Berkley Church/Toronto - Show Taping

[LaurieBlue]

http://www.chromewaves.net/?itemid=2969


"Over the last couple years, some very cool stuff has been happening at the old Berkeley Church in Toronto, long converted from its original purpose as a house of worship to an event hall. My only experience was the totally insane show the Yeah Yeah Yeahs played there during the Film Festival last year and between being pummeled by the rest of the crowd and having Karen O scream in my face, I can confirm it's a lovely room.

A room that, for the last few Springs, has also played host to the tapings of the Beautiful Noise television series. It's a live performance show along the lines of Austin City Limits and has featured the likes of Feist, Voxtrot, Neko Case and Sloan, amongst many others... and if you've never seen or even heard of the show, it's because it's been broadcast exclusively on the RAVEHD high-def television network in the States (if you live in the States and subscribe to RAVEHD and have seen the show, disregard that last sentence).

That is, until recently. There were some open invites for studio audiences during the tapings of season two last Spring and this past Fall, SUN-TV began broadcasting the show locally on regular cable at 7PM on Saturdays - this I discovered whilst channel surfing one evening and just happened upon the Kathleen Edwards show.

That's all well and good, you're saying, but surely I'm not just going to sit here and play commercial for a television show, right? Right. Season three begins taping next week, and if you thought the lineups for past seasons were impressive, check this out.

March 31 - My Morning Jacket
April 1 - Jim White / Sarah Slean
April 2 - Kaki King / Jon Langford / Dr Dog
April 3 - The Constantines / Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
April 4 - The Black Angels / The Donnas
April 5 - Islands / Stars
April 6 - People In Planes
April 7 - British Sea Power / Yo La Tengo

And to answer your first question, no, the artists are not playing any other shows while they're in town for this. And to answer your second question, yes you can attend... but not easily. There's not going to be a general public open invite this time but the producers have given me a number of guest list spots for each performance to give away to you, gentle reader, but I've been instructed to not make it easy. Hence the conditions of this contest, which some might call fiendishly clever in its intricacies. If said people had an incredibly low standard for fiendish cleverness.

It will work as follows: Leave me a comment below with your correct email in the "email" field - spam-proofed is fine - and list off, in order, the tapings you would like to attend. For each of the multiple-artists shows, you must answer the following: if this were an ultimate fighting-type celebrity grudge match rather than a concert taping, which of the performers that night would triumph and why. Be descriptive. If you want in for the My Morning Jacket taping (which I imagine many of you will), tell me what contemporary artist would be able to best the boys from Kentucky in a mixed martial arts competition. If you want to see People In Planes, well I don't really know boo about them so just say so. Everyone deserves a bye.

I have two pairs of passes to give away for each show, so winners will be selected randomly from all qualifying entrants (the conditions above are for my and everyone else's amusement) and each awarded their first available choice until all spots are spoken for. You can only win once. Does that make sense? Note that save for the MMJ taping, which has doors at 8:15PM and show at 9, all shows have doors at 6:30PM and the first performer at 7, second at 9 (or 7, 8 and 9 for the three-fer). So if you're going to throw your hat in the ring, make sure you can get there - Queen E and Berkeley (Parliament) - on time. Lollygaggers will not be admitted. The contest will be open until 5PM on Thursday, March 27.

Check out some footage from past seasons of Beautiful Noise at their YouTube channel.

MP3:  Jim White - "Crash Into The Sun"
MP3:  Kaki King - "Pull Me Out Alive"
MP3:  Jon Langford (with the Waco Brothers) - "How Fast The Time"
MP3:  Dr. Dog - "The Girl"
MP3:  The Constantines - "Hard Feelings"
MP3:  Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - "The Sons Of Cain"
MP3:  The Black Angels - "Young Men Dead"
MP3:  The Donnas - "Don't Wait Up For Me"
MP3:  People In Planes - "Pretty Buildings"
MP3:  British Sea Power - "Waving Flags"
MP3:  Yo La Tengo - "Pass The Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind"

Pitchfork interviews Michael Stipe of R.E.M., Spin offers an excerpt of their forthcoming cover story on the band. Accelerate arrives next Tuesday and they play the Molson Amphitheatre June 8.

Sample another track from DeVotchKa's new one A Mad And Faithful Telling. The National Post has an interview with frontman Nick Urata.

MP3: DeVotchKa - "Transliterator"

Feist talks to ET Canada about her puppet-powered new video. And look for her to play Dolly to Bry Webb's Kenny on a cover of "Islands In The Stream" coming out on a 7" single April 1. More details at Chart.

Billy Bragg, via a New York Times op-ed, challenges social networks to start paying royalties to artists who stream their music on their sites. Commentary (and links to more commentary) on Bragg's piece at Coolfer. Billy's new one Mr Love & Justice is out April 8 and he plays Harbourfront Centre on June 17.

[Jaimoe]

Thanks for that.

I never realized Sun-TV (located a block away from the Berkeley church) actually broadcasts anything of quality. Kudos to them! No wonder I've never seen this show since it's on at a piss-poor time, up against the ratings behemouth Hockey Night in Canada. I'm excited as hell that MMJ are going to be in Toronto in one week's time.

[youngvedder]

fantastic..fingers crossed. a great little venue!

[BH]

Sounds like Rave HD is a Dish Network channel.  Does anyone have Dish Network?

[Jaimoe]

Any out-of-towners coming to the taping?

[EC]

frank yang's blog (see what laurie quoted) gets an A+ from me.  i like it a lot.

[youngvedder]

anyone get the nod?

cheers,

Yv ::)

[johnboy9]

Hey guys...
I lurk around here all the time.
My wife and I are huge fnas and got passes to check out this show. I'm really excited. I've been a fan for a while now and haven't seen them live since I've become a big fan.
I'll post a setlist and review after it's done!

[youngvedder]

see you there!

[wickedmonkeyz]

haven't heard back yet...though I may have missed the deadline :(... oh well, thanks to the OP for sharing this.  I stopped by here yesterday on a whim to see if there was anyone talking about the upcoming PJ tour, and saw this...I can be in Toronto in about an hour or so...thinking about making the trip anyway in hopes of getting in

still hoping to hear back from them

have fun everyone who is going!

[Jaimoe]

I think I'll go out after the Toronto show instead of before. How does Betty's sound? It's a cool pub and very near the church. Megan?

[EC]

oh boy!

[youngvedder]

CANT WAIT!!!!

[johnboy9]

WOO!
I'm really excited for this.

[DaFunkyPrecedent]

this is tonite huh?! is there gonna be anyway for us to watch or listen?  

[Jaimoe]

I assume you'll have to wait until the program airs.

[The DARK]

And when will that be?

[Jaimoe]

And when will that be?

No idea. Gotta go. MMJ's doors for the show tonight are at 8:00.

[fitzcarraldo]

And when will that be?

No idea. Gotta go. MMJ's doors for the show tonight are at 8:00.

See ya there Jaimoe!


types from EC's computer

[BH]

And when will that be?

No idea. Gotta go. MMJ's doors for the show tonight are at 8:00.

See ya there Jaimoe!


types from EC's computer

Nice!  Have fun everyone!