Blood Red Shoes at The Danforth Music Hall - Concert Photos

Blood Red Shoes stopped into Toronto on tour opening for The Fratellis. I'll be honest. I was at this show for Blood Red Shoes. I love this band. They should be absolutely huge. Heading these venues and bigger. Packing on rabid fans.

Last time I saw Blood Red Shoes live they headlined at The Garrison. My photos from that show are here. I've been anxiously waiting for their return ever since.

Although this was a short, opening set, it was awesome. I soaked up every second of it, from the opening three tunes where I got to be all on my own in the photo pit, through the remainder of the set. The riffs, the songs, the energy, the hooks; it's all there in abundance.

Check out my favourite tunes from their setlist, and don't miss this band next time they fly through your town. They do not disappoint.

"The Perfect Mess"

"Cold"

"An Animal"

"Black Distractions"

"Light It Up"

"God Complex"

"Speech Coma"

"This is Not for You"

"Red River"

"Je Me Perds"

"Colours Fade"

Best of: My top 25 favourite albums of 2014

As 2014 draws to a close, I've taken a few moments to assess my favourite albums of the year. This list is always harder, and shorter, for me than the songs list. A song jumps into my consciousness quickly and I can say, "Yup. Great tune!" much more easily than I can say, "Wow. Solid album."

The other thing I've noticed is that I've seen 18 of the 25 artists on this list live in the past year. Perhaps that's a reason for more of the bands' tunes making an impact.

So, for better or for worse, here's my list of my 25 favourite albums of the past year.

1. Augustines Augustines

2. Royal Blood Royal Blood

3. Public Animal Habitat Animal

4. Bob Mould Beauty and Ruin

5. The Balconies Fast Motions

6. Strand of Oaks Heal

7. Lowell We Loved Her Dearly

8. Split Single Fragmented World

9. Little Foot Long Foot Woman

10. Kasabian 48:13

11. Blood Red Shoes Blood Red Shoes

12. The Districts The Districts

13. Haerts Haerts

14. Dinosaur Pile-Up Nature Nurture

15. The Hold Steady Teeth Dreams

16. Owl John Owl John

17. The C'Mons Places

18. Spoon They Want My Soul

19. Drowners Drowners

20. Mounties Thrash Rock Legacy

21. Elbow The Take Off And Landing Of Everything

22. Lykke Li I Never Learn

23. The Jezabels The Brink

24. St. Vincent St. Vincent

25. Steel Panther All You Can Eat

Blood Red Shoes stop in Canada and rock out at The Garrison

I'm glad that I don't pretend to have any objectivity or lack of bias in what I write about - I write about the music I like. Or love. And I love the music of Blood Red Shoes. A quick look at my best of lists from 2012 and 2010-2011 clearly demonstrate this.

• In Time to Voices on my Favourite Albums of 2012
• "Heartsink" at number 2 on my Favourite Songs of 2010-2011 along with "Light It Up" at 33, "It Is Happening Again" at 48, and "Don't Ask" at 54.
• Fire Like This at number 3 on my Favourite Albums of 2010-2011

The last time they were in town they appeared at the relatively tiny Drake Underground. It was one of the first shows that I decided to take a few pictures at. A quick look at what I captured with my blackberry and then decided to post to the blog should give you a chuckle. But it set me on a path.

On Friday night, May 16, Blood Red Shoes played Toronto again. This time at The Garrison in support of their recently released self-titled album. This marks the only Canadian stop on their current tour and they noted that this is a shame. Hopefully they'll swing back soon with more Canadian dates. As the night progressed and many shots were consumed by both band and audience, they stated that they were having a lot of fun. Of course they were. Toronto rocks.

Over the relatively short time that I've been covering the Toronto concert scene, I've been surprised a few times. I've walked into clubs expecting a small audience to find the place sold out and packed with enthusiastic fans. I've walked into clubs expecting that I needed to get there early to get a spot up front and found the place more than half empty. It's always staggered me that this band doesn't fill venues five times the size of The Garrison. The songs are incredible, their show is fun, and their energy is perfection.

Check out some of my personal highlights of their set below and if you like what you hear, go see them live. You won't be disappointed. And if you do, bring them some poutine and mousse. They'll know why.

"I Wish I Was Someone Better" from Box of Secrets

"Don't Ask" from Fire Like This

"The Perfect Mess" from Blood Red Shoes

"An Animal" from Blood Red Shoes

"Cold" from In Time To Voices

"Lost Kids" from In Time To Voices

"This is Not for You" from Box of Secrets

"Say Something, Say Anything" from Box of Secrets

"Speech Coma" from Blood Red Shoes

"Heartsink" from Fire Like This

"Red River" from the Water EP

"Light it Up" from Fire Like This

"Colours Fade" from Fire Like This

Blood or chocolate sauce: A new video from Blood Red Shoes

I've heard that if you film / photograph in black and white, you can use chocolate sauce as blood because it comes out the same shade of grey. Do you think Blood Red Shoes used chocolate sauce or something red in their gross out video for "Speech Coma"?

Blood Red Shoes' latest, a self-titled album, came out earlier this year. They're at The Garrison in Toronto on May 16.

Check 'em out. I love this band.

Another new Blood Red Shoes track

Blood Red Shoes, the awesome alt-rock duo, have a new self-titled album coming out March 3. I featured the tune "The Perfect Mess" and now we get a video for "An Animal" and the audio for the B-Side "Wretch". Sounds great!

Looking forward to the album release and to seeing the band live. And to hopefully getting some better pictures of them.

New Blood Red Shoes album on the way

I'm a pretty big fan of Blood Red Shoes. You can check out all the posts to see proof. They've just announced a new, self-titled album that will be out March 3 of next year. We get to hear the new tune "The Perfect Mess" now.

Sounds great! Looking forward to the new album, and hopefully, a tour date in T.O.

New Blood Red Shoes!

Blood Red Shoes put out their last full-length, In Time To Voices, last year and yesterday they released a new EP. Titled Water, it features 3 new songs. You can get "Black Distractions" for free at their site and check out the video for "Red River" below. It rocks!

My favourite albums: Awesome and cool albums of 2012: My best of list: 20 Albums of 2012

2012 was no different from previous years for me in that I'm still more of a songs guy than an albums guy. It just takes longer for a whole album to show its charms to me and I struggled with what to put on this list, how to rank it, and even whether to do an albums list at all.

So here are the 20 albums from 2012 that made the biggest impression on me. So far. Alphabetically.


2:54 2:54

Band of Skulls Sweet Sour

Blood Red Shoes In Time To Voices

Bob Mould Silver Age

Diiv Oshin

Dinosaur Jr. I Bet On Sky

Dirty Ghosts Metal Moon

Divine Fits A Thing Called Divine Fits

Fun. Some Nights

IAMDYNAMITE SUPERMEGAFANTASTIC

Jack White Blunderbuss

Japandroids Celebration Rock

Ladyhawke Anxiety

Nude Beach II

Stars The North

Sucioperro Fused

The Twilight Sad No One Can Ever Know

The Whigs Enjoy the Company

The xx Coexist

Yukon Blonde Tiger Talk


Check out the rest of my best of posts.

Blood Red Shoes and DZ Deathrays at The Drake Underground in Toronto

I don't get out to nearly as many shows as I would like to. Every time I do, I think to myself that I should get out more often. I'm resolving to do a better job of that. Let's see how that works out for me.

The most recent show that I attended was last Wednesday, September 26 at The Drake Underground in Toronto. The bill was England's Blood Red Shoes with Australia's DZ Deathrays opening. They're both guitar-drums duos that continue to make me wish that my old band had gone for a two-guitar and drums configuration over the frustration of looking for bassists. When I walked in, I saw DZ Deathrays' drummer sitting behind the merch table and almost said, "Hey, I've seen you puke on YouTube!" Somehow I held myself back.

DZ Deathrays hit the stage to a small but enthusiastic crowd. They did a great job belting out their heavy alternative sounds, which they acknowledge can be compared to DFA 1979. Singer and guitarist Shane Parsons uses his voice and guitar effects to great advantage to thicken out the duo's sound. The bombast and heavy cymbal use of drummer Simon Ridley did the same. The songs are fun and have enough hooks to reel in a listener largely unfamiliar with their tunes. DZ Deathrays' album Bloodstreams is out now.

By the time Blood Red Shoes hit the stage, The Drake Underground had filled up considerably, although I don't know that the show was sold out. I was actually surprised that on their third great album, Blood Red Shoes wasn't selling out much bigger venues. Singer Laura-Mary Carter mentioned that the last time they played Toronto, there were only about 10 people at the show.

They belted through a set that spanned their three album history pretty evenly, keeping the energy level high and all our heads bobbing. I was happy to hear some of my favourites like set opener "It's Getting Boring by the Sea" and "You Bring Me Down" from their first album Box of Secrets, "Don't Ask", "Light It Up" and "Heartsink" from their 2010 release Fire Like This, and "Cold" from their latest In Time To Voices.

If you're not familiar with these awesome bands, check out some tunes below.

From Blood Red Shoes:

"Cold"

"Heartsink"

"Don't Ask"

"Light It Up"

"It's Getting Boring by the Sea"

"You Bring Me Down"

From DZ Deathrays:

"Dollar Chills"

"Gebbie St"

"No Sleep"

"The Mess Up" Jager!!!

"Rad Solar"

"Yeah"

"Blue Blood"

"Play Till You're Dead"

The photos in this post are original pics by me, not the usual professional pics stolen from some other web site. You can tell the difference original art (and a POS BlackBerry camera) makes.

Off to see Blood Red Shoes and DZ Deathrays

Tonight is the Blood Red Shoes / DZ Deathrays show at the Drake Underground here in Toronto. Looking forward to a loud night out...

Here are the latest clips from Blood Red Shoes' latest album, In Time To Voices.

"Lost Kids"

"Je Me Perds"

If you like, check out the other posts where I mention BRS.

And here are a couple from DZ Deathrays, who I just discovered.

"Dollar Chills"

"The Mess Up"

Bet you can't wait for my horrific photos from the gig...

Blood Red Shoes In Time to Voices

Blood Red Shoes have released a video for the title track from In Time To Voices. It's a powerful mid-tempo rocker and the video demonstrates the strength-building that can come from guitar playing. Intense.

Official Video for Cold by Blood Red Shoes

Blood Red Shoes released their new album called In Time to Voices and they recently released the official video for the song I posted before called "Cold".  Really looking forward to this album.

New Blood Red Shoes

I likes me some Blood Red Shoes.  The band.  

I likes them so much they came in #2 with "Heartsink" and also #33, #48, #54 on my top tunes list.  The album Fire Like This came in #3 on my albums list.

And they've got a new album coming out.  It's called In Time to Voices and I really hope it's out in North America at the same time as it's March 26 UK release date.  Please!  Don't make me do anything bad!

In the meantime, "Cold" will have to tide us over.  It sounds great!

My favourite songs: Awesome and cool songs of 2010-2011: my best of list: #2: Blood Red Shoes with "Heartsink"

I absolutely love this band. I love their thick sound and vocal interplay. I love the energy that they put into their fantastic songs. Number 2 is "Heartsink" by Blood Red Shoes from their incredible album Fire Like This.



Check out the rest of my best of posts, including my favourite albums of 2010-2011 and the rest of my favourite songs of 2010-2011.

My favourite albums: Awesome and cool albums of 2010-2011: Top 30 Albums: My best of list

Since I didn't put up a post for my favourite tunes and albums of 2010, and since it takes me a while for things to grow on me, I'm going to be a little different than other music writers. I'm going to do "best of" posts for 2 year periods. This will allow me to be late to the party, and give albums extra time to germinate in my little brain. So this set of posts will cover 2010 and 2011.

One side effect of iTunes, smart playlists and listening to songs over albums is that I've really become a lot more of a "songs guy" over being an "album guy". I was more of an album guy back when I was buying vinyl and CDs in the 80s and 90s and I'd throw them on the turntable or in the CD player and listen to the whole things end to end.

That's my explanation for why my best albums list is so much shorter than my best songs list, anyway.

1. The National - High Violet
2. The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar
3. Blood Red Shoes - Fire Like This
4. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong
5. The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever
6. The Whigs - In The Dark
7. Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
8. The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang
9. The New Pornographers - Together
10. Les Savy Fav - Root For Ruin
11. Robyn - Body Talk
12. Hard Fi - Killer Sounds
13. John Grant - The Queen of Denmark
14. The Black Keys - Brothers
15. Army Navy - The Last Place
16. The Posies - Blood/Candy
17. The Kills - Blood Pressures
18. Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart
19. Telekinesis - 12 Desparate Straight Lines
20. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
21. Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks
22. Stars - The Five Ghosts
23. Superchunk - Majesty Shredding
24. We Were Promised Jetpacks - In the Pit of the Stomach
25. Kasabian - Velociraptor!
26. The Naked and Famous - Passive Me, Aggressive You
27. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
28. Sky Larkin - Kaleide
29. The Thermals - Personal Life
30. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes

Check out the rest of my best of posts.

New Blood Red Shoes Video for "Light It Up"

I just happened to head over to Blood Red Shoes' web site to see if they happened to be coming to Toronto. No luck, but they have this video featured on their home page. Another great tune from Blood Red Shoes from their 2010 release Fire Like This.

Can't........... Stop.......... Moving..........

Blood Red Shoes with "Heartsink" from their 2010 album Feel Like This.

Their drummer is a hi-hat artist.

And that riff. Oh, that riff!

"Can you feel your heartsink? I can feel mine"