It’s about time Built To Spill finally made their way to Toronto. Judging by the ticket sales and crowd reception, im sure they’ll be back sooner than later. I didnt end up going to the first show, but was lucky enough to score a pair of tickets to the second night off a friend. We got to the venue and at first it didnt look like we were going to be allowed to bring in the mic stand. This was understandable since the place was sold out and a mic stand could potentially take up some valuable standing room space. It took a little convincing but it worked out. We setup behind the soundboard without opening the micstand’s legs. We just taped it to the bar rails which actually works out pretty good. Anyways, opening the show was Welland’s Attack In Black. Hadn’t heard anything about these guys beforehand but chatting with one of the stage managers before the show indictated that they’d were pretty good. And they were. I enjoyed their set but dont have a copy of the setlist. They played for roughly 30 to 40 minutes and then Built To Spill began setting up their gear. BTS started around 10:15 and played for almost two hours. Some songs were played regular and some songs were extended by jams. Especially the last song of the night. Scott (the drummer) had begun packing up his drums before the rest had even finished jamming out the last song.

Setlist: 01 Liar / 02 Made-Up Dreams / 03 The Source / 04 Time Trap / 05 Velvet Waltz / 06 Third Uncle (Brian Eno) / 07 Big Dipper / 08 Nowhere Nothing Fuckup / 09 Car / 10 Conventional Wisdom / 11 You Were Right / 12 Stop The Show / 13 Carry The Zero

Encore: 14 Randy Described Eternity

The recording didnt turn out as good as i had hoped, levels were abit too close to 0db. So ive just posted a few tracks below that sound decent.

Attack In Black:
Track 01: attackinblack2007-07-11_t01.mp3
Track 06: attackinblack2007-07-11_t06.mp3
Track 07: attackinblack2007-07-11_t07.mp3

Built To Spill:
Track 08: bts2007-07-11_t08.mp3
Track 09: bts2007-07-11_t09.mp3
Track 14: bts2007-07-11_t14.mp3

Pictures:
http://www.davecaley.com/photos/concerts/builttospill

Band Info:
http://www.myspace.com/attackinblack
http://www.builttospill.com
http://www.myspace.com/builttospill

Just past the midway point in their extensive Canadian tour, the White Stripes arrive in Toronto en route from Thunder Bay. Almost two years since their last appearance at the Molson Amp. in September of 2005. 22 months is too long of a gap between shows for me, but ohwell, ohwell. Anyways, the show was nothing short of fantastic. I was on the floor about 20 feet from Meg and her drums. The overall sound down there on the floor was great and not ear piercing which was good because I forgot my earplugs. The Stripes took the stage around 9:20pm. Jack came out and started right into “When I Here My Name” and continuted right through “Dead Leaves”. Working without a setlist, songs are decided upon on the fly. This set however, compared with their last show here, and, well, the majority of their non festival dates, this setlist is short by about 7-10 songs. Their sets usually run on average 30 songs. Albeit a few of them are stopped halfway or used as intro’s and outro’s to other songs, but the shows are typically longer than this one. No matter though, the duo ran through the entire set with extreme energy and did not disappoint. They played for about 45 minutes before exiting the stage just past the midway point of the show. They came back out a few minutes later and finished off with another 40 minutes, ending the show around 10:45pm. Highlights for me were “Death Letter” and “Im Slowly Turning Into You”, both of which you can hear below. The latter song is my favourite off the new album “Icky Thump”. Unfortunately I dont have any pictures because I didnt take my camera. The rules stated “no cameras” but apparently disposable and digitals, no slr’s, were allowed in. Ohwell, ill take audio over pictures to reminisce about a show anyday.

Setlist: 01 When I Here My Name / 02 Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground / 03 Icky Thump / 04 Effect And Cause / 05 Hotel Yorba / 06 You’re Pretty Good Looking, For A Girl / 07 Hello Operator / 08 Cannon > John The Revelator > Cannon / 09 Death Letter / 10 Jolene / 11 Im Slowly Turning Into You / 12 A Martyr For My Love For You

Encore: 13 Black Math / 14 In The Cold, Cold Night / 15 My Doorbell (Jack on bass) / 16 The Union Forever / 17 Fell In Love With A Girl (slow > fast) / 18 Ball And Biscuit / 19 Seven Nation Army / 20 Boll Weevil

Track 09: whitestripes2007-07-05_t09.mp3
Track 11: whitestripes2007-07-05_t11.mp3

Download: whitestripes2007-07-05.spcmc8.flac16.zip

Band Info:
http://www.whitestripes.com
http://www.whitestripes.net
http://www.myspace.com/thewhitestripes

A short and busy week but still managed to see two shows. Canada’s Cowboy Junkies and Detroiter’s turned Nashvillians The White Stripes. More on the latter in the next post.
The show was at the Courthouse, a venue which i had never heard of nor been to before. And what a wonderful venue it is. A very nice and relaxed atmosphere with dining tables in the centre and the taller bar tables along the sides. I felt a little odd going in with flip flops on because everyone was dressed up nice, but ohwell. The sound in the venue sounded very good, to my ears anyways, and im looking forward to taping there again. As for the band, well, they were great. It was there last show for this leg of the tour and yet they still put on a great show.

Set 1: 01 Follower 2 / 02 Sun Comes Up It’s Tuesday Morning / 03 Spiral Down / 04 My Little Basquiat / 05 Bea’s Song / 06 Carmelita / 07 Notes Falling Slow / 08 Brand New World / 09 Lay It Down
Acoustic Set: 10 Something More Besides You / 11 My Wild Child / 12 Someday Soon / 13 To Love Is To Bury
Set 2: 14 Still Lost / 15 Lost My Driving Wheel
Encore: 16 Powderfinger (Neil Young) / 17 Cause Cheap Is How I Feel

You’ll find a few pictures from the show here.

Ill post a few tracks from the recording next week.

Thanks go to the bands management for helping us out with the guestlist and letting us setup the mic stand where we did. You’ll find lots of nice recordings and maybe one or two of this show at: http://www.archive.org/details/CowboyJunkies

Band info:
http://www.cowboyjunkies.com
http://www.archive.org/details/CowboyJunkies
http://www.latentrecordings.com
http://www.4thellamas.com