160420041049 Vancouver, Canada

Background: Last night was the Aussie Invasion Tour (The Vines, Jet & The Living End) at the Commodore Ballroom (same amazing venue I saw Powderfinger at). I didn’t have a ticket (show was completely sold out, and even Fox Radio was only allowed 5 tickets – I asked Natalie who works there), and as you may know, The Living End is my favourite band in the world. So I was gutted. I was going to go down there and buy tickets off a scalper if I could.

So I finished work yesterday and decided to take a look in the shoe store in case this evil woman hadn’t bought my shoes. I looked and they weren’t there (gutted again) but then I found them in the wrong section. Score. So I decided fate was with me, and also (some of you will understand this theory) I figured that if I bought them, the chances of me getting a ticket to the show would increase proportionally (i.e. I have already spent money, so the fates would have me spend more since I can’t afford it). I took the blue shoes up to the counter and the sales girl informed me that it was buy one and get 50% off another pair. Dammit, why did she tell me that? So back to the $30 Royals. Not my colour. I ended up with red leather Skechers instead (just call me Christina Aguilera already). So at this point (when the money is coming out of my bank account) my chances of being extorted for a concert ticket are going through the roof.

I went home and showed my shoes off to everyone I know, and then decided to go out for dinner if I couldn’t get a ticket. I went past the venue when the doors opened and there were no scalpers outside. Gutted yet again! So I went and did some errands with Amy and tried again on the way home. No luck. Amy wanted to go into Roxy Burger to see Cassie and Natalie (Cass works at the hostel, Natalie is her friend at Fox). They were both going to the gig so I told them to have a great night and that I was extremely jealous. Then Natalie pulls out her cellphone and said that they’d had a few more tickets and she’d see if there was one left. Which there was! So I just had to meet the other Fox people in the Fox Cruiser (some form of promotional SUV I’m guessing – I didn’t actually see it) and I would get to go for free. Oh my God! So I’d already convinced myself that I wasn’t going to go and the Freebie God smiled upon me again. Some of you may remember the other incidents when Fox was good to me – free ticket to the Jersey Girl premier where I won a bunch of free stuff and then cheap tickets to see The Offspring. I guess since things come in threes I won’t be getting the signed guitar now…

By the time I’d collected my ticket and had dinner, Neon, the support band, was just starting. I’d never heard of them but they had a really good sound. Next up was The Living End, which needless to say was amazing. I worked myself up to second row (although I was behind a couple of little Japanese girls, so it was almost like being on the barrier) in front of Chris Cheney – I have no shame in saying that I think he is still the single best guitarist I’ve ever seen. I was close enough to read Gretsch on his gorgeous guitar (it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other) but not enough to be sweated on this time. Oh well. The set was probably not the best I’ve seen (i.e. they played a lot from Modern Artillery (the latest album) which I don’t think is their best work), but the performance was stunning. It was sort of funny to see a few people who were really getting into the songs off the new album but didn’t know Prisoner of Society or Second Solution at all (the band isn’t big in Canada, which is the only reason I think they didn’t headline. I wish they had, it would have made more sense. Instead they had to play a short set with no encore). They did a wicked version of All Torn Down as well as an amazing jam session in the middle of the set. The new drummer (when I say new, I mean I haven’t seen them in nearly 3 years) is really good, and the double bass was as impressive as ever. At the end of the set, I came so close to getting Chris’ set list, but the bouncer I was talking to was a retard. I just asked him to ask the roadie if I could have it, and by the time I’d explained a third time, the roadie was handing it off to someone else. Oh well, can’t have everything.

I bought a wicked Modern Artillery track jacket with the money I was going to spend on a ticket – it’s red on black to match the rest of my wardrobe. I ran into Cass and Natalie just after Jet started. They’d missed TLE for the hockey playoff (Canucks lost second time in a row) which was a pity for them. Jet did a wicked set. I only know their one single but they had a lot of energy, really catchy songs and great lighting. That’s what I noticed the big difference was between TLE and Jet. TLE play in pretty much static lighting because you’re watching them perform instead of relying on lights and smoke. Not that Jet weren’t entertaining, I really really enjoyed them (“I said … are you gonna be my girl … ?”).

The Vines were unfortunately really disappointing. They had some energy, but their best feature was the lighting, which is a bad sign. It was good lighting, but if it’s your only redeeming feature then there’s trouble. The lasting impression I have of them is just effects pedals and screaming (“Can I get some more reverb here?”. I even preferred the recorded version of the one song I knew of theirs (“I wanna get free, I wanna get free…”). At this point I started noticing things like the fact that the carpet was sticky (comment of the day: “If the carpet’s sticky, then you’ve gotta worry.”) and that I wanted to shove a fork in my eye (I dubbed the set “Music to top yourself by”). They also did the longest, slowest, most boring encore song I’ve ever seen. So I would give them a resounding 2 out of 10 and hope to never see them again. It’s a pity that the set order wasn’t reversed, cause even Neon was better than The Vines.

When I got home and finished raving about how good The Living End and Jet were, I had a chat to Kade who was playing his bass in reception. I’ve never seen an acoustic bass before and I love it. I realised that I’d never listened to just bass before either and sat there for ages while he just played around. He was playing harmonics and everything and the sound was beautiful. He taught me some of the bass line to Stand By Me and I’m going to cut my nails right down and get him to teach me some more. I’ll just add it to the list of things I want to learn!