I Heart the Music: Your Online Source for Live Music Reviews and Interviews in Toronto!

The Weakerthans need no introduction- they have become a staple in any true Canadian music lovers repertoire. Hailing from Winnipeg, iheartthemusic were able to grab a few minutes with Stephen Carroll to talk about the importance of those Canadian roots in their music.

iheartthemusic: You won artist of the year at the XM Verge Awards in 2008. What did winning that mean to you?

I think it was the extra financials that made a big difference, but also the exposure is so useful and helpful. It’s generally a lot of work to get people’s attention, so anything we can do to do that is really useful for us and makes our lives easier is great. Establishing that relationship with XM was also key because they are the ones that play our music all the time.

iheartthemusic: And I am sure the fact that fans voted for you was great to hear too!

Yeah, and the fans!

iheartthemusic: Who would you have liked to see win artist of the year last year (2009)?

My money was on Joel Plaskett.

iheartthemusic: Album of the year?

Arkells.

iheartthemusic: You guys recorded 2007’s Reunion Tour in a factory I believe. What was that like?

Yeah it’s part of the factory lunchroom. We did it all at night and it was really crazy. We were totally isolated on the outskirts of Winnipeg in February. Living without sunlight for most of the time, because we would be sleeping in the day and going into the studio at 3:30am or 4am, it was a really interesting experience.

iheartthemusic: Would you do it again?

It felt like we had put ourselves in this secluded environment and the last couple of records we have done, we have worked regular hours and been in the city, like really in the city. So this was neat.

iheartthemusic: Where you are from, Winnipeg, seems to be heavily prevalent in all aspects of your music. Is this done on purpose?

Two reasons why that’s happened or two things that are playing into that: one, is probably trying to explain the city to ourselves, understanding it, thinking about it, singing about it and maybe trying to explain it to other people at the same time. And then, there is just the city itself. Winnipeg’s favourite thing about itself is mythologizing itself. That’s a main part of the process in mining all these little pieces of history that only we would have picked up on.

iheartthemusic: Tell me your thoughts on the state of Canadian musicians transcending into other markets. You guys have been able to do that quite successfully and I wanted to know your thoughts on why or how?

It’s not quite the same in the States. Maybe once the awards have more of a national recognition it will help, but I don’t really know. It’s kind of hard to tell. I don’t see it reflected in the US media.

The Weakerthans have just released a live album Live at the Burton Cummings Theatre and concert DVD. All the Canadian content was shot on tour. The Weakerthans play the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on May 26th with Bahamas.

photography provided by Sara Collaton

Canadian Music Week is probably one of my favourite times of the year and as such, I wanted to make sure that those of you that were not able to see everything could digest some of the shots we took while there. So here are some AMAZING shots from CMW 2010:

Ah, the Constantines. This was one of those performances that was incredible to see so close. I was stuck right in the photography pit for their entire set and got to just sit back and enjoy while my photographer, Mike Palmer, took the creative reigns. We caught bassist Dallas Wehrle do this and then play behind his back. UNREAL!

Great Lake Swimmers are SO talented however, their sound just didn’t fit the upbeat nature of the event.

Plants and Animals: stole the night!

The first time I saw The Rural Alberta Advantage play live was in the basement of a trashy film store. My, my how times have changed! This group even picked up an award that night. They rocked it!

When we heard that the worldwide phenomenon that is Queen was coming to town we had our doubts. For one thing, Freddy Mercury has been dead for quite some time now and we hadn’t heard that an Elvis-like situation had taken place whereby fans and the media were convinced that his death was a fake. So when we actually looked into this some more, we soon came to find out that it was an actual stage reproduction of Queen’s last world tour with Freddy entitled Queen: It’s a Kind of Magic. Headed by Australian musician and bona-fide Queen historian Craig Pesco, this reproduction literally goes as afar as to create EXACTLY what would have been seen and heard during Queen’s heyday. When we say EXACTLY, Pesco actually explained to us that he sports fake teeth that look just like Freddy’s in order to make it as authentic as can be. Once we heard this, we had to see it for ourselves.

Seated in the second row (yes, we were amazed that we were able to grab these seats too) and amongst some of the biggest Queen fans in Toronto, we set out to discover the magic that is a Queen live show. The stage was decked out with all the trimmings that apparently one would find during their reign; the white baby grand piano, the blinding lights and the huge sound. Pesco (Freddy Mercury) came out in full force in costume (and teeth) and as soon as he hit the stage the crowd went crazy. Their first song “A Kind of Magic” started and we felt like we were literally thrown back into the early nineties.

Throughout the course of this production Pesco changed approximately five times, including one number in full drag (with the boobs to match), and it became more and more apparent that Pesco was the man leading (and stealing) the show. His enthusiasm and passion were evident and became even more so against the not-so-enthusiastic rest of the band. This lack of enthusiasm was extremely evident and continued throughout the rest of the production. Another rather distracting feature of this show was the wigs that they were wearing. I understand that they were there to “look like” the original Queen members, however, the wigs were not only extremely obvious to the point of funny, but also took away from the fact that this was a serious show. Their skills, however, blew me away as each member of the band spent a good two minutes each showcasing their talent on their respective instruments. I have never seen a bass solo, so that was a pleasure to view so close!

They played all of the well known tunes (and a few that I had to ask around for) including “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, “Another One Bites the Dust” and came on for their encore to perform cult classic “Bohemian Rhapsody” which was clearly met with chants by everyone in attendance. The crowd consisted of the young and old and most people left fairly satisfied. I did, however, meet one fan (Randy Pater) who found the whole performance a little too obvious and was not convinced. I understand where he was coming from but then you have to bring it into context: it is a tribute band in all its forms and with that, they did well.

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