Without a Yard

In a word: Epic. The Iron & Wine/Calexico gig encompassed the ultimate highs and lows of a concert-going experience in TO. First, to be fair & salacious, the lows; truthfully, the entire solo iron & wine set was a brutal snoozer. I don’t know if it’s just because I’ve outgrown my Ben Harper records and tired of a Dave Matthews Band Fandom lifestyle, but I find that folky, pensive and roots-y shows are not done best in massive waterfront warehouses. Don’t get me wrong, the Docks wasn’t the horrible acoustic nightmare that I had prepared myself for. In fact, I would venture a guess that the Phoenix would’ve made a mess of the complex mix needed to do justice to the Calexico crew.

The horns were treble-crisp & bright without being tinny, the percussionists didn’t overwhelm with rattling bass and the mix of pedal guitar, acoustic guitar and electric bass complimented each other nicely. There was also an impressive accompaniment to the sets in the form of old-tyme sepia-tinged films playing in the background – only vamping up what some (Zoilus) reviewers write-off as a Calexico-weak-point (but I disagree and find it to be their greatest strength); their ominous Spaghetti Western/film-noir soundtrack vibe. Crap, I got off of my low-track by complimenting the engineers & projectionists….who were also caught drifting off to the Land of Nod during the I&W set, so it wasn’t my music-snobbery conjuring up symptoms of tiredness.

Sloan said it best when they mused on the Tragically Hip: “It’s not the band I hate, it’s their fans.” And there is a huge grain of truth in that – for all hippy-dippy-patchouli-stinking-swaying-with-their-eyes-closed trustafarians in the audience there was one disgruntled Calexico fan…It reminded me of a G&M write-up on a Hip gig a couple of years ago where the reviewer was accosted for not being ‘into it’ enough and that he didn’t ‘get’ the Hip’s tunes because he wasn’t shitfaced & obnoxious. It’s this un-ignore-able minority of outspoken, never-get-out-ers who end up stigmatizing bands & eventually upping the asshole quotient of their concert crowds to 100%. Will I ever pay an insane about of money to see the Hip in some corporate meg-dome & suffer the singing drunken masses stomping all over me again? No.

Now, this I&W gig wasn’t THAT bad, I don’t mean to get off on a CanRock-rant-tangent, but you get the geist of what I’m saying….Calexico – good, iron & wine – bad. Class dismissed.

Tomorrow’s assigned listening is the new Jason Collett LP – pay close attention to ‘parry sound’ as it has a special place in the heart of the narrator….

peace
meegs