I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: HANNAH GEORGAS-Live at Massey Hall (March 5, 2018).

Hannah Georgas grew up outside of Toronto and always thought it was a treat to come to Massey Hall.  She says “My 18-year old self would be pretty psyched to play here.”

Georgas has two backing musicians Robbie Driscoll on bass/ableton and Dean Stone on drums/SPD.  She also plays keys but not for every song.

Most of her songs are quite spare–primarily featuring her voice.  The music is often slow washes and a drumbeat.

“Elephant” opens with warping synth sounds and Hannah singing.  The song builds nicely over four minutes with an interesting guitar accent and some powerful drumming.  Hannah also jumps  on the keys a bit for the end.

“Lost Cause” starts with Hannah playing keys and singing.  It’s spare with just the piano and drums and a nice melody.  Her voice is quite lovely.

“Rideback” has great interesting sounds from her keyboard–like horns or harmonicas or something.  I’m more intrigued by these sounds than the song itself.

“Naked Beaches” sounds like a slow dance song–a simple beat with a single note keyboard riff ringing through the song.  Her voice is echoed a lot on this song (both echos and harmonies) and it sounds really nice.

“Don’t Go” is another spare track.  It’s almost all drums with washes of synth and Hannah’s voice.

I was surprised to see her play a cover.  It was the Eurhythmics’ “Love is a Stranger.”  Hannah doesn’t sound like Annie Lennox, but she doesn’t sound all that different from her–it’s a good pairing for her and her band.

“Waste” has a whole series of wonderfully weirdo noises in its melody.  It starts fairly quietly but after the first few vocal lines, a kind of distorted synth line starts the melody, but its the chorus that really adds the weirdness with horns that sound like horns but also like screams.  Its really fun and funky, and is my favorite song of her set.

“Waiting Game” is a pulsing song with some chugging guitar and synth stabs as accents.  The set ends with “Enemies,” a quiet song with pulsing synths and drums and lights to accompany them.  For the chorus, things smooth out with some nice synth washes.

This show was on the same night as Rhye, and I honestly can’t tell who was the headliner.

[READ: May 15, 2019] “Going Up the Mountain” 

I loved this short story which speculates how our lives might turn out in a few years.

The story begins “The mountain sits in the middle of town.”  The mountain has always been there and it will continue to always be there.  It’s right in the middle–a brief walk for everyone.  You can’t miss it.

When people see each other in town the ask if they have gone up the mountain that day.

A neighbor “grins a tight grin and gives the sort of shrug people always give when they haven’t gone up the mountain.”

“I’m really hoping to go up tomorrow,” you say.

The women buy frozen foods.  The narrator decides to be exotic and buy a Thai frozen dinner instead of lasagna after seeing her neighbor buy one.

If the mountain were a limited-time thing you’d make time for it, but its’ always there.  It doesn’t care about anyone.

But at home, all you can think about is “your show.”

Your husband says he’s been thinking about our show all day.

The show is indeed “your show” it follows you throughout your day–edited with funny commentary and sound effects.  “There’s a slow-motion replay of Cynthia from HR spilling her coffee on her brand-new blouse.  Oh my god, you think to yourself, that was hilarious.”

After watching all the shows of everyone you ask your husband if you should go up the mountain tomorrow.

But he has a list of tasks.  The kids needs to be scanned, the dog needs to be re-indexed.  Friends are live streaming their vacation to Cancun.  The mountain can wait

The next day your lunch is shown back to you (complete with an ad for the place you were eating at).

Monday morning you look at the mountain and realize that you have a free hour. It’s only a five minute walk from your house.  A ten minute walk to the summit.  That’s 30 minutes round trip.  There’s no reason not to do it.  Except that by the time you reach that conclusion an hour has passed and its time to go.

I’m not sure if t here was a specific point to the story, or if it just held up a mirror to what we’re becoming.