James Bryan @ Le Swimming
So Sabrina Sextina and I decided to stop by the James Bryan/Moka Only show at Le Swimming this past Saturday night. James Bryan, also known as Milo from Prozzak and James McCollum, the guitarist from the Philosopher Kings, has a new album out with his solo act, James Bryan band. He's got two more to be released in November with Prozzak and the Philosopher Kings so I decided to don my roving rock reporter persona to bring you, my non-existent readers, the scoop!
The fabulous Ms. Sextina popped round my place at about 6pm so we could begin the requisite "oh what will I wear" ritual. Sabrina wore a black strapless top to emphasize her absolutely enormous chest (yes, she will kill me for saying that) and I wore a top that is currently too big for me, but you can't tell in the pictures. It sparkles. I like it.
After fooling around and wasting time, we left my place at about 8pm hoping to arrive right at 9pm for the opening of the club. Yes, Sabrina and I are getting old and we want to get to the bar, sit down and enjoy the night. Once upon a time we took our naps at 9pm so that we could get to the club by 1:45am in time to rule the dance floor. Now, we actually hoped that James Bryan would go on first so that we could go home early. Well, he didn't go on first. A nameless rap band went on first. Let me take a step back.
We got to the club at about 8:45 and discovered that Le Swimming was still closed. Since we were feeling a bit peckish, we went down the road to Café Republique for some waffle potatoes which is a pretentious way to say we had some fries. At about 9 something or other, we decided to head back to Le Swimming and situate ourselves for the show. As we approached the doors, we noticed two men and one woman located outside in a haze of putrid smoke. Umm...since when did it become acceptable to smoke pot outside in the street? This is exactly the kind of thing I like to point out to those who think we should legalize marijuana. "It doesn't hurt anyone," they say in their idiotic, whiny little voices, "It's less harmful than smoking cigarettes." Umm...hokay...but, uh, it stinks and it's smoky. Usually, people aren't mindful of their nasty habits and I know that if marijuana gets legalized the idiots of this world will subject me and others to their most foul undertaking. It's not even legal and these three dolts decided that they should fumigate the entrance to the club with their smoke. Heh. Thanks a lot three idiots from in front of the club, now we stink just like you do. Well, imagine our shock when we discovered that two of the three idiots were the opening act to the opening act. I guess they have a name, but their garbled attempt at "rapping" was such that all we heard was "RDP" and "pop pop pop," which I suppose is meant to imply that in RDP (commonly known as Rivière-des-Prairies) there is some kind of imagined gang warfare. So, being that they are a nameless group, I'm going to call them "RDP Pop Pop." Now, while I'm not a huge fan of gansta rap I do like some of what has been released. Unfortunately, RDP is not Compton, California. There is no gang warfare there. RDP Pop Pop would notice that if they weren't high. Secondly, listening to this group was like looking at a copy of a copy. Sorry, RDP Pop Pop, in my opinion DMX, Ludacris, Cam'ron and Wu Tang Clan already did it better. See...I feel bad because Sabrina and I thought that the three putrid idiots from the front were with Moka Only. We assumed that they were his friends who had come to smell up our lovely town with their rotten joints. Well, colour me embarrassed. How judgmental of us. Our mistake, they were not with Moka Only. Now, before RDP Pop Pop's set, we were subjected to some very bad early nineties R&B (and one good nostalgic song - Jody Watley's "Looking for a New Love.") We also falsely put that onto Moka Only. It wasn't Moka Only's fault, it was RDP Pop Pop's fault. I guess they thought they were being old school. It isn't very old school to subject our poor innocent ears to the sounds of Klymaxx, nor is it old school to recycle the RZA's beats during your set. Moka Only, I'm very sorry that we attributed the train wreck that is RDP Pop Pop to you. From now on, we shall judge you based on direct evidence rather than assumptions.
Anyhoo, the next act on, the actual opener, was Soyastereo.
Soyastereo sounds like Jamiroquai mixed with something...I want to say Hoobastank but I'm not sure that I actually know who Hoobastank is or what songs Hoobastank has released. Anyway, I'll stick with Hoobastank for now. Soyastereo weren't too bad. They are obviously a local band. Most of the audience was theirs. The place was packed for them. Soyastereo's set consisted of many covers (like Jamiroquai's Virtual Insanity) and one song that I didn't recognize. I now think it is this song called Chocolate Eyes. Good for them, I hope they do well. I think that Soyastereo is funky and they could do well, they just need to tighten up their set and their look. They look a little too generic, except the drummer who was too cool for school. I like that.
Next up was the James Bryan band. Actually, James was milling about before the show and we had a little chat about the future of the Philosopher Kings (I'm a roving reporter you know). It seems to be common knowledge that the Philosopher Kings' new album will be released on November 15th, but, did you know that the will be touring in December?? Huh, huh, didja know that? Well, if you didn't you heard it here first. Sabrina and James and I had a most lovely chat and an even lovelier show.
Sabrina Sextina is a pretty serious Philosopher Kings fan. As a result, she forced me to go see James Bryan on Canada Day. Hey, the show was free in honour of our great nation's birthday (they paid me to say that.) What would Canada Day be without free shows? It is actually mandatory in Montreal or we'll riot. I swear to you, we riot if we don't get a certain number of free shows suring the summer. Don't test us. You'll regret it. We also saw Jesse Cook that day. In the rain. Anyway, as it turns out, James Bryan ain't too bad. You can hear his music here. I tend to like genre mixes like James does - rock with a african, latin and jazz influences. He played that night with an abbreviated band - himself on guitar, the singer Alessa and the percussionist David...or Wilson, I'm not sure which.
The band was tight and sounded like it was at full strength. They played a bunch of songs from the album including the jazzy Beautiful World and their remake of Bizarre Love Triangle. Sabrina won a free CD because she correctly knew that they had done this remake. Well done, Ms. Sextina!
Finally, Moka Only took the stage.
Moka Only is a sometime member of Canadian rap act Swollen Members. According to one of their songs, Moka Only always brings it home. Unfortunately, we didn't stick around for the show, we went to Bar Rouge to visit our friend Irwin, who is a bouncer at the club. But, uh, sorry Moka about the earlier misjudgment. Won't happen again.
Now, on a sadder note, we found out that Le Swimming closed yesterday.
Le Swimming is a great place to listen to rock music and play pool. Unfortunately, we never really hung out there, but it's a nice, friendly place. We took some pictures with the bartenders, one of whom has a great tattoo sleeve, but uh, I'm going to have to confer with Ms. Sextina before they go up. She might kill me if I put anymore pictures of her on my blog. She's anonymous that way.
In the end, a good time was had by all. Le Swimming, we'll miss you. James Bryan, see you in December.
The fabulous Ms. Sextina popped round my place at about 6pm so we could begin the requisite "oh what will I wear" ritual. Sabrina wore a black strapless top to emphasize her absolutely enormous chest (yes, she will kill me for saying that) and I wore a top that is currently too big for me, but you can't tell in the pictures. It sparkles. I like it.
After fooling around and wasting time, we left my place at about 8pm hoping to arrive right at 9pm for the opening of the club. Yes, Sabrina and I are getting old and we want to get to the bar, sit down and enjoy the night. Once upon a time we took our naps at 9pm so that we could get to the club by 1:45am in time to rule the dance floor. Now, we actually hoped that James Bryan would go on first so that we could go home early. Well, he didn't go on first. A nameless rap band went on first. Let me take a step back.
We got to the club at about 8:45 and discovered that Le Swimming was still closed. Since we were feeling a bit peckish, we went down the road to Café Republique for some waffle potatoes which is a pretentious way to say we had some fries. At about 9 something or other, we decided to head back to Le Swimming and situate ourselves for the show. As we approached the doors, we noticed two men and one woman located outside in a haze of putrid smoke. Umm...since when did it become acceptable to smoke pot outside in the street? This is exactly the kind of thing I like to point out to those who think we should legalize marijuana. "It doesn't hurt anyone," they say in their idiotic, whiny little voices, "It's less harmful than smoking cigarettes." Umm...hokay...but, uh, it stinks and it's smoky. Usually, people aren't mindful of their nasty habits and I know that if marijuana gets legalized the idiots of this world will subject me and others to their most foul undertaking. It's not even legal and these three dolts decided that they should fumigate the entrance to the club with their smoke. Heh. Thanks a lot three idiots from in front of the club, now we stink just like you do. Well, imagine our shock when we discovered that two of the three idiots were the opening act to the opening act. I guess they have a name, but their garbled attempt at "rapping" was such that all we heard was "RDP" and "pop pop pop," which I suppose is meant to imply that in RDP (commonly known as Rivière-des-Prairies) there is some kind of imagined gang warfare. So, being that they are a nameless group, I'm going to call them "RDP Pop Pop." Now, while I'm not a huge fan of gansta rap I do like some of what has been released. Unfortunately, RDP is not Compton, California. There is no gang warfare there. RDP Pop Pop would notice that if they weren't high. Secondly, listening to this group was like looking at a copy of a copy. Sorry, RDP Pop Pop, in my opinion DMX, Ludacris, Cam'ron and Wu Tang Clan already did it better. See...I feel bad because Sabrina and I thought that the three putrid idiots from the front were with Moka Only. We assumed that they were his friends who had come to smell up our lovely town with their rotten joints. Well, colour me embarrassed. How judgmental of us. Our mistake, they were not with Moka Only. Now, before RDP Pop Pop's set, we were subjected to some very bad early nineties R&B (and one good nostalgic song - Jody Watley's "Looking for a New Love.") We also falsely put that onto Moka Only. It wasn't Moka Only's fault, it was RDP Pop Pop's fault. I guess they thought they were being old school. It isn't very old school to subject our poor innocent ears to the sounds of Klymaxx, nor is it old school to recycle the RZA's beats during your set. Moka Only, I'm very sorry that we attributed the train wreck that is RDP Pop Pop to you. From now on, we shall judge you based on direct evidence rather than assumptions.
Anyhoo, the next act on, the actual opener, was Soyastereo.
Soyastereo sounds like Jamiroquai mixed with something...I want to say Hoobastank but I'm not sure that I actually know who Hoobastank is or what songs Hoobastank has released. Anyway, I'll stick with Hoobastank for now. Soyastereo weren't too bad. They are obviously a local band. Most of the audience was theirs. The place was packed for them. Soyastereo's set consisted of many covers (like Jamiroquai's Virtual Insanity) and one song that I didn't recognize. I now think it is this song called Chocolate Eyes. Good for them, I hope they do well. I think that Soyastereo is funky and they could do well, they just need to tighten up their set and their look. They look a little too generic, except the drummer who was too cool for school. I like that.
Next up was the James Bryan band. Actually, James was milling about before the show and we had a little chat about the future of the Philosopher Kings (I'm a roving reporter you know). It seems to be common knowledge that the Philosopher Kings' new album will be released on November 15th, but, did you know that the will be touring in December?? Huh, huh, didja know that? Well, if you didn't you heard it here first. Sabrina and James and I had a most lovely chat and an even lovelier show.
Sabrina Sextina is a pretty serious Philosopher Kings fan. As a result, she forced me to go see James Bryan on Canada Day. Hey, the show was free in honour of our great nation's birthday (they paid me to say that.) What would Canada Day be without free shows? It is actually mandatory in Montreal or we'll riot. I swear to you, we riot if we don't get a certain number of free shows suring the summer. Don't test us. You'll regret it. We also saw Jesse Cook that day. In the rain. Anyway, as it turns out, James Bryan ain't too bad. You can hear his music here. I tend to like genre mixes like James does - rock with a african, latin and jazz influences. He played that night with an abbreviated band - himself on guitar, the singer Alessa and the percussionist David...or Wilson, I'm not sure which.
The band was tight and sounded like it was at full strength. They played a bunch of songs from the album including the jazzy Beautiful World and their remake of Bizarre Love Triangle. Sabrina won a free CD because she correctly knew that they had done this remake. Well done, Ms. Sextina!Finally, Moka Only took the stage.
Moka Only is a sometime member of Canadian rap act Swollen Members. According to one of their songs, Moka Only always brings it home. Unfortunately, we didn't stick around for the show, we went to Bar Rouge to visit our friend Irwin, who is a bouncer at the club. But, uh, sorry Moka about the earlier misjudgment. Won't happen again.
Now, on a sadder note, we found out that Le Swimming closed yesterday.
Le Swimming is a great place to listen to rock music and play pool. Unfortunately, we never really hung out there, but it's a nice, friendly place. We took some pictures with the bartenders, one of whom has a great tattoo sleeve, but uh, I'm going to have to confer with Ms. Sextina before they go up. She might kill me if I put anymore pictures of her on my blog. She's anonymous that way.
In the end, a good time was had by all. Le Swimming, we'll miss you. James Bryan, see you in December.
posted by Laurelle St. Laurent at 9:13 p.m.
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