Vancouver's Flash Palace was opening the night, with an instrumental set of melodic, ambient, post-rock. The layered songs all kind of flowed together, and they had an intriguing sound, but it was also a little... droning. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mind-set for it, but the band didn't have much stage presence, ether.
That being said, I was pretty interested in checking them out further, and at the end they mentioned they were recording a new album, with vocals, so I'll definitely be keep an ear out to see how that turns out.
And after a fairly quick turnaround, Chad VanGaalen hit the stage, adorned in an incandescent tie-dye shirt. There was a bit of a strange delay at the start, where the lights were down and house music off, but he was still setting equipment up; but he soon apologized and launched into the set, with his band soon joining him. He also apologized, early on, for his last few shows in Vancouver have which he thought have been strange and... less than good, promising to make up for them. His self-deprecation continued later on as he wondered why, exactly, we were all there (him and the band included), but later made sure we knew that he was grateful that everyone was there. As usual, his banter, and stage presence in general, had an incredibly awkward charm with some hilarious moments -- such as when they came back out for the encore Chad and his bass player riffed on possible replacements and attachments for a hook-hand.
His shows in the past have always been interesting, unique and a bit eccentric, but always incredible, and this one was no different. There was some obvious improvisation in the set near the end, as they were clearly straying from the setlist, and after a short solo song, "Burning Candle", to "end" it, the band came back for the encore with another new song, and then went into a really weird and hilariously awesome cover of "Summer of '69". It looked like they were about to go into another song after that, but Chad spontaneously proclaimed that to be the perfect ending for the night.
And you know what? It kind of was.
(partial) setlist
Never Cut My Hair, Shave My Pussy, Do Not Fear, Peace On The Rise, Heavy Stones, Sara, (Happy Birthday), City of Electric Light, [mystery song], [mystery song], Replace Me, Burning Photographs, I'm A Witness, [mystery song], Freedom For A Policeman, Molten Light, Rabid Bits of Time, Burning Candle.
(encore) [New Song], Summer of '69
I don't know what you were watching but that show sucked. He was not into it and I felt completely ripped off. I've seen him play 3 other times and this was by far the worst. He sounded really insincere when he said her appreciated everyone coming out. It was clear he was stoned and all he wanted to do was get off the stage and go hang with his friends. I've been a huge fan of his for man years and he should be ashamed of himself. Especially how he mentioned that he felt the last couple shows in Vancouver were sub par. You would think he would want to make up for it. The Summer of 69 cover was terrible. Everyone one walked out stunned the show was so bad.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the opening act Flash Palace put everyone there to sleep. No stage presence at all. How about introducing yourself or even acknowledging the crowd in some form? They looked liked they never played anywhere outside of their parents basement. I didn't even know the name of the band until I read this review because they never introduced themselves. They just walked on stage, started playing and didn't say anything until the their set was over. At which point one of them nervously mumbled something about working on a album with vocals.
ReplyDeleteI saw him at the rio the year before and at the end of his set he apologized for his poor performance. wrong thing to do...
ReplyDeleteI like this article though i think its well written and a pretty good recap
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