Stars at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre; Saturday December 13, 2008
I had a heads up before the show when i should show up for. I'm sure glad i did because I would have been waiting for a few hours before the show started. I got to the venue in a huge rush, exhausted and worn out from a long day at work. I heard one of Torquil Campbell's ballads playing, i asked how many songs in they are. The lady who took my ticket just said that's what they were playing. At that moment i had this sweltering feeling that they were getting big. I've had this realization time and time again but this time what made this so different was that the venue was the largest i've ever seen them at. The Queen Elizabeth Theatre holds perhaps two to three thousand people, that's my guess, nothing official. Sold out three times over, that's big stuff.They opened up with “The Nights Starts Here” which Torquil quite appropriately introduced with those very words, but in the literal way. There are only a small handful of songs that i really love off of the new album but that's most certainly one of them. The most remarkable thing is the girl-guy contrast in this song, it's everything i hoped that the new album would be, sadly it wasn't very consistent. It is the finest when Amy and Torquil blend together at the end of the song singing entirely different lyrics. It was absolutely flawless because as a listener you could follow either on of their parts or listen to them both together. They were remarkably clear and concise. It's odd because i never gave Amy Millan much respect for her voice because i always thought it was very soft and weak. Torquil much the opposite, sometimes over powering. BUT Amy's at this gig was spot on.They played a ton off of their new album, which was no surprise to me. I always will hate “Ghost of Genova Heights,” which was Torquil's shot at being a Bee Gee. It really shows his love for the eighties. Of the new album i really dug “Bitches in Tokyo” live. This is one of Amy's songs easily. I just watched the video for this song, which i've fallen in love with! You can too at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nwW_s16afw. I felt particularly elated when i heard this song because of how Amy delivered it. The main lines of the song are: The time when all our mistakes made sense/You needed it/The time when all the lying/You sympathized with sin/All this sabotage and blame/Well I can take it/Because I want you back. Live they emphasized the “I just want you back” which Amy put so much heart into. She was directing those words to bassist Evan Cranley. Apparently they were together at one point but it seemed really honest. Similarly at the end of their set Torquil belted the words “I'm Alive” concluding “Calendar Girl”. He went a little overboard this show but the audience really liked it. I was more focused on my feet hurting from standing, complete old lady. This is probably my fifth or sixth time seeing this band. I've liked them since the eleventh grade, so that makes it five years. Seeing them felt kind of boring, i really didn't enjoy it as much as i should have, which was weird because their show was so flawless. Doing it three times over at the same venue probably helped. I felt i could sense which song was coming up next, by a strum of a particular cord or a single bass note. It's that cozy feeling that keeps you coming back but sort of makes you sick of everything they put out too. I think it's my high expectations or my super instinct towards this band. I felt when they were going to play “One More Night”. That was the song that got me at one point, but now i feel as though it doesn't even mean a thing to me. Sad. I really enjoyed this show but i hope that they take a break so i can love them as much as i use to.
December 17, 2008
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