I enjoy my days off, especially Sunday. Sunday is when I don’t usually do any magazine work or work at the store, so I take it easy and do whatever the heck I want. I can be lazy and never leave the house for this one day of the week, if I really wanted to… Sort of like my dog every day (well, okay, so she does leave the house too).

So the Barenaked Ladies concert at the Air Canada Centre on Friday was absolutely amazing. Again, I lucked out by scoring seventh row seats, so I really couldn’t complain about how close we were to the stage in such a big arena… You could see everything perfectly…

Tomi Swick opened for the Ladies and he was actually quite good… It’s always nice to be surprised by a decent opening act. I recognized a couple of the songs from the radio…

During the set change a promotional video played for David Suzuki’s “If You Were Prime Minister…” Tour, where he goes across country to build awareness for environmental issues while asking the public what they would do if they were Prime Minister of Canada. So they had videos of people giving their input, some Canadian celebrities making comments (such as Rick Mercer), and a few other tidbits. Then it said on the two giant screens, “And now presenting…” We just assumed that the Barenaked Ladies were coming out, but instead it said in its dark green text, “David Suzuki!” Everyone started freaking out as he walked on the stage and gave him a standing ovation… It was pretty funny. He said a few words, threw out some free stuff, had two guys sporting t-shirt-shooting air guns fire some off deeper into the crowd and then walked off the stage. The audience really seemed to love it though. This was his only appearance on the BNL tour…

Next up was the moment we were all waiting for. The lights went down and a goofy video adding on a bunch of words to the line “Barenaked Ladies Are Me” played on the screens for a while (ie: Barenaked Ladies Are Messing with your head)… Then suddenly the massive, black curtain dropped to the floor and the Barenaked Ladies jumped out enthusiastically while beginningtheir hit song, “One Week.” They went on to play a fairly long set of about two or two and a half hours and literally played every single song I had hoped they would. ha. I was very happy with that…

Even though it was a big arena, the guys still knew how to make the show personable with their signature in between song rambling. They would just start talking about completely random things, get a little goofy, and everyone (including them) would start cracking up… Or the drummer would start a beat, the bass player would join in, and then the two singers started freestyle rapping. This happened twice and it was absolutely hilarious…

At one point, they finished a song by starting a musical loop over the PA, putting down their instruments, and all six of them did a little synchronized dance that goes terribly wrong. That was priceless, even if it was obviously staged…

I took fifteen videos at the concert and uploaded them all to YouTube today… They turned out considerably well since we were up close enough to shoot the footage clearly. The only part that isn’t the greatest is when they were starting to come out on stage in the One Week video… I had dropped my coat and was trying to pick it up, so it’s a little shakey during the video screens part… ha. The band wasn’t on stage yet when that happened anyway…

So if you want to check out the videos, I’m including every link at the bottom of this entry… You can either click them all individually here or click the playlist link which will take you to all of them. A few memorable videos include the dancing video and the two freestyle ones, obviously… But in terms of actual song snippets, Pinch Me shows Steven Page’s playful side while Ed Robertson is singing and the second Call And Answer video is a good example of how close we were to the band.

What is also cool is the fact that the band puts up audio recordings of each concert on their website for purchase. So, for example, you can click over here and purchase the Toronto show I attended in its twenty-five track entirety. I think I’m going to have to do that tomorrow… heh.

All in all, it was a fantastic show and well worth going to see. I’d recommend their live show to anyone. I think I’d still put the U2 concert from 2005 just ahead of them in terms of my all time favorite show that I’ve attended over the years… But only because I’ve been a big fan of theirs for longer and it too was amazing. The Barenaked Ladies concert is a very close second place though, which is still honorable considering I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of shows…

Rock on.

One Week:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrPYMtY0x-g

The Old Apartment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFassFMk6T8

Freestyle #1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knXG-bKs0OY

Freestyle #2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29ULF61fUS4

Lovers In A Dangerous Time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VslWEl34Ze8

Falling For The First Time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAi3eZqt10A

Bank Job:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpdnatLrVKE

Wind It Up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiTes5CFY28

Synchronized Dancing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krxNcX-KZn4

Pinch Me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zD3eXO9nco

It’s All Been Done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K85jk7OVAPo

Brian Wilson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtCQjNjEevM

Easy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_1MzrmBWLU

Call And Answer – Part One:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tWorXdmCHo

Call And Answer – Part Two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l02uzMXFxw

Full Playlist (all videos):
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=AA1CF4A925241FDD

 

Watch The Video
(Music credit: U2 – Xanax And Wine)

I have to jet right now, but I’ll explain my sudden change of plans and the logic behind all of this in my next post…

Rock on.

Watch The Video
(Music credit: Matchbox Twenty – Disease)

If you haven’t seen them yet, you can check out my older videos too…

Rock on.

Watch The Video
(Music credit: The Rocket Summer – Brat Pack)

After a busy holiday season both at work and with family, I haven’t really had the chance to clean my room for a month or so at the least. So, since it was my day off, I thought I’d finally tackle the mess and vlog the experience while I was at it. It took me a good two to two and a half hours to clean from start to finish.

The main purpose of this vlog was to experiment with multiple angles for the same scene/take, and you’ll see it happen a few times. I’m actually rather pleased with the end result. Obviously the quality isn’t the best because of the camera (it’s a digital still camera with video capabilities), but it’s still a fun little video. Check it out and let me know what you think.

It feels good to vlog again. It’s been two and a half months. For all the new readers, you can view my old videos by clicking here. If you only want to watch a couple, check out “A Trip To The City” and “2005 Covenant Awards,” those would be my favorites of the past (in that order).

Rock on.

Watch The Video
(Music credit: Mae – Suspension)

I was in Canadian Tire today and found a fog machine and extra fluid for really cheap. So, naturally, I had to pick it up even though I really have no use for it. It works really well and you can have some fun with it… See for yourself.

Rock on.

Watch The Video
(Music credit: Steve Burns – Mighty Little Man)

Today was my last shift in the computer department (IPG) at Future Shop. So I was in a good mood… And I was bored… And I felt like quickly doing something somewhat productive. Please, never let this happen again. You’ll find out why inside.

And I know it’s strange of me to have two vlog entries within two days, but I don’t even really consider this a new vlog entry. Maybe more of a half vlog entry, since the quality isn’t the best and it was done really quick for fun.

Rock on.

Watch The Video
(Music credit: Hedley – On My Own / Five Iron Frenzy – The Cross Of St. Andrew)

Today both my family and I had the day off work, so we decided to go down to the city for the day. We were there for nine hours in total, to be exact. So I thought I’d bring you along with me to see what kind of places we like heading to when we go down there.

Obviously not all places we went to will be shown or it would be that much longer, but a good chunk of them are in here.

Also keep in mind we don’t always go to every single one of these places every time we go down. It’s just that we had all day to ourselves, so we thought we’d hit anything and everything.

I ended up buying a book and a few CDs… Man, and I wonder where my money goes…

Rock on.

Watch The Video
(Music credit: Arcade Fire – Wake Up)

Here’s video taken from the 2005 Covenant Awards which took place in Toronto, Ontario on October 22nd, 2005. I tried to take more footage, but everytime I wanted to someone would find me and want to talk.

I arrived at the venue a couple hours early like usual and was trying to track down some friends of mine who were playing at the awards that night. It ends up they were all eating, so I roamed the hallways to find them.

I did track them all down, but was only able to grab footage of my friends Manic Drive doing a liner for a radio station (it was pretty amusing I might add), as well as a bit of their performance on stage. Check it out… broadband only though.

Rock on.

My First Vlog
(Music credit: U2 – Beautiful Day)

An entirely experimental first Vlog (video blog). After looking back I realize I need to try to address microphone issues and keep things a little more steady, among other things. Hopefully I won’t have bad allergies next time as well.

For some reason Windows Movie Maker only let me export it at 15 fps, ugh. It kept staying at 46% if I tried to make it any higher. I’m hoping it’s just a fluke thing with this one project.

Basically, I hit writers block for my reviews and walked down to get the mail for something to do. Exciting, eh?

Let me know what you think and if it’s something of interest. Don’t worry, if I do continue I’ll make them more interesting, probably taken at concerts and what not as well. Again, this one was only experimental.

Rock on.