Ah, to be an uninhibited Swede

Last night was a little lighter than Sunday, thank jebus. The first band we caught was In-Flight Safety out of Halifax. I knew them by name but nothing about them otherwise, and as it turns out I recognized about two of the songs (but didn’t catch the titles). They’ve got a Sam Roberts esthetic going on, lots of hair, beards in various states of completion. They were great though; they’re a really solid rock band. I always feel a little bad about the lack of dancing I see at concerts (which is a stupid way to feel because you couldn’t get me to dance unless you were dressed up as a cowboy and shooting at my feet). I see and partake in a lot of what I’ll call the Canadian Concert Dance, which involves bracing yourself on one foot, bouncing the heel of your other foot, and nodding your head to the beat. I can’t help but think that there’s more energy to found in audiences abroad. If we were all, I dunno… Swedes, then maybe we’d be jumping up and down and losing our minds. But sadly for the band, we we’re just a bunch of inhibited Canucks.

We caught up with Isha and Joe after this and saw the last few songs by Johnny Lang. That kid’s got soul, and he’s mean on guitar. I don’t know much about him, but I think maybe Brady had one of his CDs back in the day (in 1999 when the kid was friggin’ nineteen years old).

I ended the night watching Final Fantasy, who was unbelievably good. He’s just a kid with a violin, a keyboard, and a sample pedal that records and loops back the phrases that he plays. If I can find a decent video I’ll post a link, but no luck so far. It’s the sort of thing you have to see to appreciate. Which is not to say that his music is for everyone. Isha put it best, “I go back and forth between thinking this is fucking amazing to thinking that it’s like Ross’s music on Friends.” I spent a lot time while watching comparing him with Hawksley Workman. They’re both acts that are a little out there, and you decide immediately whether you love them or hate them. What sold me with Final Fantasy (besides the technical genius of it) was how humble he came across. In the midst of a song, he’s in the moment and he’s absolutely confident. But when the song ends he seems really gracious over the audience's response.

He’s also from Milton, which is kind of crazy, although he went to a different high school than I did. That said, part of me is convinced that I saw him play at one of our talent shows. I have a strong memory of this skinny blond-haired kid playing amazing piano, and I remember thinking that I’d never seen him at the school before. Unfortunately, he’s six years younger than me, so it would have had to be the talent show put on the year after I graduated (which I did attend to see Sarah in), so it’s not impossible, but it’s more likely that I’m totally making this up.