The earth is not a cold dead place.. because you are listening.. because you are breathing

Last post, when I said I'd be writing something "tommorow", I really meant next week it seems. But to be honest, I tried putting something together for the blog on the next day, but I was faced with something of a dilemma: how am I to go updating this regularly without actually short-changing any of the people who are reading it? I mean obviously, I could post about how my day at work/school sucked or something equally disenchanting, but what good is that to anyone reading this, and now that I think about it, what good does it do me? The answer is not much. So that little realisation, along with the absolutely high expectations illicited by the amazingly sweet Jen's comment on my first post, made be abstain from writing something so quick.. Not that I thought anyone would actually care, but I did it mostly for myself; I felt like I should find something actually pertinent to write about. So I actually managed to do quite a few interesting things over the course of this week, most of them involving shows in some way or another, so that'll be the focus of this entry.

So tuesday evening, me and Max went over to Club SAW to check out the Despistado/Robot Kill City/The Grey/Federal show and I thoroughly enjoyed myself! The bill kicked off with Federal, who in simplest terms is the French Parisian equivalent of Christopher Carraba from Dashboard Confessional. One man, one guitar and one girl who broke his heart. But in all seriousness, the guy did have quite abit of talent, but he didn't seem to fit the bill very well and his voice wasn't exactly my cup o' tea. Up next was the Grey who never fail to impress. It's intense heavy rock with a slightly experimental twist. This was their last show with bassist Steve Martin (also of the brilliant Buried Inside) and it was a sad thing to see him leave the band, he's an absolutely phenomenal bassist and one of the nicest people I've ever met. Robot Kill City followed and somewhat surprised me. I'd heard two of their recorded songs and they came off as a much heavier unit live. But they were still greatly enjoyable with their somewhat mathy & catchy indie-rock post-punk stuff (argh.. I hate categorization). Finally Despistado took the stage and went on to play a really great set of dancy indie-rock, reminding me of a toned down At The Drive-In. Honestly I wasn't expecting all that much, as I hadn't enjoyed the mp3 they have up for download, but it was a really great performance. So all in all, an awesome show.. I recommend you check out all the bands in question, including Federal, if pure emo is your thing.

The next item on my list of stuff to prattle on about is the smallish road-trip I did on saturday. Myself, TPD Max, as well as Dan and Daph drove to Montreal to go check out Explosions in the Sky, who were playing at La Salla Rosa. I had a really great time the entire trip, despite me reprising my position as driver for the billionth time. The coolness started on the drive down, where the gradually setting sun and gorgeous autumn colors painted some absolutely amazing vistas to entertain me while the others slept or read. Once we got there in the late evening, we hit up this way cool and trendy asian restaurant called Zyng! on St. Denis. You basically choose what noodles, meat(or tofu), sauce and vegetables you feel like having, and then they stir-fry that stuff into a majestic meal of goodness.. anyways it's awesome. Finally after that we went over to the show and through some strange occurence of karmic intervention, we managed to be the very last people admitted into the venue without tickets. Now I'm not one to openly tear into a band, but the Frequency put on one of the worst opening sets I've ever seen. Their vocalist had a style that could basically be summed up as a really strange amalgamation of David Bowie and William Shatner, the guitar player saw it fit to strum a D power chord for 98% of the set and the absolutely cheesy synth lines made me cringe throughout. Things got considerably better with the second opener Adem, a bunch of dudes from the UK who played a really beautiful set of stripped down emotive folkish indie-rock. They were made unique by their exclusion of drums in favor of a variety of off-kelter instruments like an electric-harp, bells, a xylophone and a variety of percussions. Last but certainly not least, EITS took the stage. Now I know full well that the next few sentences I will write will seem like ridiculous hyperbole and over-the-top praise.. but I assure you, I do not feel like I'm exagerating one bit. Explosions in the Sky put on the greatest set I've ever witnessed. These boys, consisting of two guitar players, a bassist/guitar player and a drummer, managed to display a range of beauty and emotion that is simply and literally beyond words. They played absolutely flawlessly, with a ridiculously loud yet well defined sound, and it was obvious that they pour every bit of themselves into their performances. This is type of music where you can basically close your eyes, listen and for that brief moment nothing else matters; the fact that by the time you'll get home after the show, you'll only get 2 hours of sleep before heading off to work becomes inconsequential.. those things that have been bothering you for the longest time seem absolutely miles away.. and the ones that you've been fighting for and working hard towards suddenly seem that much closer.. The feeling is really that great, you MUST see this band live. Yes, saturday was brilliant indeed.

For those interested, the EITS setlist was something along these lines:
- Your Hand in Mine
- Greet Death
- Yasmin the Light
- Memorial
- (new song maybe)
- The Only Moment We Were Alone

Okay the end of this entry is in sight, one last little article and I'm out for another week or two.. haha. Something popped into my head at the show we played at 4 Jeudis on monday, and I felt the need to share it with a few people. It occured to me that I have the pleasure of having some ridiculously amazing friends in my life. I would just like to thank all of you who keep on coming out to every show we do, who stick around till 12:30 am on a monday night to watch us play a meager 3 song set, who cheer us on when we feel we played our most horrible, who support us in every way conceivable and who are simply put the best friends and amazing people. My sincerest thanks to all of you, you mean the world to me and you can make even the most horrid day seem amazing.

Cheers to everyone who read through all of that.. that's really quite a feat. I promise I'll make an effort to update more often, albeit with shorter more concise entries than this one.