Matt Mays w/ Skye Wallace @ Vogue Theatre -- 10/23/19

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Continuing the 2019 trend of ‘put some rad bands together on the same bill’, last night was the Vancouver stop on Matt Mays current Howl At The Night tour, with Skye Wallace as support. The cross-Canada tour kicked off a few days earlier on the island, so they were still on the first leg of it as they hit the Vogue Theatre.

To start off the night, Skye Wallace came out swinging with the soaring "Always Sleep With A Knife" from her latest, self-titled album, her powerful voiced filled the theatre.

Her all-too-short set ranged from the gritty and raucous "Coal In Your Window"; to "Iced In", which saw Skye enlisting in the help of the audience to clap while she sang unaccompanied; to the darker and more personal "Midnight", introduced by mentioning a charity she was working with, CAMH, or The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Throughout the set, Skye was visibly thrilled to not only be back in Vancouver, but gracing the stage of the Vogue, reminiscing about some of the shows she had seen there. And judging by the reaction of the crowd, she not only (deservedly) made at least a few new fans, but I bet there was at least one person in the audience who saw Skye and inherited her hope of one day being in her place.

Not long after, Matt Mays came out alone at first, sitting behind the "space keyboard" (as he put it) for the titular tour song "Howl At The Night". From there, he was joined one by one by members of the band, literally a new person joining each song until the full 8-piece band was onstage.

The set started with some slower or more acoustic songs, ranging from "Downtown" off his first ever release, to "The Past" from the faux soundtrack to the never-made movie …When The Angels Make Contact, and the more recent "Ola Volo", about the local Vancouver artist whose work Mays say and he immediately had to write a song about her -- "Not in a weird way", Mays joked when recounting the story about meeting the artist for the first time, after writing the song.

At about the half-way mark of the set, once everyone was onstage, they launched into "Travellin'", starting off mellow but halfway through the song, shooting out of their chairs & kicking them back, exploding into the full-on rock and roll finish to both the song, and rest of the set.

From there they cranked out bangers like "Building a Boat" and the brand new, bouncy "Let There Be Love". There was a huge sing-along for the nostalgic "City of Lakes", and the set came to a finish with one of my all-time favourite songs, an absolute emotional rollercoaster, "Terminal Romance". Mays stalked the stage, going right up to the edge (literally and figuratively), pouring everything into the heart wrenching song, and even picking up one of the spotlights at the foot of the stage, shining it into the crowd and on himself.

If they had not come back, I would have been more than satisfied with the show ending there. But of course, the encore was yet to come. When the band returned, they first wen into a fun, bluegrass version of "Tall Trees" that Mays said they started playing as a joke before it worked its way into the actual show. And then, capping off the night, Mays invited Skye Wallace and her band back out for a big group jam of "On The Hood", that included almost the entire theatre singing along as well.

I’ve always thought encores should NOT just be 'and now here’s our hit' but rather bands having fun, playing around with their songs, doing covers, jamming with the openers, that kinda thing. And this was a perfect example. In fact, my favourite live sets are always ones that build, seem to have a progression to them rather than just 'a bunch of songs', so combined with the encore, this was quite possibly the most perfectly structured set I could imagine. Starting soft and slower and acoustic, building to the big rock-shift, and finally the explosive emotional climax. That, along with Skye’s killer opening set, means this show is already taking its place among my favourites of the year.

Skye Wallace setlist
Always Sleep With A Knife
Stronghold
Mean Song 2
Scarlet Fever
Iced In
Coal in your Window
Midnight
Death of Me
There Is A Wall

Matt Mays setlist
Howl At The Night
Drive On
Dark Promises
Downtown
Ola Volo
Ain't That The Truth
The Past
Spoonful of Sugar
Travellin'
Building A Boat
Indio
Station Out of Range
City of Lakes
Take It On Faith
Let There Be Love
Terminal Romance
(encore)
Tall Trees
On The Hood

Miss Quincy & The Showdown with Cobra Romone and Savvie @ The Cobalt -- 01/07/16

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I couldn't think of a better way to start of 2016, concert-wise, than an "East Van badass babe revue". Miss Quincy returned to Vancouver for the first of The Cobalt's Thursday night "Fuck Fridays" in the new year, and bought along some pretty killer rock 'n' roll. 

First up was a bit of self-described "sex rock" from Savvie. Savannah Wellman was joined by a talented bunch of locals as her backing band -- though noted it was the first time that particular combination played together -- to highlight songs from last year's Night Eyes album.
Starting off with "It's Okay", songs ranging from the coy lyrics "Break You In", the grittier "Gravity", and "The Tower" about looking forward, not back. My favourite of the set, "Dreams of Surrender", was an intense heartbreaker with Savannah's voice soaring over the chorus and a wicked guitar solo from Connor John Tkach.
And though the sound seemed a little bit off for the set, it was still enjoyable and a great prelude for what was to come. 

Next up was the bluesy rockin' Cobra Ramone, consisting of Cobra on guitar & vocals, Trevor Snakedust on organs & guitar, and one of my favourite drummers, Pat Steward (who I think needs a serpentine pseudonym when drumming with the band; Python Steward, or something). 
At any rate, they kicked off with some high energy rock and barely slowed down until the end.  A song Cobra introduced as "about breakup sex", the ferocious "Bang Bang" and the slow-burning "I'm A Mess" stood out to me, as the set built towards a frenzied ending. I had only seen Cobra Ramone once before, a couple years ago, but really dug the set and I am looking forward to hearing more in the future. 

And finally, as the lead singer urged everyone to cozy up to someone because it was "just dark enough, and just late enough..." Miss Quincy & The Showdown hit the stage with the appropriately seductive bass groove of "Making Money" to start off the set, which included a bit of the blues standard "Good Morning, School Girl". 
Highlights of the set included the dark and moody "Damn You" which just launched a new video, Miss Quincy telling the "Fuck Friday" crowd to repent in advance with the hymnal "Take It To The Well", and aside from songs from their most recent album Roadside Recovery, the trio slipped in some new ones, including a sexy slow jam which I think was called "You Remind Me Of Myself". 
Near the end of the set they brought a guest on stage, Shawn "The Harpoonist" Hall, to play a little harmonica on the raucous "Wild Fucking West" before the set concluded with a pair of explosive songs. I think they may have blown out a speaker during the badass and sultry "Bad Love", which would have been a great ending, but they somehow managed to top the energy for an all-out rocking cover of "Boys Wanna Be Her" by Peaches.

Rich Aucoin w/ The Elwins @ Fox Cabaret -- 11/03/15

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It was four years ago, almost to the day, that I first saw Rich Aucoin perform live. He was opening for Arkells at the Commodore (on 11/11/11, appropriately enough) and I knew right then, I never wanted to not see him play. Since then I have made sure to see catch his shows every time he's back, and have never been disappointed. So of course I wasn't going to miss when his latest tour, dubbed the Karaoke Carnival Tour, hit the Fox Cabaret this weekend.

Starting off the night, though, was The Elwins from Keswick, Ontario. The alt-pop foursome came out fast with "Off The Wall" from their new album Play For Keeps, and barely slowed down. Focusing mostly on the new album, they played high energy, upbeat songs like "It Ain't Over Til It's Over", which had lead singer Matthew Sweeney hop into the crowd and get people singing along, and "Bringing Out The Shoulders" where bassist Frankie Figliomeni took over lead vocals. Other highlights included the bouncy "Away Too Long" and the quirky "Is There Something", as well as mustachioed keys/guitar player Feurd Moore at the front of the stage, tambourine in hand, getting the crowd clapping along to "Forgetful Assistance", before spotting a familiar face in the crowd and pulling Spencer Schoening of Said the Whale on stage. They drew things to a close with their single "So Down Low", for a really fun and tight set. I have seen them play a few times now, and I enjoy them more and more each time. 

After a quick turnaround and setup, Rich Aucoin took the stage for what can only be described as a multimedia experience. Before anything else, he usually starts the crowd with a crowd vocal warmup, this time it was singing Happy Birthday to someone in the crowd. That was followed by the usual 20th Century Fox fanfare and THX introduction, before a motivational speech, and finally the "opening credits" featuring people from the crowd given amusing attributes (like this nice shoutout).
Most of that was scored by an instrumental of "Meaning in Life" the first song off the latest album Ephemeral, before launching right into the singalong with "Brian Wilson is A.L.I.V.E.", words flashing on the projection screen behind him, with videos or movie clips synched up to the songs. 

With the insane drumming of Tony Dallas as the backbone, Rich played samples and loops and keys from his station, though more often than not he was along the front of the stage, or even in the crowd. During "Four More Years" Rich create a large hole in the middle of the dance floor, as he ran around the rim singing to people before everyone came in to dance.
Not only can few people control a crowd like Aucoin, but there's always something special about those crowds at his shows. All pretentiousness is thrown out the window as people are more than happy to dance, jump, sing, yell, throw their arms around total strangers, and do all of the above under a giant parachute. 
Which, of course made its appearance during "Are You Experiencing?", the rainbow parachute extending from the stage to the bar, encompassing the entire dance floor, Aucoin leading the crowd underneath, everyone singing along with what almost feels like a mantra for Rich Aucoin, and his live shows: "When you give it all up, you get it back"

And as fun as the live show experience is, it would be nothing without his anthemic, electro-pop songs. You don't just sing along with songs like "Want To Believe" or "Let It Go" (not that "Let It Go") because the words are there, you do it because they are catchy songs with poignant lyrics that remind us we are, as the album says, ephemeral.  Which was proven with the set-closing "It" as the crowd chanted "We won't leave it all in our heads" well after the song was done. 

The set ended spot on the curfew, with Rich putting his actual phone number up on the screen, with a promise of free music if you text him, and that's usually where the show would end... but after some crowd clamouring, Aucoin came back out, admitting he isn't much of an encore guy. Instead, he lived up to the "karaoke" part of the tour by piping in the karaoke version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and leading the whole room to a giant singalong, a pretty great way to end the show. 

I've said it before, but you don't just watch Rich Aucoin play live. You experience it. There are a few bands that I have seen that give you that warm feeling and giant grin plastered over your face after the show -- or even days later just thinking about it -- and Rich Aucoin is up there as one of the best at it.

setlist
Meaning in Life, Brian Wilson is A.L.I.V.E., P:U:S:H, Four More Years, Undead, Let It Go, Want to Believe, Are You Experiencing?, It.
(encore) Bohemian Rhapsody Karaoke.