sebastian troen

Following a rather in-depth and pleasantly explicit interview with the boisterous members of Hey Ocean I hung around the Media Club to watch them hit the stage. The event was a fundraiser to replace some guitars that were stolen in Toronto recently and featured a long list of friends, including a very pleasantly surprising rap act called DNA6.

How best to describe Hey Ocean? Fun, charismatic, effervescent… yes,’effervescent’ works!

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The girl can sing. She’s tiny, damn tiny, but she almost tore the roof off the Commodore tonight. Though there were only 300 people at the show tonight, they gave their all – singing, shouting, and generally rocking out to a solid hour and a half of Cranberries greatest hits and songs from her new album, Are You Listening?Opening with Zombie, Dolores strode on to stage strumming her Gibson SG like a true rock star. 90 minutes later she left the stage after a rousing rendition of Salvation which left the crowd a little hoarse.

I’m not sure what to make of it all. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the show, it was like a reunion with the hits of your life from 10 years ago mixed in with some solid new material (overall I think her new album held its own for the most part) but part of me was looking forward to seeing a young and refreshed Dolores, ready to embrace today… with a young and relevant band. Instead we got an aging band of long-haired rockers that looked like they would rather be roadies for Def Leppard! Dolores was pulling out her best rock star hand-waving and Axl Rose shuffle-dancing moves but it felt a bit… tired!

I was ready to dismiss her as another aging rock star that hadn’t kept with the times but she rocked it, she really rocked it. She has a unique voice and she came to play…hard! I just hope that for her next album she looks to her peers and not her elders to back her up on tour!

Dolores O’Riordan’s new album is Are You Listening? It’s solid! Get it now!

Ah, July in Vancouver… it’s pissing outside, it’s cold, wet and miserable. A great week to fill up with concerts!

Going to see Dolores O’Riordan tonight at the Commodore. She’s the lead singer of the Cranberries and is promoting her first solo album. It’s a solid effort and I can’t wait to see her take the stage. Singers of her stature, ones that have played the biggest stages around the world, tend to be forceful and magnetic on stage and it’s great to see them in an intimate venue such as the Commodore. Check out her new video:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxc3O4mQV74]

Tomorrow night is a work night. Ha! If you can call hanging out with Vancouver’s Hey Ocean and asking them questions ‘work’. They’ve got a fundraiser show at the Media Club and mediaWEST is promoting it. It’s been awhile since mW has gotten together so looking forward to a good night!! Check ‘em out on their myspace page, I highly recommend the entertaining micro-documentary halfway down the page: http://www.myspace.com/heyocean

Then luckily there’s a few days off until Friday night, Sharam Jey at Celebrities. That should be a fun, long night!! If you like good electro, come party at Celebs: http://www.myspace.com/sharamjey

Enjoy the rainshine

It’s not often you get to see a true rock legend play a packed small club like the Commodore. Thanks to Molson Canadian (shameless plug!) I got to see Chris Cornell, former frontman for grunge gods Soundgarden and later Audioslave, rock the house.

Talk about stage presence, talk about intensity, talk about a great rock show. Mixing in material from his new solo album with a veritable greatest hits collection from his previous bands, Cornell owned the stage for close to 2 hours. Highlights for me included the night-ending Black Hole Sun, No Such Thing and of course the classic Spoooooooonmannnnnnnnnnn!!

There were some glitches with the sound quality and it was pretty funny to watch some kid try to crowd surf to a ballad (!!) but at the end of the night it was a damn impressive show and it was great to see a true rock star rock the Commodore.

The show will be featured on Sympatico MSN’s site in the next few days. I encourage you to check it out. Chris’ new album, Carry On, is out as well and it has some great, mature songwriting and some real rockers. His stripped down, deconstructed cover of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean is worth the price alone.

The Sympatico MSN Chris Cornell site is here: http://entertainment1.sympatico.msn.ca/Music/Molson/ChrisCornell

Chris’ myspace page is here: http://www.myspace.com/chriscornell

I remember where I first heard a Jack Johnson song. It was on a beach in Thailand, walking to dinner as we passed a beach bar with Jack playing in the background. My friend literally dragged us in for a drink to listen. To this day I think of sunny days, sand beneath my toes and chillin’ on a beach whenever I hear Jack. After listening to Current Swell’s second album ‘Trust Us Now’ it could just as easily have been this album that I heard on that sunny beach.Often compared to Ben Folds, Jack Johnson and Sublime the boys from Victoria do stray into familiar territory from time to time though more as homage, and throughout there’s a unique sound that is Current Swell’s own. Mixing blues, folk, reggae and rock like veteran musicians, these lads, who look like they should be delivering newspapers after work, not doing world tours, sound mature beyond their years. Throw in serious musical chops including slide guitar and dirty harmonica and a beautiful organ and you get a plethora of musical styles fused together by the bands tight harmonies and a fun groove.

“Trust Us Now” sounds more polished than their first effort though you still get the feeling this is 4 guys in a garage kicking back after a day on the water to jam and have fun. “Chesterman’s Valley”, “Comin Home”, “Reap What You Sow” and “Five White Boys” lay down a solid groove that will quickly establish these guys as festival favourites. The band’s own personal favourite “How Will They Trust Us Now” is the album’s most ambitious song with a harder edge to it.

The guys from Current Swell claim they’re singing the “devil’s music” and their dirty harmonica, slide guitar-filled reggae-influenced surf rock backs that claim up. Next time the sun is out you can bet “Trust Us Now” is going to be cranked in my Jeep on my way to the beach. Check out the album on iTunes or even better, throw on your favourite flip-flops and check them out as they tour Canada starting in July. I guarantee a good time, mon!