SOUNDTRACK: THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS-Live at Massey Hall (October 1, 2017).
I’ve been a fan of the The New Pornographers for years. Their first single, “Letter from an Occupant” was one of my favorite songs of 2000. For nearly twenty years, they’ve been releasing super catchy fun poppy alt rock.
I was really excited to see them last week. And then almost equally excited to see that they had a show on Live at Massey Hall.
This show did not have Neko Case singing and while she is not the crux of the band, I’m glad she was at my show, because her voice is great and having three women singing was more fun than having just two.
Before the set, singer and songwriter AC Newman says, “I’m nervous because I realize this is what I do … people paid to come see you.” His niece, keyboardist Kathryn Calder is with him. She says she loves having the momentum of 7 people on stage. It’s a very in the moment feeling shared by all of them.
The show starts with an older song “The Jenny Numbers.” There’s a wild ripping guitar solo from Todd Fancey in the middle of this otherwise poppy song. Calder and violinist Simi Stone sound great with their backing vocals–so full and complete. And excellent compliment to the songs.
Up next is “Whiteout Conditions” which starts with a ripping violin melody from Stone. I happen to know their newer songs a lot better than their middle period songs and I really like this song a lot.
The full setlist for this show is available online. They played 22 songs at he show, so it’s a shame to truncate it to 35 minutes. How did they decide what to cut? They cut “Dancehall Domine.”
Up next is one of the great songs from the Together album, “Moves.” The opening riff and persistent use of violin is perfect.
Between songs, Newman says to the audience, “you’ve got to promise not to sit down because it’ll be like a dagger in my heart.”
In the interview clip he says he always love the compartmentalized songs of Pixies. They influenced the way he wrote music. So did The Beach Boys for harmonies. He says it’s hard to know what seeps through, but there’s a ton of it. Sometimes I’ll hear an old song I used to love and realize I totally stole a part from that song and I didn’t know it.
The show skips “Colosseums” and moves on to “The Laws Have Changed.” I loved seeing this live because of the amazing high notes that AC Newman hits in the end of the song. This is also a chance for Kathryn to shine a bit. “High Ticket Attractions” comes next in the show and here. It’s such an insanely catchy song. From the call and response vocals to the overall melody. It’s one of my favorites of theirs.
The show skips three songs, “Champions of Red Wine,” “Adventures in Solitude,” and “All the Old Showstoppers.” So up next is “This is the World of the Theater.” I’m glad they chose this because Kathryn Calder sings lead vocals and she sounds fantastic. The middle section of the song also includes some hocketing where Newman, Calder, Stone and maybe some others sing individual notes alternately to create a lovely melody.
I noticed that drummer Joe Seiders sings quite a bit as well. And a shout out to bassist John Collins because he gets some great sounds out of that instrument.
Newman tells the audience that Massey Hall is an intimidating venue, but one you get here it feel welcoming and warm. The crowd applauds and he says, “soooo, I’m not sweating it.”
Up next comes the poppy and wonderful “Sing Me Spanish Techno.” It has a constant simple harmonica part played by Blaine Thurier who also plays keyboards. It’s such a wonderfully fun song.
They skip pretty much the rest of the show to play the big encore song, “Brill Bruisers.” [Skipped: “Backstairs,” “Play Money,” “Testament to Youth in Verse,” “Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk,” “Avalanche Alley,” “Use It,” “Mass Romantic” )that’s a surprise!) and “The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism”].
“Brill Bruisers” is from the then-new album. The first time I heard it I was blown away. Those “boh bah boh bah bah bohs” in the beginning are so arresting. The harmonies that run through the song are sensational and the “ooh” part in the verses just knocks me out. Its a great great song.
“The Bleeding Heart Show” closed the show and it is played over the closing credits.
This is a terrific example of how good this band is live, but nothing compares to actually seeing them.
[READ: August 1, 2019] Bit Rot
A few years ago I had caught up with Douglas Coupland’s publications. I guess it’s no surprise to see that he has published more since then. But I am always surprised when I don’t hear about a book at all. I just happened to stumble upon this collection of essays.
Coupland’s general outlook hasn’t changed much over the years. He is still fascinated by “the future,” but he looks at technology and future ideas in a somewhat different way. He tends to mourn the loss of some things while often embracing what has replaced it.
As my son is now a teenager, I wondered what his take on some of these essays would be–if he would think that Coupland is an old fuddy duddy, or if he was right on. Or, more likely, that he had never looked at some of these ideas that way at all. Coupland is quite cognizant that young people are growing up in a very different world than ours. And that they don’t have any problem with that. They don’t “miss cursive” because it never meant anything to them in the first place. They can’t imagine not having Google and hence all of the world’s information at their fingertips. Of course they assume that technology will continue to get smaller and faster. We older folks may not be prepared for that (or maybe we are), but that’s what younger people expect and can’t wait for
This was a very long, rather thick book that was just full of interesting, funny, thoughtful essays and short stories. I really enjoyed it from start to finish, even if I’d read some of the pieces before. (more…)
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I saw New Pornographers’ back in 2019 (I didn’t realize it was quite so long ago). I enjoyed the show quite a lot. And almost wondered if I didn’t need to see them again since they played pretty much everything I wanted to see.
