SOUNDTRACK: EMILY HAINES AND THE SOFT SKELETON-Live at Massey Hall (December 5, 2017).
I really like Metric a lot. They hit all the poppy sweet spots that I like with enough rough edges to keep them interesting.
I had heard a song from Haines’ Soft Skeleton album and really liked it–the bass line outstanding. When this tour came to Philly I conisdered going but ultimately didn’t. So I’m glad I get to see an abbreviated version of it here from Massey Hall.
This is also the final show (I assume) of the fifth season of Live at Massey Hall as the historic venue now undergoes two years of renovations!
Haines says that Massey Hall is the place that when you’re growing up on Neil Young that you dream of playing someday. She did two nights with metric in 2010 and now to do it solo is an incredible honor.
The show starts with chirping birds and Emily walking around the stage which looks made up like a bedroom. She takes off her coat, puts on a dressing gown and a sleep mask and lays down on a “bed.”
An alarm goes off and when she shuts it off, a piano melody starts with backing vocals. It’s the song “Planets,” and she lays down on the bed and sings the lyrics. The pretty piano melody and swelling backing voices are lovely. Then she brushes her teeth and a voice (hers?) starts talking to her. What are you doing here? Did you sleep at all?
What revelation are you after? Do you want to go back or are you scared you never left? This is an introduction to “Nihilist Abyss.” For this song, she plays the piano and sings. As the song ends the voice returns, calling “Emily” (echoing) “come back now its time to come back. You’ve got to get dressed, you have to play a show tonight. You booked a tour for some reason and you’re on it now….”
“Put on your jacket…” She stomps around the stage as the rest of the band comes out–Jimmy Shaw, guitar; Sam Goldberg, bass; Justin Peroff, drums (all of whom were in Broken Social Scene, which Haines performed in as well). She sits at the piano and a robotic voice introduces “Emily Haines and The Soft Skeleton.”
“Our Hell” has thumping drums and bass as washes of guitars flood in while Haines plays piano and sings. It’s a dramatic change from the first songs, but not as immediate or poppy as Metric.
“Detective Daughter” is interrupted by her saying that this record and band are a different state of mind than metric–challenging in a different way. The music and her role is to push herself to the threshold of emotion without cracking. “It’s raw strong and real.” There’s more intense guitar from Shaw (who has worked with her on nearly everything she’s done).
“Minefield of Memory” has a scratchy guitar playing a rhythm with the drums, while “Legend of the Wild Horse” has the biggest chorus yet.
“Doctor Blind” has a woozy da da da da middle section along with the echoing distorted guitars.
The set ends with “Fatal Gift,” the song that I love from this album. It starts with a slow piano but after a few minutes the song gets bigger and louder and that bass line is just a knockout. I don’t rally like the that she repeats over and over “you own it and it owns you,” as it takes away from the music. But this section of the song is so good the music is intense and wonderful.
I’m not disappointed that i didn’t see this live, although it sounds like an interesting theatrical experience (the venue is usually standing but for this show seats were being sold).
Over the credits she comments that now “because of technology people can use algorithms to pander and give the people what they want a feeling of pandering. But what I have to offer is a glimpse of someone attempting to access their authentic self.”
[READ: April 15, 2016] “The Five Wounds”
This story surprised me right from the outset with the line “This year Amadeo Padilla is Jesus.” There’s a few ways that could be taken and I was wrong about all of them. The closest I came was thinking that Amadeo was a boy in a school play.
But no, Amadeo is a 33 year old man and being Jesus is very real.
People in the village are saying that Amadeo is the best Jesus they’ve had in years. People are lining up to peek through the chain link fence and watch Amadeo. He has build his cross out of heavy oak, not pine, and he’s even thinking of adding more nails to make it heavier.
But whats so surpring is that Amdeo is pockmarked and bad-toothed and worse. If you name the sin, he’s done it: gluttony, sloth, fucked a second cousin on the dark bleachers at the high school.
Amadeo is working so hard at his cross that he is sweating–typically he only ever sweats when he eats and drinks too much. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 