sloan
Sloan
The Mod Club
Toronto, Ontario
so I got there early. like, I thought there'd be more people there but I was the first in line (after about an hour of waiting some dude who was working comes up to me and says [as though I didn't speak english or was mildly retarded] "I think it's really cool that you're here so early. it's really cool of you") as soon as the guys were done soundchecking, andrew bolted and biked home, patrick came out looking a bit dazed with a new pair of cons in his bands and sauntered down college..I was hangin by doors and jay came out and said hi for a bit, then mandi showed up and we talked about stockholm and cool things to do in europe. chris and jay came back out and chatted for a little bit. they were giving away converse shoes and chris had a plastic bag full of new shoes. like 4 or 5 pairs of new shoes not in their boxes, just in a plastic shopping bag. ghettastic. jay was saying that he was really sick and having a throat problem and we wouldn't hear any of his tunes (bummer). chris noticed I was sick with a throat thing as well and said "jeeze, you been kissing jay?" then the guys went home for a bit (chris put on his cool helmet and biked off down college with his bag full of shoes and jay..I dunno, he just teleported or something)
we got into the venue at around 6 and there was NO ONE in there. like even when the opening band came on, there was like 5 of us up at the stage. I felt badly. anyways, the first band was from holland which was neat..unfortunately they weren't very good, but they had a violinist which was a cool change of pace. they played quite a few tunes, like 8 or something and were up there for a bit. al met us which was cool, hadn't seen her in a while so we got to hang.
after that there was a bit of chill time until ted leo and the pharmacists came on. I saw them open for death cab for cutie a couple years ago and they were pretty good. this time they like knocked my socks off. they were really really awesome to watch, great songs. they played a bunch of old stuff as well as new. they really impressed me, so I'm gonna look into their music. half way through their set, my new japanese friend, sakiko (the girl who recognised me on tuesday at tattoo) found us and stood with us! it's cool to have her on board cos she loves the guys.
the club started to fill up and there was finally an alright crowd. mike met up with us before sloan took the stage. the guys came on and played an AWESOME set. they were really on and sounded great and really tight, they looked like they were having a good time as well. they played a bunch of songs (sadly no jay ones..someone shouted out "LINES YOU AMEND!" and he just smiled and shrugged and said "ok this one's called bohemian rhapsody" LAWL. then chris was like "you guys get off the stage, I'm gonna do this solo" ahha) their set list looked like:
all the tunes sounded really awesome. the crowd was a bit lame but it was a great time still. chris pulled out a ton of rock star moves (but not THE chris murphy rock star arms one. shame.)
this is one of my coolest murph shots
Click to viewINTENSE murph stare from 3:05 onwards..I was staring him back and thought he was gonna shoot lasers or something
for the encore they came out and patrick said "do you guys wanna hear some more? THEN MAKE SOME NOISE!" greg came up to jay's mike with a tamborine and maracas and patrick looks at him and goes "what the? tamborine and maracas?? what do you think this is? see what I gotta deal with" greg just stood there laughing, it was pretty funny. they played the good in everyone and then chris lost the bass. and when chris loses the bass during an encore, that means one thing only: she says what she means time. HECK AND YES. it was so rockin, I went completely bananas and screamed (my voice cracking, the works) and dance partied it up.
the gig ended and we decided to catch up with chris before leaving. I told him I was going to europe tomorrow and he gave me a big kiss, told me to be careful and that if I saw any cool music to bring it back for him haha. we made our way out, saw andrew (who was sporting a new haircut and looking very sharp) having a smoke/leaving. bumped into jay really quick barely said goodbye and then that was that. I'm slowly turning into a jay girl. not completely because I'm a chris girl at heart, but jay's been so sweet lately and he's always so nice to mandi and I plus his new songs are terrific. jferg=supercool. fantastic gig, I can't wait to see them do more shows!