Broken Social Scene, The Sea and Cake @ Town Ballroom

This one will go down as one of the best shows of the year. The Sea and Cake opening for Broken Social Scene?! I didn't even need to step into the venue to know that to be the case, two of the best bands out there on the same stage. Did it live up to expectations? Damn straight. They took advantage of the oodles of awesomeness in the house with lots of sit-ins, including John McIntyre hitting some sort of percussion for the entire evening. BSS put out one of the best albums of the year, nearly topping their untoppable You Forgot In People. Their new album, to me, is surprisingly amazing. The pseudo-hiatus was more refreshing for the band than I would have figured considering they never really seemed to be off, just named and organized differently. And live, they were at the absolute top of their game. I think semi-lead man Kevin Drew said it best from the stage when he basically said that they chose to play all of the songs they liked to play the most for this tour, old or new. It was hit after hit after hit with some rarities and even a great Apostle of Hustle tune thrown in for good measure, but it didn't lean as heavily on the new material as you would think. If I had any gripe from this show at all it was that the new leading ladies didn't quite live up to their predecessors, not bad, just slightly lacking... energy mostly.



The Sea and Cake warmed the crowd up with their post rock grooves, inviting a few friends from Broken Social Scene along for the ride. It was a tad on the short side, they may have only squeezed in 4 or 5 tunes if I remember correctly, but it did the trick.

Sea and Cake @ MFA - 30 September

Scored some free tickets from the Phoenix so I unexpectedly went out to see the Sea and Cake at the Remis Auditorium in the Museum of Fine Arts. I had just seen them right before the summer, and now completed my summer sandwich by seeing them right after the summer. I don't know the music well enough to claim this for sure, but it easily could have been the exact same show. That is to say it was awesome, but still, totally unnecessary for me, but free it was free so who's complaining? The biggest difference was the venue, in this case a small auditorium. The sound was a lot better, but the energy was a little less. On a Sunday night though it was a nice setting. Settle back, enjoy the tunes, really concentrate on the music. The bass playing of Eric Claridge stood out for me at this performance, some really fine stuff there that really holds it all together. The crowd, which was again. not a sellout but decently full, was completely rapt, you could hear a pin drop between songs. There were a few uberfans in the crowd who were literally able to have conversations with the band, albeit heckling and slightly annoying ones. And as per always, some vids:

Random thought: If there is ever perchance a Sea and Cake cover band, it should be called Sea is for Cookie. No good?


Meg Baird of Espers opened. She played folky finger-picked floating songs that highlighted her beautifully Baez-esque voice. Coincidence? Set break music was Joan Baez. It was a weird opening choice for the Sea and Cake but enjoyable nonetheless.

The Sea and Cake - Paradise, 5 June 2007

I caught The Sea and Cake in support of their latest effort, Everybody, last night at the Paradise. As they all took the stage after the opener, Loney, Dear(more on them later), finished up, they meticulously prepped their instruments, pedals, environs, etc. No techies or roadies, each musician took care of his own stuff. And I have never seen it taken more seriously, which explains why they were doing it themselves I suppose. John McEntire chose his sticks for the evening like one would examine diamonds for an engagement ring. It was all worthwhile it would turn out. The music was fantastic through and through. They are a motley bunch, seemingly put together by random chance. You would never put them together as a grouping of any sort from a crowd of people. They were individuals. The way they looked for sure set them apart, but also the way the played and enjoyed playing, they each had their own methods. Not to keep picking on McEntire, but I'm not sure I have ever seen a drummer get so much pure and intense enjoyment from playing, his expressions were priceless. I'll hopefully get to see him again next month with Tortoise. Where was I, ah yes, they were all their own individuals...but when they got on stage and played their music, they gelled seamlessly into a BAND. The music flowed effortlessly, and it was TIGHT, no (or very little) leads, just pure solid music. They play peppy without being too poppy, cerebral without getting too out there. The music washes over you like the sea, and is easily digested like cake... (oy) The set was about 80m including encore. The Paradise was comfortably full, I would say around 80% sold? I would have thought they would have drawn better, maybe it's owed a little to the early week slot when school is not in session.



The opener, Loney, Dear, was good. Pleasant Swedish singer-songwriter stuff. Most of it was enjoyable, and a couple songs really stood out. One in particular, Ignorant Boy, really grabbed me. It was described as being simple but difficult by Emil Svanangen, who IS Loney, Dear, apparently. Not sure how I feel about this trend of individuals to give themselves a band name, it's a little odd I think. But there was a band... So anyway, this song, Ignorant Boy (sample on their site) was basically just nomenomeno sung over and over and over in 4 part harmony with a building marching beat, which sounds potentially awful but it worked really well. Listening to the sample of the recording, I must say it sounded way better live. Unfortunately, it wasn't the song I recorded, and this was probably their mellowest and quietest song, so it didn't come out too well.