Do you ever wish you could clone yourself?
Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re thinking: “Of course I do, Spencer. Who doesn’t want to clone themselves? Duh…” Sorry, consider it a rhetorical question. Cloning seems like the sort of thing that would start out as a delightful experiment but quickly go horribly awry, which is likely why we humans are drawn to the concept (or am I the only one?) Sometimes I think that it would be better, in fact, to have a robot version of yourself. Although I am pretty sure that Robot Spencer would turn out to be wickedly evil and would cut a swathe of destruction through my life, ruining my job and marriage, making snide remarks to my friends, and forcing me to turn against it, culminating in an epic battle royale involving flame throwers and explosives. Who would emerge as the victor? Hopefully we will never have to find out the answer to that question.
Maybe what I’m really asking is, do you ever wish you could be in two places at once? Of course we know this is impossible (unless you subscribe to the theories of Hugh Everett III. Why can’t someone just go ahead and prove the whole parallel universes deal once and for all? Jeez. I’m waiting, Science).
Sadly, this proof is unlikely to occur in time for July 11th. Why is July 11th an important date, you ask? Because there are two musical events happening simultaneously that evening that we have tickets for. And I desperately want to attend both of them.
How did this happen? Let me explain. A few years ago, The Finn and I had a friend who worked as a bartender at The Berkeley Church in Toronto. They were in the midst of filming Season 3 of the show “Beautiful Noise,” a music profile and performance series, and he let us sneak in for free to catch a few of the acts. My Morning Jacket happened to be on the bill and we were absolutely blown away by their live performance. Like seriously, it was just massive amounts of AMAZINGNESS. They had just flown in from somewhere in South America about two hours prior to the show and they still KILLED it. After that I became completely obsessed with their live album, Okonokos. They are one of those bands that really takes it to the next level live in concert, and Jim James has one of the coolest voices I’ve heard in a long time.
Anyway, when I was looking around for a birthday present for The Finn this year I realized that they were playing a show here in Toronto on July 11th so I got us tickets. Yay! Great, good plan, ready to go, super pumped. I can’t tell you how excited I was about seeing them live again.
Except…
July 11th is the same night that U2 is playing their rescheduled show.
F&CK.
You guys. I love U2. Like, I love love LOVE them. The Joshua Tree is my favourite album. ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’ is my favourite song. When I went to see them two years ago and they started playing that song, I cried. I totally cried like a baby.
SIGH. What to do? In the end, we decided that we just could not miss U2. But, our loss could be your gain. We are giving away our My Morning Jacket tickets to one lucky Let Them Read Vinyl reader. The winner will receive two tickets — so you can bring a friend/spouse/significant other/relative/nemesis/archenemy/evil robot of your choosing. Whoever you decide to take with you, my advice is that it’s not someone you’re on a first date with, because this band is so good that you will forget all about your date as soon as the music starts and ignore them for the rest of the evening. This will probably make them mad and they will refuse to date you again, and then you will blame old Spencer and LTEV for your ruined love life. So don’t say we didn’t warn you.
All you have to do to enter the contest is tell us, in the comments section: what is the best concert you ever saw, and why? Doesn’t have to be a super long answer, a few sentences or a paragraph will suffice. We will choose the winner using highly scientifical methods (don’t worry, these will be totally impartial — we are bound by the music blogger code of ethics) and we’ll notify the winner by e-mail.
The deadline for entry is 12:00 midnight on Friday, July 1st.
The only qualification to enter this contest is that you must have a cell phone. Tickets were purchased through the Rogers Wireless Box Office so we will text them to you, and you bring your phone to the venue with the text (they scan your phone for entry). If you lose the text, it can be re-sent to you. More information about the Rogers Wireless Box Office can be found here.
Here’s a preview of what YOU could be seeing on July 11th. This song is so good it makes me want to cry:
SHOW DETAILS:
July 11th 2011, Kool Haus, 132 Queens Quay East, Toronto, Ontario. Doors at 7pm. All Ages. GA Floors.
Let Them Eat Vinyl 
June 21st, 2011 at 9:21 am
September 2006: Hawksley Workman at the Phoenix. A night filled with beautiful songs and heartfelt ballads. So magical, I proposed to my wife under Martin Streek’s Phoenix-laden DJ booth. We got drunk and celebrated and after the gig we spent about an hour in the Green P lot across the street calling all our family & friends to excitedly tell them the news. Best. Concert. Ever.
June 21st, 2011 at 5:01 pm
WOW. Awesome story!! 🙂
June 21st, 2011 at 9:59 am
Well Spencer let me see, have seen a few shows in my day. From Ozzy, Train, The Who, Queen, Tom Petty, Blind Melon, STP, The Chilis…but I could go on….I’d have to say one that stands out in my mind would be U2 and the ZOO TV tour at the EX.
Went with a few boys, we prepped pretty well for the show, as usual decided to get scalpers tickets. So a couple of the guys bought tickets right away. I and a good friend (who is quite frugal) waited for a better deal. So we managed to get floor seats for $80. As my frugal friend and I walked to our seats we just kept walking…and walking. We ended up in the second floor section, second row. We were directly in front of the stage that came out into the crowd. My thin friend started to get all pumped up…” No f$#kin way, are you kidding me!!!” He then turned around to everyone around us and said “ I apologize now because I’m going to lose my mind!!!”
As the show began it was unbelievable, we could see the band no problem we were so close! Then MLK began, this guy jumped on my back with his fist in the air and sat there for the entire song singing and yelling. Throughout the show we continued to prep and party with the band and those around us. Think you know who this thin friend is Spence. Ohhh wasn’t I that guy that got you into The Church if my mind serves me correctly….and My Morning Jacket did blow the roof off of that place!!!
Xoxo Mamy
June 21st, 2011 at 5:04 pm
Haha yes, I think I know who you’re referring to! 😉 And yes, we have you to thank for the shows at The Church (Stars were awesome too. I wish I had gone to see The Donnas). You are a prince among men, my friend. A prince among men.
June 23rd, 2011 at 12:43 pm
This is tough given the choices from Helix (ya Canada’s Hair Metal ambassadors!) to just recently Elliot Brood on a farm in a barn in Creemore. For the sake of this post I’m going to keep it short and pick The Ramones June 8th 1992, Oshawa Ontario. My friend and I spray painted our white ‘Chuck Taylor’s’ black and rocked hard to what seemed like one long and fast song separated into 20 parts starting with 1,2,3,4!!
Cheers
June 27th, 2011 at 3:31 pm
dude, Ramones…so fucking jealous.
When I was in HS I colored in my chucks with a black marker. They were black & white checkered & pretty awesome so I have no idea why I wanted to change them, but it worked out okay because you could still see the checkers through the black. I still have ’em today!
June 23rd, 2011 at 3:32 pm
Cake. Massey Hall. Late ’90’s. Highlight of the show: Lead singer, John McCrea, has finally had it with a floor level drunk who keeps yelling between songs for Cake’s hit remake, “I will survive”. John finally stops the show, about 5 songs into the concert. Singles out the drunk. Asks the drunk guy if he will leave if the band plays the song he wants to hear right now. The guy says he will. The band plays “I Will Survive”. Immediately following the song, John points the guy out to security. The guy is escorted out of the venue and the show goes on with the comment from John, “Now that that’s over, let’s have some fun.” A fantastic show follows.
Best show I never saw: Santana at the Amphitheatre. Ask the Thinfinn about that one…..
June 29th, 2011 at 5:17 pm
Gotta love it when bands put their foot down & kick people out. Thinfinn has a good story about Midnight Oil: “You, you in the blue jumper…GET OUT”. They refused to keep playing til the guy left, I think? Hahaha.
June 23rd, 2011 at 10:52 pm
gotta be Spiritualized at Radio City Music Hall last year performing “Ladies & Gentlemen we are Floating in Space”. The wife and I drove down for a few days last year and did all the touristy New York things I never got to do despite being in the city several times with my band – that’s the problem with being a touring musician; you get to say you’ve been to all these places, but you rarely get to experience them for more than a day… anyways, the concert was phenomenal – replete with a mini-orchestra, mini-choir, and Radio City…. christ… what a room!
It was a rare treat to travel back to the late 90’s with one of the best albums ever made.
: )
June 29th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
NYC, Radio City Music Hall, Spiritualized…sounds like a recipe for awesomeness indeed!
June 28th, 2011 at 10:17 pm
Rock and Roll.
So many shows… so many, lets see.
I have found that the greatest rock experiences are the ones seldom expected. I mean if you went and saw the police at the ‘El Mo’ or Sound Garden at the Masonic Temple odds where good you felt special but didn’t really understand what it was you where seeing till years later.
Not so religious for me…
More like unbridaled rock carnage.
Back to Aug 2000 at the Molson Amp’ and the most unhooked rock show I have seen on the arena level. Not sure how I ended up there that night as I have more of a passing interest with Fishbone, STP and the Chillies. It must of been a freebee or something cause god knows I wouldn’t have laid down the $50.
I distrinctly remember remarking ‘WTF do the boys in STP keep Weiland and his heroin romance around for…loser.’
Woah.
One song into the set, hovering like a man possesed, he commanded the throngs from the lawns to come join him on stage as this was no easy listening concert and blah blah blah Celine Dion…and like the wild fire they came, caught up in the anger of ‘No4.’ The seated floor became a mosh pit and bolted rows of seats surfed off to the side and discarded.
The bludgeoning was complete…
The hammer fell.
The pit whirled like a summer storm.
I realized why he was front and centre, gawdy rock persona and glam atire, behold the king.
Bow down.
*whew*
The chilles played their prom after that…I went home and had a shower.
June 29th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
“this was no easy listening concert and blah blah blah Celine Dion…”
ahahahaha…! awesome. one of the best lines I’ve read recently.
June 29th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
The best concert I’ve ever been too? Too many choices in a rolodex of memories. But I’d have to go with Crystal Castles at the House of Blues in Boston, MA. I went to enjoy the lo-fi beats of Ethan Kath accompanied by the witch-like shrieks of Alice Glass. As the show was about to begin, an unknown man came to the microphone to announce that Alice Glass had fractured her ankle was unable to play the show. I was heartbroken. Knowing that these rockers hailed from my native land of Canada I had worn my Maple Leafs jersey to the show. So the wound went twice as deep. As the bearer of bad news continued his decree suddenly a bottle flew past his face from stage left. ‘Twas Ms. Glass who proceeded to limp out on stage dragging another bottle of Jim Bean in her hand announcing “Fuck the doctors, I’m doing it anyway!”
After the roar of the crowd CC proceeded to play a fantastic set with hits from both albums. I was smitten, and being 6’ 4” somehow managed to meander my way to the front barricade. Alice felt compelled to share her 8-bit stylings with the crowd and launched her crippled body on the audience. Once again my height gave me the advantage, and Alice needing a place to stand her weary legs, chose my protruding shoulders as the base. Perhaps it was that familiar jersey that gave her some comfort too. For the next 3 songs she screamed her banshee wail in my face. I processed all I could in my blissful state.
Two encores later the show was over and roadies wound up quarter inch cables while I wound down from my excitement. I even managed the catch the revered drumstick! However, it came at a price – three emo-core young ladies decided that I did not deserve the stick and it would be theirs. After diplomatic reasoning, polite requests, the stick went in my pants where the ladies would not venture. Or would they? Yes. They would. Thankfully DeShaun the bouncer came to my rescue letting me escape with the stick, scratches/bruises, and some great memories.
June 29th, 2011 at 5:14 pm
I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY WENT FOR THE PANTS….!!! Shameless.
Hilarious.
June 29th, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Oh man, so, SO many good stories…this is gonna be tough for our judges…