Worth It

Summersonic 2008. Citadel Hill. Yesterday. A synopsis:

Hey Rosetta! - enthusiastic Newfoundland rock band whose lead singer is (or was) the boyfriend of the girl (Jordan) who extensively documented her cross-continent travels on my former blog/mag fromthewomb. So I'm connected. Word. Big thumbs up to this band, whose sound is pretty original and often went in directions I wasn't expecting, although at times I felt I was watching a more aggro version of the Arcade Fire, which is still pretty good and likely why they are CBC radio darlings. We watched from a blanket on the hill, surrounded by groping teenagers and bouncing hippies and billowing pot smoke. No rain so far - good.

The Black Keys - enthusiastic and heavy two-piece American blues wrrrrock band who are not the White Stripes, although they often are compared to Jack and Meg (fittingly IMO). These guys probably would have been better to see in a small club, but regardless, it was a great set with great big riffs and great big amps and great big cymbal crashes - a whole lot of noise for two people. I watched from in front of the stage, with the drunk chickies and fanboys. Highlight: set-closer I Got Mine. Fog, but still no rain - good.

EDIT: find!


Wintersleep - enthusiastic, but relatively okay set considering how fantastic these guys sounded the previous times I have seen them. We watched from our blanket on the hill, so I imagine some of my sound complaints were due to the guitar and keyboard riffs having swirled and bounced around the premises before they made it to my ears. That, and the back-up vocals weren't loud enough for my liking and thus, many of the scream-along choruses (chorii?) from the albums sounded kinda thin. That said, and this is very very rare in my concert viewing experience, the highlight for me was a mesmerizing new song, title unknown - I was gripped. Maybe it was played with an extra degree of energy and enthusiasm because they weren't playing it, ho-hum, for the 300th time on tour, but yeah - looking forward to the next album. A little rain, uh-oh.

Stars - and holy shit, here comes the rain. And look at everyone scatter. Fortunately, everyone who stuck around were fans, and Stars responded. A band who are borderline cheese with their keyboards and 80s guitar effects, Stars are nothing if not fun. And enthusiastic. And flamboyant, with one-half of their vocal team - a guy named Torq - launching flowers into the rain-soaked crowd and repeatedly expressing his gratitude for those of us still hanging around, courting head colds. The other half of the Stars vocals is Broken Social Scene's Amy Millan, who kind of looks like a middle-aged biker woman out on the town but with, you know, a really pretty voice. Highlights: when the sky realllly opened up just as My Favourite Book started, Your Ex-Lover Is Dead, Bitches In Tokyo, and Take Me To The Riot (thems a lot of highlights). Having chosen to perform last night in Halifax instead of in Quebec City with Paul McCartney, Stars claimed this was among their best sets ever. Glad I was there.