Friday, January 15th, I had the great pleasure to attend the CD release of “no ghostless place” by Raised by Swans.  I have been a very big fan of the band since hearing “Violet Light” on the CBC Radio3 Podcast 4 years ago.  Their first CD “Codes & Secret Longing” has been a favourite of mine since the day it was purchased, and sits in my list of top albums of all time.

I have been eagerly awaiting to hear some new material, and after 4 years, the band has release their new CD. I ordered mine via online pre-order hoping to receive my copy the day before the show.  I can review this album with one word: AMAZING.  The new CD is on par if not better than Codes & Secret longing.  I cannot recommend enough to anybody reading this post, leave my site right now, and click on this link to buy this album right now!

I almost didn’t make the show as our babysitter fell through at the last minute, but my wife, Tracey decided to stay home with the kids so I wouldn’t miss the show.

Moving on now to my review of the show.  If it has not been made clear, I am a fan.  The band played a solid 14 song set, that featured heavily the new material of “No Ghostless Place”.   The new material played very well live, some songs like “Hail of Arrows” and “Secret Garden /S.C” sounding more rounded out and driven than the recorded versions.

Sound at Call the Office has always been a problem in my opinion, and there were times where the vocals did get lost in the wall of distorted mud that is Call the Office’s sound system.   According to interviews with the band, they are about to embark on a coast to coast tour of Canada, so it was nice to have them playing in front of a hometown audience before embarking cross country.

I managed to take quite a few pictures of the performance, you can view the entire set on my flickr page here.

Setlist from the show: (Show Highlights bolded)

We Were Never Young
Hail of Arrows
Relentless
Easier
Capable of Cruelty
Old Fires
Longer Shadows, Shorter Days
Sandcastles
The Waitings Over
Still Inside You
There’s Hope Yet
How do These Hearts Unfold
Violet Light

Band Website: www.raisedbyswans.com