Live And In The Flesh
The Presidents of the United States of America - April 21, 2009
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever expect to make it out to a Presidents of the United States of America concert! I didn't even know they were touring at the time, and was getting into the car to head to Toronto for the night and randomly received a text from a buddy in London, ON letting me know they had a spare ticket to the show at Lee's Palace that very night. Seeing as how I was already on my way to Toronto, I couldn't pass it up! I had grown up listening to these guys throughout my early years, and had some pretty fond memories of rockin' the cassette of their debut self-titled album in the car until I had wore it out. Fifteen years later I ended up at one of their shows by chance, and couldn't have asked for a better performance from the trio.
I will admit that I hadn't listened to them in quite some time, and was surprised to hear that they were still putting out new music. Their latest album, These Are the Good Times People, had dropped a year earlier and I wasn't familiar with it at all. That certainly didn't stop me from getting out to see them play though, as I was sure that they would be playing their classics all throughout the night.
Live @ Lee's Palace, Toronto, ON
After finally making my way into the big city of Toronto, I made my way downtown to meet up with the other guys before showtime. It seemed pretty strange to have everything work out as well as it did. They made the trip up from London and managed to make their way down to Bloor at around the same time I did. We were all pretty excited for the show as none of us had seen them live before. This was also my first time hitting up a concert at Lee's Palace as well, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the venue. By the time we made it through the doors, the place was packed with 20-something year old's patiently awaiting for some flashbacks to their youth.
As far as I know there wasn't an opener for the night, and if there was we had missed them. We didn't have to wait long before the three-piece made their way out onto the stage to the screaming fans. The house was packed and everyone seemed pretty excited to be getting to see the band live. It didn't seem like they had toured north of the border a whole lot (not since their first appearance in TO back in '95 at Lee's Palace), so we were in for a treat! The Presidents of the United States of America fired everyone up with Lunatic to Love, one of my favourites from their second album, II. Next thing we knew they were diving right into one of the classics from their debut album, Kitty! I had never experienced a crowd so engaged in the music. Everyone at Lee's Palace seemed to know every single word to the song, and were even chiming along with the "meow's". It was a definite highlight of the night for me. The vibe was so positive, and everyone was there to have a good time!
They kicked out the jams throughout their twenty-two song setlist that consisted of more than half of their first album, and a third of their second, while tying in plenty of new material along the way. The basitar and guitbass (regular six-string guitars with two bass strings on one, and three guitar strings on the other) were great to see live! Any of the earlier tracks that they played had the crowd singing along word-for-word; Dune Buggy, Back Porch, Lump, Feather Pluckn, Body, and of course, Peaches, were all amazing to experience in person! With that much audience participation, you were guaranteed a fantastic show, as you could certainly tell that the band was loving the warm reception. The band and the crowd was feeding off of their love for one another all night long, it was hard to believe they didn't come up to Canada more often. On my way out I had noticed that they were selling their latest album, autographed by the band, so I made sure to pick one of those up to show them some support for making their way up north. I'm pretty thankful to have received the call that Tuesday morning about the spare ticket to the Presidents' show, who knows if they will ever be back up around this way again. If by chance that they do, I know I won't be missing it!