M83 at the Opera House; Thursday November 20, 2008

M83 at the Opera House; Thursday November 20, 2008

Sorry Sean missed School of Seven Bells.I did however make M83's entire set. This is my second time seeing them this year. I'm still not sure if they do anything for me, but this time round I purchased a shirt. M83 are the band that you can take a few songs to heart and leave the rest for the garbage. Their most recent album titled 'Saturdays=Youth” definitely is the most consistent. Consistent in the sense that it has a very distinct theme throughout, that being the youth presented in the form of a 1980s tune. For those of you who missed that decade, Gonzales pays respects to John Hughes and Molly Ringwald. Every single review i've read of 'Saturdays=Youth” has dropped the Hughes bomb, but I'm in complete and utter agreement with that judgment. They opened up the set with a couple of instrumental tunes. Their songs are epic but not always distinguishable. The vocalized tune was “Kim & Jessie,” which completely caught me off guard. This tune's off their latest release and probably the most eighties of the bunch. I believe that this tune is their latest single, i recently saw the video. It's a cute choreographed roller blade sequence between two girls, i can make the assumption one is to be Kim and the other Jessie. When i first heard the recorded version of this song i figured that Kim was a girl and Jessie was a boy, after a few listens i realized that both names are unisex, go figure. I liked very much how it was presented live, everything sounded perfect. Particularly the drums and vocals were spot on. The girl's name is Morgan Kibby, she's a total gem. Her voice in this song live sounded perfect blended with Gonzales.Again to my surprise they followed this tune up with my favourite song off of the new album titled “We Own the Sky.” It's arguably the anthem of the album. It was good enough that Urban Outfitters could pick it up as their theme song to their spring 2008 collection. It broke my heart to see this happen. I was really impressed with their live version of this (as i was last time i saw them). It's a very empowering song that builds and swells so perfectly. There's a build up about half way through the song, where Kibby and Gonzales repeat “It's coming, it's coming now.” A second before it kicks in you feel the synthesizer deliberately swell. They did it well. I'm surprised they can keep the vigour they had in the first bit of the end of the song. This show was a huge Urban Outfitters-style dance party... People who want to keep their cool but really want to dance. It was an awful mix of people who were just drunk and dancing and a bunch who were sort of swaying awkwardly. I really liked “Graveyard Girl” live. It's a light song that is happy and airy, with barely any substance. It's not something that i took to at first listen but their clean tight show made me like it a bit more. That's the thing with this band, I never really took to many of their tunes (with the exception of “Don't Save Us From the Flames”). After seeing them live i slowly opened myself up to them. Last concert the song that did it for me was “We Own the Sky,” off of the new album. This show i took to the song “Graveyard Girl”. “Kim and Jessie” obviously stuck.It was kind of sad when they played my two favourite songs back to back at the beginning of the set, no climax! That was a surprise on it's own, as i wasn't predicting that. Their best tune “Don't Save Us From the Flames”. It's more rock than it is electronic but it has heart. It captured the teen spirit that 'Saturdays=Youth' grabbed before that album was put out. A the beginning of the song i had no idea that it was that tune. I was probably too close to the stage. They packed the Opera House to my surprise. I definitely thought this show would not sell out, as they were here not long before. I had the pleasure of catching that show, at the wonderful Mod Club.I have only two critiques of the show:1)They should make their sets different, to predictable.2)They should talk more, he spoke little throughout the whole set. M83 or Air, tough call. Both have dabbled in soundtracks (Air- The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation and M83-Various commercials and Stranger Than Fiction with Spoon).

November 27, 2008