Silverchair were in town last week to perform to shows, one in support of G’day Toronto Australia week and the second as a warm up and to possibly try out some new songs live. The band has spent the last little while in Toronto mixing the new record with Dave Bottrill. Silverchair havent played here since early 2003 on the Diorama tour. I wasnt sure what to expect. Ive seen them once before, about 8 or 9 years ago, when they played Arrow Hall touring the Freakshow album. From what i remember that show was pretty good and pretty rowdy. Friday’s show was more mellow, though im sure up at the front there was some moshing going on. The band put on a good show. The new songs that they played sound pretty good. The setlist was made up mostly of songs from their last album Diorama, but did include three new songs and a couple older ones. The band took the stage just after 10pm and played for 80 minutes. The new album “Young Modern” comes out in June. March if you’re in Australia.

Setlist: 01 Intro / 02 Without You / 03 Emotion Sickness / 04 Greatest View / 05 World Upon Your Shoulders / 06 Across The Night / 07 Young Modern / 08 Ana’s Song (Open Fire) / 09 Straight Lines / 10 Tuna In The Brine / 11 Luv Your Life / 12 The Door / 13 I Dont Wanna Be The One (Midnight Oil) / 14 Mindreader / 15 Freak
16 (encore break)
Encore: 17 If You Keep Losing Sleep / 18 The Lever

Samples:
Greatest View: silverchair2007-02-16_t04.mp3
Straight Lines: silverchair2007-02-16_t09.mp3

Download: silverchair2007-02-16.spcmc8.flac16.zip

The Tragically Hip were Buffalo this past weekend for the second and third dates of their US tour in support of “World Container”. Tickets soldout within minutes for these two shows and somehow i was lucky enough to get a pair for each night. And am i glad i did. Both shows were excellent, though, i am liking night two more. One thing i really enjoy about seeing this band multiple times in a row is the fact that each night its a totally different setlist. Granted, they played the new songs each night, but other than “Hundredth Meridian” all the other songs were different.

The Town Ballroom is a great venue. I think ill try and catch some other shows there in the future. We really need something like this place in Toronto. In fact im kinda surprise we dont have a venue like this. Not sure what local venue it can be compared to, if there is one. The sound in the place is great and there is not a bad view of the stage.

A highlight for me from night one would have to be “Scared”. It sounded great in this venue and well, its one of my favourite songs. And as for night two, well, its obviously “Fiddlers Green”. Im still amazed that the band is actually playing this song. After learning last fall during the Calgary club show that it was played for the first time, ever, i had been hoping to hear it at one of the arena tour shows. Im really glad i didnt though. Im glad i got to hear it live for the first time in such an intimate venue which has the best sound system of any club ive been in. Another song which i really enjoyed was “World Container”. Its one of my favourite songs off the new album and again, it sounded great saturday night.

Night One Setlist:
01 The Lonely End Of The Rink / 02 Courage / 03 The Drop Off / 04 Boots Or Hearts / 05 In View / 06 Bobcaygeon / 07 Last Night I Dreamed / 08 Nautical Disaster / 09 Pretend / 10 Long Time Running / 11 Luv (sic) / 12 At The Hundredth Meridian / 13 38 Years Old / 14 The Kids Dont Get It / 15 Springtime In Vienna / 16 Scared / 17 Yer Not The Ocean / 18 Blow At High Dough / 19 Family Band

Encore:
20 I Cant Explain (The Who) / 21 Fully Completely / 22 Little Bones

Night Two Setlist:
01 Family Band / 02 New Orleans Is Sinking / 03 The Drop Off / 04 The Dire Wolf / 05 In View / 06 Ahead By A Century / 07 Gift Shop / 08 Fly / 09 Fireworks / 10 World Container / 11 Fiddlers Green / 12 Luv (sic) / 13 At The Hundredth Meridian / 14 Its A Good Life If You Dont Weaken / 15 The Kids Dont Get It / 16 Wheat Kings / 17 Yer Not The Ocean / 18 My Music At Work

Encore:
19 The Lonely End Of The Rink / 20 1979 (Smashing Pumpkins) / 21 Fire In The Hole

Recordings from both nights, aswell as the rest of the tour, will be available at The Hip Tracker.

Wolfmother’s last stop on the current tour was here in Toronto this past tuesday night. These guy have been touring for almost two years and they still have more dates to play this spring and summer. The Icarus Line opened up the show but i didnt get there in time to see them. I caught the last song and was impressed. Ill be keeping a lookout for their return. Wolfmother took the stage around 9.45pm and played for over two hours. The place was packed with a surprisingly mixed crowd of young and old. They played the same setlist as they have been doing recently with a few variations. 15 songs, one being a brand new one, a couple jams, and some destruction at the end of the show. After tipping over some amps and ripping the strings from his guitar, Stockdale then picked up his pedal board and threw it to the ground. Then he ripped off the pedals and threw them all into the crowd to some lucky fans. So far this has been the best show of 2007 for me.

Setlist:
01 Dimension / 02 Pyramid / 03 Apple Tree / 04 White Unicorn / 05 Love Train / 06 Where The Eagles Have Been / 07 Witchcraft / 08 Tales From The Forest Of Gnomes / 09 Woman / 10 Jam / 11 ? / 12 Mind’s Eye / 13 (encore break)
Encore:
14 Vagabond / 15 Colossal / 16 Love Attacker / 17 Communication Breakdown (Led Zeppelin) / 18 Jam / 19 Joker And The Theif / 20 Destruction

Sample: wolfmother2007-03-06_t16_sample.mp3
Download: wolfmother2007-03-06.spcmc8.flac16.zip

Gomez and Ben Kweller were in town this past monday. The show was really good even though it did run quite late for a weekday show. Anyways, keeping this short as im still thinking about the Wolfmother show from tuesday night.

Ben Kweller:
Setlist:
01 Walk On Me / 02 Family Tree / 03 I Gotta Move / 04 Make It Up / 05 I Need You Back / 06 I Dont Know Why / 07 Run
08 Different But The Same / 09 Living Life / 10 Hospital Bed / 11 On My Way / 12 Chug-A-Lug (Roger Miller) / 13 The Rules
14 Sundress / 15 Red Eye / 16 Penny On The Train Track

Download the show from the LMA: benkweller2007-03-05.akg463.flac16

Gomez:
Setlist:
01 Here Comes The Breeze / 02 Nothing Is Wrong / 03 Love Is Better Than A Warm Trombone / 04 See The World / 05 These 3 Sins / 06 Wharf Me / 07 Notice / 08 Girlshapedlovedrug / 09 How We Operate / 10 Charley Patton Songs / 11 Blue Moon Rising / 12 Hamoa Beach / 13 Hangover / 14 Silence / 15 Rhythm & Blues Alibi / 16 (encore break)

Encore:
17 Chasing Ghosts With Alcohol / 18 Fill My Cup / 19 Get Myself Arested

Download the show from the LMA: gomez2007-03-05.akg463.flac16