Last Night's Gig: Attack in Black/Shotgun Jimmie

Since April 14, I've been interning at CBC Radio 3, here's a blog that I posted on cbcradio3.com. See it here in its original form.

Admittedly, I do not go to as many shows as I should lately. Until I came to Radio 3 to do my internship, the last gig I had been to was way the heck back in early November, when I saw John K. Samson do a solo set at the Pyramid Cabaret in Winnipeg. George Bush was still president back then, it was a scary world.

Luckily, I've broken that horrible months-long streak since landing in Vancouver. Because if I hadn't, I would have missed a fantastic show by Attack In Black and Shotgun Jimmie that took place last night at the Biltmore Cabaret.

I arrived fashionably late, and unfortunately missed the beginning of Shotgun Jimmie's set. But the last 2/3 of it that I saw sounded great. Jimmie has this great way of playing his guitar, or rather, playing an extension of himself. Every strum had a bluesy/Neil Young-ish aura to it and I found myself closing my eyes every once and awhile trying to let the notes soak in. Aside from the one dude slam dancing by himself (wtf?) it was a good first set to lead into the headliner.

Having not even heard of Attack In Black until last week, I wasn't sure what to expect from their live set. But the 100 or so fans who showed up knew what they wanted, and AIB delivered. Bassist Ian Kehoe kindly dedicated "Leaving Your Death in a Flower Bed" to Radio 3 before launching into the track. Again, I found myself trying to soak in all the music at once because it did sound that good. The only lower points to the set were an unfortunate bass tuning error (resulting in an entire track being played out of tune) and the decision by AIB not to play "Young Leaves", which many fans in the crowd very clearly wanted to hear.

But other than those small points (and "Slam Dancer" later snogging some chick at one of the tables...wtf?) it was a very energetic and enjoyable show to be at. Go see them when they some around, you won't be disappointed.