Sloan

Sloan opening for the Strokes - Vancouver, BC

The opening band, Rooney were AWESOME. I have not looked them up on the internet yet, but I really liked them. After the show the band was handing out 3 song CD samplers, which was great, because I love getting free music to remember an opening band. They were really excited because it was the first time they had ever played in Canada. They were happy to play with the strokes and of course "Canada's own SLOAN". We all cheered and started chanting SLOOOOANNNN. It was nice that that guy beside me had such a loud voice. Rooney's vocal sound reminds me a bit of Weezer, but it could have been because the lead singer had floppy Rivers Cuomo hair circa Pinkerton era. The music arrangement kind of reminded me a bit of Flashing Lights,?oh and their drummer played drums like he was on drugs. I noticed that Chris
was watching the band from side stage as well. They were a good opening band.

Next of course was SLOAN. Me and my friend Kymm were afraid that the crowd would not be enthusiastic for Sloan, but never underestimate the people of Vancouver. Jay walked out on stage kind of casually before everyone else and was making faces at Chris on the other side of the stage like: "ok, are we going on now?" We all started doing the Sloan chant,?and the band was very appreciative. Most of the night Jay was directing us on the chant, moving his hand very high in the air for the first part "SLOOO" and then down low for the second part "OOOAAANNN"

I must say that this is the only time I have seen Sloan do an opening gig where they actually gave it some effort. The band sounded as good as they would have in their own show. Chris executed a few scissor kicks, and everyone seemed in pretty high spirits. I cannot remember all the songs, as I was too busy jumping and dancing and clapping and singing and trying desperately to get Chris to notice me in the 5th row. LOL, some things never change, no matter how old I get. The set list (with my comments of course) was pretty much like this:

1) If it feels good do it (this is always a good way for Sloan to start their show)

2) Coax me (I was so happy to hear this song, as I had read on the message board that the band had played only new material at their recent show in Toronto with the Strokes)

3) I hate my generation (I think that Jay has pretty much decided to do this song from Twice Removed now instead of Snowsuit Sound. This makes me sad, because I LOVE Snowsuit Sound,?but that's ok, because I love watching Jay sing!)

4) The good in everyone (now there was a song before this one that I may have forgotten. But the band basically ended that song, and then busted right into The good in Everyone, without the intro chords. It was surprising, but cool!)

5) In the movies (I remarked to Kymm when Andrew stepped up to play "he's gonna play "In the Movies" and I REALLY hate that song. I danced none the less though, just to be supportive)

6) People of the sky (I was sad that no one really knew to do the "ba ba ba da BAAAA" part to echo Andrew's singing. Me and Kymm did it really loud though, and the people around us caught on and joined in)

7) Ready for you (new song with Chris singing?..pretty good)

8) Reach Out (Patrick singing in a very high key, but it sounded good)

9) The other man (this was so cool, because the whole crowd screamed when they started playing it, and sang really loud. It's weird that this song has made it so big, as I did not think it was a good single, though it's an excellent song?.but I'm happy that it has done so well)

10) Money city maniacs (people went MENTAL for this song. Again, there was no intro bass line or chords, just straight into the hard rocking. We all did the "hey you" and sang, and Chris was loving it)

So Sloan left, and I was sad. We sat there in the intermission and I remarked that I felt like I was waiting for Sloan to come play their second set. So I have some randumb notes about the band for those that are curious:

1) Andrew is SO grey now. But me and Kymm decided that it was cool he was not dying his hair. (keeping in mind that Kymm IS a hair stylist)

2) Chris is looking SO young. Someone on sloannet once theorized that Chris was magically stealing Andrew's youth in order so that Chris may retain his "young and refreshing look". Yup I agree with him, not a grey hair on that man's head.

3) Jay was wearing a black and white striped shirt that made him look like the 10 year old kid that delivers your paper in the morning (minus the bicycle). His hair was looking quite nice though, I was impressed.

4) Patrick was looking better than I had seen him in a while. The hair is growing out and is almost reminiscent of One Chord to Another hair. It was parted almost in the middle, and long enough to be fully tucked behind the ears. The difference from One Chord though is a) less grease, b) more brown (and grey) instead of black, and c) much BETTER.

5) Chris was doing this thing where he kept showing his bicep muscles throughout the show. It reminded me a bit of a WWF wresting match where the wrestler flexes his muscles and yells and makes faces for the crowd to cheer for him. The main difference between Chris and a WWF wrestler though is the fact that Chris pretty much has no muscles to show the crowd. None the less, we cheered him on,?..which come to think of it was pretty dumb. It's never good to encourage that sort of behaviour from a guy like Chris, because it will only serve as a positive reinforcement.

Chris, super wrestler, coming to a pay per view station near you soon.

Hmm, some thoughts on the crowd now. They were quite well behaved and enthusiastic for Sloan, but god, they were all so young. There was a lot of teenage girls there, and they all just had that look like they wanted to sleep with a Strokes member. Kymm and I pondered if we ever had that "look" and decided that we were much more mature at that age than these girls :)

Seriously, we felt very old, and I commented to the guy beside me about that. He said, "YOU feel old, let me tell you how old I am. In 1984, the CLASH came to play a concert in the gymnasium of my university. You are not old."

The Strokes, what can I say about them? They sounded good, but they are a bunch of jerks. There was an enthusiastic young girl who stood on a chair in the second row and nicely showed the band her middle finger for the entire show. She danced with her middle fingers out the whole night - I must ask, is this some new cool trend that myself as an old person does not know about? Someone please enlighten me. The Strokes sounded good, better than their CD, that's for sure. But I still can't bring myself to love their music. If I was a hardcore Strokes fan though, I would have come away from that show very satisfied. I have to ask though, what sort of band does not bother to do an encore? They played their instruments until 11:00pm on the dot, and then unplugged and left. The lights were up within about 10 seconds. I find that disturbing.

Overall, it was a great show, and I had a great time!

cheers,
nikki