Friday, April 20, 2018

I Mother Earth/Finger Eleven Concert Fallout & Videos!!

Today's post is entirely devoted to fallout from Wednesday night's I Mother Earth/Finger Eleven concert at The Machine Shop, which appears to have gotten rave reviews from attending fans so far! SooToday's Donna Hopper and Sault Online's Riley Smith were both on hand to cover the festivities, with 29 and 30 photos respectively making each local news website, which look very solid on both ends! Donna got 10 photos of I Mother Earth, 8 of Finger Eleven, 7 from the pre-show acoustic set by both bands, 3 of opener/Q&A session MC J.J. Thompson, and 1 of Rock 101 morning show host Scott Cook, who emceed the concert proper. Riley's shots (some overhead) include 6 of Finger Eleven, 5 of I Mother Earth, 13 from their show-ending joint encore, 5 of attendees, and 1 of The Boiler Room, the venue's new on-site bar (though Riley did not get any shots of J.J. or the acoustic pre-show.) Donna's article outlines songs played on Wednesday and some of the remarks from the bands on stage, while Riley's features remarks from Finger Eleven drummer Steve Molella.

Both articles are well detailed with quality pictures, so see the above links to give both a look! Now, to currently posted public videos from Wednesday night, starting with videos from YouTube user BBBBBBBBeast, who got one video of both featured bands. Firstly, this 4:34 clip is actually a compilation cobbled together from Toronto alt-hard rock quartet I Mother Earth's headlining set, including snippets of their songs "Raspberry", "One More Astronaut", and "Rain Will Fall", before showing them and Finger Eleven's joint encore as they played I.M.E.'s "Levitate", Finger Eleven's "Good Times", and a cover of Supertramp's "Bloody Well Right". The audio quality is fantastic on these clips, and I like the bluish tinge on the video, though the vertical camera angle is unfortunate, and you can't do too much about the fans' heads. I just wish that he had included more of certain songs in the editing process ("Rain Will Fall" only got 15 seconds!) Give this one a look below!



BBBBBBBBeast (why so many Bs?) also filmed two songs from Burlington hard rock quintet Finger Eleven's preceding set on Wendesday, those being "One Thing" and "Drag You Down". He must prefer their older, pre-"Paralyzer" music, which I can relate to! This video has equally excellent audio quality, but now with a more central, further away camera angle and a monochrome colour filter. In this case, the visuals work on the former song, as it's video was in black & white, but less so the latter. With no public videos surviving at present from their 2004 show here, it's nice to see some vintage Finger Eleven songs in solid quality online, so check them out below also!



The other two currently posted videos from this show come via presenting sponsor Rock 101's Facebook page, as a staffer filmed two Finger Eleven-involved songs before the concert proper began. One is a 33 second clip of Finger Eleven (minus singer Scott Anderson) playing their newer song "Living in a Dream" during their soundcheck, which sounds fine in this instrumental format! The other video, which is embedded below, is of Finger Eleven and I Mother Earth (I Mother Eleven?) covering Christopher Cross' "Ride Like The Wind" during the acoustic pre-show on Wednesday evening. Very unexpected cover, but for it's also short runtime, the song appears to turn out well enough! Donna noted in her SooToday article that the two bands also covered America, The Kinks, and Peter Gabriel during this unplugged set, which is surprising, but it does show the two bands' range & diversity, so give this video a look below as well!



As someone who strongly prefers older Finger Eleven (no "Stay In Shadow" on Wednesday?) and is admittedly selective on I.M.E. favourites, I reluctantly passed on going given the ticket prices, but I'm very glad the show was a huge hit! Hopefully this and Big Wreck will help encourage even more hard rock and metal bands to play The Machine Shop! Stay tuned for more fallout from this concert when and/if it comes in, and for more news and notes soon! Thanks everyone!

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