Tonight was the kick off of their new tour for their 6th Album Sainthood which is released on Tuesday (though their album has been streaming on MySpace for a few days, so we could hear it first). The Quin sisters were amazing as usual, not only in their playing, but of course in their banter, which is what makes their live shows so much fun, in fact I think my wife enjoys it more than the show. They are hysterical, honestly they could do a comedy album! Actually I would love to hear an album of theirs with songs, and banter in between each! The show was excellent, and I just wish they were like Pearl Jam and released each concert on MP3 could purchase later, because I would love to have copies of all the shows I have seen of there’s, as they are all great shows, and quite amusing.

The sisters started off they show, with a song that sounded like a 50′s pop song, sung by them, that played before and as they came out over the PA. What this is, I don’t know, but I like it. (If anyone knows what this was, I would love to hear it!)

The set list was a great mix. They started off with a group of popular songs, then rocked through 6 new songs, followed by another 4 or 5 old songs. After this was 7 more new songs to finish out the complete new album, and then back to old favorites.

Tonight there was no encore, they just played through, as it seems Sara hates the awkwardness of Encores, since they are just expected now (which I totally agree with), and it felt like they played a greatest hits as well as the whole new album, so to me it was a nearly perfect set. And the girls were on top form.

I was also surprised to see a lot more guys there this time than at previous shows, though we were still in the definite minority, with lesbian couples making up the majority of the attendees. The only thing bad about that, is the excited audience was so high pitched it tended to hurt my ears, but that can only be expected at a Tegan and Sara concert.

Loved the new light show too. They had 8 lights that would turn around and do all sorts of different lighting things, and looked cool against their large paint by numbers back drop.

These girls rock, and I can’t recommend seeing them any more highly, because they are so much fun to see live, and they will convert you into fans!

Their opening band was a girl from Portland called Laura Veirs, who was very indy. I enjoyed her set, though my wife did not.

Stereogum has photos from the Oct 26th show at their site.

This film is about the mythical red violin, and violin created by a master violinist after his wife died, and it’s journey up until Modern times. In Modern times it it is found in a shipment of violins from China that is going up for auction in Canada, and is found Charles Morritz (Samuel L. Jackson) who instantly realizes what it could be, and secretly attempts to find out, without warning the people who have it. We then see the journey of this tragic violin that always seemed to be cursed.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The violin was given to a monastery, where it stayed for many years, going through many hands, until it found it’s way into the hands of a young boy who was a master player, but had a bad heart. He was taken in by a man with little money, but an ear for good players, and was finally going to get his chance to be a huge player, but got so nervous he dropped dead. And the violin was buried with him, but then dug up and stolen by gypsies, where it eventually made it’s way to England, and onto the property of the famous violinist Frederick Pope (Jason Flemyng). Pope was full of himself, but was also very talented, and had a passionate love affair with a writer Victoria Byrd (Greta Scacchi). And when she left him to go writing about Russia, she returned to find him having sex with the gypsy girl, and she shot him and damaged the violin.

The violin then was stolen by Pope’s chinese manservant, and made it to china, where it was sold to a shop, and bought for a young girl who learned to play it and grew up to be a member of the communist party during the cultural revolution. This is Ziang Pei (Sylvia Chang), who has to burn all the photos of her mother playing, and all the records she has, so as not to get denounced, but she sneaks the violin off to a music teacher who has already been denounced, and is hiding instruments. When the man eventually died, the chinese government found the violin cache, and sent it off to Canada to be sold at auction.

We then go back to Charlz Moritz, who has found our more about it and even purchased a copy that was made from it. He and a technicial do more and more research, but the company begins to realize, and he must admit to it being the famous Red VIolin, and a famous violin player who couldn’t tell the quality of the instrument. Eventually Charles switches his copy for the real violin, and it gets sold on auction, and he takes it home for his daughter to play.

We also find that when the master violin players wife died giving birth, he used her blood and her hair to make the red of the violin that made it so famous.

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Such an amazing and beautiful film, so well done. I wish Girard made more films, because the two I have seen are so amazingly beautiful.

The film is not a direct narrative, but it does cover the life of the amazing concert pianist Glenn Gould (Colme Feore), and through these 32 short films, encompassing narrative retellings of events in his life, and documentary interviews of people, animations and various other things that give an overall impression of this strange secluded man.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

We see that Gould was a genius from a very young age, with his mother playing piano to him in the womb, and he could read music before he could read, and he grew to become an amazing piano talent at a very young age. Gould after becoming the best concert pianist in the world decided to one day give it up, and to communicate his music only through recording. And that was not all, he also spent a good deal of time talking to his friends over the phone, at any hours of the day, whenever he had something he wanted to talk about, and talk is what he did, not listen.

Gould was a real recluse, and though he did write some of his own music, spent most of his time recording, trying to make his performances absolutely perfect, and yet he would hum while recording, and didn’t care about the sound of the action of the piano he played. And he also made radio documentaries about the Canadian Northern Wilderness, by mixing the sounds of all different interviews of people talking, and going back and forth between them, to give an overall feel, and not a direct story (very much like this film).

And the film goes through his life, up until his death, where he had become obsessed with his own years ticking, and I am sure all the drugs he was taking did not help keep him together, and probably it was all of his worrying that helped to cause his own death.

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A really well done film. An amazing film really, and a must see for all music lovers, and a film that will give you an appreciation of classical music.