Yemen Blues - Harbourfront Westjest Stage - September 2, 2012

Israeli musical group Yemen Blues performed at the Harbourfront Westjet concert stage on Sunday September 2, 2012 to a standing room only crowd of more than 2,000.  The concert was presented as part of the Ashkenaz festival in Toronto, though there is very little that is "ashkenaz" about this group.

Yemen Blues is a unique musical experience that combines Yemenite/African and eastern musical styles with contemporary jazz, funk and blues.  The band is made up of musicians playing a variety of different instruments including a cello, violin, trombone, trumpet, flute, guitar, percussion/lute, and standard drum kit. Lead singer Ravid Khalani fronts the band and also plays an eastern version of a bass. 

Khalani sings most of the group's songs in Yemenite (a dialect of Arabic).  Influenced by the Yemenite chants that he learned as a child in his local Synagogue in Israel, Khalani has taken this Yemenite-traditional musical base and mixed it up with a range of other African and eastern influences.

For the uninitiated, Khalani's voice can be rough at times.  For part of the performance, he can alternate between trance-like Yemenite chants in a gravelly voice, mixed with shrieks, and various exuberant calls.  At other times, he veers to falsetto and other vocal styles.  With a little bit of Hebrew thrown in and perhaps some other languages, the singing is mainly Yemenite.  For Yemen Blues, this can mean wide ranging appeal in many places where traditional Israeli groups would be quite unwelcome.  Apparently, Yemen Blues, has a following among many Arab and Muslim listeners.

Of course, this would best suit the spirit and objective of Khalani's music.  Near the end of the concert, he explained to the audience that the music is intended to cross religious, ethnic and cultural boundaries.  "It doesn't matter whether you are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or from some other religious or cultural background - our goal is to bring everyone together through music," he explained.

The audience responded, particularly towards the end of the 75 minute show, as Khalani took off his jacket and implored everyone to get up, clap and dance along.  Khalani himself is quite a spectacle on stage.  He works himself into a frenzied dance, moving along the stage with an obvious passion and infectious enthusiasm.

Overall, the band was fascinating.  The high calibre musicians were well rehearsed and moved into extended jazz interludes that could have fit into any world class blues/jazz festival.  Then they veered back into Yemenite/eastern music that brings the listener to the sounds of an Israeli/Yemenite Hina (a pre-wedding celebration).

It is exciting and remarkable that such an eclectic sounding ethnic musical group would develop such a large following in so many places.  Yemen Blues have been peforming around the world and have attracted audiences in Scandanavia, Eastern Europe, the U.S. and of course their home country, Israel.  In Toronto, the audience size and welcoming reaction made a case for a larger venue for Yemen Blues' next Canadian peformance.   

Kelly Clarkson/The Fray - Toronto 2012 Molson Amiptheatre Review

Kelly Clarkson headlined a show in Toronto on August 28, 2012 at the Molson Ampitheatre which also featured The Fray and Carolina Liars.  She delivered an exciting, hit-filled set to an enthusiastic, though not sold-out crowd. 

Her show opened with a lead-in from AC DC's "you shook me all aight long," which blended into a video montage - and then Clarkson appeared on stage to sing "my life would suck without you" followed by a powerful rendition of "behind these hazel eyes." 
Clarkson was full of energy and performed her pop-rock hits with a powerful wide-ranging voice.  She engaged the audience, many of whom were teens and tweens enjoying the show with their parents or other family members.  She played a number of cover tunes.  First, it was "we are young," the hit song by Fun.  She walked up into the 3rd and 4th sections of the Ampitheatre and had the whole crowd on its feet singing along.  Later, in a nod to Canadian recording artists, she covered Michael Buble's "let me go home." She then added a cover of the Jason Aldean song "don't you want to stay" with Isaac Slade from The Fray, who came back out.    She turned back to her own numbers and sang "breakaway," "since u been gone" and "because of you" in a string of crowd pleasers.  Clarkson has a unique place in the concert circuit today.  She's a female pop/rock star who puts on a straight ahead pop/rock concert without resorting to sexuality as the focal point of her show. The gimickry was limited but the music was great and that is somewhat refreshing in today's musical landscape.  The only major drawback was that the total length of the show was about an hour and ten minutes.  At one point, Clarkson recounted a story about how she had seen U2 live and they didn't perform "with  or without you."  She felt cheated.  Sure, but Clarkson didn't peform "addicted" or 'hear me" or many other great pieces.  In a set of just over an hour, she played three cover songs.  Sure, they were all great, but she could have played for another hour, even if that would have run past the bed time of many of the audience members.

Clarkson came out with a  tough act to follow.  The Fray put on a terrific show, thought it was also about an

hour and ten minutes long.  They opened with "all at once" and "turn me on" and really had the audience engaged when they moved into "you found me," one of their really big hits.  Lead singer Isaac Slade fronts a 6 piece band, which was set up in beautifully symmetrical stage arrangement, which, at times, featured 3 percussionists.  The lighting blended well with the music and created some warm and vibrant stage effects.  Like Clarkson, Slade made his way up to the top of the Ampitheatre, bringing along his keyboard, and played and song up at the top of the concert all.  He made a couple of complete rounds through the entire Ampitheatre, while signing responsively with the crowd.  No doubt many of the audience members had come to see The Fray and they weren't disappointed with the band's well rehearsed performance.  The Fray are more subtle than Clarkson, and at times emphasize the ambient side of music.  Heavily influenced by U2 and Coldplay, the band, led by Slade, has a rich and intricate sound. 

Slade sat down at the piano and belted out a fun cover of The Temptation's "ain't too proud to beg."  The band's high point of the evening was, of course, their biggest hit, "how to save a life," though I would say the live version was somewhat understated and not quite as exciting as it could have been.  Overall, The Fray delivered a great show and would probably be a terrific band to see as a headliner.  Unfortunately, as with Kelly Clarkson, they only played for just over an hour, which seemed way too short.

I arrived too late for "Carolina Liars" so I can't comment on the opening act but I figure I still managed to see two very good short sets.  When combined together, it would be like seeing one great performer for a full concert, though I think all three performers combined still add up to less than the 3 1/2 hour show that Green Day delivered at the same venue 2 years ago.