Citizen Cope Cooly Rocks the Commodore

It’s amazing what you can do with good, simple melodies and a soulful voice. Citizen Cope, aka Clarence Greenwood, breezed into Vancouver last night to rock a full house at the Commodore. And from his 3 opening acoustic numbers through the remainder of the set, that’s exactly what he did.

I was surprised to see the crowd that showed up. With $25 tickets going for 3 or 4 times their face value before the show, this had somehow become the hottest ticket in town. Arriving at the Commodore I thought I had accidentally stumbled to a yuppie bar in Yaletown filled with young girls wearing their mom’s heels for a big night on the town. The type of crowd didn’t really seem to mesh with the sound I had been listening to but who knows, maybe one of his songs was featured on Grey’s Anatomy or the O.C.

I was ready to ignore the crowd until the music began… Clarence walked on to the stage and began to play one of his songs by himself… and people wouldn’t SHUT UP! I’ll freely admit that I’ve talked at concerts, usually really bad ones where the musicians haven’t grabbed my attention and people are talking in hopes of drowning out the ‘music’. But he was really good, and people were obviously into the music… they just wouldn’t shut up. Sure, I’m not the most patient person in the world, but seriously people… if you’re going to pay money to go see an artist of his caliber come through town, shut up, sip your Heinekens and white wine (another pet peeve of mine… Chardonnay at a rock concert… but anyway) and listen to the show!!

The music was top notch, with a soulful backup band that had fun but never forgot it was there to highlight the talents of Mr. Greenwood. Though clearly sick from a cold, he didn’t let that slow him down any and delivered a great effort. It really is amazing what you can do with a guitar, a few chords and a soulful voice.

However, next time Clarence, do us a favour and play at least two songs in the encore… a one song encore is a bit of a joke, though I don’t blame you for wanting to leave this crowd early. And please, please play us Back Together.

Where’s Current Swell at?

Get the scoop on the upcoming Vancouver show over at SabuSabu.

More Champion!!

3 more parts to our chat with DJ Champion, check it out:

Part 3: 

MediaWEST sits down with DJ Champion

I recently got the chance to sit down with DJ Champion for an interview. Here’s the first part of that interview, check it out:

The Pirate Party – THIS WEEK!!

If you’re in Vancouver and you’re not busy Thursday night, August 23rd, grab some friends and make your way down to the 3rd Annual Pirate Party at Richards on Richards, featuring our great friends Hey Ocean! and Current Swell. It’s gonna be a great night of live music and maybe the occasional electrical tape skull and crossbones.

The Painted Birds debut album has landed!

Sometimes you shouldn’t review an album after seeing a band live first, just as you normally shouldn’t watch the movie before reading the book. I recently saw The Painted Birds play a great set at the Plaza in Vancouver and they blew me away with their passion, their musicianship, their ability to take the crowd into the palm of the hand and keep them there for the entire set.

The Painted Birds CD Release Party at the Plaza!

I went into this show with little in the way of knowledge or expectations about the Painted Birds, but I left impressed and a fan!

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy Oceannnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!

Following a rather in-depth and pleasantly explicit interview with the boisterous members of Hey Ocean I hung around the Media Club to watch them hit the stage. The event was a fundraiser to replace some guitars that were stolen in Toronto recently and featured a long list of friends, including a very pleasantly surprising rap act called DNA6.

How best to describe Hey Ocean? Fun, charismatic, effervescent… yes,’effervescent’ works!

Hey Ocean! Interviewed…

DJ Champion & His G-Strings

MediaWEST was at the Commodore when Champion came to town… this is what we saw:

PS – Check out Maria’s shirt in the intro