Historicist: "The city that nobody loves"
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-Verse
Having canceled their October tour date at the Kool Haus, Sloan returned to Toronto last Thursday for the rescheduled show. Advertised as their 10th Anniversary Kool Haus Show, it could have been a celebration, of sorts: for the anniversary, for the end of the tour, for the fans (and neighbours) who had tickets to the October show. But as they usually do, Sloan favoured material from their latest album, with only a few past singles peppered throughout the setlist. While this approach to performing was great, say, circa Between The Bridges, as the combined repertoire between the band's four songwriters accumulates, there's less and less chance that concert-goers will get to hear what they want. Which would explain the number of people steadily flowing out of the crowd throughout the show: save for rarities like "C'mon C'mon (We're Gonna Get It Started)" and "Penpals," there was relatively little to sustain more than a passing interest in the performance. What happened to the wacky covers and anything-can-happen vibe that the band's website keeps pushing with YouTube videos?
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Twice Removed is easily one of the best records of all time, but anything they've done in the last five years has been pretty meh. Maybe someday they'll become like the Rolling Stones and only tour their "classics."
As a Sloan super fan, I admit that when I go to the shows, I end up liking the new material more than I did when I listened to it on the album.
That said, I find that as time goes on, even the "oldies" they "treat" us with are crap singles like 'The rest of my life' instead of...you know....good songs.
It was nice when they borrowed that girl from the Yoko Casionos to sing "I Can Feel It" though.
For the past 2 years or so they've been "touring the classics" (including, funny enough, as openers for the Stones) and it honestly got REALLLLLY tired. They were pretty much yawning through their hits onstage. Which is why this show was so refreshing (IMO). Like Danielle, I'm something of an uberfan too, and the new songs simply rocked live (Andrew had a little vocal trouble, admittedly). But I've never seen Patrick so animated as on "I Understand"! It's like they finally woke up and remembered how to have a good time.
Maybe that's why I was so 'meh' about the whole thing...I hadn't seen them in the past few years (last time I think was 2004??), so I was itching to hear some of my favourite classics. They played a few, but overall, I was disappointed that it was so heavily weighted towards the latest album (though I understand why). Even though I was also an uber-fan at one point, admittedly, I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to their last few releases.
Btw, Beth, I meant to mention when I wrote about this on BlogTO that your section in the front-center was really the only area that was hardcore into it, so from your perspective it might've looked like the whole crowd was. Either way, when you're there with a ton of SMB'ers, you're gonna have a good time. :)