One great thing about living in the states is that when a canadian band comes to town you don’t have to rush out to get tickets to the 4th sold out show. No, for the most part you just calmly walk to the venue the night of the event and purchase a ticket from the door. This, of course, does not apply to the Arcade Fire. But when Jason Collett plays a show at the Sunset Tavern, you know you’re signing up for a pretty intimate concert. Collett and his ragtag 4-piece band of musicians played to an audience of about 20 active listeners. This included the fellow I stood in front of who had come to the show with a mic (attached to an 8 foot tripod) and what appeared to be some serious equipment in a backpack. I have no idea why he was allowed to do such blatant bootlegging but I’m glad he did because I ended up with a copy of the entire set. It’s good to know that you can depend on the kindness of random bootleggers to send you CDs in the mail.
The Tavern, which is situated in Ballard, isn’t the most compelling venue. It’s narrow, the stage is about 6 inches off the ground, the speakers are always tweaking, and for every person watching the show there’s at least one other person in the back talking as loud as they possibly can. This last fact is really important if you’re trying to bootleg the show in question. To my surprise, the disc that arrived at my house actually sounds pretty good. Come to think of it, the loudest voices on the recording are either me or my friend John. On Tropic of Safety you can hear me yell “whoo” several times. John, who was blown away by the band, can be heard to say “I might following them tomorrow night” to Portland (listen at 1:49 on the same track to hear it).
What is missing in the recording is a proper record of the several absurdities that occurred that night. First, there was one obscenely drunk college student named “Scotty” who’s friends kept buying shots of JD for the band in the name of ole’ Scotty. Then, during a song for which I don’t know the name, a not-so-good-looking woman began to dance in front of the stage in a fashion which I can only describe as gypsy/third-rate-stripper. But she wasn’t done with just this first interpretive dance. She later topped herself by attempting to include a handstand in her dance which ended with a loud thud of failure. Though Collett kept his composure, the guitarist had trouble holding back laughter while the bass player just stared in utter disbelief. John, on the other hand, had to walk outside because he was laughing so hard.
It’s also worth noting that the concert was fucking amazing. Collett was awesome and his band fucking rocked. It was easily one of the best concerts I’ve been to in the last year. If you have a chance to see them in concert, do so. If you’re in southern ontario, they’ll be playing at hillside . So, without further ado…
jason collett - tropic of safety [MP3]
jason collett - unknown (highway 401) [this guy’s flickr account.