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In This Issue: Live Review: Audioslave, Seether & 30 Seconds To Mars @ Calgary's Saddledome I must admit that going into this show I was concerned Audioslave would leave me disappointed. In fact, I was pretty much expecting it, especially since seeing their show-stealing performance at Lollapalooza in Seattle two years ago. That performance would be incredibly hard to top and the footage I've seen from Live 8 earlier this year was sub-par leaving me with these pre-conceived thoughts. How terrible wrong I was. Before I get into their performance though, I must talk about the opening acts since I managed to arrive at the Saddledome early for a change. I avoided getting caught in ridiculously long lines as I had failed to do for the SOAD show of a couple weeks back, although the scrutinizing security measures were even worse this time around. Regardless, I was able to get in my seat with beer and food in hand with plenty of time before 30 Seconds To Mars played their half-hour opening set. They're style of music was pretty decent and it was refreshing to hear the band at a respectable level as opposed to the blaring opening act trend of late at the 'dome. The crowd on the floor seemed to be fairly into the band and I must say that 30STM know how to put on a show and get people involved. It's really not that hard for them to do especially when their front-man is famed acted Jared Leto. Sporting a long black jacket and plain white guitar, Leto was really animated on stage, encouraging everyone to get up and pump their fists. He even ventured onto the floor with a wireless mic and flashlight, immersing himself in the crowd and even giving an unsuspecting fan a giant bear-hug. Although they put on a great show, trying to prove their worth to those in attendance, they certainly didn't lose sight of the fact that everyone was there to see Audioslave, and they made that known. They announced that they'd be hanging out at the main merchandise table immediately after the show to meet the fans and sign stuff for them. When the set closed to the oft-used yet always cool continuing guitar feedback, the band exited stage left with the two plain red flags that flanked the stage and paraded onto the floor, up one of the aisles and into the concourse. As great as Leto's vocals and 30STM's performance was, Seether's set was closer to the style of music our headliners were going to treat us to. This act from South Africa didn't take long to set up the stage with banners on the left and right of the stage and a backdrop portraying the unsettling image from their new release Karma and Effect. They started off a little rough (with what one kMNR reader attributed to nervousness) but quickly found their groove and put on an excellent performance. It did lack a bit of the on-stage energy that 30STM provided us with, but they were solid musically. Part-way into the set, vocalist Shaun Morgan dedicated Fine Again to Dave Williams of Drowning Pool and "Dimebag" Darryl Abbott of Damageplan and Pantera. As you may well know, "Dimebag" died after being shot on stage last December and Williams died of natural causes while on tour with Ozzfest back in 2002. Morgan and guitarist Pat Callahan later played a short version of the band's breakout hit ballad Broken. The song originally appeared on their debut album Disclaimer, but became a huge success that actually delayed the recording of their follow-up album when it was re-recorded with Amy Lee of Evanescense. The highlight was the final song of their set when they covered Nirvana's Drain You, which Morgan once again dedicated to two great musicians who left us too soon; Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley. I can't describe what a great job they did. After a lengthy break, it was time for Audioslave to prove that they haven't lost it. Although the show lacked visual flare (sporting only basic backdrops from both albums), it had an energy that whipped the crowd into a frenzy. I was happy to hear my favourite Audioslave song, Set It Off, very early in the set despite guitarist Tom Morello simplifying the intro. This was in no way an indication of how he would play the rest of the show though. He ripped through every guitar solo he played with an intensity which leaves me with the feeling that I'm witnessing the best guitarist I've ever seen live. Simply put; Morello is unbelievable. To be honest, much of my concern lay on Chris Cornell's vocal performance, but he did a good job. It was also great to see bassist Tim Commerford helping out with backing vocals on many of the songs, which helped a great deal. Cornell however managed to pull off his performance without sounding stretched. He even compensated for more difficult parts by singing in different keys and modifying the melodies without losing the original feel of the song. Of course, when a banner reminiscent of an old Soundgarden logo dropped, Cornell started into Spoonman as if we were taken back to those glory days. Following the Soundgarden throw-back, Brad Wilk did a fantastic job singing Hunger Strike with Cornell in a rare performance of the Temple of the Dog song. Wilk's drumming was fantastic all night, especially on the title track to their new album, Out Of Exil. His kit also rotated at certain points throughout the show, having him face either left, center or right which was pretty cool. Later in the main set, another banner lowered behind the band with a red star, and almost everyone in attendance knew it was time for some Rage Against The Machine covers. I was actually quite pleased that Cornell exited the stage and allowed the former members of RATM to hammer out an instrumental version of Bulls On Parade, which was nothing short if awesome. Cornell returned to sing with them on Sleep Now In The Fire, which he did an impressive job. The main set closed with Shadow On The Sun, which ended in spectacular fashion. The pause before the encore was very short as Cornell returned to stage with an acoustic guitar. He started by playing one of Soundgarden's biggest hits, Black Hole Sun, which turned into a stadium-wide sing-a-long much like Like A Stone had earlier. He continued with one of his own solo tunes before breaking out a great rendition of I Am The Highway, having the rest of the band join him half-way through. After that, Cornell promised that would be the end of the acoustic tunes for the night. The show finished with Killing In The Name Of and Cochise. Cornell redeemed himself from a sub-par performance of the former song earlier this year at Live 8 while Morello, Wilk and Commerford strutted their stuff once again on their old RATM material. The latter was introduced with the opening lines to Rush's Closer To The Heart, an obvious homage to our greatly respected fellow Canadians. I can't even describe how happy that musical surprise made me. This show greatly exceeded my expectations, and although Audioslave couldn't top the first time I saw them two years ago, I walked home filled with excitement and energy that every show should leave me with. Live Review: Arcade Fire with Wolf Parade & Bell Orchestre @ Calgary's MacEwan Hall Anyone who's a fan of Arcade Fire should have had no doubts about the quality of this show. Besides, how could you expect less from a band of eight highly talented musicians? Well, they certainly did not disappoint on this evening and most everyone in attendance would agree. The evening started with Bell Orchestre and Wolf Parade. Despite Bell Orchestre being very talented, their style of music proved to be tough to capture the audience. This isn't surprising considering the band is made up five musicians who are more orchestra then band (hence the name), featuring stand-up double bass, horns, fiddle, trumpet and drums. It should be noted that those who decided to stick it out certainly felt entertained. One kMNR reader in attendance likened their music to being perfect for intermission: Very ambient and mellow. They did finish on a high note though, having drummer Stef impress everyone with his almost out-of-place pace which lifted the band to their conclusion. The break between the two opening sets was decent and Wold Parade hit the stage with their peculiar style of music that prepared the crowd for the headlining act. The act who calls Montreal home (much like the headliners) were originally a quartet featuring Dan Broeckner, Spencer Krug, Hadji Bakara and Arlen Thompson. Recently though, they enlisted the assistance of ex-Hot Hot Heat guitarist Dante DeCaro and the five of them played together as if it were old news. Many of their songs were an experience in anticipated climax, with screeching guitars, spacey keyboards reminiscent of '80s video games and plenty of pounding drums and strange percussions (what was that tubular symbol-sounding contraption with the wind chimes hanging from it?) The singing was shared between keyboardist Krug and guitarist Broeckner with some clever harmonizing from the rest of the band. Krug was quick to point out that his family was in attendance on this night, making mention of his mother at length twice. I won't even venture an explanation. Regardless, I was impressed with their style and thoroughly enjoyed their not-too-short set. After a healthy pause it was time for Arcade Fire to hit the stage. Just before the lights went down, a few of us noticed the bass drum as it appeared to be lit up from the inside. Upon closer inspection, the drum looked as if there were two parrots flying around inside, but after a few moments of thought, we concluded that it must be some sort of projection as any bird would surely suffer a quick death inside a bass drum once the show started. This was, however, an indication of the visually stunning yet simple performance we were about the witness. The backdrop sporting the band's name morphed in different light and the colours were vibrant and pleasing. The set was a little too short for this fans taste, but at the same time, they really don't have that much to pull from in order to provide us with a lengthy set. The show hit Funeral's first single Neighborhood #2 (Laika) and featured almost the entire disc. That's not to say that they excluded material from their recently re-released self-titled debut EP, playing both Old Flame and No Cars Go. They then invited Wolf Parade's Broeckner to join them on stage to sing with Win Butler on a cover of Bruce Springsteen's State Trooper. It was at this time that I had the misfortune of standing in front of two obnoxious women who felt the need to talk needlessly through the show. I had to make the move from the left side of the stage to the right to avoid having them ruin my entire night's experience, which proved to be an excellent decision for another reason which I'll explain in a moment. In addition to the impressive cast of musicians that is Arcade Fire, nearly all of them displayed their versatility by swapping instruments throughout the set. Most impressive would be Régine Chassagne who not only sang in both French and English on Haïti, but also played accordion, keyboards, xylophone and drums. The set closed with their last single from Funeral, Rebellion (Lies) which was an excellent choice. The break was rather short with the band coming back to play Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) and finishing up with a cover of New Order's Age Of Consent. As the group wound down the song, they marched off stage, continuing to play unplugged. When the last of them jumped off stage onto the floor rather than exiting stage right, I began to wonder if something was up. Low an behold, my choice to move to the right side for the remainder of the show paid off as the whole group marched right through the crowd continuing to play. The procession led them right out of MacEwan Hall to the bottom of the stairs just in front of The Den, where everyone gather to watch them keep playing. When they wrapped up, they marched right back into dressing room, some still playing as if they didn't want the night to end. Overall, the show was phenomenal and I'm sure many in attendance will agree that they can't wait for them to return, hopefully with new material to play for us since they're planning on recording this winter. CD/DVD Review: Deftones ~ B-Sides & Rarities As soon as I heard that this compilation was on it's way, I was very excited. See, I may be a fan of the Deftones only since the White Pony disc (mostly because kMNR reader and contributor Nick Gouveia instructed me to listen to Back To School (Mini Maggit) which is still one of my favourite all-time Deftones songs), but as far as hard-rock/metal bands go, these guys are highly underrated in my humble yet confident opinion. To have a collection of their rare tracks and their entire video collection in one nice package will prove to be fantastic for true fans. Especially since it may be some time before we see any new material from them. Before I talk about the songs on the CD portion of B-Sides & Rarities, I have to quickly state that the packaging for this is excellent. Presented in a CD sized hard-cover book, the booklet sandwiched between the CD and DVD is full of colourful pictures (try and spot the sweet leaf) and a few words from the band on each song on the CD. I'm really impressed by the packaging and I should also point out that some pictures in the booklet were submitted by fans, to which the band thanks individually. The CD is pretty good despite being much more quiet than what we're used to as far as Deftones music goes. It contains fourteen tracks, seven of which are covers. The cover tunes are all curiously great in terms of who they are (Cocteau Twins? Sade? The Cure? The Smiths? Duran Duran?) but excellent none-the-less, especially Lynard Skynard's Simple Man and Helmet's Sinatra. The lead track to the CD is Savory which is more of a jam session with fellow Californians Far. There are three acoustic renditions of Deftones songs on here that are decent, although Change (In The House Of Flies) is barely any different than the original. The revamped Teenager has an excellent and somewhat haunting feel to it. There's even a previously unreleased track from the White Pony sessions called Black Moon. In fact, it was the last song recorded during those sessions and it features B Real from Cypress Hill and a pretty funny story behind it, but you'll either have to buy the compilation yourself (or you can ask me nicely and I may just tell it to you.) Now that we've gone through reviewing the CD portion of this release, it's time to talk about the DVD. Honestly, although the opportunity to get my hands on rarities of a desired band is always one that shouldn't be passed up, I really wanted this compilation more for the collection of videos on the DVD and I am certainly not disappointed. In fact, the DVD is extremely well put together. Not only do you get every Deftones video on the DVD, but you also get a video for Root which hasn't been available until now. Also, if you use the 'Play All' function, you are treated to footage in between each song (for some strange reason Root isn't included in the 'Play All' function). The videos are grouped by album (with the exception of Engine Number 9), in order of their appearance and contain clips of other songs from each album in between them with some live footage, interview clips and other goodies. What other goodies? Well, there's a clip of Shavo Odadjian (System of a Down) telling the boys how he first saw them play a gig at The Whiskey opening up for Korn. He apparently mistook them for Korn since Moreno had dreadlocks back then. When Korn actually took the stage, Odadjian was left to wonder who that last band was. I believe his words were that they were "the fucking shit" and he finishes up by stating that now they're all friends. There's also a clip of director Paul Fedor on the set of Minerva thanking everyone for their hard work in some trying conditions. The video was filmed in the desert and there was a crazy storm which made everything very difficult. Footage of the boys in studio for the Deftones album is included as well, complete with a little clip of the boys engaging in some contraband. Overall, this is a must-have for any Deftones fan. The rarities, the videos, the excellent packaging is all well worth the price and I highly recommend it. Paul McCartney says, "If you're drinking, you CAN'T drive my car!" CD Review: Metric ~ Live Out Loud I still felt the need to review this album despite the fact that it was supposed to come out last week. Besides, I couldn't get my hands on Live Out Loud by Metric until early this week (and neither could have you if you had made such an attempt since it was delayed in many stores) so it's not like you could've got much of a head start on me. The first time I caught Metric live was opening for Hot Hot Heat back in 2003 and I was very impressed with their live performance. I bought Old World Underground, Where Are You Now on the spot and although the album is good, it fails to capture the intensity of their live show. Well, where it fell short, Live Out Loud makes up for a little bit. It's still unable to fully capture the excitement of their live performances, but then again, neither do most Live albums of any band. The album actually starts out a little deceiving, with a slow mellow opening to Empty, but that's quickly replaced by an attack of guitars and drums in a way that almost makes you think it's an entirely different song altogether. Hand$hake$ contains one of the best lines on the album ("Buy this car to drive to work, Drive to work to pay for this car"), before the album is slowed down a tad on both Too Little Too Late and Poster of a Girl. These are then followed by the quirky yet catchy lead single Monster Hospital. The latter half of the album contains a couple slower songs (The Police and the Private and Ending Start) which contain a spacey feel to them. They're bookmarked by a couple of upbeat tracks in the oddly named Patriarch on a Vespa and the closing title track, Live It Out. Overall, the album is good and I can certainly hear the songs that will likely be live highlights (provided that they're performed of course) and it shouldn't disappoint any fans of Metric. One Good Reason To Visit Your Local Record Store You never know what you might come across. Like oh, I don't know...catching an in-store performance of Collective Soul? "Gee, that sounds like they're playing right here...and there they are!" U2 Takes Over Late Night Conan O'Brien Jim Pitt has been the man in charge of booking musical guests for Late Night with Conan O'Brien for twelve years, but two artists have eluded him in all this time; Johnny Cash and U2. Sadly, Pitt will never get the chance to have Cash on the show, but he's certainly making up for that with U2 and in a BIG way. How? O'Brien is turning over his show for one night to the musical guest. The Irish boys are in New York for a seven-night run at Madison Square Gardens, and decided to do the show because it was more than just a musical appearance. They will play at least three songs (of their choice) and will be interviewed by O'Brien. O'Brien is a big U2 fan, so this certainly is a delight for him. When the band were guests on Saturday Night Live last season, O'Brien had to opportunity to sit down and talk with Bono during breaks in rehearsal. Bono is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work towards easing Third World poverty, and is considered to be a favourite. Although this hasn't been done before, Late Night has approached its musical guests in unique ways in the past. Bruce Springsteen once made a surprise appearance before taking Late Night drummer/band leader Max Weinberg on tour with him. The White Stripes were once week-long musical guests and The Strokes did a month-of-Tuesdays on the show. The show airs tonight on NBC. Check your local listings for times. This week saw the release of Nickelback's new album, All The Right Reasons, but next week will see new material from one of Chad Kroeger's protégé bands, Default. One Thing Remains hits stores next Tuesday, although I doubt it'll sell as ridiculously as the 'backs has. Yearning for that faux-lesbian music that graced our ears and eyes a couple years back? Fear not horny male reader! T.A.T.U. will return on October 11th with their new album Dangerous and Moving. Oh, and by the way, they're not really lesbians. They just like to kiss and touch each other in videos and on stage. Country fans and East Coasters alike will be pleased to hear that Great Big Sea return next week with Hard And The Easy. It may prove to be fun music to drink to! Also returning is Story of the Year with In The Wake of Determination and for many excited fans, the self-titled follow-up to Broken Social Scene's highly successful You Forgot It In People. This release features the usually enormous cast of characters that make up the band, plus many more including friends from The Dears, Metric, Stars, Feist, Raising the Fawn and even k-os! The disc appears to be coupled with a limited edition EP titled EP To Be You And Me. This Week's Releases Reviewed ON SALE TOMORROW!!! Tickets for a November 12th Bedouin Soundclash show at MacEwan Hall go on sale tomorrow in support of their latest release, Sounding A Mosaic.
~~ kMNR v2005.087 ~~ If you would like to hear about or if you have any information on a particular band or artist, please email and I will do my best to cover them.
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