AWmusic

It’s puzzling that I could barely find someone to take my ticket but I had a friend tag along after the Raptors game. I got there just in time to catch the opening act nonetheless.

The opening act was humorously named Jewish Legend and he wasn’t bad at all. It would’ve been nice to know they were the opener heading into the show. The backing band featured a saxophone, a french horn (I think) and a lady dancing around with shakers. They first came out saying that this was one of their first performances and if so, they came off pretty good as they weren’t shy at all. Only downside other then not being able to connect to their songs, was probably having to see all the “dancing” by the female. At first it was cool but after awhile I just looked away.

Sunset Rubdown set up and disappeared for a good half an hour citing that they were forced to wait until a certain time before hitting the stage (to let the audience drink up more perhaps?). I was standing in a decent spot just on a few steps to be able to able to see past the heads. My camera sucks for photos and unless I’m 3 rows away, getting a good pic was impossible. I ended up just stealing the picture from The Ampersand who had better photos and did their own review.

One random note was to see the use of lamps around the stage with a special blue-light lamp for Spencer. I would watch this lamp thinking it’s bound to fall by now. To my disappointed it didn’t lol.

Anyway Sunset Rubdown, started out with Winged/Wicked Things. Moved onto to random songs switching from tracks off Random Spirit Lover, Shut Up I Am Dreaming and from newer stuff like Idiot Heart/Three Colours off the Daytrotter sessions.

I thought Sunset Rubdown may have issues translating their album work to a live performance with all the instruments blaring loudly however they worked perfectly together and with all their randomness were able to effectively keep the crowd amazed. I will note that Spencer’s vocals aren’t as annoying live, he sounds more human and there’s less of his known yelping.

One great thing about the show is the interaction with the crowd. Camilla would speak to the crowd on occasion giving off witty remarks to a group of drunk fellas who kept yelling at random things. Camilla was a joy to watch in general, seeing her switch instruments and she always had something to say. Spencer was just as entertaining, when the mic wasn’t working for Upon Your Leopard, The End of Your Feral Days, with the crowd yelling your mic isn’t working he was “I know, FUCK! Why else I did I stop?!”. At one point there was a Mitch Hedberg recording playing which oddly enough was 3 years after his death. Otherwise, Spencer referred to himself as a cooking onion when the spotlight was on his face (you can barely see his face in my video).

Sunset Rubdown was pretty good live. The only downside, despite having a one hour and a half set, it felt really short. The crowd got pretty angry when Spencer said we were just doing a few more songs. When they came back for their encore, the crowd was yelling about 10 or so tracks that the band didn’t play urging them to play them. I would’ve liked to see The Men Are Called Horsemen There and They Took A Vote and Said No.

Definitely song selection could’ve been better as at times they didn’t get as much crowd response.

Still a good show. Other then the fun interaction with the crowd, best musical moment had to be hearing the eerie silence when they were playing Us Ones In Between.

Here’s the video I recorded for The Mending of the Gown:

Nessangel also has two videos of the same concert: Stadium Shrines II and Shut Up I’m Dreaming of Lovers With Wings/Taming of the Hands that Came Back to Life.

Stadiums and Shrines II

Us Ones in Between

Tags: concert