(no subject)
alright.
2:15am.
cant sleep. no surprise.
too much is bothering me. no surprise.
its all nit pick shit. no surprise.
so obviously it is a fine time to write about the thornley show from thursday passed.
so buckle up or hit the back button. here we go.
first off, some background.
for those of you not too familiar with the band Thornley, the name Thornley comes from the front man Ian Thornley, a torontonian born and raised in toronto just a few blocks east of The Mod Club. two coincidences here: 1. the Mod Club is where thornley played thursday night and 2. Ian Thornley is the former lead singer/guitarist of the former Big Wreck.
Another cool tid bit of trivia from Thornley is that the bass player, Ken Tizzard, is the former bass player of the former Watchmen (whom coincidentally i had just seen in december which was their last toronto show ever before they broke up.... somewhere in the archives is a review of that show. no surprise.)
and another thing i should mention... for the entire night, all i could think was that i was watching a 70's rock revival. both bands had some form of 70's rock in their sound or in their performance. it was nuts.
so with that in mind lets move on.
Oliver Black
The first band to go on (and the only opening band) was Oliver black. i had only ever heard the band once or twice but nothing sunstantia to develop a solid opinion.
Oliver black is led by a very pretty ?natural? curly blonde bombshell. i would have to say that most of her sex appeal comes from the fact that she can rock and that she has an outstanding voice. she was backed by one guitar, one bass, and a drummer.
the best way to describe the sound would be to picture 80's rock/metal (ie. GnR and Queen) and throw a chich in for the vocals (though both the aforementioned groups had some very high pitched sounding men). i have to say that i was not all that impressed with the music. i do however take into consideration that the venue was the mod club and personally i dont think the sound there is all that good. maybe "impressed" isnt the word i'm looking for... what i mean is that they didnt have a sound that really cought me and had me wanting to hear more. most of their songs sounded the same with slight varriation (though it may seem like that due to bad sound.) a definate plus that they have in their favour is that they have some really good dynamic in their songs. they make the dynamic really effective simply because they play so tight. i was really impressed with that (though, no band stepping on stage to open for a big band should be mangey amatures.)
one thing that i saw that i wasnt too sure about how i felt was that the guitarist kept pulling all the jimi hendrix moves out and i'm not really sure that it fit the show... maybe it did? i dunno... just seemed awkward. he played the guitar behind his head, then played with his tongue... you know, that sort of stuff.
about halfway through their set, some bastard behind me started to get stupid. he was booing them after each song (which they didnt deserve) and then started yelling "show us your tits" (and no i didnt find that comment all that fun despite what youre thinking natalie. i can draw the line sometimes.) anyway, the dude was getting on my nerves cause he was being so stupid but in the end he got what was coming to him... read on to find out.
Oliver Black was a good show but i dont think i'd go to see them again. the girl has an incredible voice but i dont think the music is all that great. i think there is too much classic rock influence there and not enough originality. just my opinion.
Thornley
i would have to say that this was not Ian Thornley at his best. However, this is a new band for him and for the most part a new sound for him. Thornley is a much heavier band than Big Wreck was and waaaaaay heavier than the watchmen so i guess that would take some getting used too.. not so much that ian has to get used to it, but more me (and maybe even other people in the audience.) i've seen big wreck twice and watchmen twice so i already had this image of what the Thornley show would be like before i walked in. Ian looked the same (minus the red leather pants) but Ken didnt. hell he outright got a make over for the band from, longish hair to a mohawk and campus teeshirt to flashy button up punk style shirt (like something you would find in an avril lavigne video)
that said, the music fucking rocked.
i really like thornley cause it has that really big sound to it... the kind where the bass is turned right up (like a rage against the machine song) and the vocals go from soft to screaming (like any song that is sung by chris cornell) and...oops. looks like its another audioslave. this isnt exactly a bad thing, mainly because i love audioslave. its just to give you an idea of what the band sounds like if you havent heard the album (which you definately should... and soon. its great). the only thing that they didnt do like audioslave was not cover old songs from the previous band (ie. big wreck songs). i was kinda hoping that they wouldnt play the big wreck songs... or at least not at their first official show... at least not play like 5 songs.. if anything play like one in the middle and one as an encore. Audioslave didnt cover one rage song nor one soundgarden song and i thought that was a really good idea. anyway...
Ian has this great ability to grab the crowd and manipulate it the way he wants. i think his stage prescence is almost hypnotic (very much in the same way chris cornell is). thats something that is hard to develop as a frontman if you dont already have it. its charisma and unfortuanately youre either born with it or youre not. his control adds to the dynamic, adds to the hype, just makes the show that much deeper and more enjoyable.
at one point in the show, between songs, ian was interupted by some dummies on the floor in front of him that were trying to grab his guitar. then ian started to talk to them. one of them had asked if he could jump off the stage to which ian laughed saying "does this look like the sort of crowd that would want to catch you? well sure. get up here. jump off the stage. (to the crowd) everyone move." so buddy gets up on stage and guess who it is? its the moron that was booing oliver black. so there he is up on stage all pumped to jump into the crowd and the crowd just backs away from the stage. and theres our friend on stage looking like the complete ass that his is staring down at the bare floor. so whats he do? he jumps. ian says "that you for wasting my time and the time of all these good people" to which the crowd laughs and on with the show.
i have to mention that the drummer of this band is a ridiculously incredibley great drummer, Sekou Lumumba. he went into a solo for about 4 minutes. at the end of it he went to playing with one stick and one hand and then to no sticks, just hands... this is a complete replica of the late Bonzo (John Bonham) which can be seen in "The Song Remains the Same" DVD.
The highlight of the show for me was the encore. i had a feeling it would happen but i wasnt sure. Thornley left the stage, the lights went out, people screamed and chanted (as usual) and after a short pause, out came the Watchmen. thats right... THE WATCHMEN! it was fucking unreal. there i was thinking that i had seen their very last performance in december and there they were for one more song. it totally made my night and made my day. it also made me think to myself for a minute that we have some really great music coming out of canada and i dont think many people appreciate that. mark my words. Queen West is gonna be the next major scene in music the way seatle was.
so the watchmen played one song and out came thornley again to finish off the encore and the night. at the end ian pulled the classic Pete Townsend... strike a cord on the quitar, add an echo effect and then put the guitar down on the floor as you walk off stage in the dark with the sound or reverb coming from the guitar.
and that was the night. all in all a good show. i would go see thornley again and would recommend that you folks do too if ever you get the chance.
it is now 3:43... mother. that took way too long to write.
and fuck me, i'm still not tired... just really hungry.
no surprise.
2:15am.
cant sleep. no surprise.
too much is bothering me. no surprise.
its all nit pick shit. no surprise.
so obviously it is a fine time to write about the thornley show from thursday passed.
so buckle up or hit the back button. here we go.
first off, some background.
for those of you not too familiar with the band Thornley, the name Thornley comes from the front man Ian Thornley, a torontonian born and raised in toronto just a few blocks east of The Mod Club. two coincidences here: 1. the Mod Club is where thornley played thursday night and 2. Ian Thornley is the former lead singer/guitarist of the former Big Wreck.
Another cool tid bit of trivia from Thornley is that the bass player, Ken Tizzard, is the former bass player of the former Watchmen (whom coincidentally i had just seen in december which was their last toronto show ever before they broke up.... somewhere in the archives is a review of that show. no surprise.)
and another thing i should mention... for the entire night, all i could think was that i was watching a 70's rock revival. both bands had some form of 70's rock in their sound or in their performance. it was nuts.
so with that in mind lets move on.
Oliver Black
The first band to go on (and the only opening band) was Oliver black. i had only ever heard the band once or twice but nothing sunstantia to develop a solid opinion.
Oliver black is led by a very pretty ?natural? curly blonde bombshell. i would have to say that most of her sex appeal comes from the fact that she can rock and that she has an outstanding voice. she was backed by one guitar, one bass, and a drummer.
the best way to describe the sound would be to picture 80's rock/metal (ie. GnR and Queen) and throw a chich in for the vocals (though both the aforementioned groups had some very high pitched sounding men). i have to say that i was not all that impressed with the music. i do however take into consideration that the venue was the mod club and personally i dont think the sound there is all that good. maybe "impressed" isnt the word i'm looking for... what i mean is that they didnt have a sound that really cought me and had me wanting to hear more. most of their songs sounded the same with slight varriation (though it may seem like that due to bad sound.) a definate plus that they have in their favour is that they have some really good dynamic in their songs. they make the dynamic really effective simply because they play so tight. i was really impressed with that (though, no band stepping on stage to open for a big band should be mangey amatures.)
one thing that i saw that i wasnt too sure about how i felt was that the guitarist kept pulling all the jimi hendrix moves out and i'm not really sure that it fit the show... maybe it did? i dunno... just seemed awkward. he played the guitar behind his head, then played with his tongue... you know, that sort of stuff.
about halfway through their set, some bastard behind me started to get stupid. he was booing them after each song (which they didnt deserve) and then started yelling "show us your tits" (and no i didnt find that comment all that fun despite what youre thinking natalie. i can draw the line sometimes.) anyway, the dude was getting on my nerves cause he was being so stupid but in the end he got what was coming to him... read on to find out.
Oliver Black was a good show but i dont think i'd go to see them again. the girl has an incredible voice but i dont think the music is all that great. i think there is too much classic rock influence there and not enough originality. just my opinion.
Thornley
i would have to say that this was not Ian Thornley at his best. However, this is a new band for him and for the most part a new sound for him. Thornley is a much heavier band than Big Wreck was and waaaaaay heavier than the watchmen so i guess that would take some getting used too.. not so much that ian has to get used to it, but more me (and maybe even other people in the audience.) i've seen big wreck twice and watchmen twice so i already had this image of what the Thornley show would be like before i walked in. Ian looked the same (minus the red leather pants) but Ken didnt. hell he outright got a make over for the band from, longish hair to a mohawk and campus teeshirt to flashy button up punk style shirt (like something you would find in an avril lavigne video)
that said, the music fucking rocked.
i really like thornley cause it has that really big sound to it... the kind where the bass is turned right up (like a rage against the machine song) and the vocals go from soft to screaming (like any song that is sung by chris cornell) and...oops. looks like its another audioslave. this isnt exactly a bad thing, mainly because i love audioslave. its just to give you an idea of what the band sounds like if you havent heard the album (which you definately should... and soon. its great). the only thing that they didnt do like audioslave was not cover old songs from the previous band (ie. big wreck songs). i was kinda hoping that they wouldnt play the big wreck songs... or at least not at their first official show... at least not play like 5 songs.. if anything play like one in the middle and one as an encore. Audioslave didnt cover one rage song nor one soundgarden song and i thought that was a really good idea. anyway...
Ian has this great ability to grab the crowd and manipulate it the way he wants. i think his stage prescence is almost hypnotic (very much in the same way chris cornell is). thats something that is hard to develop as a frontman if you dont already have it. its charisma and unfortuanately youre either born with it or youre not. his control adds to the dynamic, adds to the hype, just makes the show that much deeper and more enjoyable.
at one point in the show, between songs, ian was interupted by some dummies on the floor in front of him that were trying to grab his guitar. then ian started to talk to them. one of them had asked if he could jump off the stage to which ian laughed saying "does this look like the sort of crowd that would want to catch you? well sure. get up here. jump off the stage. (to the crowd) everyone move." so buddy gets up on stage and guess who it is? its the moron that was booing oliver black. so there he is up on stage all pumped to jump into the crowd and the crowd just backs away from the stage. and theres our friend on stage looking like the complete ass that his is staring down at the bare floor. so whats he do? he jumps. ian says "that you for wasting my time and the time of all these good people" to which the crowd laughs and on with the show.
i have to mention that the drummer of this band is a ridiculously incredibley great drummer, Sekou Lumumba. he went into a solo for about 4 minutes. at the end of it he went to playing with one stick and one hand and then to no sticks, just hands... this is a complete replica of the late Bonzo (John Bonham) which can be seen in "The Song Remains the Same" DVD.
The highlight of the show for me was the encore. i had a feeling it would happen but i wasnt sure. Thornley left the stage, the lights went out, people screamed and chanted (as usual) and after a short pause, out came the Watchmen. thats right... THE WATCHMEN! it was fucking unreal. there i was thinking that i had seen their very last performance in december and there they were for one more song. it totally made my night and made my day. it also made me think to myself for a minute that we have some really great music coming out of canada and i dont think many people appreciate that. mark my words. Queen West is gonna be the next major scene in music the way seatle was.
so the watchmen played one song and out came thornley again to finish off the encore and the night. at the end ian pulled the classic Pete Townsend... strike a cord on the quitar, add an echo effect and then put the guitar down on the floor as you walk off stage in the dark with the sound or reverb coming from the guitar.
and that was the night. all in all a good show. i would go see thornley again and would recommend that you folks do too if ever you get the chance.
it is now 3:43... mother. that took way too long to write.
and fuck me, i'm still not tired... just really hungry.
no surprise.