russic

God I had a great time at the Calgary show. As daniel_v mentioned, there were certainly some health concerns leading up to it. All things considered I was blown away. SLAS was first and he went hard... it was incredible. I was hoping for Bad Guys Win and Decades, but will have to cross my fingers for Edmonton. I won't complain though... Machine Gun, Something Like a Storm, and Bullets in a Briefcase were top notch. OLP impressed me a lot more than I expected. The guitarist and bassist have outstanding voices. Their backup vocals at the tail end of Is Anybody Home were outstanding. The Hello Time Bomb encore is up there with my favourite concert experiences of all time. 90s me would be quite jealous of 2018 me in that moment. My wife was away on work and missed the show, so we also bought tickets to Edmonton for Monday so she could go. I was mostly just doing it for her and it was a good excuse to go on a romantic date in Edmonton (*shudder*), but now I simply can't wait.

Last time I did this the presale tickets were brutal and the public ones were awesome. Guess I'll find out in a few minutes.

Wonder when we'll hear details of what's in the VIP packages? I'm assuming same as the last couple tours?

I searched for a copy of low-fi b-sides for about 15 years. When I finally found it, it was from a guy I'd known for nearly a decade. If I'd mentioned that I was a fan even once during that timer I probably could have had it for that span when Matt would do meet and greats. Getting harder these days.

Just finished the album and am extremely pleased with it. I'm about ready for a full MG/Warne album now. Those last 3 tracks are awesome.

Nearly cheered when the organ kicked in.

I feel like it's around 65.

Definitely not letting you off the hook for this. That's real weird. I don't know what's going on with the guitar riffs on this album, but so far everything I've heard has been amazing. I'm not sure I've been this excited for an album since Hospital Music.

Most of you people are monsters but this made me laugh pretty hard.

It's awesome to see some of the rogue Beautiful Midnight songs still in the setlist. Going All The Way was one that took me by surprise and became a favourite.

I feel like he's been pretty consistent with the tours after the album releases, so I'm hopeful for a fall tour. That being said it's got to be a tough balancing act with 3 kids, so maybe he'll change it up one of these days.

I have family in the area and they've said it's very hazy but there's no real danger just yet. Hopefully the worst case scenario is you miss out on the awesome view! For god sake bring water. Bring so much water.

The zoo is actually world class. It has a heavy focus on conservation (they have a whole compound outside the city that isn't public where they do some great things). Ideally zoos wouldn't be necessary or a thing at all, but as far as zoos go it's quite good. There's also lots of good hikes just outside of town if that's your thing. If I had to knock the town on one thing it's that the nightlife is almost non-existent. The city sprawls quite badly, so the downtown empties in the evenings.

That strikes me as a "release tickets in batches" scenario. I didn't have to work that hard to get tickets last time. For anybody wondering, it's a unique venue to say the least: If you are going... for christ sake hydrate, sunscreen, and wear something you can sweat in. I will say without pause it was the among the hottest experiences of my life.

"Baby if I was in to men, you would be mine." - Matthew Good

I don't think I realized Dave left before Audio of Being came out. What an odd thing to not remember.

Not too many subtle undertones with this one. I remember him posting this demo after the election and liking it immediately. The album version sounds bloody great. Everything about this album has me excited so far.

Funny, I've only been to one show in BC, and the guy next to me requested Symbolistic White Walls (loudly) so many times I thought I was going to have to ask him to please stop. Then Matt noodled around for a bit to find his bearings and played it with a cigarette dangling out his mouth. I still don't quite understand how that's possible, yet there we have it. Damn what a fine show that was.

I'd be curious to hear Matt's opinions on the BM tour now that it's complete. He was quite open about it scratching an itch that was more financial than artistic. I wonder if he came around on the idea of this type of tour, or if it was more work than fun?

I'd like to single Blake out for being awesome after the Calgary show. I attempted to get my Lo-Fi B-Sides autographed but ultimately the elements had their way with me and I had to bail (I was also the DD, so I couldn't leave my friends hanging for too long). While I didn't see Matt, I did chat with Blake and he was super kind and great to talk to. The show – as others have mentioned – was just fantasy camp for Matt Good fans. Technical issues happen all the time, and I didn't feel they detracted at all from the experience. I found the crowd to be both hyper-engaged and annoying. I guess those two things can easily go together. I was near the front, so while I got an awesome view, I was also situated next to the hoards of drunk people trying to migrate to the front of the stage and stand in the aisle. It's funny to hear about the over-bearing security in Vancouver in contrast to the Calgary security that just looked overwhelmed. They spent a lot of the night practically begging people to go back to their seats. Wildly distracting, but there's not much you can do about it.

Hopefully they're saving Decades for Calgary. I'm pretty happy it's tomorrow, because my ability to avoid these recordings is getting mighty frayed.

That's awesome, thanks! Based on what I've heard so far this album is going to be something special.

I read the first post in the other tour thread. Excitement level max.

Given Matt's general synopsis of Audio of Being, I would imagine all members of the band would agree that they forced things a bit much. I imagine that situation would have been extremely complicated... you've got a group of people in their 20s that didn't have a base of friendship trying to wrangle their egos at the same time they're becoming wildly popular. A nostalgic side of me often feels sad that MGB only produced 4 albums, but the more realistic side of me is blown away that they made it to 4. I really liked hearing Dave speak in this video, so thanks for sharing. Rightly or wrongly, he's often painted a certain way but we don't always get to hear much from him. It's cool to get a quick look into his process and what makes him tick.

Interestingly my wife has fallen in love with the new Load Me Up. She's always been a more casual fan, but she made a good point I hadn't considered: the original has dark lyrics but is delivered in a jump-around sing-songy kind of way, whereas the new one is more haunting and seems to "fit" a bit better (for her liking). I've really grown to enjoy the EP. At first I was a bit put off by the lack of familiar picking parts on guitar, which are a big part of Beautiful Midnight for me. After some listens though I've come to realize how good the songs end with regards to the guitars and bass. Something like Born to Kill is missing that amazing orchestra riff, but what replaces it is a really strong outro.