The Yoko Casionos with Sloan- October 24, 2006 at the Commodore Ballroom

I've always been a big fan of The Yoko Casionos since the first time I saw them. It was totally exciting to see them play a big venue with their first major label release, "These Are The New Old Times".
Misty Reid of the Yoko Casionos

They were opening for Sloan who I've seen several times, so it was really all about the Yokos.
Patrick Pentland of Sloan

At the heart of The Yoko Casionos are the brother and sister team of Chad and Misty Reid, who just also happen to be twins.
Chad Reid of the Yoko Casionos

I've seen the Yokos many many times so it was no surpize to me to see the hometown crowd cheering them on wildly. I was singing along to everything like they were already the big stars I hope they become.
Juice of the Yoko Casionos

Sloan was promoting a new 30 SONG CD called "Never Hear The End Of It". Some of songs are only about a minute long, and many of them aren't true gems, so it's quite the risky move for their first studio album in almost 3 years. They did play my favourite new song called "Someone I Can Be True With".
Chris Murphy Of Sloan

The bad thing is when you have a new 30 song CD and you play even a 10 of the new songs, you end up missing out on a lot of material that your fans have come to love.

The best part was the encore when Yoko's Juice and Misty returned to the stage for Sloan's encore.
Misty And Jay Ferguson of Sloan

The Killers - October 11, 2006 : The Orpheum Vancouver

Thanks Sonia for the invite.
Tonight we went to see the Killers at the Orpheum. 8th row!!! Pretty sweet. This is only a few weeks after we did the Orpheum tour where we got to see every square inch of Vancouver's historic landmarks.

The San Franscisco band The Immigrants opened the show with a short set. The lead singer looked like a mix of My Chemical Romance and Richard Ashcroft of the Verve fame. The guitarist looked EXACTLY like V from V for Vendetta.

The Killers took the stage to Sam's Town and When You Were Young, and the crowd was going crazy including me and Sonia who were screaming like school girls.





In keeping with the cowboy theme of Sam's Town, the stage was dressed like a wild west saloon. Of course, this steel claw grasping the disco ball was a bit of an anomaly.

Sonia was really into the porn stache of Ronnie Vannuccci Jr and I can't say I blamed her.

The four song encore meant we could finally run screaming to the front of the stage where we could see Brandon's stubble. We're such girls, I know, but don't judge us.
Check out my Flickr site for more photos.

Matt Epp- September 18, 2006 at Rime

Just a small post following up on a guy I met last year during Western Canadian Music Week.

I met Matt Epp during one of Barb's busy days. She wanted to talk with him, but couldn't find the time, so we basically adopted him for the day. Fast forward a year, and Matt has a new album, Love In Such Strong Words, out now.

He's promoting it with a cross country tour and stopped by Vancouver for a gig at Rime.

Dandy Warhols and Brian Jonestown Massacre- Sept.8, 2006 : The Showbox in Seattle

I couldn't have been more excited to hear about this double bill in Seattle. I saw DiG! for the first time because of the Dandy Warhols but the movie is really about Brian Jonestown Massacre and Anton Newcombe. If you've seen it, then you know what a disfunctional human being Anton is, and although the movie ends with all sorts of bad feelings, they have apparently been worked out over the years.

We arrived early, and heard from some very friendly locals that the Dandy's and BJM all jammed during the encore the night before in Portland, so we were extra expectant.

I saw Brian Jonestown Massacre at SXSW this year, and he looked pretty good. This time he was almost unrecognizable. It's weird that some can deteriorate so badly in six months. It turned out we'd been standing almost right beside him before the show by the sound board, but I swear we didn't recognize him. Even after he got onto the stage, Glen and I looked at each in confusion.

The performance itself was amazing. It was almost a completely new band from Austin with some new cute young guys which only made Anton look worse by comparison.

I loved DiG! and all the BJM songs in small doses, but albums worth leave me cold so I wouldn't consider myself to be a fan. This show was like a best of show, with all the songs I love and no long extended jams.

Anton was very talkative, and chatty with the crowd. He never lost his temper, and even when having a girl removed from the front of the stage for bad behaviour, he made it clear to security, to not throw her out.

Funniest moment? Well, to me, that was when he offered a drink from a cup to the guitarist, who wouldn't take a drink until Anton took a drink first. Anton followed this with the classic, "I Chinese, I play joke, I make pee pee in your Coke".

Ironic moment? When Anton earnestly thanked all the black people in the crowd for keeping it real. Um, that would be the two security guards??

The Dandy Warhols took the stage and the house was completely packed. So many people, I'm sure it was oversold.

They opened with one of my favourite songs, Godless. They had no trumpet player, which the song really missed, but it was a great crowd pleaser. Zia looked amazingly hot with some sexy new hair and a glamourous new look.

Peter, looked sullen as usual, and sorry, not photos because I was on the other side of the stage. Fathead played his drums in the middle front of the stage. That's twice now this year I've seen that set up, so I guess it's a trend.

My problem with the last couple times I've seen the Dandy's is that don't seem to be having much fun when they play anymore. The first time I saw them five years ago, it was like being at a party but now a smile rarely passes across Courtney's face. Only Zia really ever seems to be having any fun.

This show was better with momentum of having the BJM open, Courtney went on and on towards the end about what an amazing genius Anton was, and how lucky we were to have seen such an amazing show. HOWEVER, the awaited special guest appearance didn't occur this night.

Now it says on the set list that they closed with Country Leaver from 13 Tales From Urban Bohemia, but I swear it was a song I'd never heard before. I'll have to look into that later but for now I'll just say the last song was a crazy barn burner that shook the house down.