Concert Reviews, Photos, Videos and Rock and Roll Stories from fans who love live music

You have to know something special is going to happen when you find out the 3 or 4 of people beside you have flown some 2000KM to watch a band from their hometown of Winnipeg, play 2 of what may turn out to maybe 6 reunion shows.

The last time I saw the Watchmen they were opening for the Tragically Hip on their Phantom Power Tour in 1998 at The Landmark Theatre in Syracuse NY. I guess I caught The Watchmen 3 or 4 times on that tour and really enjoyed them, so when I heard they were reuniting for a couple of shows at The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern I knew I was going catch at least 1 of the shows. As it turned out I caught the 2^nd night and man I am glad I did.

When you do the Horseshoe or catch a band that may or ever play again you have no choice but to get up close and really get the show into you. The Horseshoe has a nice low stage. The stage only comes up a meter or so maybe a bit higher. When you are up front leaning on it or against it you really know why this venue hasn’t changed much in 60 years, it didn’t have too!

We run into is 1 of 2 guys holding HD cameras who are recording the show(s) for a documentary on the band.

We ask some questions and learn the working title is All Uncovered (name of a great Watchmen tune), they have complete uncensored access to the band, access to the soundboard and mention the DVD should be ready for mass consumption by March 2009. I can’t help but think it will be a great piece of rock & roll Canadiana.

I have seen a few 1-off reunion shows (not to be confused with a full blown reunion tour) and it always seems like the band and crowd are having such an obviously great time that the mood / vibe quickly becomes so infectious the crowd just goes over the top. Another reunion show that comes to mind is the Junkhouse reunion show in a few years back at Club 279!

I am writing this as an addendum to a more in depth review done by a fan that attended both shows. I will send out a few highlights from my point of view….then let the hardcore fan ramble on. (more…)

Once I got inside I moved to the front left side and posted myself for the show. I had been really looking forward to this show as I had really got into James @ the album Seven and stayed with them through Laid and Wah Wah. I caught the Laid tour in 1993 at the Ontario Place Forum with the rotating stage.

I know there are several albums before Seven, and several after Wah Wah but I didn’t get back into them until this last album Hey Ma!  Maybe it was the Brain Eno production sound on Seven, Laid and Wah Wah!!  Technically Wah Wah was part of the Laid sessions that didn’t see the light of day in Canada for awhile after Laid album. At any rate there is enough back-catalogue to keep me busy with James once again.

The stage seemed almost too small. The seven members of James and all their equipment took up quite a lot of space. The venue was packed, as the show sold out quick and I didn’t really see very many tickets on the street. The tickets I did hear change hands were going for @80 bucks.

The band could have probably played a larger venue based on the quick sell out and lack of tickets out front. There was as sizable group hanging around outside hoping to score last minute tickets. Likely to no avail.

Whew, Whew, Whew, Whew…..Whew…. All this Frustration … Born of Frustration from Seven YES!!….What a great tune to start the show! Everyone is singing!!. I’m thinking man this is so good already.

Tim Booth is happy that is very clear from the start. He loves the stage, the crowd loves him and the band is rocking. Everyone is having a really great time.

We get a couple of songs from the new album Hey Ma next. Waterfall gets really great crowd reaction. They played a nice bunch from this new album including Bubbles, Oh My heart and Hey Ma. This song was rolled out with references to the war in Iraq, Tony Blair and George Bush. (Hey ma the boys in body bags coming home in pieces)

Booth asks how many fans had seen the band first time around 15 years ago “at the stage that revolves”, many hands go up and he smiles and says,” he wanted to see how long the relationship had been”.  “Next time, bring some friends and we will have a bigger party”

Talking about the instruments, we get songs with 2 drummers, a violin, there are at least 3 set of keyboards, plus an electronic drum kit, many guitars, maracas, tambourines and I watched a tiny handheld keyboard with a mouth tube attached a le Frampton, being played. I’m sure there was more I just didn’t catch it all.

There was a point in the show when the crowd sang back the chorus of Sometimes for 10 minutes with the band just standing there watching, listening and smiling. It was just amazing. It could easily have been the longest, loudest continuous singing by a crowd I ever heard.

Big highlights for me Ring the Bells and Say Something. Probably, the biggest buzz for me though is reserved for Don’t Wait that Long which is played as the first encore song. The guitar here just comes across as so Gilmour-esque to me. This was followed by Star then the mega hit Laid which they kind of blew through.

The band left the stage then returned to play, Top of The World. This song was unplanned and does not appear on the set list. I managed to score a setlist after the show. There wasn’t a single guitar pic tossed.

All in all this was really really fun show!! For 25 bucks… man that is hard to beat!!

Todd

Photos from this show on Flickr

Please let us know if you find any videos from this show on youtube by commenting below.

Milling around the Merchant Booth where the Darker My Love “45’s” were for sale (yes vinyl) Will Canzoneri…the band’s keyboardist told me the guys were a little haggard from the road, not a good sign as they haven’t been out that long although the enthusiasm was there. Apparently they caught some bitchy weather on the drive in from Chicago. Will put in a good word in making sure one of Canada’s top music photographers Richard Beland could get on stage to capture the visual side of the set for us.

Like the last city Toronto seemed a little Darker today also with its humid rain spell to welcome the boys from California. It didn’t take long though for the band to settle in… get comfortable and introduce their new CD “2″ to the crowd, young 20 something’s down front with the GenXers in the back half  and  allow them to get a feel of this relatively unknown (in Canada) 5 piece.

The mix was a bit muddy or was that the intention of sound? The venue is dark tonight as usual but this group has a light quality beneath a psych-rock sound that gets your interest on first listen. The drummer with his Bass man tucked in ever so tight rocked stage left rhythms as the maraca shak’in Tim Presley served up leads over on the right wing….

Darker My Love followed a fresh sounding opening act (The Upsidedown) while the crowd waited patiently for the veteran Dandy Warhols to get loud….started to win a few over as one music lover turned from her leaning position on the stage and asked “what was there name?” Highlights of the nine-song set were the trippy Northern Soul and the would-be radio hit Two Ways Out.

Another stage leaner seemed interested as guitar player Jared Everett handed me a setlist that looked to have been written on lined paper from their road binder.

We would like to run into these guys in Toronto again sometime with more songs, same sound and brighter lights so we can see their Rock too!

See all of our Photos of Darker My Love