Post by HereIsGone on Aug 8, 2010 21:22:15 GMT -5
Man, I almost put this in the other section out of habit. Glad to see I caught myself in time before I made such a foolhardy mistake.
Anyway, I'll try to be a little more brief than usual (ha!) because I'm not entirely sure of who all knows about Tonic and whatnot. Even still, I know there would be no chance in hell I could get away with not saying anything so here it goes!
Nothing exciting about the trip to the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. The trip takes a lot less time as opposed to the one to get to Fort Erie. Rainbow Bridge is alright, but I prefer the Peace Bridge (yes, I can have a preference in border bridges, shushie). One point to note is that when I was driving to Niagara Falls, radio edit!Home came up on shuffle and I was like, OH YEAAH WOOHOO! Then I was like, you're getting excited over the wrong band, dipshit. I'm not lying, that's what I was actually thinking word for word. In any case, that rocked and I did get enthused then and when Tonic's Open Up Your Eyes did come up later.
Once I was past the bridge, it didn't take me long to realize I'm going to hate driving here because it's obviously their tourist-y area. Circling around the area once (stupid street was blocked off so my thoughts automatically goes, FFFFFF while I have to wait on MORE people), I did manage to hear Emerson sing a little Bigger Than Both during what must have been their soundcheck so that was a bright spot there.
Coming back around for the second time, I made a u-turn where they blocked off the road to get to this parking garage. It only cost 10 dollars for the day there so I'm happy, having previously expected to pay 20 in my head due to the location. So I park my sorry ass in there and start walking to the street near the Hard Rock where the stage was. It was a pretty nice and sunny day so I definitely could not complain about waiting a bit after knowingly driving there early.
So fast-forwarding to 6:00 pm, Ten Cent Howl comes on as the first opener and I'm already at the rail before the VIP section Hard Rock had for people buying 50 dollar tickets. Alt-country outfit from Buffalo. Played for thirty minutes. Not my thing but they were nice and humble so that's always good in my books.
Thriving Ivory was next and the girls to my right were obviously fans as one had a poster for them and some had signed promo postcards. Now I knew the name of that band before from the Alternative Addiction Top 20 singles but I hadn't remembered what they sounded like so my curiosity was piqued. So they come on (side note: their keyboardist totally looks like Russell Brand) and at some point near the beginning, the singer announces the band's name and says something to the effect of, "We're from the west coast so anytime there's humidity we're like, YEESSS!" And at another point, he thanked the girls for the poster because he'd been having a bad day.
I thought that was funny and nice of him to say something about the poster but unfortunately, his singing had a lot to be desired and I couldn't get into it. He had a girly, whiny rasp (and not whiny in an awesome Raine Maida way) where at some points he honestly sounded like Cartman. I probably would have laughed my ass off if he would have sang, "Screw you guys, I'm goin' home."
In any case, they finish their set and this band More Than Me comes on after them. They had apparently won the national battle of the bands contest Hard Rock had put on and they had gotten the chance to play with Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney and probably others I'm forgetting. Regardless, these guys were talented and it was easy to see why they had won the competition. Very sunny and bubbly.
Up after them was Ryan Star. Now, I knew this guy from way back in '06 from the reality show Rockstar Supernova (side note: on his first week, he performed Iris) and that he'd been having a lot of trouble with constant push-backs of his new album 11:59 from a music site I frequent (it had just come out this past Tuesday after a year's worth of push-backs if that tells you anything). Having heard good things about his live performance, on top of actually knowing something about this guy as opposed to all those playing before him, I was genuinely eager for his set.
That dude delivered in spades. He's got to be the most energetic guy I've ever seen in concert so far and he puts the amount of prancing around John does to shame. Like, he puts himself out there and goes all out. Nothing is done half-assed with him. I knew that I wanted a video of a song of his towards what I knew was towards the end of his set and I was lucky enough that he had one last song to perform. Incidentally, it ended up being the song he'd made on Rockstar Supernova all those years ago although it had been reworked some. Somewhat fitting, I found.
As a small aside before I talk about Tonic, I have to admit that the night was undoubtedly tinged with the presence of Goo - barring that random car moment. Not only had I wouldn't have known about this show if it weren't for Robby, but when Ryan had introduced his current single on the radio, Breathe, he had said it was a cool moment to also have been able to introduce the video for it on VH1 today. My mind went to that countdown then. Then when the lady from the Hard Rock Cafe presented a giant cheque for 8,000 for Music Is Art from the proceeds of the concert series' concession sales to a representative for MIA, I'll admittedly own up to yelling WOOHOO when he mentioned the words "our founder Robby Takac" during his speech as he was accepting it on his behalf. God, another awesome moment that I owe to Goo. Does it ever end?
(I assume the answer is no. And God help me if I hear some Goo during the set-up music at that STP concert at the ACC. I will lose it on the reeaaaally off chance that it happens.)
So getting back on track, not to be completely outdone by Ryan, Tonic were really good as well. They played a really balanced set of tunes off of all four of their albums, jammed out a lot (which was a total surprise to me and my arm may have not appreciated that very much while recording), bantered a little here and there and honestly, when it came down to it, they are just really talented. I mean, they parallel Goo in soo many ways it's just baffling. Oh, and the bromance. I swear Emerson and Dan (the bassist) were consciously trying to be John and Robby. I really tried to get a few pictures of that and I'm very happy to have succeeded in that front.
Going back to their setlist, it was the following:
Open Up Your Eyes
Take Me As I Am
Bigger Than Both
Future Says Run
Top Falls Down
You Wanted More
Sugar
I Want It To Be
Daffodil
Mountain
Release Me
Wicked Soldier
Come Rest Your Head
Precious Little Bird
If You Could Only See
Casual Affair
Irish
Now I found it to be pretty cool that they started with Open Up Your Eyes as it had been the only Tonic I'd heard on the trip up. I wasn't fast enough to record Take Me As I Am (one of my faves) because they just barreled straight into that one faster than I could think so after starting to record that late I thought, ah fuck it, stopped recording and just watched.
Not knowing the setlist, it was kind of fun trying to figure out what song was what based on the first few bars and for some strange reason, it was kind of fun recording songs I might not have recorded otherwise on split-second decisions.
As another aside, I was really glad that they played I Want It To Be because that's my favourite off of their latest album which had come out on my birthday this year.And it's such a fucking epic song. In any case, it was fun to hear people scream out song titles. One chick got it right one time when she said Mountain and that's what they ended up playing. The most funny moment related to that was this one guy, who I presume was drunk, kept on saying Mean To Me every so often and eventually shouted the song's lyric, 'why do you have to be so mean to me?' I don't know why that double-entendre was funny to me, it just was.
Before I forget, I have to give props for Tonic playing a song I normally don't like (Irish) and still making it kick-ass and fun live. I mean, barring anything else I had said about this night, I think that alone speaks volumes.
The band was clearly having fun that night and at one point, Emerson had even apologized because they were having way too much fun. He had also said the casino lights were kinda distracting in another moment, which I thought was cute. And apparently Dan almost got beat up that day while they were at the falls when this crazy Russian lady (I'm assuming this from the accent Emerson was doing) had said she'd already waited an hour to take a picture or something like that. In any case, I'm glad they weren't beat up (obviously).
While there were not really any 'hand the mic to the crowd' sing-along moments that night, they did get the crowd to participate a few times here and there and after seeing so many failed attempts at the concert in Toronto on 54-40's part, it was nice to see them do it up right. The most notable instance of this, which I didn't get on film, was after they jammed out on Casual Affair, Emerson asked the crowd to yell as loud as they could on the count of 3. When paired with the build-up they did to get back to the end of the song to finish it off, it was awesome.
It would have been cool to get that on camera but, the thing is that I had the uncanny luck of recording songs which they proceeded to extend for a few minutes with jam sessions and I ran out of memory by the time I got to the first crowd yell-along out of two they were doing during Casual Affair. I'm still definitely glad that I got what I got there.
So all and all, it was a great show despite being on my feet for about...hm...five and a half hours?
Oh and yeah, I'm not surprised I ended up getting lost in Niagara Falls after losing my orientation upon exiting the parking garage. I don't know what it is but I always end up on the most ghetto of streets whenever that happens. Luckily, I took a cue from Emerson being distracted by the shiny casino lights and drove in that direction after driving for a little bit. Didn't get me to the Rainbow Bridge, but I ended up getting on the I-190 South so I could exit off to the Peace Bridge. Go figure. Buffalo wanted me back, it seems.
In any case, I came home in one piece so that's all that counts. (and in a weird twist, The Spill Canvas's Our Song was the last to come on during the ride home. Go figure. Again.)
My piccies are here (again, in reverse chronological order) - s477.photobucket.com/albums/rr132/Emerald-Latias/Tonic%20Niagara%20Falls%208%207%2010/
And here are the videos I ended up taking (some are a little blurry in spots):
Edit - Just remembered this. The mayor came on at one point between Ryan Star/Tonic's set to talk about other music events and made a dig at the Canadian Niagara Falls saying the American side was just as good or better (I honestly can't remember), but in any case, I remember shouting an indignant HEY! without thinking and honestly, OUR SIDE IS WAY BETTER AND AT LEAST WE DON'T GET LOST THERE. *cough*
Anyway, I'll try to be a little more brief than usual (ha!) because I'm not entirely sure of who all knows about Tonic and whatnot. Even still, I know there would be no chance in hell I could get away with not saying anything so here it goes!
Nothing exciting about the trip to the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. The trip takes a lot less time as opposed to the one to get to Fort Erie. Rainbow Bridge is alright, but I prefer the Peace Bridge (yes, I can have a preference in border bridges, shushie). One point to note is that when I was driving to Niagara Falls, radio edit!Home came up on shuffle and I was like, OH YEAAH WOOHOO! Then I was like, you're getting excited over the wrong band, dipshit. I'm not lying, that's what I was actually thinking word for word. In any case, that rocked and I did get enthused then and when Tonic's Open Up Your Eyes did come up later.
Once I was past the bridge, it didn't take me long to realize I'm going to hate driving here because it's obviously their tourist-y area. Circling around the area once (stupid street was blocked off so my thoughts automatically goes, FFFFFF while I have to wait on MORE people), I did manage to hear Emerson sing a little Bigger Than Both during what must have been their soundcheck so that was a bright spot there.
Coming back around for the second time, I made a u-turn where they blocked off the road to get to this parking garage. It only cost 10 dollars for the day there so I'm happy, having previously expected to pay 20 in my head due to the location. So I park my sorry ass in there and start walking to the street near the Hard Rock where the stage was. It was a pretty nice and sunny day so I definitely could not complain about waiting a bit after knowingly driving there early.
So fast-forwarding to 6:00 pm, Ten Cent Howl comes on as the first opener and I'm already at the rail before the VIP section Hard Rock had for people buying 50 dollar tickets. Alt-country outfit from Buffalo. Played for thirty minutes. Not my thing but they were nice and humble so that's always good in my books.
Thriving Ivory was next and the girls to my right were obviously fans as one had a poster for them and some had signed promo postcards. Now I knew the name of that band before from the Alternative Addiction Top 20 singles but I hadn't remembered what they sounded like so my curiosity was piqued. So they come on (side note: their keyboardist totally looks like Russell Brand) and at some point near the beginning, the singer announces the band's name and says something to the effect of, "We're from the west coast so anytime there's humidity we're like, YEESSS!" And at another point, he thanked the girls for the poster because he'd been having a bad day.
I thought that was funny and nice of him to say something about the poster but unfortunately, his singing had a lot to be desired and I couldn't get into it. He had a girly, whiny rasp (and not whiny in an awesome Raine Maida way) where at some points he honestly sounded like Cartman. I probably would have laughed my ass off if he would have sang, "Screw you guys, I'm goin' home."
In any case, they finish their set and this band More Than Me comes on after them. They had apparently won the national battle of the bands contest Hard Rock had put on and they had gotten the chance to play with Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney and probably others I'm forgetting. Regardless, these guys were talented and it was easy to see why they had won the competition. Very sunny and bubbly.
Up after them was Ryan Star. Now, I knew this guy from way back in '06 from the reality show Rockstar Supernova (side note: on his first week, he performed Iris) and that he'd been having a lot of trouble with constant push-backs of his new album 11:59 from a music site I frequent (it had just come out this past Tuesday after a year's worth of push-backs if that tells you anything). Having heard good things about his live performance, on top of actually knowing something about this guy as opposed to all those playing before him, I was genuinely eager for his set.
That dude delivered in spades. He's got to be the most energetic guy I've ever seen in concert so far and he puts the amount of prancing around John does to shame. Like, he puts himself out there and goes all out. Nothing is done half-assed with him. I knew that I wanted a video of a song of his towards what I knew was towards the end of his set and I was lucky enough that he had one last song to perform. Incidentally, it ended up being the song he'd made on Rockstar Supernova all those years ago although it had been reworked some. Somewhat fitting, I found.
As a small aside before I talk about Tonic, I have to admit that the night was undoubtedly tinged with the presence of Goo - barring that random car moment. Not only had I wouldn't have known about this show if it weren't for Robby, but when Ryan had introduced his current single on the radio, Breathe, he had said it was a cool moment to also have been able to introduce the video for it on VH1 today. My mind went to that countdown then. Then when the lady from the Hard Rock Cafe presented a giant cheque for 8,000 for Music Is Art from the proceeds of the concert series' concession sales to a representative for MIA, I'll admittedly own up to yelling WOOHOO when he mentioned the words "our founder Robby Takac" during his speech as he was accepting it on his behalf. God, another awesome moment that I owe to Goo. Does it ever end?
(I assume the answer is no. And God help me if I hear some Goo during the set-up music at that STP concert at the ACC. I will lose it on the reeaaaally off chance that it happens.)
So getting back on track, not to be completely outdone by Ryan, Tonic were really good as well. They played a really balanced set of tunes off of all four of their albums, jammed out a lot (which was a total surprise to me and my arm may have not appreciated that very much while recording), bantered a little here and there and honestly, when it came down to it, they are just really talented. I mean, they parallel Goo in soo many ways it's just baffling. Oh, and the bromance. I swear Emerson and Dan (the bassist) were consciously trying to be John and Robby. I really tried to get a few pictures of that and I'm very happy to have succeeded in that front.
Going back to their setlist, it was the following:
Open Up Your Eyes
Take Me As I Am
Bigger Than Both
Future Says Run
Top Falls Down
You Wanted More
Sugar
I Want It To Be
Daffodil
Mountain
Release Me
Wicked Soldier
Come Rest Your Head
Precious Little Bird
If You Could Only See
Casual Affair
Irish
Now I found it to be pretty cool that they started with Open Up Your Eyes as it had been the only Tonic I'd heard on the trip up. I wasn't fast enough to record Take Me As I Am (one of my faves) because they just barreled straight into that one faster than I could think so after starting to record that late I thought, ah fuck it, stopped recording and just watched.
Not knowing the setlist, it was kind of fun trying to figure out what song was what based on the first few bars and for some strange reason, it was kind of fun recording songs I might not have recorded otherwise on split-second decisions.
As another aside, I was really glad that they played I Want It To Be because that's my favourite off of their latest album which had come out on my birthday this year.
Before I forget, I have to give props for Tonic playing a song I normally don't like (Irish) and still making it kick-ass and fun live. I mean, barring anything else I had said about this night, I think that alone speaks volumes.
The band was clearly having fun that night and at one point, Emerson had even apologized because they were having way too much fun. He had also said the casino lights were kinda distracting in another moment, which I thought was cute. And apparently Dan almost got beat up that day while they were at the falls when this crazy Russian lady (I'm assuming this from the accent Emerson was doing) had said she'd already waited an hour to take a picture or something like that. In any case, I'm glad they weren't beat up (obviously).
While there were not really any 'hand the mic to the crowd' sing-along moments that night, they did get the crowd to participate a few times here and there and after seeing so many failed attempts at the concert in Toronto on 54-40's part, it was nice to see them do it up right. The most notable instance of this, which I didn't get on film, was after they jammed out on Casual Affair, Emerson asked the crowd to yell as loud as they could on the count of 3. When paired with the build-up they did to get back to the end of the song to finish it off, it was awesome.
It would have been cool to get that on camera but, the thing is that I had the uncanny luck of recording songs which they proceeded to extend for a few minutes with jam sessions and I ran out of memory by the time I got to the first crowd yell-along out of two they were doing during Casual Affair. I'm still definitely glad that I got what I got there.
So all and all, it was a great show despite being on my feet for about...hm...five and a half hours?
Oh and yeah, I'm not surprised I ended up getting lost in Niagara Falls after losing my orientation upon exiting the parking garage. I don't know what it is but I always end up on the most ghetto of streets whenever that happens. Luckily, I took a cue from Emerson being distracted by the shiny casino lights and drove in that direction after driving for a little bit. Didn't get me to the Rainbow Bridge, but I ended up getting on the I-190 South so I could exit off to the Peace Bridge. Go figure. Buffalo wanted me back, it seems.
In any case, I came home in one piece so that's all that counts. (and in a weird twist, The Spill Canvas's Our Song was the last to come on during the ride home. Go figure. Again.)
My piccies are here (again, in reverse chronological order) - s477.photobucket.com/albums/rr132/Emerald-Latias/Tonic%20Niagara%20Falls%208%207%2010/
And here are the videos I ended up taking (some are a little blurry in spots):
Edit - Just remembered this. The mayor came on at one point between Ryan Star/Tonic's set to talk about other music events and made a dig at the Canadian Niagara Falls saying the American side was just as good or better (I honestly can't remember), but in any case, I remember shouting an indignant HEY! without thinking and honestly, OUR SIDE IS WAY BETTER AND AT LEAST WE DON'T GET LOST THERE. *cough*
