Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Apologies for the inactivity, but I've bene on an absolute tear as far as the music writing goes, which is a good thing. I've decided to stop doing the little review sidebars in my monthly columns and focus more on doing more Short Takes review for PopMatters. I really should be reviewing as many albums as I can, so I'm going to try to do so. Hopefully it'll work out with minimal burnout.
Besides, 2010 is really starting to heat up, with lots of key releases set for the next three months, especially when it comes to metal. Yesterday I heard the new albums by Alcest, Les Discrets, and Landmine Marathon, three metal albums I was very excited about going into this year. Especially Alcest, which was right up at the top of my mental "most anticipated" list, and I'm thrilled to say the new record is a knockout. I'll be reviewing it in the next couple weeks for a certain metal mag, but I'll be sure to post more extensive thoughts on it here too.
Anyway, as far as published pieces go, a biggie is up at PopMatters today, that being the new Shining album. My whole experience getting into the Norwegian progressive rock band was a bit odd, not to mention lucky. I was recommended their amazing 2007 album Grindstone late that year, and then a few months later I found myself standing in a theater in Oslo watching that band destroy the place, trying to pick up my jaw off the floor. They were also the only band at the conference smart enough to sell their merch, it so happened. Compared to the broader sounds on their albums, I couldn't believe how visceral this band turned out to be live, I just loved the fusion of prog, math metal, and free jazz. Well, they must have known their live shows were on to something, because the new Blackjazz is closer to that live Shining experience than any of their studio output prior ot that. It's loud, it's abrasive, it's abstract, and best of all, it's thrilling to listen to. They're unlike any other young band these days, and I sure hope they get some wider recognition.
Oddly enough, it's so weird how two of the best metal albums feature prominently the work of saxophonist Jorgen Munkeby...
I also recently reviewed the second album by Montreal rockers Priestess. It continues to garner a lot of praise north and south of the border, but I cannot buy that at all. I love the traditional metal direction much of the album takes (a few of the harder songs are killer), but too many of the vocal melodies sound mediocre at best, so much so that I cannot bring myself to fully recommend the album. When the middling "Raccoon Eyes" is the catchiest track, you know you've got a problem. Hello Master was so much better...in retrospect I should have given it a 7 instead of a polite 6.
Then there's the new covers album by death metal bores Six Feet Under. You look at the tracklisting for Graveyard Classics 3 and can't help but admire the band's taste in metal oldies. They do Anvil and Exciter for crying out loud! How can you not love that? But as ably played as the instrumental tracks are, perpetually baked gurgler Chris Barnes always ruins things with his boring, self-parodical cookie monster vocals. He was good in Cannibal Corpse (though Corpsegrinder is far better), somewhat of an innovator in death metal, but as time goes on his style sounds more and more ridiculous. And when he dares to perform Mercyful Fate's timeless "A Dangerous Meeting", as good as the rest of the band is, you know it;s going to be a trainwreck. Ugh. Stick to the original material, dude.
Also, the new issue of Decibel is now out. Of course I haven't seen it yet and won't for another couple weeks, but the site's been updated, so I might as well plug away. Even though they've gone back to showing only the first paragraphs of the features and reviews. Bah. Anyway, I have a feature on Canadian thrash metal greats Sacrifice. It was a pleasure to talk to Rob Urbinati, and it's great to see a band come back from the dead and put out one of the finest comeback albums you'll ever hear. As for reviews, I cover the new ones by Ihsahn, which I've been plugging a lot these last couple months, and Miseration, the much-improved second album by the band led by the talented former vocalist from Scar Symmetry. I'm convinced there should be a White Wizzard review in the new issue, but it's not on the site yet, so I'll just have to wait and see. But int he meantime, take a look at their fabulous new video, which is just too cool for words.
And speaking of retro metal/hard rock, check this out. I can't get enough of this stuff. Dead-on. More on that in a day or two!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Time for another update, this coming after spending a good chunk of the day trying to dig out of the biggest snowfall since the blizzard to 2007. At the very least, this isn't half as cold as a year ago, which was just brutal.
Last Wednesday the Village Voice put out its annual Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll...this year marks the fifth straight year I've participated. It's always fun, and I always say this, but having followed the P&J for a long time before doing the writing thing, it's still a great honour to get the chance to participate. My ballot can be found here. Glenn McDonald's annual statistical breakdowns of the P&J results are always great geeky fun, and I always get a kick out of seeing how my votes trend and which other voters are most similar to me. My centricity is 0.283, as opposed to last year's 0.208...this year's ballot included several higher consensus indie picks (Fever Ray, Camera Obscura, Bat For Lashes, Baroness, etc.) while only two titles were of the esoteric variety (Cobalt, Katatonia), so that's not a surprise.
Interestingly, on ILX's big 2009 metal albums poll, my centricity is a whopping 0.793. Yikes! I'm getting too predictable. Well, I stand by all my recommendations.
Anyway, on the writing front I have a big review of the new Exodus DVD. With Cannibal Corpse pretty much setting the standard two years ago, it's clear early on that Shovel Headed Tour Machine won't be quite as well-made, but it turns out to be a very fun set in the end, which was a pleasant surprise. The band is quite rejuvenated these days, thanks to frontman Rob Dukes, who has really settled into the role, and even though the Wacken 2008 setlist on disc one is skewed too heavily towards the band's post-2004 output (with four Bonded By Blood songs tossed in), the new stuff holds up tremendously well when stacked against such classics as "A Lesson in Violence" and "Piranha". The big documentary on the second disc is really sloppy, haphazardly sequenced and edited, but if you keep watching, you find you'll learn a lot about each band member. The DVD kind of encapsulates my long-standing opinion of Bonded By Blood: sloppy, not quite as good as I would have hoped, but still oddly endearing.
Still on the Exodus subject, it's great to see that they'll be joining Megadeth and Testament on what will be a glorious vintage thrash tour, which hits my city in early March. MegaDave will be leading his band through the entirety of Rust in Peace, while Testament will be performing the seminal The Legacy in its entirety as well. So you know Exodus has to be wondering if they should perform all of Bonded By Blood. If not that, I'll settle for Fabulous Disaster! At any rate, it should be an incredible show, full of good friendly violent fun for all.
If you know me at all, I've been a big Pavement nerd for a very long time, and I was just like all the other geeks who were interested in finding out what the tracklisting for the band's best-of compilation would be. Well, it came out today, and for the most part it's a good mix, but it's far from perfect, and at times it's quite befuddling. First of all, Wowee Zowee has been unfairly snubbed, with only "Grounded" and "Fight This Generation" making the cut, with "We Dance", "Kennel District", "Half a Canyon", and the great "Rattled By the Rush" all ignored. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain's "Elevate Me Later" deserved to be there, too. As for tracks that made it but shouldn't have, I would have lopped off "Date With Ikea" (catchy but not in keeping with the band's style), "Two States" (too obvious a Fall rip-off for comfort), and "Embassy Row" (good but far from the best on Brighten the Corners). I will say it's great that "The Unseen Power of the Picket Fence" made it. Classic, oft-overlooked track, that one. If I was reviewing the comp, it'd get a polite 7/10. Or by Pitchfork standards, 7.8.
Three tracks from the upcoming new albums by three of my favourite bands have surfaced in the last few days, which has been fun. Goldfrapp's new single "Rocket" is a fascinating departure, completely embracing Xanadu-era Olivia Newton John and early-80s Giorgio Moroder pop, the synths totally reminding me of Dirk Diggler's "You Got the Touch". A very good, airy, ebullient pop tune, but it's weird hearing Goldfrapp so slavishly follow a formula like this. I'm hoping the rest of Head First will be a little more adventurous. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, the Drive-By Truckers have returned with "This Fucking Job", a solid blue-collar rocker courtesy Patterson Hood. More of the same from DBT, but that's always a good thing. The Big To-Do is out in March. Canada's Dan Snaith is returning with the first Caribou album in three years, and the first single "Odessa" is a real departure, doing away with the psychedelic/krautrock feel of the past three albums, in favour of a more straightforward dance approach. There's a huge Junior Boys feel to the track, not as minimalist as the JBeez, but definitely some of the most bare-bones music Snaith has created to date. It's a strong track which bodes well for the rest of the album, which is due in April.
Monday, January 18, 2010
It's time to get back on that horse again. I've been piling up the articles and reviews as of late, with more to come as usual, and the first biggie of 2010 has been published today, that being my latest Blood & Thunder column, which this month is a gigantic profile of the talented Ihsahn. For those reders who aren't metal fans, Ihsahn (real name Vegard Tveitan) fronted Emperor, one of the finest black metal bands to ever come out of Norway. After the band split in 2001, his solo career took a while to get going, but over the course of three albums he's sounded more and more comfortable on his own, and with the release of After, it finally feels like he's created a real identity separate from his former band while acknowledging his past as well. What's especially cool about this record is the heavy use of saxophone melodies and solos instead of the usual guitar, and Ihsahn chose the perfect collaborator in Jorgen Munkeby, the leader of the insanely talented Norwegian prog band Shining (whose excellent new CD I am reviewing this week, coincidentally). It's a tough blend to create, but they nail it, creating a record that's as graceful as it is heavy. Anyway, I had a wonderful chat with Ihsahn the week before Christmas, and it went so well that I had to include as many of his responses as I could squeeze in. He's super-nice and an eloquent speaker, one of the most pleasant and easy interviews I've done lately, and I think that reflects in the article. So by all means give it a read, and be sure to pick up the album when it hits stores next week. It's a knockout.
The new issue of Decibel has been out for a while and finally appeared in my mail yesterday, so now's as good a time as any to selfishly plug my own contributions to the issue. First off, I have a small studio update with the great Chicago band Yakuza, whose new album will be out on Profound Lore later this year. I loved Samsara but wasn't wild about Transmutations, and I fully expect the new one to be a gigantic return to form. But that piece hasn't been posted online, so you'll have to buy the issue to read all 199 glorious words.
What has been posted is my feature piece on Between the Buried and Me. As you might or might not know, I'm a big admirer of the band, and it's been fascinating to watch their evolution over the past six years or so, but I hadn't yet interviewed the band until now. I came away impressed by frontman Tommy Rogers, he's a nice guy who's capable of smart, thoughtful answers instead of spouting the usual cliches. Plus the fact that when it comes to listening to music he craves great variety, which was I definitely understood. Anyway, it made for a fun, easy article, and if you dig BTBAM, I'm sure you'll get a bit of a kick out of the piece.
As for record reviews, there's a nice stack in this issue. I wrote the lead review this month, which is always fun...this time it's the new one by Arsis, a record that's bound to polarize audiences. Technical death metal geeks will not be impressed with the band's new direction, which leans heavily towards traditional heavy metal. In fact, I keep hearing a lot of Arch Enemy in Starve For the Devil, and seeing that I like Arch Enemy a lot (Mike Amott is probably my favourite lead guitarist in metal right now...well, he and Frederik Thordendal), this album is definitely right up my alley. And regarding the cover of Alice Cooper's great 1987 song "Roses on White Lace" that I mention in the review, if you haven't heard it, you're missing out on something amazing. So here you go, give it a listen. Good bud Cosmo Lee was the one who hooked me up with the A Diamond For Disease EP in 2005, so he gets full credit for getting me into this fine band in the first place.
I also wrote a piece on the new one by Russian pagan metalers Arkona. I really like this band and especially their talented singer/screamer/songwriter/warrior Masha Scream, and the new CD doesn't disappoint (check out the truly epic new video for the title track!), but at 75 minutes it does start to drag on. Albums that long are rarely rousing successes. Then there's the goofily named but unquestionably brootal Mr. Death, a band formed by former members of Tiamat. If you like simple, traditional Swedish death metal like Entombed, Grave, and Unleashed, you'll like this one. lastly, there's the new one by Finnish doom sourpusses Swallow the Sun...it came out right when Katatonia's brilliant Night is the New Day was released, which was the worst timing, because as I put it somewhere, going back to the formulaic new Moon after the lavish Night is the New Day is kind of like going from prime rib to Spam. But you know what? When done properly, Spam's not that bad, and neither is New Moon. Even if it lifts its title from that awful sparkling vampire movie.
Meanwhile, over at Hellbound, I have a review of the new one by Epica. I've always been on the fence with Epica, I do enjoy symphonic metal when it's done well, and the Dutch band is certainly above average at times. In addition, they're capable of some decent, flouncy, hooky singles like this one and this one. However, they've never really been able to translate all that into a good, cohesive album, always winding up too overblown for their own good. I was hoping that would change with their fourth album, but it's gotten even worse, as at times Design Your Universe is a complete trainwreck, the sound of a band trying far too hard to impress. Thumbs way down on this one.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Spending my pre-teen years in a tiny isolated town in the 70s and early 80s had many great advantages. A kid with a bike had so much more freedom than any kid who lived in a city. But living in that kind of cultural bubble doesn't exactly prepare you for life as a teen in a city, especially when it comes to popular music. The first 12 years of my life were spent solely in AM radio land, and by the time we moved to a much larger place, going to junior high and hearing of all these bands I had never heard of before, it was clear I was in way, way over my head. These days it's astonishing to think of just how out of touch I was, especially when it came to what would be known as classic rock. I didn't hear AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen, or Pink Floyd until 1984, when I was 13. I didn't hear Rush or Black Sabbath until I was 14. It still boggles my mind that I didn't hear Led Zeppelin until I was 16! Needless to say, I had a heckuvalot of catching up to do as my interest in music grew.
Worst of all was my knowledge of the work of Neil Young. It's not that I was totally unfamiliar; in fact songs from such folk and country-themed records as Harvest and Comes a Time were staples of Canadian AM radio. But by the time he started experimenting in hte early to mid-80s, Young seemed completely irrelevant to us teens at the time. No matter how hard he tried ("This Note's For You", for instance), he still came off as a dinosaur. The plain fact was I had no idea that once upon a time this guy knew how to rock, and it wasn't until "Rockin' in the Free World" broke in 1989 that I started to take notice. But that was new music, and as subsequent singles like 1990's "Over and Over" continued to draw my mild interest, I still had no interest in his older material, which I still assumed was of the folky variety. It's embarrassing to admit, but it wasn't until I was 21 that I learned just how awesome, how visceral, how loud old Neil Young songs could be.
Weld was the album that did it. A double live album recorded on Young's 90-91 tour with Crazy Horse, it absolutely blew my mind when I heard it on the radio. By then Neil Young had taken to the "godfather of grunge" tag in a huge way, and that tour, with Sonic Youth opening a lot of those shows, was all about the volume of the performances. The band of guitarist Poncho Sampedro, bassist Billy Talbot, and drummer Ralph Molina was at its raggedly glorious best, but it was all about Young, who stuck to his classic black Les Paul and hammered out gigantic riffs, searing, soaring solos, and wave upon wave of drone and feedback. Much to my amazement, the 16 track album had songs that dated back to as early as 1969. I had no idea! Suddenly an entire musical realm had opened itself up to me, thanks to the scorching, impassioned performances on this record.
Nearly 20 years later, Weld has aged beautifully. "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" sounds ferocious thanks to the heavily distorted crunch of Old Black. "Cortez the Killer" and "Like a Hurricane" are epic in every sense of the word, the latter featuring one of my all-time favourite guitar solos. "Tonight's the Night" is darker and more vicious than the original, while "Welfare Mothers" seethes with cynicism and "Roll Another Number" and "Farmer John" are pure garage rockers. The material from the great Ragged Glory album is superbly performed, especially "Love to Burn" and "Love and Only Love", but out of all the tracks, it's the two from 1989's Freedom that steal the show. The album version of "Crime in the City" is subtle and brooding, but here Young transforms it into an almost metallic anthem, the rhythm guitars galloping during the verses. Better yet is "Rockin' in the Free World", which is actually slower than the original, Crazy Horse making it rawer, much more primal as Young spits his acid-tongued lyrics, a perfect State of the Union address for Gulf War America. And speaking of Bush Sr.'s war, the cover of "Blowin' in the Wind" was powerful then, and with things even worse these days, it's just as powerful now.
An interesting bit of trivia I have always known, after listening to Young's fascinating appearance on Rockline in late '91, was that all the harmony vocals have been overdubbed in the studio. Purists would consider that insulting, and it's never fun to learn just how much studio doctoring goes into classic live albums, but from day one I've felt the retouched backing vocals work extremely well on Weld, especially on tracks like "Mansion on the Hill", "Blowin' in the Wind", and "Rockin' in the Free World". Had they not been retouched and the backing vocals turned out to be sloppy, there's no doubt it would have been far too distracting to bear. It was a gamble by Young, but one that worked brilliantly, at least in my own opinion.
Weld was the album that kicked off a serious Neil Young fixation, as I started to search out his old records, and although I enjoy the full range of his music, to this day I am drawn to Neil Young the Rocker more than anything else in his diverse catalogue: "Mr. Soul", "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere", "Down By the River", "Cowgirl in the Sand", "Southern Man", Tonight's the Night, Rust Never Sleeps, Live Rust. His music can be as hard edged as the heaviest of metal at times, and it's something I'm continually drawn towards. After all these years I finally replace my old worn cassette with the CD version of the album, and my interest in it has been reborn in recent weeks. It's a record that was glossed over by Young's baby boomer fanbase (Jimmy McDonough barely gives it a mention in his fascinating but flawed biography), but it had a much bigger impact on my own generation, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only Gen Xer who was amazed to find out that there was more to Neil Young than Harvest. Under that heart of gold lurks a lot of darkness, and Weld exudes that darkness perfectly.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Cleaning up more loose ends, I should mention some recent writing that got lost in the shuffle over the holidays. First off, the new one by Immortal, which I reviewed for PopMatters. It's been getting varied reactions, some people love it (enough to place it surprisingly high on Decibel's 2009 top 40), others are totally bored with it...personally I enjoy it, it's harmless fun, an admittedly watered down album that holds true to Immortal's formula from their albums with Peter Tagtgren. And speaking of fun, it's impossible to hate Dethklok, and the cartoon band's second album is tremendous. Show creator/songwriter Brenden Small continues to improve as a metal songwriter and vocalist, and Dethalbum II is a lot more ferocious than its predecessor, doing away with the jokey shtick and going for full-throttle, fist-pumpin' metal. Of course it never hurts to have Gene Hoglan holding the fort on drums, and he makes this record ultra-tight. They might be on Cartoon Network, but you can't listen to "Bloodlines" and "Laser Cannon Deth Sentence" and dismiss this as a mere novelty. This is good music, plain and simple.
Over at Hellbound I reviewed Dark Tranquillity's cool new DVD, which includes a very slickly shot club show from their last tour in 2008, as well as a very enjoyable band documentary and amazing early live footage, including rehearsal clips with Anders Friden on vocals before he joined In Flames. Better yet, though, is the debut EP by Seattle's Black Breath, just some good, old-fashioned metal in the vein of Celtic Frost's Morbid Tales and Slayer's Show No Mercy. They have a new album coming out this year, produced by Kurt Ballou no less, and you can bet I'm excited for that one.
One thing I didn't get a chance to mention was Decibel's special Top 100 Greatest Metal Albums of the Decade issue. It turned out excellent, it's a great discussion starter, which is always good. But I was a bit nonplussed about how much hardcore there was on a list that purported to be "metal". Converge, Botch, Trap Them, yeah, those can count, but not Fugazi, Shellac, Fucked Up, or Melt-Banana...I like those bands a lot, but we all know they're not metal. And neither is Queens of the Stone Age, for that matter. But who am I to complain? I had Alcest at #8 on my ballot, for crying out loud! I could bicker about the choices, but Phil Freeman did a much better job of that a month ago. I will say it was disheartening to see a lot of melodic metal ignored...DragonForce, Nightwish, Nevermore, Arch Enemy, even Lamb of God all made a very big impact on metal over the last ten years, and that deserves acknowledgment. I could slap together my own list of 100 metal albums, but that'd just be overkill right now. Decibel's list is controversial, but that's good, it got people talking.
Every December I run off a list of albums from the previous year that I missed out on when I did my end-of-year project, but in 2009 I couldn't think of many that I felt deserved mentioning. I can't say the same in 2010, though, as I missed out on a few biggies from 2009. First off, and don't laugh, but the CD by Them Crooked Vultures wound up blowing me away. I knew about the hype from day one, but I ended up cooling on the notion of QOTSA's Josh Homme, Dave Grohl, and John Paul Jones jamming away for an hour or so. Supergroups rarely if ever work, so why should this? Well, this album does work, even if it is three guys having a lossey-goosey jam session. All three musicians are on equal footing, Jones providing those fluid basslines and keys, Grohl doing what he ought to be doing (instead of, say, singing and playing guitar), but Homme really comes through with some quality riffs and vocal hooks, as the album is every bit as good as the last couple Queens records. It does stumble for a bit on "Interlude With Ludes" and "Warsaw", but as for the rest, I love it.
Another album wound up growing on me immensely. When I first heard it, Micachu's Jewellery sounded like merely ordinary indie rock with a lot of clatter stuck on top. But very much like Can's weirder, more playful sonic excursions, those off-kilter melodies and oddball arrangements just wound their way into my head, like the Fall-esque riff on "Lips", the whimsical "Golden Phone", or "Calculator". I should know better than to immediately dismiss something, but sometimes I need the odd reminder, and this wonderful little CD did just that.
Another grower was St. Vincent's Actor. I'd heard "Strangers" and "Actor Out of Work" all year long, but it was actually the clever integration of indie and electronic on the single "Marrow" that ultimately commanded my attention, compelling me to look past that admittedly annoying cover art. Seriously, her album covers freak me out. Thankfully the music doesn't.
But hey, it's a new year, enough looking back. What about the new stuff? Just a week ago I was lamenting that my physical and virtual stacks of 2010 albums were looking unusually scant, both in number and quality, but things were set right very quickly this week, thanks to the arrival of two of my most-anticipated records of the year, Dillinger Escape Plan's Option Paralysis and High on Fire's Snakes For the Divine. My initial reaction to the Dillinger record is positive, and we all know just how much their music can grow on a listener, so I'll be giving this plenty of time to settle in. I like it, it's a good, consistent balance of everything they've been doing as of late (insane technical tracks offset by more restrained melodic passages), but my gut's telling me that it won't end up being better than Ire Works. That one knocked my socks off from my first listen...if the last three albums felt like 9 outta 10 records, this one feels like a 7 or 8. Still very good, but not as mind-blowing.
High on Fire's Snakes For the Divine, however, sounds like a winner as soon as you hear it. Granted, there's no such thing as a bad High of Fire album, Matt Pike is too talented to let that happen, but it feels like Snakes really raises the bar. Some folks prefer the density of Surrounded by Thieves, the glorious Steve Albini sound of Blessed Black Wings, or the more adventurous Death is This Communion, and I cannot see how anyone will dislike Snakes. First and foremost, it gets down to brass tacks after the somewhat more measured pace of Communion: it's all riffage, all aggression for 46 spectacular minutes, every single track a barnstormer, seven songs averaging 6-8 minutes in length, early faves the first three tracks actually: the epic "Snakes For the Divine", the rampaging "Frost Hammer", and the menacing, Sabbatherian "Bastard Samurai". Greg Fidelman's production is terrific, achieving the same dry tone as he did on Slayer's World Painted Blood, and he does somethnig that no other producer dared try yet: put Pike's vocals right up front. His strangled growl is one of the more unique voices in metal, and he really puts in a charismatic performance, making an already excellent album even better. Out of all the January-March releases I've heard thus far, this is easily the best of them. Better circle February 23rd on your calendar...
Monday, January 11, 2010
Well, it's about time I got back at the blog, no? October to November gets so crazy that once I get my year-end thing all done before Christmas, I just have to take a break. So I did. But this year the break was extended because I was off on my own little hockey holiday, attending the World Junior Championships here in Saskatoon. It was something I couldn't pass up, I went to a few games the last time the tournament was held in Saskatchewan in 1991 and just loved it (I got to see many future NHL stars as well), and even though ticket prices were super-inflated, I splurged on the medal round package. It was exhausting...eleven games in four days was tough, and in the end heavily-favoured Canada didn't win, but the whole experience was fantastic, and I'm so glad I went. In an effort to keep things relatively concise, here are some thoughts from the dozen (in total) games I saw:
- The gold medal final was one of the best games I have ever seen in person, in hundreds and hundreds of games I've never been in that crazy a hockey crowd, and when Jordan Eberle worked his magic in the last few minutes to cap an incredible comeback, it was unreal.
- I saw the US victory coming from a mile away. Having attended four of their games, they played like a unit, a team, while Canada just got by on raw talent...placing second in their pool galvanized the US, while Canada was very rusty after earning the first place bye. No matter how much Don Cherry whines, the US flat-out took it to Canada over and over in this tournament and fully deserved to win.
- Canada deserved to be brought down a peg. All the media hype and expectations of the fans just made this country look too arrogant, and as much as I wanted them to win (decked out in my Team Canada jersey of course!), John Carlson's OT winner didn't leave me anywhere near as shattered as other folks in the building.
- The second best game was the Switzerland-Russia quarterfinal, in which the Swiss goalie put on a clinic against the very aggressive Russians and we all witnessed the emergence of one Nino Niederreiter.
- Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall, Alex Pietrangelo, John Carlson, Jordan Schroeder, Danny Kristo, Cam Fowler, Matthias Tedenby, Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson, and Adam Larsson all were incredible to watch.
- It was nice how the city embraced the Latvia team after they were mercilessly slaughtered 16-0 in the first game against Canada. Everyone cheered for them even though they were horribly overmatched, and when they won their final relegation game against Austria, they looked so happy and grateful for the support. That's Saskatchewan right there, never mind the mean-spirited anti-American sentiment when the US played.
- This was the best organized event I have ever seen Saskatoon stage. The public transportation was perfect, buses had priority over cars, so getting in and out was so much faster than driving, and when I did park, traffic flow was coordinated as well as it could be, everyone did a super job.
- World Fest was awesome. Game ends, head out the east doors, hop on the bus (the longest I waited was 30 seconds), drive two minutes to the venue, get dropped off right at the door, grab something good to eat, look at the memorabilia displays (I am such a nerd when it comes to old senior hockey sweaters from Saskatchewan), and basically take it easy for an hour before heading back to the next game.
- Pepsi's corporate slogan disguised as a cheer was a complete and utter failure, something I'm very proud happened. They started off aggressively pushing it on the crowds at games, but by tournament's end people booed whenever someone brought it up, and the hired "fans" and announcers just gave up trying to do it by the semifinal and final. It's like an advertiser trying to make somethnig go viral: it's impossible. These things happen organically, not by force-feeding the public. We didn't buy into it. Eh, oh, I'd rather drink Coke.
- The 50/50 was NUTS, featuring a very cool ticker that just compelled folks to buy more tickets. The New Year's Eve game nearly topped 0,000, while the final came within a couple hundred of 0,000. Staggering.
- The Family Fest the week before Christmas was awesome, with loads of exhibits and interactive stuff for the kids, and best of all, it gave my niece and I a chance to spend some quality time with the Stanley Cup. We went at a time when we knew there wouldn't be a line-up (6 pm on a Tuesday), and were able to take our time with it and snap some photos.
- It was a great time to people watch. Just walk on the concourse of Credit Union Centre, and you'd practically bump into someone famous. Saw lots of hockey people, but the biggest geek moment for me was seeing Mark Messier, who still looks like he can go out and play. Plus the fact that he spent an entire intermission signing stuff and saying hi to kids speaks volumes.
-My seat was awesome. 18th row upper deck doesn't sound great, but I was right on a blue line and the sight lines from there in the cozy rink are amazing. 8 well spent, I tell you!
More catching up tomorrow!
