Ear-Splittingly Good

December 21st, 2006

Jumping on Wendy’s train, I present to you my Top 10 Ear-Splittingly Good Shows Of 2006. These shows penetrated my cochlea, anvil and stirrup so deeply that I actually had to undergo some hearing tests with a specialist to make sure everything was still intact.

Of the 53 shows (!) I saw in 2006, these ones were trumps.

1/ Guillemots – March 15, 2006. I finally got to see Guillemots after having listened to them for months and months online when they first stopped through Toronto at the Horseshoe Tavern. They were fantastic! Fyfe Dangerfield’s voice is so haunting – at the end of the night he performed this one song a cappella and it was so beautiful I thought my heart was going to implode on the spot.

2/ Keane – June 26, 2006. Having seen Keane a few times before, I almost didn’t make it to this show but I’m so glad I did. The Mod Club is such a great venue for them – within a few songs Tom, Tim & Richard were a complete sweaty mess and the audience was losing their minds over how amazing they sounded. After the show the crowd would not stop cheering so the guys came out for a little bow…if you want to see a band give 5000% at every single show, see Keane live.

3/ Mew – September 25, 2006. This was one of my most highly anticipated shows of the year. Originally Mew were only going to be in Toronto supporting Kasabian (September 26) – when I learned of this I typed in Ticketmaster’s URL so fast and hard that the keys on my keyboard nearly caught on fire, that’s how excited I was. We were blessed with the addition of a proper show the night before the Kasabian opener, and it was fantastic. Lots of theatrics from frontman
Jonas Bjerre, plus the added bonus of two screens showcasing his design and artwork, which was at times frightening, but suited the songs perfectly.

4/ Snow Patrol – March 30 & September 13, 2006. The first of these shows was a special ‘preview’ tour of the new album, which only visited a couple of cities in North America, and Toronto was one of them. The evening was filmed for a special DVD and I was right up front with ‘the concert gang’. This was also the first time I set eyes on my rock ‘n roll boyfriend (bassist Paul Wilson) – my obsession got a real kickstart after that night. The setlist was amazing and everything about the evening was just magical. I shockingly almost didn’t make it to the second/rescheduled show but a friend pulled through at the last minute to get me in, and oh mylanta was it worth it. Gary Lightbody has a tendency to exert himself so much at shows that he conks right out and loses his voice, which resulted in the rescheduling. My only regret is that I didn’t stick around after the show to meet Paul, because I later learned that he was just hanging out in the parking lot, espousing the wonders of the ‘pizza sandwich’ with my friend Sylvia.

5/ Elbow – April 18, 2006. [As I type this, Elbow just came on shuffle in iTunes - creepy!] Elbow are hands down one of my top five bands ever, and this show was extremely anticipated. It didn’t top November 2005′s intimate performance at the Distillery District but it was still epic. The new album is so powerful and driven, hearing it live from the front row was just incredible. When Guy reached out to me during “Switching Off” I was already in a puddle of tears on the ground.

6/ Nine Black Alps – April 5, 2006. If you missed this show then you really effed up, because there were only about 30 people at the El Mocambo, and next time these guys roll through town it’s gonna be at a much larger venue. So grungey and SO GOOD. Sam Forrest rocked out so hard – he was so angry about their merch not making it through customs that he took it out on the instruments, and we loved it!

7/ Radiohead – June 8, 2006. Again, I ALMOST DID NOT MAKE IT TO THIS SHOW. When the show was announced and the tickets went on sale, me and every other Radiohead diehard I know was en route to Canada’s Wonderland, ergo, unable to buy tickets via Ticketmaster. In any event, the shows sold out so quickly that I didn’t know a single soul that acquired a ticket. Two days before the show I was still seething with resentment and jealousy that I wasn’t going, so I tried Ticketmaster on a whim and GOT TICKETS. An entire row on the floor at Hummingbird Centre opened up and we were all able to see Radiohead on the better of two nights; best setlist ever! Everybody wins.

7/ Hot Chip – November 6, 2006. Toronto crowds are notorious for resembling wax museums when it comes to enthusiasm at shows, but this was an exception. Live drums and danceable beats got everyone moving and rocking out. Hot Chip was totally robbed of the Mercury Prize!

9/ David Bazan – June 17, 2006. Imagine your favourite morose, Christian-tinged music being played to you in a candlelit church (Music Gallery) while you sit back (uncomfortably) in pews and listen to witty banter from (the new defunct) Pedro The Lion’s frontman. And him drinking beer and laughing about it. In a church.

10/ Malajube – November 25, 2006. Another rescheduled show that was well worth the wait. These Montrealers capped off my year with a rowdy performance that was summed up by a black eye delivered to me directly by keyboardist Thomas Augustin’s FOOT in a stagedive gone wrong. What better proof of a kickass show is there than that?

Posted on Thursday, December 21st, 2006 at 1:55 pm by Kat and is filed under Blog.