Alright, Half Baked a récemment joué a Toronto pour sa premiere fois ever. Ca s'est tellement bien passé que nous y retournons a l'automne, dans une plus grande salle. La semaine d'avant c'était The Sound Of Sea Animals qui en étaient a leur premiere visite torontoise. Je dois avouer que j'aimerais bien y jouer le plus souvent possible. Par les temps qui courent, on dirait que l'enthousiasme que j'aimais tant a Montreal se retrouve plus a Toronto. Je tacherai de revenir plus tard sur la comparaison. Pour l'instant je veux plutot partager la review du show de Half Baked faite par Brian Banks pour le webzine londonien (Londres dans le UK la, pas dans le Ontario la) Music Vice. Jettez-y un coup d'oeil:
www.musicvice.com
Pour ceux qui ne veulent pas lire la review a son emplacement originel, vous pouvez bien sur la lire drette icitte. Ca va comme suit, dans les mots de Brian Banks:
"I arrived at this show with the best intentions of having a good time and getting lost in some music. The past week had been very rough for me after getting smacked hard by one of those throw-you-to-the-wall kind of moments that life sometimes hits you with out of the blue. The one thing I have learnt though during the quarter century that I’ve walked on this planet, is that when life and love hit you so hard, there is always music to turn to. So rather than wallow in self-pity, I headed into Toronto in search of a musical distraction in the form of Half Baked. Decent band name, and not a bad movie either.
During the last month or so, Half Baked have sent me their CD, ‘Half Baked Sings The Century Of Foam For Your Pleasure, twice. The second time they adorned the Jiffy mailer with "Half Baked in concert @ Rancho Relaxo, Toronto, April 24th 2009". And just to make double-sure, they also wrote the details of the show on the enclosed CD. The band got my attention, and I felt obliged to turn up to this gig after such a personal invitation.
At first I pretty much had instant regret for showing up at this gig. Rancho Relaxo is a Mexican restaurant, and the music venue part of the establishment is a small room upstairs. Upon arrival at 9 p.m. there were only about a dozen people inside, with most of those being band members and bar staff. Things were dull. During this time some guy from a band was busy with a label-maker, putting labels on the CD’s they hoped to flog that night. Nothing says rock n' roll like a label-maker.
After an hour of awkward idleness inside Rancho Relaxo, the entertainment began as local support Cedar took to the stage. Cedar play sleepy and atmospheric indie rock. Notice I said sleepy not dreamy - this band should come with a warning that they 'may cause drowsiness'. The beats are slow, the songs sung soft, and some nice ambient guitar noise could not save me from wanting it all to end after ten minutes in.
I was very tempted to just call quits on this night and file this gig away under the ‘never-to-be-spoken-of-again’ category. After all, there are plenty of bad and boring concerts, and I make a point of saying that if a gig is not worth talking about then its not worth writing about.
This night was truly dying on it’s arse, but egads! A concert miracle happened! Half Baked took to the stage and performed some chest-pumping and lip-smacking CPR to kick this baby back into life. Remember that label-maker dude? Turns out he is Yann Godbout - one crazy mofo, and the lead protagonist of Half Baked.
Godbout lept on and around the stage while started slapping away at his bass guitar while singing ‘Nobody Cares About Art’. He swung his arms around like a clock; to 12:00, 9:15, and 6:30. It was hilarious. Showmanship is probably not the right word to describe his behaviour - this was a full-on display of pure ADHD, and uninhibited exhibitionism. The dude was totally letting loose in his music and it was a joy to behold.
After a couple of songs Half Baked switched it up as Godbout swapped his bass to begin twisting knobs on his synth deck, and mess of wires and electronic equipment. All the while the drummer kept the whole thing moving along to some degree of organized chaos. Lazer Gun is a mega tune, a whole lotta fun - bang this in your ipod and smile on every listen. It sounds like a dirty three-way between The White Stripes,The Prodigy and Flight of the Conchords.
Later on the bass guitar came back out for 'his Is How You Become A Dinosaur, which was another storming track. Throughout the set Godbout would continually beckon the people at the back by the bar to get up closer to the action. At one point he ran around the venue, waving and clapping in everyone’s personal space. No doubt most people were wishing that they could just flick a switch and have the same kind of fun that he was having, but instead as an audience we stayed typically reserved, and merely nodded our heads and tapped our feet in appreciation.
Before their last song, Godbout announced that this was the first time his band had ever played in Toronto. “You see, normally we stick to playing in Montreal... because we live in Montreal and have jobs there...” This led to a rambling insight about the lack of perceived differences between Montreal and Toronto as rivaling musical hotbeds:
“Really there is no difference. I was told that you guys label your apple with ‘apple’. It says ‘butter’ on your butter. There is no real metaphysical difference - you are not that forward. The Tim Horton’s in Montreal is just the same as the Tim Horton’s in Toronto.”
That quote, to which I have probably horribly paraphrased, was a further display of the humour from this crazy French-Canadian fellow, who I have no hesitation in saying would be more than welcome in Toronto some time again soon. Perhaps in a different venue though, because I am not a fan of Rancho Relaxo - especially with their awkward metal backed chairs that are very much anti-relaxing. Oh the irony.
By the time Half Baked finished it was time for me to catch the last express bus back home to Hamilton, so I missed out on Chang-A-Lang. Half Baked would’ve been an incredibly tough act to follow anyway. Susan Boyle already proved last week that it is bad to make judgements based on first appearance, and tonight the dweeb with the label-maker proved himself to be one the wildest performers you could ever hope to see live. Easily the best show I’ve ever paid $6 to see, and what a turnaround."
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