Frankly my dear...

October's concert/VIFF lineup are well underway, but I've been too lazy (busy?) to post anything so here goes...
Black Francis - Frank Black (touring as Black Francis) played Richards for two nights last week. We went Wednesday. We lined up early, just in case the old people seats were going to fill up fast (the Pixies ex lead singer should in theory pull an old people crowd...). And yes, there were actually two people already in line ahead of us, so we weren't the only ones thinking that way. So, we sat on our cherished balcony stools. And waited for the club to fill. And waited. And waited....
It was a bit like my Rock Plaza Central experience. There were maybe 150 people in the end - which for a club that holds about 500 just isn't that impressive. I actually counted the people on the floor - there were 75. I shouldn't be able to count the people on the floor. It should be so crowded that it is like trying to count grains of salt. Once again Vancouver, where were you? I'm hoping you all showed up for the Thursday show.
As for Frank/Francis - it was a really nice show. Good mix of solo acoustic stuff and full on band, a few Pixies tunes mixed in here and there - really, you couldn't fault him. Except perhaps for miscalculating and booking two nights in a row. And maybe announcing the show too close to the date of the gig. And maybe touring as Black Francis instead of Frank Black. I don't know. Anyway, I was there, and I'm glad.

A couple of weeks from now I will be off to the Fiery Furnaces - really more of a whim than anything, I don't know there stuff all that well based on what I have heard of them & read about them I thought it would be worth checking out... & (yay) Akron/Family, which I am really pumped about just because their live shows are such a crazed delight. The show I really wish I was going to is Final Fantasy/Great Lakes Swimmers - which seems to be sold out now. If anyone has an extra ticket, let me know and I'll be your friend forever. Or at least until the show is over.

On the VIFF front - a couple of things worth mentioning - Scott Walker:30 Century Man, a very nicely put together documentary about the 60s pop icon turned avant garde composer/musical influence on many of today's more interesting artists. The director was at the screening & was a funny, articulate open guy. And I have since downloaded The Drift, Walker's most recent album, and it is wonderfully horrifying. I listen and am stuck in the dark in a bombed out building. Is that a good thing? Not sure, but it's an amazing thing.

Sidney Lumet's excellent Before the Devil Knows You're Dead was also a lot of fun. Familiar heist-gone-wrong territory, and another reason to bow and scrape at the feet of Philip Seymour Hoffman (or shudder at the increasingly creepy rat like face of Ethan Hawk). I Just Didn't Do It takes a good look at the horrifying state of the Japanese justice system through the eyes of a young man wrongly accused of groping a girl on the subway (and for the love of god how could you not grope someone on a Japanese subway train? I don't think you could fit a sheet of paper between bodies...and I thought Toronto was bad). According to the director, who was in attendance, 99.9% of those that go to trial in Japan are found guilty....doesn't Lotto 6/49 have better odds than that? And finally (for this post), 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days
was gripping, gripping, gripping, well acted, and really nicely filmed in a quiet, focussed way. Another time, you'd get much more detailed reviews but not tonight. Be thankful...