cover.
2. Heartless by Dia Frampton
Originally written and recorded by: Kanye West
To be honest, I wasn’t sure I’d heard Kanye’s version of this until today. Having listened to it now, though, I can confirm that I like Dia’s version much more. To be fair, Kanye’s music isn’t the type I tend to listen to anyway. But when Ms Frampton did this version on The Voice, I thought it was one of the greatest things I’d ever heard. Lots of others did too, as it very nearly propelled her to victory on that show.
It’s a bit hard to find a good version of that Voice performance now. You will have to pop over to YouTube to actually see the below.
3. Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door by Avril Lavigne
Originally written and recorded by Bob Dylan
This is a probably a controversial choice, but I’ve never been much of a Dylan fan. I don’t quite get him, and I can’t get past that voice. But no doubt this is a really good song. And say what you will about Avril, that girl has a good set of pipes. She covered this song for the War Child charity, which assists child soldiers. I find her singing on it very touching. She may be a bratty 18-year-old here who doesn’t really understand the issues, but that makes her the same age as the young men (usually men) caught up in war. You may disagree, but for me, this works.
I also find the official video pretty touching.
4. Hallelujah by k.d. lang
Originally written and recorded by Leonard Cohen
And here’s the obvious, uncontroversial choice! She kind of owns this song now, complete with dropping one of the original verses (“Remember when I moved in you…”). Hearing her do this one live last year was as stunning as you’d expect. (And I also like her cover of Talking Head’s “Heaven”.)
Going with the video of her Juno performance here, as they may be when most Canadians realized what a great marriage between song and singer this was…
5. Real Men by Tori Amos
Originally written and recorded by Joe Jackson
Tori did an entire album of covers of songs by men, from which I’ve borrowed for the title of this post: Strange Little Girls. It has a dark version of I Don’t Like Mondays, a terrifying take of Eminem’s ’97 Bonnie and Clyde, an unrecognizable Heart of Gold. But my favorite is Real Men. I like the Joe Jackson original too, but Tori’s version just sounds great, and you can’t help but see a song about men’s gender roles differently when it’s song by a woman. It seems less snide and more thoughtful.
Here’s a very good version Tori did on TV.
6. Enjoy the Silence by Lacuna Coil
Originally recorded by Depeche Mode
Someone I follow tweeted that this was the “best cover ever”. I don’t think that’s so—I believe some on this very list are better—but it is a good cover, of an 80s tune I hadn’t given much thought to in quite a well. It sounds more powerful, more dramatic. And it inspired this post, which was originally going to be just a list of covers in general, until I realized most of the ones I was picking out were of women covering men’s song.
(Know what would be tough list to put together? Great covers men have done of women’s songs…)
Here’s the official Lacuna Coil video for “Enjoy the Silence”.
7. The Man Who Sold the World by Jordis Unga
Originally written and recorded by David Bowie
Bowie’s version is somewhat cerebral; Jordis brings a lot of emotion to this song, which she performed on long-ago reality series Rock Star: INXS. She said it reminded her of a friend who had committed suicide. This performance was the show-stopper on this episode of that series.
8. Sweet Jane by Cowboy Junkies
Originally written and recorded by Lou Reed
Not that Cowboy Junkies are all women (neither are Lacuna Coil), but Margot Timmins’s mellow yet sexy vocals definitely contribute a lot to the popularity of this cover. I had a few year’s gap between hearing this and the very different original, which I’m still not that crazy about. But the Cowboy Junkies’ “Sweet Jane” still has that nice groove.
The official video.
9. Crabbuckit by The Good Lovelies
Nothing wrong with KOS’s original, but you got to love the gorgeous three-part harmonies The Good Lovelies bring to this, while still retaining the lively beat. Fun group to see in concert, by the way.
Apparently they never did a video for this, so this one of those static sound types. Barely over 2 minutes long, though.
10. Darling Nikki by Chairlift
Originally written and recorded by Prince
An unlikely song for a woman to sing, which is partly why I love it. They sort of play around and deconstruct the song while keeping it recognizably, absolutely, Prince’s Darling Nikki. From Purplish Rain, once offered free by Spin Magazine, a collection of rather good covers of Prince’s Purple Rain, in its entirety.
The companion, I suppose, to our pre-Christmas celebration is our post-New Year dinner. New Year’s Eve we go out to a restaurant; early in the new year, we make ourselves a gourmet dinner. Normally this happens much closer to January 1, but with Jan 1 being a Tuesday this year with back to work occurring on Wednesday, we put it off until the following weekend.
I actually pondered inviting other people over for it this time. But what happened is what usually does when I think of having people over for dinner: I over-think myself out of the whole idea. How much will my gluten-free friend manage to eat? (I remain fuzzy on exactly what does and doesn’t contain gluten.) Do my friends who don’t eat red meat consider lamb red meat? Does my friend who only eats read meat consider lamb red meat? Does anyone have a shellfish allergy?
Perhaps I need less complicated friends. At any rate, it was just the two of us, again. And maybe it just as well, as it turned the menu would have left my imaginary guests entertaining themselves for semi-long stretches while we were in the kitchen cooking, because very little of the meal could be prepared in advance.
Partly because I had been thinking of having guests, and you’re not supposed to try new recipes on them (not that it’s stopped me before), all of this year’s items were ones we’d made previously, though never combined in this way. While in some ways it seemed unfortunate not to try new stuff, the fact is we rarely make these gourmet items any other time of year. So why not repeat some of the greatest hits of the past?
First up: Mussels and clams, steamed in white wine flavored with lemon grass and green curry paste, then finished with cream and coconut sauce. I don’t know what it was this time, as the recipe involved virtually no added salt, but the broth tasted almost too salty. Almost, but not. Maybe from the mussels and clams themselves? The mussels were just great, though. Lovely texture, almost as if we didn’t live very far from the ocean.
I was going to serve this with the Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc it cooked in, but we ran out (the bottle had been opened before), so we had Ice Cuvee with it, which I think was better. That’s a mix of sparkling wine with just a bit of ice wine, and that slight sweetness nicely offset the salt. The playlist accompanying this course was The Beautiful Ones (that is, lovely-sounding songs).
The main course featured lamb loin chops with sides of Brussels spouts and wasabi mashed potatoes. Everything was simple to do, but the two of us having to manage timing and coordinating the three items was moderately challenging. Mostly fun, though, actually.
The lamb just had to be seared on each side in olive oil, then baked at 400. Then in the same pan, I prepared a jus of red wine and beef broth (organic). The mashed potatoes were your basic red potatoes, diced (skin left on) and boiled, then when tender, mashed with light sour cream, low-sodium chicken broth, some butter, and yes, wasabi paste (as in, the green stuff they serve with sushi). The Brussels sprouts were steamed slightly, then cut in half (Jean did much exclaiming about burnt fingers), and pan-fried in olive oil. Those were then topped with more olive oil, fleur de sel, and fresh lemon juice.
Man, this all turned out really well. The lamb was maybe a bit overdone, but still had some pink, and tasted amazing. Ms Paltrow is right, and this is a good way to prepare Brussels sprouts. And fresh mashed potatoes are great with a little zing!
We served this with a very easy-drinking 2009 Chateauneuf-du-pape. And listened to the Thoughtful playlist—songs with smarts.
Dessert was the one item that I could prepare in advance: A chocolate souffle recipe from the Epicurious website. (We still don’t own ramekins, though, so they still ended up in an assortment of custard dishes, corningware, and whatnot.) It’s basically melting chocolate, mixing it with milk, then with egg yolks, then beating whites and folding those in. And, sugar is involved as well. Then everything is placed in the ramekin substitutes in the fridge, awaiting later baking. While preparing I listed to my “Long ago and far away” playlist of songs I hadn’t played in the past year—that is, songs I didn’t listen to in 2012. New year, new songs.
The later baking produced ooey-gooey good molten chocolate warm dessert, served with port. Playlist for the eating: Love, the sweetest thing: romantic songs.
My rather excellent run of live concerts this year was capped off with The Barenaked Ladies, performing “Hits and Holiday Songs” with the KW Symphony, at Centre in the Square last Sunday.
Jean was a bit puzzled at my interest in this one, as I don’t exactly idolize this band. But I had been thinking for a while that I wouldn’t mind seeing them in concert. I definitely like the albums and songs of theirs that I have (which is probably only the obvious ones), and I figured their humorous approach to performance would make their live show fun. So when a local concert was announced, I didn’t wait long to get tickets.
Playing a bit of catch-up here, on the eclectic mix of KW Symphony concerts we’ve seen this fall and winter…
It began in September with the season opener. The first half were two fairly fabulous modern classical pieces, both by local composers, Stewart Goodyear’s Count Up and John Estacio’s Brio: Toccata and Fantasy for Orchestra. The second half was somewhat more familiar: Beethoven’s Symphony in D minor: The Ode to Joy. It’s a bit funny in that it features a mass choir (four choirs, combined) and four soloists, but for most of the performance time, they are just sitting there. They only start singing in the later movements.
But what a gorgeous piece that is. I’m always worried I’ll get a bit bored during the slow bits of classical pieces, but that didn’t happen here. Too beautiful, too moving. Then afterward, we attended the opening gala, which offered a live band (not classical), dancing, hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and an auction. It was a fun evening.
In October, we saw Penelope, by Sarah Kirland Snider (who was in attendance), which was part of the Intersections series. It was a “song cycle”, in which a woman’s husband returns from the war after many years, not remembering his previous life. The performance is his wife’s reaction to this and attempts to restore his memory, partly through reading Homer’s Odyssey to him.
Haunting is probably the best descriptor of this one. It wasn’t quite like anything I’ve heard before. It was written for and performed by Shara Worden, who has a gorgeous but unusual, almost unearthly, quality to her voice. Think I’d like to get the recording, though it would be the kind of thing you’d want to just listen to and through on its own, and not on shuffle mode with other things.
(I found this video while researching this, and really got drawn into watching it all, though it’s seven minutes long…) After the song cycle, Shara Worden performed some of her own songs, which were quirky and somewhat lighter, even featuring audience participation.
Then earlier this month, Edwin Outwater presented the work he’d listened to a lot as a (clearly very unusual) teenager, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No 5. The piece is over an hour long and requires more musicians than KW Symphony has, so they were joined by about 40 additional musicians. In the first half, after with Schubert’s brief Entr’acte No. 3 from Rosamunde, Outwater explained what was going on the various parts of the Mahler symphony, with excerpts, then in the second half, they played it all. Though I’d had kind of a day at work, I couldn’t help but be drawn in by the gorgeous music rather than brooding on that.
He’s right that it’s an amazing work. Still can’t imagine myself having listened to it as a teenager, though.
Finally, the first Jeans’n’Classics concert led off this month with something I did listen to as a teenager: The Beatles: Rubber Soul and Revolver. Jean calls me a snob for this, but I still protest that following the old US releases of these albums rather than the more definitive UK / CD versions was a weird Boomer thing to do, particularly as it meant the omission of songs like “Love You to” (my favorite of the three Harrison songs on Revolver) and “And Your Bird Can Sing”. And the even more brilliant songs “Drive My Car” and “Nowhere Man” are only recent additions, tacked on at the end of Rubber Soul’s odd US play order.
But then again… Maybe has does have a point that it’s just a quibble, because it was a really good concert. The Beatles music is very suited to the symphonic treatment, and Peter Brennan clearly loves them and does cool, original things with the arrangements, such as intermixing “Within You Without You” (from Sgt. Pepper) into Octopus’s Garden.
The two lead singers, David Blamires and Neil Donnell, both have exquisite voices, and their weaker stage presence was made up for by having personable keyboardist John Regan lead us through the set. We also got Don Paulton on keyboards, in a rare double-shot on the ivories. And one has to mention that apart from singing well, as always, Kathryn Rose looked particularly fetching. She seems to be one of those women who just get more attractive as they get older.
The set list, of course, featured three of my all-time favorite Beatles songs, “Norwegian Wood” (which led to a night-long debate as to just what John Lennon was setting fire to there), “In My Life”, “Girl” (so sensual), and “For No One” (a most devastating breakup song). But those two albums are just strong in general, so there wasn’t much dross. The very odd “Tomorrow Never Knows” was suitably trippy ending to the evening.
Of course, there was no way I would miss seeing The Who performing one of my favorite albums in nearby Toronto. But despite the mostly positive reviews of the tour (the only exceptions being from those boomers who, far as I can tell, mainly resent The Who for no longer being 25), I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy it. I thought that:
My seats at the opposite end of the stage (behind the floor seats) would not compare well with the “right in front of the stage” seats I’d had at the last two Roger Daltrey concerts.
The sound quality would be pretty crappy.
The singing quality might be kind of crappy, given how difficult Quadrophenia is to sing.
We weren’t exactly down front this time…
The date would also prove to throw up a few other challenges. When I bought the tickets back in July, I didn’t know that would be bringing me to downtown Toronto on Grey Cup weekend. That made for some incredibly inflated weekend hotel prices! And just a wee bit of extra traffic.
But it all turned out better than expected.
We were actually staying (without intending this at all) at the “official Grey Cup hotel.” Which, yes, it was pretty crazy with people there. But they were a bunch of really happy people! And it’s not every day you see the Winnipeg pipe band playing and marching in your hotel lobby while blue-haired Argos fans and cowboy-hatted Calgary fans look on. It was weird, and definitely seemed that my Who T-shirt was the wrong uniform to be in, but it was entertaining.
And all my concerns about the concert evaporated really quickly as well:
We weren’t close, it’s true, but we were as central as you can get, with perfect sightlines. At any time I could see all five big screens, all members of the band on stage, and if I really wanted a closer view, I had binoculars.
The sound quality wasn’t bad at all. The horns, keyboards, guitars, bass, and drums all seemed nicely mixed; it was loud enough without being too loud.
Of course some of the songs were wisely keyed lower than the original, but Roger Daltrey sang the best I’ve heard him in recent years, deftly handling the vocal jumps in “Dr. Jimmy”, singing the chorus of “Love Reign O’er Me” with impressive power and passion, and absolutely nailing the scream in “Won’t Get Fooled Again”.
But we could still see
The opening act
I do want to pause for a minute and acknowledge that opening act Vintage Trouble were fantastic. Led by Ty Taylor—most famous as a former contestant on Rock Star: INXS—they were energetic, engaging, and charismatic, and Ty’s signing voice remains a miraculous thing. Their half-hour set was tons of fun, and I’m going to pick up a few more of their songs. They earned a standing ovation.
Quadrophenia
As is typical, not everyone showed up for the opening act (their loss) but by the time 8:30 rolled around, that stadium looked really packed—more than I expected, really, as I didn’t think it was a sellout (and maybe it wasn’t, but it must have been close). And once again, I had that feeling that the people of Toronto really love The Who. They may have been average age 50 (I’d guess), but they were as enthusiastic as teenagers.
Another killer Who show. Toronto crowd are loud – like a home crowd. Where to next? Detroit, Minneapolis, Chicago…
Apparently the original Quadrophenia tour was a bit of a mess, the band not having been given enough time to prepare for a live presentation of that complex music. The 1996/97 outing (which I have on DVD) featured a narrator telling the story of Jimmy the Mod. This one returned to another central idea of Quadrophenia: that it represented the band itself, aspects of the four very different personalities in The Who. So it was presented, sort of, as today’s Who paying tribute to their own past.
Earlier in the show; Roger still in jacket
They played the album straight through, no narration, not even pausing to talk to the audience. But throughout, they used the five large screens behind them to either illustrate themes of the songs (a lot of water imagery—don’t see this show on a full bladder) or show scenes from that time. (Along with showing what was happening on stage, of course.) Often the scenes were of their younger selves. For example, during “The Real Me” and “Cut My Hair” were scenes of the very young mod Who at the tiny clubs they originally played at.
During “The Punk and the Godfather”, the song where Jimmy is angry that The Who have become so famous, abandoning their mod roots, the scenes were all of the band in their glory days: Pete leaping, Keith thrashing, John being cool, and Roger as the ultimate rock God. (Struck me that seeing the younger selves on the big screen while the current members sang live was the closest someone my age could possibly get to seeing The Who in their prime. And yes, I’m grateful for the experience.)
On “Helpless Dancer”, the tough guy theme, Pete and Roger traded off lines (Pete seemed to deliberately censor himself on the “lesbians and queers” line, which was interesting) while the screens showed The Who in their destructive phase, smashing their guitars, drum kits, and microphone stands, and setting off bombs.
Most notably, of course—it’s mentioned in every review—during 5:15, the live band stops at one point to allow the big projection of John Entwistle to play his famous bass solo from the Albert Hall concert in 1997. The band was really rocking at this point, and earned their first standing ovation of the night.
Out of my brain on the train, on the train… 5:15
Then during “Bell Boy”, Roger handed off vocal duties to Keith Moon (video image of), just like in the old days. (Here’s video of that–not by us–also featuring the fabulous “Dr. Jimmy”, which followed.)
I have to say I found that part unexpectedly touching. I’m too young to remember when Keith Moon died; to me, in a sense, he’s always been gone, you know? So seeing this footage is the first time I can recall feeling sad about his passing.
During the instrumental “The Rock” (the only time Daltrey left the stage) the images ran through key points in history from mod days to now. The timing of the music to the 9/11 imagery was powerful and, again, very touching.
That led to the aforementioned “Love Reign O’er Me”, in which I was honestly astounded at how great Roger sounded on the chorus. I have to say that another thing about the hockey arena is that it really struck me how big and powerful his voice is, when contrasted with that of the Townshend brothers. Simon has a gorgeous, sweet-sounding voice; Pete’s has developed a bit of an odd growl in the lower ranges. But neither can fill the space in the same way.
Still Mr Body Beautiful at 68: Love Reign O’er Me
“Love Reign O’er Me” produced the second standing ovation. (Video of that: Not from great seats, but does have great audio.) It was also the conclusion of the Quadrophenia portion of the evening.
… And more
The Quadrophenia portion was tailor-made for The Who geeks. It was not so good for more casual fans, such as my husband (who was very happy he at least had his camera with him, to keep him busy. He took 1500 photos!). So the “and more” part of the evening was especially for them. Pete Townshend finally addressed the audience, talking about how Toronto had always been a special place for the band. And then they launched into “Who Are You” over a fun backdrop, featuring, among other images, a Canadian flag (very astute of them) and the Argos logo!
Who are you?
Meanwhile, the smaller screens flitted between different band members. Who are you? Who, who?
“Behind Blue Eyes” followed (the crowd just stayed standing through this entire last part), and it was quite something to hear that many people singing along with every line. Then we got “Pinball Wizard“–and both Jean and I are quite surprised how well the video of that turned out, given the distance, apparent from the shaking:
The very end featured just Daltrey and Townshend, on the most perfect song to end it on, “Tea and Theatre”, from Endless Wire. According to the Toronto Sun, they’d played for 2 hours 20 minutes. And gotta say, both Daltrey (who looks younger than he is) and Townshend (who does not) make growing older look a lot less scary, they had so much energy throughout, jokes about foot rubs and bed times notwithstanding! We should all be in such good shape at their age.
Rockers past their prime? Sure. But #TheWho last night at #ACC was one of the best concerts I’ve seen in years. Simply outstanding.
The timing of our Ottawa vacation was actually determined by one Sir Bob Geldof, who was doing concerts in Eastern Canada for the first time in 9 years. Perversely, I suppose, we decided to see him play at the city farthest from our own. (But really, would you rather visit Hamilton, Oshawa… or Ottawa? Right?)
Thanks to me contacting the theatre more or less the minute tickets went on sale, we were sitting in the very centre of the very first row, which the usher declared were the “Best seats in the house!”. Certainly was nice having no blocked view of the stage whatsoever. And when Bob did stroll to the front of the stage, he was really right in front of us.
And, it wasn’t a bad vantage point for taking pictures.
Jean’s review
You know, I do bring my husband to many concerts of interest more to me. Sometimes he’s bored by them, sometimes he’s slightly mystified by them, sometimes he’s mildly entertained, and occasionally… He loves them.
At the end of this one, he had the biggest grin. His comments included:
That was really good!
He just made it so entertaining!
(I’m figuring, since he’s not the big, life-long fan, his opinion means more than mine.)
How do you think he does it? What makes him so good?
The band is large—six musicians—and highly skilled. They convey Bob’s songs extremely well.
The show, about two hours long, is very well programmed and paced. The hits interspersed amongst maybe lesser-known songs, light music to start leading to more thoughtful than to dark ones, and concluding with completely fun ones. It never lags, whether you know all the tunes or not.
Bob is a really charismatic guy, and he really gets into the songs. You can’t take your eyes off him, and there’s no way to not get caught up in his passion.
He is fascinating guy who has led (well, is leading) an incredible life. When he talks, it’s as interesting as when he sings.
Mr. Chuckles
Geldof, of course, often deals with really serious issues of world poverty and whatnot, and therefore has a reputation of being an angry, grumpy guy. And maybe he is, but he’s also really funny. And he doesn’t trot out the same old jokes each time. No, the ones we heard were definitely customized for us.
Complaints that he thought he was playing the big city of Ottawa, but instead found himself miles from nowhere, on “Little House on the Prairie”. [Centrepointe Theatre, in Nepean, kind of is in the middle of nowhere, in fact…]
Amusement that the biggest highlight of the Ottawa Market was this 900 pound pumpkin on display.
A recurring trashing of the recently visited Oshawa, a city that apparently makes even Ottawa’s “little house on the prairie” look good.
Some set highlights
Our video of Mudslide, always a favorite of mine
Hearing some Boomtown Rats songs that aren’t as famous, and that he hadn’t played on the last tour, like “When the Night Comes” and “Joey’s on the Street again”.
Getting the backstory to “Scream in Vain”, which, on record, is an odd song about yams. It had its genesis in his return to Ethiopia ten years after Live Aid, and finding lush fields where previously there was death, dust, and desert. And seeing that helped him start to get out of his own severe depression, from his wife leaving him. And then they played “Scream in Vain”, and it just came across so powerfully…
An astonishingly sexy, extended version of the lustful “Mary of Fourth Form”.
Age is just a number
Bob Geldof is 61 years old. So all these people commenting on “Oh, he looks so old, now”–well, he is old. Of course he doesn’t look 30 anymore. And, he’s just not the type to run to the Lady Clairol, so with that crazy shock of long, completely gray hair… Kind of looks like a mad professor, or something.
But his voice has lost nothing of its range and power. He can still cover that octave and a half of “I Don’t Like Mondays”, still “scream in vain” during some songs, and sing softly and gently during others. Rather nasal, it’s never been a beautiful voice, but he has sure does a lot with what he has.
He’s also very energetic during the entire show, bobbing in place at times, moving around the stage at others. He remains very lean, and apparently very fit.
And up close, with the crazy hair partly hidden under a hat, and smiling, he still looks pretty handsome.
Final tip
If you ever do go see Bob Geldof in concert—as you should, before you die—you might want to stick around after. He’s often nice enough to come out and meet with fans. Or so I hear.
Tuesday night I had book club meeting (and Jean braved the grocery store all by hisself!), to discuss 
Finally, the first Jeans’n’Classics concert led off this month with something I did listen to as a teenager: The Beatles: Rubber Soul and Revolver. Jean calls me a snob for this, but I still protest that following the old US releases of these albums rather than the more definitive UK / CD versions was a weird Boomer thing to do, particularly as it meant the omission of songs like “Love You to” (my favorite of the three Harrison songs on Revolver) and “And Your Bird Can Sing”. And the even more brilliant songs “Drive My Car” and “Nowhere Man” are only recent additions, tacked on at the end of Rubber Soul’s odd US play order.
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