Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra
Support: Big Brave
Date: Friday August 8th, 2014
Venue: Lee's Palace in Toronto, Ontario
T-Shirt worn: Star Wars 1977 movie poster
Lee's Palace has a stupid habit of starting shows way too late. I've avoided going there in the past and I've even not gone to shows I've had tickets for once I find out the band I want to see isn't going on until past midnight. But I had to make the exception for Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra. It's a pretty legendary venue in Toronto. And it's not that bad either, save the stupid late doors policy. Seriously, who does that benefit? I couldn't believe how small the place and the stage were. I saw Godspeed You! Black Emperor play a two thousand (I think) capacity venue in Montreal...and they play here I'm Toronto? I gotta see their next show here. There were a lot of hipsters at the show. That was a nice change. I'm a pretty passive, timid guy and all these raging kids at metal shows are starting to get to me. Plus it meant I could stand wherever I wanted and not feel threatened that the person standing next to me could mosh my socks off at any given second. All the girls there wanted me, because I'm hard.
Thanks to Lee's Palaces' late doors policy and my inherent ability to show up late for everything I actually got there a half an hour after doors had opened. I hoped that meant I'd missed whoever was opening or at least would show up halfway through someone's set. Alas, the lone openers Big Brave didn't go on until 10:15. That was total bullshit. I've never heard of them until I was standing there waiting for them to go on and I was killing time on my phone. They're a three piece (two guitars, drums and vocals) from Montreal. They really reminded me of an album I have by a band called Harvey Milk called "Courtesy And Good Will Toward Men" mixed with Sonic Youth. Their songs were all builds but once they got to what you thought they were building to...nothing. It got a bit boring from time-to-time. But once they would get going they were really good. If anything I think they should have had one or two more guitar players to add to the chaos. I never got any song titles but they played five or six songs in forty minutes. I'll call them "hipster doom".
I was surprised that Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra took the stage pretty soon afterwards. Given the timing of the night I was expecting at least an hour wait. I was put off at first that there was only one guitar player. I thought they had two and that their sound would suffer because of it. But it didn’t. They still had a really powerful sound right from the beginning. And once they hit the climax in the first song Fuck Off Get Free (For the Island of Montreal) I was sold. Following that with Austerity Blues was and even bigger orgasm. That opening half hour was just…wow. Efrim was throwing out some pretty good social commentary between songs but things came to a standstill after Take Away These Early Grave Blues when he asked the crowd if they had any questions. I don’t know what he was expecting (either some Geopolitical discussion or nothing, so he could make a point) but all he got were the usual stupid questions that you’d expect at a rock show (“when is Godspeed coming back to Toronto?”, “why is your hair so curly?”, “is Israel doing the right thing?”, “play Horses in the Sky”) and things got a little awkward in the room after that. That, plus the fact that they played some mellower songs afterwards, really killed the mood. What We Loved Was Not Enough was a great ending to the main set but Little Ones Run was probably one of the worst encores I’ve heard in my life. It’s not a bad song but not encore material either.
If you follow the band you may have noticed that they played their entire new album Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light Out of Everything (albeit out of sequence), one song from their last album and one unreleased song. I think their new album is incredible so I didn’t mind. And I saw their past sets from this year online and expected that. But the fact that they didn’t play anything from their first six albums/EP’s was pretty disappointing. There’s a lot of great music on those albums that will probably never get played again. And like I said, I really like the new album but the pacing of the show (and the album itself) is a little uneven. They peaked with the first two songs and tapered off from that. They should have closed with Austerity Blues.
Had they kept the intensity of the first two songs it would’ve probably been the second best show I’ve seen this year. As it is it was still one of the best. I’ll definitely see them again.
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra
1. Fuck Off Get Free (For the Island of Montreal)
2. Austerity Blues
3. Rains Thru the Roof at Thee Grande Ballroom (For Capital Steez)
4. Take Away These Early Grave Blues
5. (question time)
6. 'Piphany Rambler
7. All the Kings are Dead
8. What We Loved Was Not Enough
9. Little Ones Run
_______________________________________________________
Follow up:
Since Godspeed You! Black Emperor have returned Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra has really taken a backseat. And that's to bad. I still LOVE the album they were touring for here and would love for them to come back. It's bee a while now and I'm sure they will. But Godspeed You! Black Emperor has toured a lot and released a few albums since this show so it may be later than sooner. First world problems I tells ya.
I've seen Big Brave twice since this show and they've gotten much, MUCH better. I think touring with Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra really changed them. You can hear it on their albums and live. Which is fine by me, I love that kind of music. The one time I saw them live was opening for Sleep in early 2016 and that was when I first heard the change in their music. Then I saw them at some indoor halfpipe a few months later and it was one of the best shows I saw in 2016.
I've been to Lee's Palace a bunch of times since this show and have come to actually appreciate their later shows. But having worked nights for so long now my life keeps getting more and more dark. Literally.
Support: Big Brave
Date: Friday August 8th, 2014
Venue: Lee's Palace in Toronto, Ontario
T-Shirt worn: Star Wars 1977 movie poster
Lee's Palace has a stupid habit of starting shows way too late. I've avoided going there in the past and I've even not gone to shows I've had tickets for once I find out the band I want to see isn't going on until past midnight. But I had to make the exception for Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra. It's a pretty legendary venue in Toronto. And it's not that bad either, save the stupid late doors policy. Seriously, who does that benefit? I couldn't believe how small the place and the stage were. I saw Godspeed You! Black Emperor play a two thousand (I think) capacity venue in Montreal...and they play here I'm Toronto? I gotta see their next show here. There were a lot of hipsters at the show. That was a nice change. I'm a pretty passive, timid guy and all these raging kids at metal shows are starting to get to me. Plus it meant I could stand wherever I wanted and not feel threatened that the person standing next to me could mosh my socks off at any given second. All the girls there wanted me, because I'm hard.
Thanks to Lee's Palaces' late doors policy and my inherent ability to show up late for everything I actually got there a half an hour after doors had opened. I hoped that meant I'd missed whoever was opening or at least would show up halfway through someone's set. Alas, the lone openers Big Brave didn't go on until 10:15. That was total bullshit. I've never heard of them until I was standing there waiting for them to go on and I was killing time on my phone. They're a three piece (two guitars, drums and vocals) from Montreal. They really reminded me of an album I have by a band called Harvey Milk called "Courtesy And Good Will Toward Men" mixed with Sonic Youth. Their songs were all builds but once they got to what you thought they were building to...nothing. It got a bit boring from time-to-time. But once they would get going they were really good. If anything I think they should have had one or two more guitar players to add to the chaos. I never got any song titles but they played five or six songs in forty minutes. I'll call them "hipster doom".
I was surprised that Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra took the stage pretty soon afterwards. Given the timing of the night I was expecting at least an hour wait. I was put off at first that there was only one guitar player. I thought they had two and that their sound would suffer because of it. But it didn’t. They still had a really powerful sound right from the beginning. And once they hit the climax in the first song Fuck Off Get Free (For the Island of Montreal) I was sold. Following that with Austerity Blues was and even bigger orgasm. That opening half hour was just…wow. Efrim was throwing out some pretty good social commentary between songs but things came to a standstill after Take Away These Early Grave Blues when he asked the crowd if they had any questions. I don’t know what he was expecting (either some Geopolitical discussion or nothing, so he could make a point) but all he got were the usual stupid questions that you’d expect at a rock show (“when is Godspeed coming back to Toronto?”, “why is your hair so curly?”, “is Israel doing the right thing?”, “play Horses in the Sky”) and things got a little awkward in the room after that. That, plus the fact that they played some mellower songs afterwards, really killed the mood. What We Loved Was Not Enough was a great ending to the main set but Little Ones Run was probably one of the worst encores I’ve heard in my life. It’s not a bad song but not encore material either.
If you follow the band you may have noticed that they played their entire new album Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light Out of Everything (albeit out of sequence), one song from their last album and one unreleased song. I think their new album is incredible so I didn’t mind. And I saw their past sets from this year online and expected that. But the fact that they didn’t play anything from their first six albums/EP’s was pretty disappointing. There’s a lot of great music on those albums that will probably never get played again. And like I said, I really like the new album but the pacing of the show (and the album itself) is a little uneven. They peaked with the first two songs and tapered off from that. They should have closed with Austerity Blues.
Had they kept the intensity of the first two songs it would’ve probably been the second best show I’ve seen this year. As it is it was still one of the best. I’ll definitely see them again.
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra
1. Fuck Off Get Free (For the Island of Montreal)
2. Austerity Blues
3. Rains Thru the Roof at Thee Grande Ballroom (For Capital Steez)
4. Take Away These Early Grave Blues
5. (question time)
6. 'Piphany Rambler
7. All the Kings are Dead
8. What We Loved Was Not Enough
9. Little Ones Run
_______________________________________________________
Follow up:
Since Godspeed You! Black Emperor have returned Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra has really taken a backseat. And that's to bad. I still LOVE the album they were touring for here and would love for them to come back. It's bee a while now and I'm sure they will. But Godspeed You! Black Emperor has toured a lot and released a few albums since this show so it may be later than sooner. First world problems I tells ya.
I've seen Big Brave twice since this show and they've gotten much, MUCH better. I think touring with Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra really changed them. You can hear it on their albums and live. Which is fine by me, I love that kind of music. The one time I saw them live was opening for Sleep in early 2016 and that was when I first heard the change in their music. Then I saw them at some indoor halfpipe a few months later and it was one of the best shows I saw in 2016.
I've been to Lee's Palace a bunch of times since this show and have come to actually appreciate their later shows. But having worked nights for so long now my life keeps getting more and more dark. Literally.
Do you like old people porn? Because I just put enough to fill an old folks home in the wrestling section!