Stars at the Mod Club
They still haven't surpassed Your Ex-Lover is Dead, and maybe they never will, but The Five Ghosts is their best album since, and they played it so beautifully. It's the give-and-take between Amy Millan and Torquil Campbell that makes this band stand above others, and the tunes of course.
Metz at the Garrison
These local geniuses can pummel the hell out of a rock song. Why aren't they huge? Perhaps they should put out an album instead of seven-inches—much as I love that format, it's not going to get them the attention they deserve. They're absolutely exhilarating live.
After unforgivably long lineups for beer and washrooms—and I'm never a fan of crowds + hot weather—this could so easily have been a waste of time. But Pavement was wonderful from start to finish. They didn't have new material, but it didn't matter with so many great songs. The icing on the cake was the moonlit ride back to the city in the QCYC boat.
Raul Malo at Hugh's Room
His voice makes your knees weak and your spine go all soft so you kind of collapse in your chair. He's so good, the words Roy Orbison and George Jones can be used in the same breath.
Teenage Fanclub at the Horseshoe
Three brilliant songwriters with seemingly endless beautiful melodies in them. They're aging but still writing and singing great songs. And they're Scottish. And one of them moved to Canada. What is not to love?
Nick Lowe at the Mod Club
First time playing with a band in years! The criminally underrated singer-songwriter played a bunch of his best songs—The Beast in Me, Cruel to be Kind, When I Write The Book, Heart of the City, there are so many!—with the kind of backing band that is so understated because they're so damn good. Why Ron Sexsmith came on stage and left without doing anything was a mystery, but Nick rules. On what would have been my late best friend's 50th birthday, and I barely shed a tear. Time heals, slowly.
Jim Bryson & the Weakerthans at the Horseshoe
Jim is an awesomely talented singer-songwriter who never gets the attention he deserves. That's said so often it's like a broken record. But it was a smart move to make a record backed by the Weakerthans, who seem to have reined in some of Jim's meandering tendencies and provided a solid backing for his songs and a steady balance for his onstage persona. Finally.
Lightning Bolt at the Great Hall
OK, there I was standing in the middle of the floor, transfixed by the unbelievably intense two-man assault. It was an experience of music as a physiological response more than an emotional one. I thought to myself, this is crazy, this is so intense, I am feeling this shaking my entire body, am I really enjoying this? I'm still not sure if it was pleasure exactly, but it was something remarkable. Also, afterward it was great to freak a young guy out that an old bag like me had enjoyed Lightning Bolt.
Chris Dignan at Lulu Lounge
This freaking ageless young man evoked the ghost of the great Suckerpunch—which he fronted, what, 15 years ago?—with a swinging garagey-surf rock show led by his guitar and voice.
Lowest of the Low at Lee's Palace
There's a lot of 90s nostalgia on this list, but these guys actually reformed to play their freshly reissued 1990 debut album, Shakespeare My Butt, which hit a massive nerve with a whole generation of people. It must be frustrating to have not managed to hit that nerve again, or at least not so successfully, but those songs really are perfect shots to the heart, able to evoke a time and a place with impressive clarity. And they play them beautifully.
St. Simon's Choir at St. Simon's Church
Every year this choir blows me away with their exquisite harmonies, blasting through the church and through my body without benefit of microphone or amplifier, and for free. It's something I take for granted, since it's always been there. I hope it always will be.
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