New Zealand’s The Beths played a stellar set at Lee’s Palace this past Sunday night touring in advance of their upcoming third album Expert In A Dying Field.
Over the course of roughly an hour, the band put on an impressive performance as they ran through an incredibly tight set that focused on tracks from their first two albums alongside a handful of tracks from the upcoming album.
Since releasing their debut Future Me Hates Me back in 2018, The Beths have consistently put out solid albums full of top notch songwriting, solid musicianship and beautiful harmonies and the new album promises to be just as good. Live, the band more than does justice to the songs, with tracks such as “Happy Unhappy”, “Jump Rope Gazers” and “You Are a Beam of Light” standing out as just a few highlights.
But enough about the show. What I’m really here to talk about is bassist Benjamin Sinclair’s personal blog, www.breakfastandtravelupdates.com, which the band mentioned onstage during their set.
It’s a given nowadays that most musicians have to spend a certain amount of time promoting themselves online, yet only a select few will take the time to regularly provide such a dutiful accounting of life on tour. Probably fewer still will take the time to specifically detail all of the stuff they have for breakfast while out on the road. This is the service which Sinclair provides, and I thank him for his service.
After assuring us during their set that he wasn’t being sarcastic and that breakfastandtravelupdates.com was indeed a real website, guitarist Jonathan Pearce then added (perhaps a bit sarcastically?) that his bandmate’s blog was not only the best blog on the internet, but the best site, period. After checking out the blog, I can safely say that he was being just a tad hyperbolic, but there is a certain appeal to finding out exactly how the bassist breaks his fast each morning, especially during those European dates, where cheese and coldcuts are the stars of the breakfast plates. Sure, some of the breakfasts aren’t quite as exciting as others, but none of it looks unappetizing. So, good call on choosing decent breakfasts, Benjamin!
I am also somewhat impressed at his attention to detail when describing their travel routes and destinations, such as when he noted that Lee’s Palace is in the Bloor Annex neighbourhood and made reference to “the 400-series highway Queen Elizabeth Way” in his Toronto post. Also notable is his inclusion of bits of trivia gleaned along the way, such as this tidbit on turnpikes from his Cleveland update:
The name comes from Middle English ‘turnpyke’ and means ‘spiked barrier across a road’ – originally used to block a road until a toll was paid. Of course, it now just means toll road, and hefty tolls we did pay to travel this premium piece of highway.
Now you know, folks. And knowing, as they say, is half the battle.
Breakfast blogs aside, let’s take it back to the music and talk a bit about opener Rosie Tucker, who, FYI, does not have a breakfast blog. And though we may not get an insight into what delicacies Tucker may be having for breakfast each morning, we were at least treated to two songs named after food during their set – “Ambrosia” and “Habenero.” When combined together on a plate, those two items would probably not make for that great of a breakfast, but luckily, they sounded pretty good in musical form during Tucker’s setlist.
While I already knew and loved The Beths, Rosie Tucker was an unknown quantity to me before this, but they put on an enjoyable show full of catchy tunes that certainly made a fan out of me.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to have a bit of breakfast.
