Basketball was surprisingly awesome. The last period was a real nail-biter for both myself and my guest, and yes ... our cheering helped the Raptors beat the Spurs by two goddamn points. It was back and forth for a while but ... I dunno, possession, travel, pivot. Swish. Basketball!! Maybe it was the overpriced beers but it was something I wanna do again and again.
Also found myself at two concerts within seven days of eachother, both in Toronto: Ben Folds played at Kool Haus and my co-worker's band, The Apollo Effect, played this Toronto Indie Rock show I forget the name of at the Hard Rock Cafe at Younge & Dundas. Both shows were amazing and I walked out of both with a big smile on my face and a street-vendor's hotdog in my hand. I even came home with some mementos from each, so all's well on the music front.
Ben Folds is my favourite artist and has been for years. Something about his music is both fun and touching and his stage presence, from what I've seen and listened to, is consistently engaging. I once saw him as the opening act for a Tori Amos concert (I still don't even know who Tori Amos is, even though I stayed for the show) and he had the meager come-and-go crowd eating him up, telling us what the songs are about and getting us to do the harmonies where aplicable. He puts out music with heart that's based on experiences or about friends and loved ones and just has a pure love of sound and music and it shows. His song Still Fighting It still gives me chills and the odd tear.
This spring he's producing an album of various acapella groups doing thier renditions of his music, and just because of that he invited the nearby York University group Wibi to sing for a bit, after the opening band, Miniature Tigers finished up. Who also rock out loud.
Here's the best part: Ben Folds's last album, Way To Normal, has a companion set of songs that he literally made up for fun, and "leaked" to the internet. While discussing the fake songs he was inspired to create an on-the-spot 'fake' version of his song, Army, to which the band tried to play along to. So here's that:
That's about all that's new, if anyone cares.
Also found myself at two concerts within seven days of eachother, both in Toronto: Ben Folds played at Kool Haus and my co-worker's band, The Apollo Effect, played this Toronto Indie Rock show I forget the name of at the Hard Rock Cafe at Younge & Dundas. Both shows were amazing and I walked out of both with a big smile on my face and a street-vendor's hotdog in my hand. I even came home with some mementos from each, so all's well on the music front.
Ben Folds is my favourite artist and has been for years. Something about his music is both fun and touching and his stage presence, from what I've seen and listened to, is consistently engaging. I once saw him as the opening act for a Tori Amos concert (I still don't even know who Tori Amos is, even though I stayed for the show) and he had the meager come-and-go crowd eating him up, telling us what the songs are about and getting us to do the harmonies where aplicable. He puts out music with heart that's based on experiences or about friends and loved ones and just has a pure love of sound and music and it shows. His song Still Fighting It still gives me chills and the odd tear.
This spring he's producing an album of various acapella groups doing thier renditions of his music, and just because of that he invited the nearby York University group Wibi to sing for a bit, after the opening band, Miniature Tigers finished up. Who also rock out loud.
Here's the best part: Ben Folds's last album, Way To Normal, has a companion set of songs that he literally made up for fun, and "leaked" to the internet. While discussing the fake songs he was inspired to create an on-the-spot 'fake' version of his song, Army, to which the band tried to play along to. So here's that:
That's about all that's new, if anyone cares.