Virgin

On Monday April 13th, Vancouver music heads were treated to some sweet sweet disco, synth pop and industrial goodness courtesy of The Golden Filter and The Presets, which was presented by Sealed With A Kiss at the Commodore Ballroom. I, personally had been looking forward to this concert as soon as it was announced for a couple of reasons: 1. The Golden Filter, I’ve loved all the stuff I’ve heard and their remixes are on point and 2. The last time The Presets rolled into town opening for Cut Copy, I actually didn’t have a chance to catch them because of unforeseen circumstances. So there was a definite anticipation on my part.

The Golden Filter took the stage around 9:15pm and started the night off right with the track Favourite Things. Penelope, lead vocals, made the song unique by adding Vancouver into the song as one of her Favourite Things. From there the band went into the synth and bass heavy Hide Me, which personally is one of my favourite jams and can be heard on their MySpace page as well. The next two songs were on some next level spaceship / flying to the moon deal and is clearly indicated by their titles, Stardust and Moonlight Fantasy.

As they started to play their next song, there was a bit of familiarity, the sound and some of the lyrics. It wasn’t until the chorus that I finally recognized what I was hearing, The White Stripes‘ The Hardest Button to Button. They didn’t perform the song exactly the same, but gave it the usual Golden Filter touch by adding some heavy synths and making it more disco. The group ended their set with the official first single Solid Gold and had the crowd amped as everyone was pretty much familiar with the song.

The Golden Filter’s Penelope, was incredibly hard to shoot, well, it was difficult to get shots of her face. It’s become a thing on the internets that nobody has any clear face shots as she generally combs her bangs to cover at least 2/3 of her face, but I was able to get some decent shots. After the photographers left the front area, I did noticed that she let her hair down and opened up a bit. Either way, there’s a definite mysteriousness that surrounds the band.

After a quick set change, Julian and Kim took the stage and everyone in the venue bum rushed the dance floor to get ready to get their dance on and they weren’t disappointed as the boys kicked the set off with Talk Like That. You could literally feel the floor move like a wave from all the heads jumping in the building. The pace wouldn’t slow as they moved on to Yippiyo-Ay, which has its own unique melodic and hypnotic groove, in fact the set didn’t slow down, BPM wise, til they played A New Sky (which kinda reminds me a bit of a Gregorian chant or a more updated version of it) , Girl And The Sea and their latest single If I Know You.

The interaction between the boys and the crowd were incredible as they were feeding off of the energy like it was a drug. The fans would cheer louder and the boys would play harder, which would make the fans cheer louder and the boys would…well you get the idea. Numerous people that I talked to throughout the night and after the show all said that their performance was 100 times better than the last time they were in Vancouver.

Definitely a great concert and worth attending, unfortunately the two groups end their tour by next week, after that The Presets head back to the motherland and do a tour through Australia. As for The Golden Filter, I’ve had the distinct pleasure to hear their current demo album, 7 or so songs, and I can definitely say that this album is something to look out for down the road. For all your concert needs check out Sealed With A Kiss’s website, www.sealedwithakisspresents.com, as they have a ton of great acts coming through in the next little while.

Twitter: www.twitter.com/killahbeez
Web: www.killahbeez.com
Photos: www.flickr.com/photos/killahbeez

The Golden Filter Set List:

• Favourite Things
• Hide Me
• Stardust
• Moonlight Fantasy
• The Hardest Button to Button (White Stripes Cover)
• Imaginary Love
• Solid Gold

The Presets Set List

• Talk Like That
• Yippiyo-Ay
• Eucalyptus
• A New Sky
• Girl And The Sea
• Aeons
• If I Know You
• Are You The One
• Together
• This Boy’s In Love
• I Go Hard I Go Home
• Kicking & Screaming
• My People
• Anywhere

For more visit:

• The Golden Filter’s MySpace
• The Presets’ MySpace

Vancouver has just been treated to some great music and no I’m not referring to Britney Spears and the debacle that went down at that concert. I’m talking some good ass jams with UK artists White Lies and Friendly Fires, presented by Sealed with a Kiss.

White Lies took the stage at around 9:50 to a crowd that was amped to hear them rock out. They started their set with Farewell to the Fairground, which is their current single. I was actually a bit confused as to why they started off with this song as you would think this song would be perfect to end their set. That thought soon popped out of my head as they were giving it their all in the song and getting the crowd singing and jumping along. Next up was the third official single To Lose My Life, again the crowd went crazy singing along to the chorus. Throughout the whole set the band would constantly thank the audience for being so great, the venue was definitely intimate, and yes everyone was showing the band a lot of love and they were definitely feeding off of that vibe.

The whole set was nothing short of amazing. They in fact went on to perform their whole album for the audience in attendance and finished the night of with their second official single Death. Audience in attendance were also treated to the song Nothing to Give, which Harry McVeigh said was only the second time this song had been performed live and you can’t help but get chills with the haunting lyrics. On a side note something I noticed that was pretty damn cool was lead singer Harry McVeigh’s sneakers. He was rocking some custom Nikes in black with gold accents, with “White Lies” going across the back portion of the sneaker. You can get something similar on Nike iD’s website, but you can’t get the metallic gold, which was a pretty sick touch to the sneaker. See the pictures below to catch a glimpse of said sneaker. During the show there was a glitch that stalled the performance for a a brief moment as they adjusted the microphones for the drum set on stage, but like I mentioned the White Lies performance was nothing short of amazing. Definitely a must catch show when this hits your city. Full set list below.

Next up on the schedule was Friendly Fires. There was a flurry of activity on the stage as they changed over the stage setup from White Lies to Friendly Fires. Friendly Fires opting to not have their drummer perched up on the stage, but instead having the whole band perform tightly together to feed off of each others energy. The band took the stage shortly after 11pm, as lead singer Ed Macfarlane took the mic and recalled the great time he had in Vancouver back in October 28th when they opened for Lykke Li at the same venue. The band quickly started their set with the upbeat jam Lovesick, as the music was playing away singer Ed Macfarlane went into his signature dancing slash twitching slash gyrating. This is something worth seeing live as its hard to describe, a few notches above Elaine Benes (Seinfeld), it was pure comedy, but hey the man was passionate about the music and why the fuck not, the songs are great. From Lovesick the band went into fan favorite and second official single Jump In The Pool and had everybody wildin’ out, there was not a single body standing still in the venue as music infected everyone’s body to dance as well as singing along the chorus.

The next song is one of my personal favorites with its funk/disco influenced vibe, Skeleton Boy. The band was great at keeping an energetic pace throughout that never slowed down and kept folks in the house partying. To show how much love they had for the crowd, Ed Macfarlane would jump into the crowd and sing from the dance floor with the crowd surrounding him, it was quite simply, EPIC. Not to be out done, guitarist Edd Gibson jumped into the crowd with his guitar and ran up to the balcony and ran back and forth greeting fans and strumming away on the guitar. Keeping the crowd involved. Check. The band played their hearts out as they were drenched in sweat from head to toe, shirts soaked through, beads of sweat dropping on the crowd in the front including yours truly. The set would end the first single that launched the band on the scene, Paris, as the song ended the band left the stage only to return after a brief moment to play Ex Lover as their encore. For the gear heads out there, I noticed Ed Macfarlane playing on the Moog Little Phatty as well as wailing away on the Akai MPC500, personally just thought that was very cool.

The complete bill was fantastic, the performances would make up for any of the glitches and set up delays that happened during the show and I can definitely say fans left amazed and in a euphoric high, this wasn’t just no hunch. Fans tweeted how great the show was, one concert goer, identitykrysis tweeted us “I’m not coming down from that high for at least two days kind of epic!” and friends of mine at the show said the same and were still talking about it the next night. Do yourself a favor, when either one of these acts rolls through, make sure you grab a ticket and get ready to get witness a live performance that you’ll never forget.

We want to thank Sealed with a Kiss for allowing us to attend the show and get photos. Visit their website, www.sealedwithakisspresents.com, often as they are constantly bringing in some great talent.

Check out our photos below from the event and visit our Flickr page to check out photos from past concerts / events. Also if you’re on Twitter, don’t forget to add us, @Killahbeez.

White Lies Set List:

• Farewell To The Fairground
• To Lose My Life
• E.S.T.
• From The Stars
• A Place To Hide
• Unfinished Business
• Fifty On Our Foreheads
• The Price Of Love
• Nothing To Give
• Death

Friendly Fires Set List:

• Lovesick
• Jump In The Pool
• Skeleton Boy
• In The Hospital
• White Diamonds
• Strobe
• Photobooth
• On Board
• Paris
• Encore —> Ex Lover

Check out more photos at www.killahbeez.com

Also check out our interview with White Lies here.

On Saturday February 21st, Canada’s very own Kardinal Offishall rolled into town with opening MC Shaun Boothe, also a fellow Canadian. We were fortunate enough to be invited by Live Nation to attend the event. The night started off a slightly delayed, but the venue was definitely getting packed in and there was a semi-Caribbean vibe to it all.

Shaun Boothe kicked things off by welcoming everybody with his rendition of the Canadian National Anthem, which starts off in the manner that we’re all familiar with but quickly changes to a hip-hop version with bangin’ beats. For those not familiar with Shaun Boothe, he’s best known as a dope freestyler, as well he’s known for his Unauthorized Biography series, which not only Killahbeez, but thousands of hip-hop blogs out there have given love to as it is one of the most creative things out there, if you’ve never seen it, then check it here. On this night we were treated to him doing the Unauthorized Biography of Bob Marley, which is the second one in the series. He also dropped his joint The Reporter on all the heads out there, check out the music video for the song. His set would end on that note.

Moments went by, when the lights dimmed and the heads in the house knew that Kardinal was about to hit the stage. For all of you that don’t know or have never seen Kardinal Offishall live, well then, let me just tell you this ain’t your average hip-hop concert, as Kardi is known to get live and keep the energy up throughout the whole show. Tonight was no different. He came out hitting folks from all sorts of angles with his energy and quickly going through his rhymes only to switch it up briefly to M.I.A.’s Paper Planes, and members of the Black Jays, Ro Dolla and Solitaire, joining him on stage as his hypemen. From there they went into CLASSIC Kardi joints such as Money Jane, which the original track featured Sean Paul, and doing his chorus on the hood anthem by the Clipse - Grindin’.

From there he would hit the crowd with tracks from his current album Not 4 Sale. Pretty much getting the crowd wildin’ as he dropped Burnt and Numba 1. He would honestly keep the crowd live all night, as he once again changed it up and had his DJ change up the pace and play a medley of hip-hop joints such as DMX’s Party Up, Bell Biv Devo’s Poison, Lil Wayne’s Lollipop and a few other tracks.

There was no doubt fans of Kardi were leaving the concert satisfied this evening, because like always he brought an energy that is generally lacking at live hip-hop shows. As usual Live Nation does a great job in producing the concert so be sure to hit up www.livenation.com for a list of upcoming shows in your city.

Pictures can all be found on Killahbeez’ flickr page.

The day started off gloomy as a few of us were unsure if we wanted to hit the M83 show as it was the last day at the office for…ohhhh about 124 of us had our last day that day. But to be quite honest I’ve never seen a happier group of peeps leave a place before, myself included.

So with a day like that a few of us were in a chill mood, but I was convinced to check out M83. The first act, School of Seven Bells, came on the stage at roughly 9:30pm and WOW! The group, from Williamsburg Brooklyn (figures), came on and played a seriously solid set. I hadn’t heard of them before but I was definitely down with what I was hearing and the next day bought their record, Alpinisms. The band features twin sisters, Alejandra and Claudia Deheza and Benjamin Curtis formerly from Secret Machines. They very much had the crowd warmed up and going crazy. A solid act to look out for down the road most definitely.

After School of Seven Bells 5 – 6 song set, the stage crew came on quickly to re-configure the equipment and shortly after M83 came out to a host of screams and cheers. The group played songs off of the Saturdays=Youth album, but at one point a fan requested something older, to which Anthony Gonzalez replied with a “eeeeh, I don’t know about that one”. The crowd went crazy when “Kim & Jessie” came and M83 could feel the love as they played with a loving smile on their faces. Actually they pretty much had this look on their face the whole night and the chemistry between Anthony and Morgan Kibby (from The Romanovs) was incredible. They had a certain connection and would send playful signals via quick glances.

Morgan Kibby’s voice is incredible I have to say. She had 90% of the guys swooning over her and I received a barrage of Blackberry messages from my friend Martinez, who was stuck in the back, to get as many pictures as I could of Morgan. Stunning and talented and held her own on stage with Anthony. One of the songs that would really capture me this evening was “Skin Of The Night”, the song is just so ominous with mad ‘80s flavor and Morgan’s voice just melts your face, pretty fuckin’ epic. When the fairly upbeat “Graveyard Girl” came the crowd immediately went into another dancing frenzy. Another song I quite enjoyed was “Up!” its definitely reminiscent of something quite familiar, but with an M83 twist all over it.

For the groups encore they played “Couleurs”, this tracks is so friggin’ next level. The layering on it alone is bananas, seriously! This was definitely a perfect way to end a night of solid performances from both School of Seven Bells and M83.

I want to thank Timbre Productions for allowing us to come in the house and take photos and write this review for you all. They put on a great production and bring in stellar acts. Check out their site www.timbreproductionsconcerts.com for upcoming shows in your city.

DT
www.killahbeez.com

Here are the rest of the tour date stops.

Earlier this summer I had an opportunity to catch Thunderheist at the Virgin Music Festival out in Toronto, except for one thing, I was busy reviewing and taking photos of another act, a small group by the name of MGMT. So suffice to say I was a bit bummed, but then was totally stoked again when I ran into Thunderheist in the backstage tent area, where the good peoples of Bacardi were serving us lots of free booze. I immediately jumped at the chance for an introduction. During this meeting of the minds, Isis performed a freestyle with my online magazine name, Killahbeez, that went on for a good minute at least and drawing a crowd. Then we were on stage dancing during MSTRKRFT’s set. Definitely one of the dopest highlights of that weekend. So when I heard they were finally hitting the West Coast I was giddy like a 12-year-old schoolgirl.

The evening started off with the ½ Alive DJ crew which consists of: Tyler Fedchuk, My! Gay! Husband! and Tony X. These guys held it down and warmed the crowd up nicely as everyone was shaking it to their sets. They dropped some old school and I mean like Planet Rock type old school, hip-hop, New Order, MGMT and Breakbot’s remix of Pnau to name a few tracks.

Just shortly after 12:30, Isis made her way to the stage first and shortly after Grahm aka Grahmzilla joined her. Immediately the crowd was wildin’ pretty hard, those at the front, this includes yours truly, were getting squished against the stage. It was all worth it once the first track, “Bubblegum”, dropped. The energy that Isis had was pretty incredible and throughout the night she would maintain this frenetic pace. Showing some love to the crowd she at one point pulled a girl up on stage to dance with her, this said girl from the audience went buckwild and as she left the stage basically tripped over a chord and almost did a face plant onto the floor, luckily she was caught by a whole lot of people. Throughout the night both Grahm and Isis dove into the crowd to do a little surfing, very cool that they were keeping it mad real like that with the fans in the house.

Also in the house for the night was director That Go and model Ana B, whom were both involved in the video / visual delight for the song “Jerk It”. During the song “Jerk It”, which was the last jam of the evening, Isis pulled Ana up on stage and the crowd went wild, then home girl basically threw Ana to the wolves for some crowd surfing, all of it was pretty hilarious to watch.

Thunderheist went on to perform jams that any fan would recognize, hitting “Horny”, “Little Booty Girl”, “Peer Pressure” and “Sueos Dulces”. At one point during the evening Grahm threw on MSTRKRFT’s song “Bounce” and asked if everyone recognized the voice. Of course! It was Isis. She went on to let everyone know that they had her do the track and never gave her any credit or form of payment, pretty wack considering both crews are from Toronto and that song blew up.

The performance was high energy and had yours truly and everyone else from the looks of it, sweating like a mofo. Grahm providing the ill beats while Isis slayed the mic all night long and provided some comedic relief, commenting on how unsexy she felt with the amount of sweat coming off of her and randomly making comments like “OBAMA BITCH!”. The show was great and the audience was dope as you could tell everyone was there to shake their asses to some good music, I would definitely have to recommend that all music heads experience a Thunderheist show as they bring the muthafuckin’ heat. Much love to Tyler Fedchuk and the ½ Alive crew for hooking Killahbeez up with some tickets for a wicked show. Check out their website for upcoming shows and info: www.halfalive.ca. Stay tuned to the first quarter of the new year, as Thunderheist will have some goodies dropping.

If you like this review vote for me here.

For pictures of the event hit up my flickr page here.

One.

DT
www.killahbeez.com

On November 6th and 7th, Keys N Krates played to a packed house in Vancouver and then in Victoria. For those of you that have been reading the blog for a minute now, you know we’ve been talking about Keys N Krates quite a bit. For those that aren’t in the know, Keys N Krates are a live remix band, yeah that’s right a LIVE REMIX BAND, live drums with Adam Tune, live synths with Matisse and Jr. Flo on the turntables breaking down the samples. In the midst of their busy schedule we were able to catch up with one of the members, DJ Jr. Flo, for a quick one on one interview.

For upcoming tour information hit up their MySpace page: www.myspace.com/keysnkrates

If you liked this interview please help me out and vote for me here: music.virgin.com

Special thanks to AJK and the video editor extrodinaire Gordon Wong.

Yelle, merely hearing the name makes me conjure up images of Julie Budet aka Yelle gyrating her hips in those lovely red shorts in the video “Je Veux Te Voir”, moisturizing up her legs in “A Cause des Garcons” and not to be forgotten the brief boobie flash in the video “Ce Jeu”. Honestly, I’m not a pervert. I just have a massive crush on her, someone I like to call “wifey” she just don’t know it yet. So when a few of us Killahbeez heads were invited on Tuesday by Sealed With A Kiss to check her out I was definitely stoked at the opportunity.

Arriving at 10:30ish, we were right on schedule and quickly grabbed a few shots, before seeing the lights being dimmed and the fans quickly rushing towards the stage. The lights came on and there in front of me was “wifey”…errr I mean Yelle with Grandmarnier and Tepr. The synths kick in, followed by drums, the instrumental had people going nuts and everyone that didn’t already make their way to the dance floor did so at this point. A few moments later Yelle starts singing the lyrics to “Tristesse / Joie”, there’s one part of the song around the 3:50 mark where the beat goes down and builds back up, seeing that live was crazy as the build-up came and hit it’s peak everybody wilded out. As the song ended, she thanked Vancouver for having her and in her adorable French accent asked the crowd “Are you ready to DANCE!” a resounding hell yeah was shouted back.

The up tempo song “Mal Poli” would be the next song we were treated to. Watching her dancing across the stage back and forth was quite a site. She was ass shaking and getting the crowd to do the same, it was infectious and there was no possible way that you could not dance. Yelle kept the pace by going straight into “85A” before going into “Dans Ta Vraie Vie”, which has a very Missy Elliot-esque feel to it.

This lead to her taking a quick water break or maybe it was for the crowd to take a water break so that we could keep up. In any case the break ended with her asking the crowd if we knew “Je Veux Te Voir”, and the crowd cheered. The song is a controversial one as it disses Cuizinier, a member of the Parisian hip-hop group TTC, the song also was originally titled “Short Dick Cuizi” and was the song that blew her up on MySpace. From there she went into the third single from the album Pop-Up, “Ce Jeu”, which is easily one of my favorite tracks. At this point I noticed everyone is soaked in sweat, myself included, it felt like we were all in an aerobic class, a hot sexy French aerobic class.

She ran through a list of most of her songs while maintaining the same energetic pace throughout her set. “Les Femmes”, which is the next single from what I’ve read and an interesting one at that, as it talks about a possible lesbian romance. Part of the chorus says, “If the guys don’t open their hearts to me, I feel that I will go see somewhere else, there where all is beauty and full of sweetness, the woman”, quite a sensual song.

As this song ended she would let the crowd know that the next song was their last. She then asked everyone to sing along to “À Cause des Garçons”. I can’t say enough about her dancing on stage as she really just puts it all out there and seems to almost try to translate her songs through her dancing for the audience. The song started out as the original and towards the end of it they played Tepr’s remixed version of it, which has harder drums driving the track as well as a more techno feel to it. Fans would come to find out that this wasn’t the last song as she stated and performed three more songs, ending on another Tepr remix, this time for the song “Je Veux Te Voir”.

The concert was an incredible one and as I mentioned above, it felt like an aerobic workout with the amount of dancing going on. I wasn’t sure what to expect before going into the show but I came out totally amazed at how well she was able to maintain the crowds attention and control us at will. When she spoke, everyone was in an “awwwwww she’s so adorable” state, as her thick French accent made her sound so cute and loveable and not to mention sexy. I would definitely recommend everyone to go check her out when she hits your city, definitely worth the money. Thanks again to Sealed with a Kiss promotions for the hook-up, be sure to check out their upcoming shows at www.sealedwithakisspresents.com.

Photos from the concert seen at our Flickr site.

Below is her set list, but I must warn you, I maybe missing a song or two because I know at one point I was just staring at her through my camera lens. I wasn’t even taking pictures just staring.

Yelle Set list
Tristesse / Joie
Mal Poli
85A
Dans Ta Vraie Vie
Je Veux Te Voir
Ce Jeu
Jogging
Les Femmes
À Cause des Garçons (Tepr Remix)
Mon Meilleur Ami
Je Veux Te Voir (Tepr Remix)

Full North American Tour Stops
Dallas, TX House Of Blues (October 7)
Austin, TX The Mohawk (October 8 )
Miami, FL Polish American Club (October 10)
Orlando, FL The Social (October 11)
Washington, DC 9:30 Club (October 13)
New York, NY Webster Hall (October 14)
Boston, MA The Roxy (October 15)
Detroit, MI The Magic Stick (October 20)
Chicago, IL Logan Square Auditorium (October 21)
Milwaukee, WI Turner Hall (October 22)
Denver, CO Ogden Theatre (October 24)
Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge (October 25)
Seattle, WA Neumos (October 27)
Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom (October 28)
Portland, OR Berbati’s (October 29)
San Francisco, CA Mezzanine (October 31)
Los Angeles, CA Henry Fonda Theatre (November 1)
San Diego, CA Beauty Bar (November 2)

Vancouver, Commodore Ballroom, Thursday, October 9th, presented by Sealed with a Kiss. The final leg of the Cut Copy & The Presets North American tour officially dubbed “Modular presents Cut Copy & The Presets”. The tour kicked off on September 13th and embarked on a 20-date tour across the US and Canada, before both label mates, Cut Copy and The Presets, go their separate ways overseas. This wasn’t the first time either groups have stopped in Vancouver as The Presets have made their way here several times and this was Cut Copy’s second stop in Vancouver in the same year.

Kicking and Screaming

So right off the bat I have to say I missed a few songs from The Presets, not due to tardiness or troubles at the gate, but that’s neither here nor there. When I finally did get in it was a party atmosphere as I could feel the dance floor from underneath me moving as if it were a small wave. When I made my way up to front I could see drummer Kim Moyes standing in front of his drums and riling up the crowd and getting as much energy as he could, while Julian was doing his thing on the keyboard.

They performed an array of songs as they went through “This Boy’s in Love” and “Kicking and Screaming”, this particular song had the crowd going wild and literally kicking and screaming as Kim left his drums for the song to switch up instruments and as my friend AJK said “freaked it on what looked to be the analog synth staple, the Korg MS-20”. Kim would do this throughout the night, abandoning the drums for the Korg MS-20.

Other recognizable jams that they performed were mostly off of the Apocalypso album such as “Talk Like That”, “Together” and “My People” which again had the crowd singing along and wilding out hard. A mistake on my part, I was wearing a flannel shirt as it was damn cold outside, but I neglected to check this piece of blanket wrapped around me and damn near drowned in my own sweat from all the dancing with various peoples in attendance. The vibe was mad cool and chill, total party peoples in the house. As The Presets set drew to an end, drummer Kim threw out his drumsticks for a few lucky fans and Julian thanked the crowd for their energy and supporting the music.

Lights and Music

After a brief 10 – 15 min intermission the stage lights went down and through the darkness you could see Mitchell, Tim and Dan walk out on the stage and assume their instruments as the noise level in the venue cranked up to a 50 on a scale of 1 to 10. In the middle of the cheers the group quickly went into “Nobody Lost, Nobody Found”. The energy was definitely incredible as the crowd was fist pumping and dancing along. As the song ended they went straight into “Far Away”, which is easily one of my favorite songs on the album, although I can honestly say I love most of the tracks off of In Ghost Colours evenly.

From there they flipped the script and took everyone on a journey back to their first LP, Bright Like Neon Love, and performed “Time Stands Still”. The set would continue with “So Haunted” and “Strangers in the Wind”, which would lead to the group taking a short break as Dan thanked everyone for supporting the group and showing them all this love, as well as mentioning that this was the final North American stop. At which point he said something that made me laugh so hard I almost peed myself, he yelled out “DISCO TIME!” and then Cut Copy went into “Saturday” from Bright Like Neon Love.

Continuing to jam through their songs including “Lights and Music” and “Future”, which quite a few people noticed was a punchier and more upbeat version then the original, this ended their set, but the crowd cheered louder and louder. The boys from Australia didn’t disappoint as they came back out and performed “Hearts on Fire” for their encore. The show was great, the stage setup, wonderful, a complete “Lights and Music” show.

After the show it’s the…

The official after party held at Republic was also being promoted by Sealed with a Kiss. The after party also featured a DJ set from Kim of The Presets as well as Tim and Dan from Cut Copy. But here’s where our story dies, as management from DHM told us that we were good to get in and indeed we were on the list. The problem really lied with their overzealous bouncer that decided not to let us in, even after knowing that we had promised DHM that we would review the after party. When we eventually did get in, 25 mins later, we had basically missed the DJ set from Kim. Nonetheless everyone was still buzzing from the concert and that’s all that really mattered.

The Presets played a great set and were entertaining throughout the night. This was also the case with Cut Copy as they really utilized the crowds energy by putting their all into the set. Although I will have to say that I would have loved to have heard more older tracks specifically “1981″ and “Rendezvous”, but I can’t complain the performance was, for a lack of a better word, awesome. A big thanks goes out to Malcolm at Sealed with a Kiss, check out their website for a list of upcoming shows, www.sealedwithakisspresents.com.

If you like the review please vote for me.

Peace.

David Thai
www.killahbeez.com

P.S.: Pictures are here on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/killahbeez

P.S.S.: As usual I try and get the playlist for all you folks out there to re-live the experience or for those that didn’t make it to have an idea of how the set broke down. Since I missed out on a portion of The Presets set, I will only be able to provide Cut Copy’s list.

• Nobody Lost, Nobody Found
• Far Away
• Time Stands Still
• So Haunted
• Unforgettable Season
• Strangers in the Wind
• That Was Just A Dream
• Saturdays
• Feel The Love
• Out There On The Ice
• Lights and Music
• Future
• Hearts on Fire - Encore

MSTRKRFT (read as “Master-Kraft”) is an electronic group out of Toronto. This year at the Toronto Virgin Music Fest they replaced SebastiAn, when he missed his flight and they didn’t disappoint. The group came together in 2005 and consists of JFK (Jesse F. Keeler) and Al-P (Alex Puodziukas). The group has remixed over 30 songs of various genres including the latest remix of John Legend’s song “Green Light”.

On Friday I attended Fist Of God, which is the official name for the MSTRKRFT tour as well as their upcoming album, which is expected to drop in January of 2009. The stop I was at had Felix Cartal opening up, but there will be various openers throughout the tour such as DJ A-Trak, DJ Aoki, LA Riots, Congorock, DJ Assault and the aforementioned Felix Cartal. Blueprint Events, which is known as one of Vancouver’s best electronic promoters for a minute now, was hosting the event as well as the after party.

The event took place at Celebrities Night club and was fully packed, in fact this show could have easily taken place at Commodore Ballroom to accommodate more folks, but nonetheless the vibes were good as people were ready to dance their fuckin’ asses off. The duo came on at around 1am and they immediately had the crowd going crazy, as their sound is fairly distinct with that 4/4 beat and heavy heavy synths.

Like usual they played a range of stuff including their own remixes, from the Presets to Dem Franchise Boyz to Cupid to Daft Punk to Usher to Kylie Minogue and throwing in stuff from their first album as well. The set was filled with energy throughout and both MSTRKRFT and the crowd seemed to be feeding off of one another and it was non-stop. The set ended at about 2:30am, but an encore had JFK continue to rock the house til well past 3am. If you left this party not soaked from head to toe in sweat, then you my friend were not partying hard enough. Overall one word can describe this set. EPIC!

Thanks to Alvaro from Blueprint Events for hooking me up with the opportunity to attend the show. For more of their upcoming events check out www.blueprintevents.ca. For those out in New York on October 10th, MSTRKRFT will be playing at Webster Hall, but they’ll also be at the New Era Flagship store as they have a New Era collaboration that’s dropping.

If you like the review please vote for me.

David Thai
www.killahbeez.com

Here are the rest of their tour stops:

Fist of God tour dates:

09-26 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre (with A-Trak, Felix Cartal, LA Riots, Congorock)
09-27 San Diego, CA - House of Blues (with Steve Aoki, Felix Cartal, LA Riots, Congorock)
09-28 Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theatre (with Aoki, Felix Cartal, Congorock)
09-30 Pomona, CA - Glass House (with Felix Cartal, Congorock)
10-01 San Francisco, CA – Mezzanine (with Felix Cartal, Congorock)
10-02 Seattle, WA – Showbox (with Felix Cartal, Congorock)
10-03 Vancouver, British Columbia – Celebrities (with Felix Cartal)
10-04 Winnipeg, Manitoba - Exchange Event Center (with Felix Cartal)
10-06 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue (with Felix Cartal, Congorock)
10-07 Chicago, IL - Metro (with Felix Cartal, Congorock)
10-08 Royal Oak, MI - Royal Oak Music Theatre (with Felix Cartal, Congorock)
10-09 Columbus, OH 0 Boma (with Felix Cartal, Congorock)
10-10 New York, NY - Webster Hall (with Felix Cartal, Congorock, DJ Assault
10-11 Poughkeepsie, NY - Vassar College (with Felix Cartal, Congorock)
10-12 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of the Living Arts (with Felix Cartal, Congorock)
10-13 Boston, MA - The Estate (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots, Congorock)
10-15 Baltimore, MD - Redrock (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-16 Charlotte, NC - Forum (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-17 Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-18 Atlanta, GA - Masquerade Music Park (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-19 Memphis, TN - Hard Rock Café Memphis (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-22 Houston, TX - Warehouse Live (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-23 Austin, TX - La Zona Rosa (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-24 Dallas, TX - House of Blues (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-25 New Orleans, LA - Voodoo Music Experience: The Tenth Ritual
10-27 Lawrence, KS - Liberty Hall (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-28 Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-31 Salt Lake City, UT - Salt Palace Convention Center (with Felix Cartal)
11-01 Las Vegas, NV - Fabulous Festival

Mike who? Mike Relmmmmmm! If you don’t know who Relm is, then consider this a backgrounder. He’s a turntablist from San Francisco and has performed with numerous artists as well as toured across the country. He’s known for his live performances, which feature audio and video mash-ups all cut and scratched live on the spot, and on Friday, Sept. 26, he stopped in on Vancouver, presented by Spectrum Events.

So I have to admit, I didn’t know very much of Mike Relm before I went to the show. I mean, besides the clips on YouTube and doing some background research on him, so I didn’t really expect too much going into the show. By the end of the show I was converted into a fan and even shook his hand (I told you Michelle it wasn’t too late) as corny as that sounds.

The show is what you see on some of the YouTube clips, but with a s**t load more energy from the audience and from Relm himself as he interacts with the crowd and people are constantly jumping on stage and attempting to dance then throwing themselves for a stage dive. Oh, and did I forget to mention that he brought friends. Yeah his friends, dubbed the “Sideshow,” were two scary-ass clowns, did I mention I’m afraid of clowns? The novel/movie IT, really messed me up as a kid. These “friends” were like his very own hype men, think Flava Flav to Chuck D, Spliff Starr to Busta Rhymes, Memphis Bleek to Jay-Z, except the “Sideshow” were on turntables.

Relm played a diversity of music throughout the night, mixing House of Pain, Pharcyde, Outfield, NWA, with Feist and John Lennon. The music off course was only part of the show, as he would mix in visuals from movies and TV shows such as Harold & Kumar, Office Space, Snoopy, When Harry Met Sally, Team America and Nacho Libre to name a few.

He really rocked the whole show from beginning to end, but here are highlights for me, and judging from the response of the crowd:

• When he freaked it hard on his MPC and did his drums live on the spot
• He played his song and accompanying video for “Everytime”
• Dropping Damian Marley’s “Welcome to Jamrock” remixed by Relm; the drums on the mix he played were hard as hell and had a bunch of folks in the back dancing, including yours truly
• In one of his video clips he had a sign that read, “If John McCain wins the election, I’m going to marry a Canadian Woman”, ‘nuff said.
• Outfield’s chorus from “Your Love” mixed in with NWA’s “Quiet On Tha Set”

As his show ended, the crowd cheered and wanted an encore and he didn’t disappoint. He came back and ended the show with John Lennon’s “Imagine” which lead to one more song, Feist’s “1,2,3,4”, but not the original, again he laced the tracks with some ill drums and made it pretty nasty, in a good way.

Overall a great show and great energy from Mike Relm and the crowd, I definitely have to give props to Sean from Spectrum Events for hooking us up at Killahbeez with some media passes. Check out www.spectrum-events.com for upcoming events.

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Peace.

David Thai
www.killahbeez.com

PS: Pictures are here on Flickr.

On Monday night, Alicia Keys (photo above by Michelle da Silva) did her second show in Vancouver as part of the As I Am tour and I was lucky enough to be there. To say I have a kindergarten crush on this girl is a mad understatement. The crowd was packing into the Orpheum Theatre and while that was going on we were treated to a performance by Jermaine Paul, who we would later come to find out is also one of Alicia’s backup singers. He actually sang quite beautifully, but it was difficult to hear it all with the crowd coming in and shuffling to their seats.

The lights go down. A few moments later the band is playing the instrumental for “Go Ahead”, a few seconds later and Miss Keys appears on stage and the crowd erupted. One word that can only really describe this woman, BEAUTIFUL! Black sequin dress with sparkles, black leggings and heels. I nearly lost my mind; in fact I forgot to take notes for a moment on the show as I was so mesmerized by her voice and beauty. Definitely got chills as she was singing. From there she transitioned into “You Don’t Know My Name”, she was being backed up by a 7 piece band with 3 backup singers. She definitely was electrifying the crowd as she moved along the stage and danced. As my home girl Michelle noted it was very Beyonce-esque. As “You Don’t Know My Name” ended, her two female back-up singers joined her front and centre forming a triangle and going into “Teenage Love Affair” and mimicking the dances in the video.

Moments later she asked the crowd if she could play the piano, uh how about a hell yes to that. So she jumped on and went into “Karma”, but it wasn’t the version off of the album. It was less thumpy and more bouncy, a salsa version of the song. It was different but I quite liked the sound of it.

My favorite song of the night was definitely “Diary”, I love this song, as it feels like a private moment / conversation between a man and a woman. Jermaine Paul stood by her piano as they both sang this together and man, I have to say it was beautiful and soulful. As this was ending she transitioned into what I initially thought was a Janet Jackson song, actually both Michelle and I thought it was, but as my home girl Niña so kindly pointed out, it was Force M.D.’s song “Tender Love”.

The concert was pretty fantastic and she ran through a gamut of her songs, full play list below. The only song she didn’t do that I wanted to hear was “Girlfriend” as it samples one of my favorite rappers, Ol’ Dirty Bastard. Can’t say too much about the venue that it was held in as it’s known to sound acoustically beautiful and it was no different for this concert. The crowd was chill through parts and wilded on occasion, as to be expected. Even though this was her second show in as many days in Vancouver, I still felt like she brought a ton of energy in her performance and kept the audience engaged the whole time. Two words: beautifully soulful.

Below is the play list for those that were there and those that weren’t, compile as you wish so that you can relive the moment.

• Go Ahead
• You Don’t Know My Name
• Teenage Love Affair
• Heartburn
• Karma (Remixed)
• How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore?
• Super Woman
• I Need You
• Wreckless Love
• Diary
• Force M.D.’s Tender Love
• My Boo
• Unbreakable
• A Woman’s Worth
• Like You’ll Never See Me Again
• Fallin’
• Encore – No One

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So let me start off by saying this was one of the longest days in my life as I started off earlier in the day/evening at the N.E.R.D/Common concert at the Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park and then I had to quickly get my butt out of the Stanley Park area, (which wasn’t too bad actually) and get to the Commodore Ballroom where the CSS concert was being held. Huge thanks to the crew at Sealed with a Kiss Promotions for allowing us to attend the show and take photos; check out their website for upcoming shows, www.sealedwithakisspresents.com. Now, you all know my mind frame as I entered the show, exhausted. I didn’t get a chance to catch any of the openers.

First things first I had to find a good spot for taking photos. I have to admit, I didn’t get that many great shots, but worth checking out nonetheless. The lights came down, the crowd in anticipation started cheering louder and erupted as members of the band came out and got set up on their instruments. The set started off with “Jager Yoga” and goddamn it kicked my ass. Immediately woke me up from my exhausted state and had me wildin’ out. Lovefoxxx was insanely energetic and there was no way that that wasn’t going to transfer to the audience, so in return everybody else wilded out. Gotta say though, that outfit choice of hers was f’in awesome, a leotard, sexy, that’s all I can say. Fast forward to the third song “This Month, Day 10”; the crowd went crazy again as soon as the melody and drum line dropped. Again, Lovefoxxx just killed it, pouring all of her energy into the song. The crowd was singing and dancing along with every hook and lyric.

There was definite interaction between her and the crowd and she even made note that this was the third time they were in Vancouver, having performed previously at Celebrities and Richards on Richards. Offering shots of tequila to the crowd as well, pretty fantastic.

Then the infectious jam “Move” came on and my ass hit the roof. I love this jam and I love the recently discovered Cut Copy remix as well, which is on Killahbeez.com. The drum line, melody and hook, f**k it. Everything about this song just makes you want to, well get up and “Move” and the video for this is pretty hilarious and quite creative. After this song ended there was a bit of a break as a prop was being brought out onto the stage. Whatever it was, it was under a black curtain and sooned to be revealed. A few moments went by and Lovefoxxx pulled off the curtain to reveal a huge Britney Spears microphone stand, I was drinking redbull and it all ended up coming out my nose at this point. It was pretty hilarious to say the least, check out the pictures to see it. This lead into the song “Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex”, which the mainstream folks will remember it for being in the Apple iTouch commercial, but the crowd ate this song up, myself included. I love it when they break into the Portuguese rhymes, that s**t is hot. The set seemingly ended with “Let’s Reggae All Night”, and the band left the stage. There was about 2 – 5 mins of chanting from the crowd as we clearly wanted more… and more is what they ended up giving us as they came back out on stage and did another three songs before ending the night off with their jam “Alala”.

Overall, great concert and it seriously woke my ass up and out of my slight coma and kept me partying the whole time. Great job on Sealed with a Kiss’s part for bringing in another solid act and at a great venue. CSS killed it, playing a good mixture of old and new material and great energy on their part in keeping the crowd amped from beginning to the end.

Complete set list here (big up to my home girl Mae Lynn for lookin’ out):

Jager Yoga
Meeting Paris Hilton
This Month, Day 10
Left Behind
Off the Hook
Rat is Dead (Rage)
Move
Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex
Alcohol
Let’s Reggae All Night
Air Painter
Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death from Above
Alala

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A few of us Killahbeez heads were invited by Livenation to check out the N.E.R.D. and Common concert, which is dubbed as “Seeing The Invincible Sounds of Summer Tour”. The tour name combines both N.E.R.D.’s album name, Seeing Sounds, along with Common’s upcoming album, The Invincible Summer. The tour stop in Vancouver was the 5th for these guys with 13 additional dates left, so be sure to check out www.livenation.com for information on the tour.

The night started off with one of Canada’s best DJs and we’ve posted about homeboy a few times here on Killahbeez, DJ Pump. He warmed the crowd up with some classic hip hop, some new joints like “Jockin’ Jay-Z”, “Swagger Like Us” as well as educating the crowd with samples like Aretha Franklin’s “One Step Ahead” and showing the crowd where “A Millie” really came from. I’ve said this numerous times, but he’s truly one of the most versatile DJs I’ve heard and can rock any kind of party. Check out his MySpace page for a list of upcoming shows, www.myspace.com/djpump.

Now onto N.E.R.D.; these dudes hit the stage around 7pm. When they came out the crowd went bananas and Pharrell acknowledged the cheers by going crazy himself and jumping straight into “Anti Matter”, which easily is one of my favorite tracks off of the latest album, Seeing Sounds. The guitar riffs and drums for the track sounded pretty damn fantastic in the venue and had me head bobbin’, nearly forgetting that I was there to take photos. So dope, it had your boy losing focus for a second. A little disappointment started to set in as I noticed that Chad Hugo wasn’t there and this marks the third straight time (he wasn’t at the Glow In the Dark and Pemberton Festival) which could possibly mean he has difficulties coming across the Canadian border. It was up to Pharrell and fellow member Shae to hold things down and that they did as they kept their frenetic pace throughout the set. Going from “Anti Matter” to “Brain” to “Killjoy”. As one of my friends in attendance said, “I love how Pharrell performs throwing his arms wildly and just rockin’ out his s**t”.

There was a lot of interaction between the crowd and Pharrell, at one point Pharrell pulled up a kid onto the stage and it was clearly visible that the kid was in shock that he was up on stage with N.E.R.D., pretty cool moment. The set continued with “Maybe” followed by “Sooner or Later”, “You Know What”, “Rockstar”. At this point the crowd seemed to be mellowing out, not so much the fans in the front as they were still wildin’, but the peoples in the back and side of the park were definitely on the mellower side. This lead to Pharrell telling the crowd “We’re here to lose our muthaf**king minds, otherwise we’re wasting our time. If you’re too cool then get the f**k out”. I thought that was hilarious and he got a good laugh out of the crowd as well. N.E.R.D. went on to finish their set with “Spaz”, “Lapdance” and “Everyone Nose”. But wait, they still weren’t done, they then went into a medley of tracks such as “Drop It Like Its Hot”, P’s verse of course, “She Wants to Move” and then dropping a sick live remix by playing The White Stripes “Seven Nation Army”, while both Shae and Pharrell did their verses for “Everyone Nose”.

I have the official set list that was taped to the stage but N.E.R.D. definitely changed it up as a few of the songs were moved around and the medley they had originally planned seemed to have completely changed last second.

Next up; Common.

There were some worried faces amongst the crowd as word had gotten out that there was a hard curfew time of 10pm for the park and the stage setup time for Common was unexpectedly long. But as the clock hit shortly after 9pm, the show began with an opening skit. The stage itself was setup as a club, with a bar, along with stools, dj booth, etc. Enter DJ Dummy and the rest of the band members, shortly thereafter Common bust his way onto the stage and started the show off with “Announcement”, which is the second single from the upcoming album, The Invincible Sound, and straight into another new song called “Inhale”. Common stoped for a second for another quick skit, it was clear he wasn’t here to just rap for us; he was here to entertain the fans. As the skit ended it lead into the song “Go” which quickly turned into the track “Sex For Sugar”, another new track off of the upcoming album. At this point I was relieved hear some of these new tracks as I have to admit I was a bit worried that his whole upcoming album would follow the path of “U.M.C”, which I’m definitely not a fan of and a lot of Common fans can agree that that jam is not one of his best. As “Sex For Sugar” ended he went into another skit, in total there were 4 skits for the whole show. He had also pulled a lucky female audience member up onto the stage. He would do another new song, “Punch Love”, before going into “Come Close” and one of my favorite hip-hop songs ever, “I Used To Love H.E.R.”

I knew the aforementioned song, “U.M.C (Universal Mind Control)”, would eventually be played and wasn’t really looking forward to it. But you know what? Common killed it, the live drum tracks on this song were sick, had me head bobbin’ for sure and that wasn’t expected, so that had me amped.

Common did a great job at keeping the energy going during his set, considering he was on his own for the most part, except for a few tracks where Pharrell came out to perform along-side Common. As some may know, Kanye West isn’t producing the majority of Common’s upcoming album as he did on Common’s previous work. Pharrell has taken over the majority of production duties on this new album, hence the different sound.

He went through an abundance of tracks such as Talib Kweli’s “Get ‘Em High” (his verse), “Drive Me Wild”, “I Want You”, “Be”, “Make My Day”, “The Food”, “The People”, “The Corners”, “The Light” and finished off with a new song “Gladiator”.

But something crazy happened in between the tracks “The Corners” and “The Light” and, for sure, any true hip-hop head would have picked it up right away. The band behind Common started playing one of the most recognizable beats in hip-hop and Common continued the process by doing the first verse and that’s when I had a huge smile on my face. He was doing Nas’s song “NY State of Mind” and customized it for Vancouver, by replacing “NY” with “BC”; very impressive indeed.

I have to say this was a great hip-hop concert and the outdoor venue, Malkin Bowl, was excellent in terms of sound and thankfully the Vancouver weather held up and it was sunny the whole day. I actually have never seen either Common or N.E.R.D. live before and definitely have to say that both impressed me. I had high expectations for Common as I have grown up listening to all of his stuff, you know before he dropped the “Sense” from his name. So if this tour rolls through your city, I definitely have to recommend that you go and check it out.

Here are the remaining tour dates:

September 18 - Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
September 19 - Eugene, OR @ Cuthbert Amphitheater
September 20 - Berkeley, CA @ Berkeley Community Theatre
September 21 - Las Vegas, NV @ House Of Blues
September 23 - Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
September 27 - Chicago, IL @ House Of Blues
September 29 - Toronto, ON @ Kool Haus
October 1 - Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre
October 2 - Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
October 4 - New York, NY @ Roseland Ballroom
October 8 - Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle
October 9 - Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Cafe
October 10 - Miami Beach, FL @ Fillmore

Hit up Livenation for more information on tickets, venues and dates: www.livenation.com

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