CMW... the aftermath pt. II (full report)

May 3
The first CMW show I went to was Andy Stochansky at the Mod Club on day 2 of the festival. I don’t remember the name of the opening act, but the keyboard/singer’s name was Michael Johnston. It was actually a duo act, with the other member playing on drums. They were more like entertainers than musicians. By that, I mean they belong more to the Tin Pan Alley/Broadway genre. They made a few bad jokes and played in a Sinatra/Bare Naked Ladies style of music. Overall, they were very enjoyment to watch, but I don’t think I will be going to buy/download their music any time soon.

Andy Stochansky
Before this show, I have actually never really heard anything by Andy Stochansky. The reason I went to this show was because my friend Robin really likes him and there weren’t really any other shows I wanted to check out until around 10 anyways. Stochansky played a very solid show and the audience was very into his performance as well. At one point, he walked toward the edge of the stage, turned around so that his back was toward the audience, then, he fell backward into the audience and crowd surfed for a few seconds. The sound of the show was great and the show lasted for a long. Not only did Andy do the traditional encore, but he came out for a second encore. At this point, the lights had already come back on and the tech people were starting to clean up the stage and equipments. He did an additional song unplugged on his acoustic guitar; I thought that was really cool of him to do that! Overall, Andy Stochansky’s show was decent, but again, I don’t think I will be rushing off to buy any of his CDs nor would I be dying to see him live any time soon.

Great Lake Swimmers
It was now time to head to the next show: Great Lake Swimmers at the Reverb. Haha, I love concert hopping! We got to the Reverb just when the members of GLS were setting up their equipments. After only about 5 minutes of waiting, they started their set. During the show, I have come to a conclusion that the singer/song writer of GLS, Tony Dekker, has one of the most mesmerizing singing voices ever. In fact, after the show, I purchased the old GLS CD, the first CD I bought since May/June of 2005.


May 4
So, my ‘Last Gang’ adventure started at around 9 pm when met up with my friend Robin and we started walking from her place on Jarvis and Queen to the Horseshoe Tavern. This was the show we were originally going to attend since I figured there’s no way we would get into the Last Gang show at Lee’s. I wanted to see Elliott Brood at 10 and Robin wanted to see Wintersleep at midnight. However, by the time we got to Horseshoe, there was already a lineup. It wasn’t too bad though, there were probably only around 15-20 people in front of us. But as we were waiting in line, we were thinking to ourselves: “it is only 9:30 and the place had already reached its capacity… no one would leave since the show has just started at 9, and we would most likely miss Elliott Brood (the act that I wanted to see).”

So, we decided to leave and go find a NOW or EYE to see what other bands are playing. After looking at NOW and had no clue what-so-ever on any of the bands playing at the other venues, we decided to head over to El Mocambo. However, when we got there, we decided not to head in because we saw a bunch of underage kids just hanging around outside smoking. In addition, we saw this really lethargic girl who just walked out from the El Mocambo asking someone for a cigarette. This is when I suggested that we should just go to Lee’s Palace. As we were walking, I kept saying to Robin, “what are we doing, we are never going to get in… but we should still try…” Anyways, when we finally got there, we went up to the bouncer and told him we wanted to get into Lee’s for the concert. He said that the show’s sold out and they’re not selling any tickets at the door. Without a doubt, I was disappointed, but not surprise at all. So, at this point, Robin and I were just hovering around the front of Lee’s, discussing what we should do instead when we heard a voice (and I thought it most have been the voice of God) asking, “do you two need tickets?” So, not making this any longer, we got two tickets from this girl for $10 each, high-fived each other, and went into Lee’s Palace!

The Lovely Feathers
When we got inside, this band from Montreal called The Lovely Feathers had already started playing. We walked up to the front of the stage and started watching the show. All of the members in the band had so much energy, especially the guitarist. In fact, he was so energetic that at one point, he tripped and actually tumbled off the stage. It was great! Oh, and it really helps that the music was extremely catchy!

Sounds like: Motion City Soundtrack, The Unicorns

From Fiction
The first Last Gang band that took the stage was From Fiction. They were nothing really special: the music was average and their performance was kind of dull. Actually, their performance seemed like a jamming section between the band members. The songs had minimal vocals and they were lengthy… I think their last song lasted for about 10 minutes.

Sounds like: The Mars Volta

Tricky Woo
As I was having a conversation with Robin while the members of Tricky Woo were setting up for their set, I noticed this really familiar looking guy standing maybe 5 people away behind Robin. To my surprise, it was Owen… Owen Pallett from Final fucking Fantasy. Well, at this point, I wasn’t really sure. I was like, “Oh my god Robin, I think Owen from Final Fantasy is standing behind you! …is that him? …I don’t really know, shit!” So, that went on for a while, and I eventually came to a conclusion that it WAS him… well, I was like 99% sure! So, like a typical shy pussy I was, I made Robin go up to Owen and asked if he was indeed Owen from Final Fantasy. He said yes, and I asked if I could get a picture with him. Here’s the photo of me with Owen and some other dude that Owen said was also in Final Fantasy.

Okay, back to the show. Tricky Woo took stage with all the members dressed in some hippie/70s outfits. Their performance was incredible! People were so into it… I mean, I have never seen so many people doing the air-guitar in my life, it was fucking hilarious! My friend Robin started to mock the whole air guitar thing, but in addition, she added an air-drums and air-bass in the mix. The funniest thing was, she started the whole air-instruments off as a joke, but by the end of it, she was so into it that she became part of the air-community herself.

Sounds like: New York Dolls, The Darkness

MSTRKRFT
The main attraction of the night was MSTRKRFT. As I have mentioned before, MSTRKRFT is the team of Jesse F. Keeler from DFA1969 and AI-P from Girls Are Short. There’s not much to say about their performance… it was just two guys going stuffs on their turntables and programming on an i-Mac. I was actually a little disappointed because they did not mix any Bloc Party or Buck 65. However, they did start off the show with the Metric's 'Monster Hospital'... I don't really like the original song, but the MSTRKRFT remix is pretty damn good!They were also drinking nonstop. Owen Pallett actually came on stage twice: once holding a tray of beers like a waiter and the other time, bringing shots for Jesse and AI-P.Most of the action was on the dance floor, the audience was amazing – everyone was energetic, dancing and having so much fun! MSTRKRFT spin for a really long time. They started at around 12:50 a.m. and when we left, which was around 2:30 a.m., they were still spinning. Overall, my favorite performance of the night was The Lovely Feathers, while the funniest being Tricky Woo. MSTRKRFT was great too because of the energetic audience on the dance floor.

View photos from CMW here