THE GOLDEN DOGS!!! meh...

So I headed out this evening with a blind date to see my favorite Canadian band, the Golden Dogs, who are currently on tour as the opening act for Sloan (who, it should be noted, are themselves apparently about as big as U2 up that way). The Dogs are known among Canadians for their energetic live shows - and are known to your humble author as one of the best power pop bands ever - and as they have no appreciable fan base in the states, they NEVER make it out to the pacific northwest, unless you count Vancouver, BC. In fact, tonight may well have been their first ever show in Portland, for all I know. So needless to say, I was pretty jazzed about this.

Well, lemme tell ya, people, this was the most disappointing set I've seen in a good long while. The drummer was doing his job, but the rest of 'em were just totally phoning it in. And can I say I blame 'em? I mean, really, Portland? Where's that? Who lives there? Nobody who appreciates a good performance, right? Why bother to put on a decent show for a bunch of hicks in some podunk town like Portland, Oregon? Do they even have indoor plumbing there?

C'mon, when did Dead Moon, or the Dandy Warhols, or Everclear, or Modest Mouse, ever put on a bad show in Toronto? Yeah, that's right: NEVER... You've all had experiences like this, and I'm sure you can agree with me that there's little worse than finding out that your heroes are a bunch of hacks. SO below par! On the upside, by the end of their set, my date was so trashed that she thought she'd just seen Sloan. Which was fortuitous for me, as I really wasn't in the mood to stick around for their set anyway (by the way, if there are any Canadians out there reading this, could you please explain to my readers and myself the appeal of Sloan?), so off we went for a round at the Bridgeport brewpub...

Moral of the story? Well, there is no moral to the story, really, unless it's to not invest too much hope in untested performers. Of course, that notion will rob you of the joy of discovery, so I guess finding those hidden gems is worth putting up with the occasional disappointment...