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The Black Keys shine their ‘Everlasting
Light’ on cloudy Deer Lake Park

By Sharon Miki

. "ie think that rain at a_late-

June outdoor concert might

lead fans towards a serious case
of the Mondays, but The Black Keys’
stunning—albeit short—set at Burnaby’s
Deer Lake Park on June 27 left fans so
soaked in musical afterglow that they
welcomed a stormy night’s showers.
The Black Keys are an American blues-
rock duo comprised of Dan Auerback
on vocals and guitar and Patrick Carney
on drums. Though the group has been
together for a decade, they have recently
risen to popular fandom as several of their
songs have been featured in commercial
and theatrical soundtracks, as well as due
to the critical acclaim of their 2010 album
Brothers.

Riding this wave of popularity, The
Black Keys played an 18-song mix of
old and new material to a sold-out crowd
at the Deer Lake show—which kicked
off the band’s Canadian tour. Standout
performances included Carney’s hypnotic
beats in the early hit ‘Girl is on My
Mind’ and a crowd-pleasing rendition
of ‘Howlin’ For You’ from Brothers.
Mid-set, the duo was joined by a bassist
and keyboardist to amp up tracks like
‘Everlasting Light’ to catastrophically
rocking levels.

The lone disappointment with the
show came early, with the short but
certainly not sweet opening act Cage the

Elephant. The band, particularly lead
vocalist Matthew Shultz, seemed off
their game from the start and seemed to
become increasingly off-kilter as the set
wore on. While fans in the crowd seemed
to appreciate the band’s rendition of
‘Shake Me Down,’ Cage the Elephant’s
performance appeared to rate somewhere
between forgettable and terrible.
Thankfully, Cage the Elephant’s
subpar opening was not ho-hum enough
to distil the thrill of The Black Keys’
performance. By blasting out solid,
precisely audacious notes, Auerback,
Carney and friends proved themselves
to be true musicians and performers —
sending the hordes of concertgoers home
chilled, yet satisfied.

 

 

Psst, look over here!

Angela Espinoza

Arts Reviewer

reetings, I’d like to speak with
G= for a moment, if I may.

You see, we at The Other Press
were in Japan recently, battling Godzilla,
modeling for Sake ads, the usual. We just
flew in, and boy, are our arms tired! So
tired that we could use a little help. That’s
where you come in! Your mission, should
you choose to accept it, will require you
to tell us what you think about any of the
following:

   

Concert Review: Katy Perry — July 19 @
Rogers Arena
Album Review: Time of My Life (3
Doors Down) — Out July 19*
Album Review: Join Us (They Might Be
Giants) — Out July 19*
Game Review: Bastion — Out July 20*
Concert Review: TV On the Radio —
July 20 @ Commodore Ballroom
Film Review: Captain America: The
First Avenger — Opening July 22*
Film Review: Friends with Benefits —
Opening July 22*
Game Review: Catherine — Out July 26
(Keep it clean!)*

¢ Indicates the article should

contain a rating out of five

“So why me,” you’re probably

asking yourself. Well sir or madam,

mostly because you’re smart, sexy, and
already overqualified for the job. How?
You made it to college, didn’t you? With
that said, here’s what we expect out of
those devilishly soft hands of yours:
¢ Opinionated reviews on any of
the above (Did you like it? Did
you hate it?)

¢ A brief and creative title and
sub header

¢ Within 300-600 words

¢ Times New Roman in a size
10 font

* No indents; we do that for you
(because we love you)

¢ No pressure; we’re a student-
run paper, it’s chill, bro

Be sure to send your article(s) or
any questions to arts@theotherpress.
ca; articles should be sent in by 3:00pm
on July 29 at the latest. Most importantly,
don’t fear the mission, it won’t bite you.
If you can spell your name, you can write
an article.

 

 

Where | try to solve all the worlds’ problems
‘Try’ being the operative word in this global management sim

By Marc Thompson

World, you play the head of the newly
established Global Environmental
Organization (GEO). The GEO is created

after a series of environmental disasters
forced the world to admit that global
warming is very real. The GEO must
employ its extremely limited resources
across the globe to solve all the worlds’
major problems. ..good luck with that.
Fate of the World is a slow—paced,
turn—based strategy game. The world
is divided into numerous regions, each
of which has different conditions and
predicts growth paths based on in-
depth research conducted by an Oxford
University research group. You hire
agents in each region, and then each agent
can implement a policy card to affect their
region. When you are finished, you end
the turn and advance five years.
The interface is simple, but the
game is hard. Fate of the World isn’t

I Red Redemption’s Fate of the

6

some naive Aesop about how pollution

is bad. Economic collapse will wreck the
world just as surely as climate change,
sometimes even triggering a global-
thermonuclear war. Regions will leave
the GEO, kicking your agents out and
denying you vital tax revenue if you don’t
tend to their needs.

Each region has its own problems,
each problem has different solutions, and
each solution has different unexpected
consequences. In one game, I promoted
bio-fuels in North America, which
helped deal with an energy crisis, but
caused famine in India due to rising food
prices. I subsidized agriculture in South
America to help fix it, but then watched
as emissions skyrocketed out of control
as farmers burned the Amazon rainforest.
I tried to push agriculture in India, but
that failed because there were too many
sick, starving people to actually run
the economy. At this point, I realize I
could either feed them or save the rest
of the world. The death total was in the

hundreds of millions.

The game is grim, but
not totally hopeless. You
can save the world if you
make the right choices. It’s
just that there are no simple
solutions that fix everything
for every region. Victory can
only be achieved through
a variety of solutions

_ implemented in the right

place at the right time. Of course, it can
take a lot of trial and error to get there,
as well as a couple billion deaths if you
aren’t careful.

This isn’t a game that will appeal
to everyone. If you don’t like really
challenging, slow-paced games, you
aren’t going to enjoy this. The game isn’t
without its share of flaws either. The
graphics are sub-par, and I experienced
crashes on my laptop. The learning
curve is rather sharp as well, as a lot of
functions aren’t explained very well,
requiring exploration and study to get the

 

most out of the game.

Still, the game’s flaws are largely
outweighed by its merits. If you like
turn-based strategy games, then this is a
great change of pace from the war games
that dominate the genre. It’s deep, well
researched, and the challenge gives it
good replay ability. This is a thoughtful,
creative and educational game well worth
$10 (or whatever they charge during the
next Steam sale).

3.5/5