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Once in a while you manage to witness something you may never get to see again: a star on the rise captivating an audience in such a way that it's clear the entertainer has some serious star quality. More substance than hype, Odd Future-related singer Frank Ocean managed to silence naysayers with a terrific 70-minute set at Club Soda that saw him display his full vocal abilities.

Ocean started off the evening with a faithful rendition of Sade's "By Your Side," which left the majority of the younger crowd lost. Backed by a pair of acoustic guitars, the LA by way of NOLA native then slid into the tune "Summer Remains." The real sing-along started on third song "Thinkin Bout You." Loud piercing shrieks accompanied the first few notes of the song, and the crowd was finally excited to hear something familiar.

Backed by a simple screen showing smaller television sets that played different clips, the man born Christopher "Lonny" Breaux could have taken the easy way out by booking a DJ for the tour. Instead, Frank Ocean chose to work harder at his stage show and was backed by a four-piece band. This added an interesting dimension to beat-based songs, including the set highlight "Swim Good." Songs that normally felt club-ready suddenly had a sprawling, crescendo-like element to them, exploring the musical peaks and valleys absent in the original recordings.

The set list cherry-picked the better songs off of 2011's mix tape nostalgia, ULTRA, and his recently-released first proper studio effort channel ORANGE. The nostalgia, ULTRA cut "Strawberry Swing" was placed in the middle of the set, with the vocal hook from the Watch the Throne track "Made in America" tacked on the end. Pausing only for a second, the band began playing "American Wedding." Originally performed over the instrumental to the Eagles track "Hotel California," the newly-reimagined song stripped away the familiar guitar riff in favour of emotive atmospherics, placing Ocean's vocals at the forefront even more than the studio track could.

The 10-minute opus "Pyramids" was the perfect way to close out the set, and had the entire venue moving to a hypnotic bass line leitmotif that shook the walls. The song moved from catchy section to catchy section and the majority of the crowd was dancing and singing along without missing a beat.

The only downside to the show had little to do with Ocean himself; the young crowd had their cellphones in the air for the majority of the show, preferring to capture the event instead of living in the moment. It was a bit harder to see the stage when a wall of iPhones and Android phones were held high, blocking the view. Such are the perils of living in the digital age, and it was a small trade-off to witness such a great spectacle.

SET LIST

By Your Side  (Sade cover)
Summer Remains
Thinkin' About You
Novacane
Sweet Life
Forrest Gump
Super Rich Kids
Strawberry Swing > Made In America tag
American Wedding
Voodoo
White (instrumental)
Crack Rock
Swim Good
Lost
Bad Religion
Pyramids
Pink Matter (encore)

-Brian H hosts Countdown to Armageddon on Mondays from 8-10pm

Read by: Aisha Samu

Stories by: Carlo Spiridigliozzi, Aisha Samu, Niki Mohrdar and Gregory Wilson

Produced by: Carlo Spiridigliozzi

Although the events were supposedly sold-out, rows of seats were empty on the first full day of competition at the London Summer Olympics. Olympics organizers have now begun investigating the cause.

Empty seats filled the stadiums of swimming heats, volleyball and gymnastic equestrian events.

According to CBC, Jeremy Hunt, Britain’s Culture Secretary, believes that the empty seats belonged to the Olympic family members, corporate sponsors, IOC members, athletes and other accredited officials.

However, it is unclear why these empty seats were not offered to the public.

 James Pearce, BBC Olympics correspondent, noticed that most of the empty seats were in the lower-tier, meaning that they were VIP. Pearce believes the true fans in the top tiers should have been allowed to move down after 10 minutes.

London organizers had been trying to avoid this problem as it had occurred in the past.  The Athens games were in the same situation as well Beijing. 

Organizers now plan to call in school children, teachers and soldiers to fill in these empty seats.

Directed by Quentin Dupieux
Written by Quentin Dupieux
Cast Jack Plotnick, Steve Little, Eric Judor, William Fichner, Alexis Dziena
Produced by Gregory Bernard, Charles-Marie Anthonioz, Nicolas Lhermitte

If you have ever had a pet disappear, you have felt the panic that settles in. You call their name over and over, but they never come. You squeeze their favorite toy up in the air hoping they will hear it, but nothing. Our handsome and gentile leading man, Dolph (Jack Plotnick) has lost his dear canine, and he becomes so obsessed about finding the whereabouts of his beloved pooch. With advice from his bizarre neighbour, Dolph continues his daily routine in the hopes of becoming so distracted and that he stops thinking about his dog. In the end, Dolph concludes that his dog has been kidnapped and receives the help of a private detective (Steve Little).

Wrong is one of the most peculiar films I have seen in a long time! It is quirky and delirious. It grabs a hold of your brain and shakes it around a bit. It is perplexing, and you will probably ask yourself, "what the fuck is going on?" Nevertheless, the film is boundary-pushing and very complex with all these little subplots that intertwine, and writer/director Quentin Dupieux really spins the universe on its head.

The performances in this film stand out and are very memorable. Each character is freaking weird and has many layers to them. Once you start to unravel those layers, it just gets more and more bizarre. William Fichtner's performance as Master Chang is hilarious, and he delivers some great dialogue and lots of laughs.

Once this film reaches the "big crisis," the plot becomes more alluring, and the audience is dying to know what happened to that damn dog! I didn't want to look away and I wanted to know more.  Wrong is light and hilariously unique. It seemed a little long towards the end, but it all came together beautifully. Go and see this film if you like confusion and want to have your mind boggled. I guarantee that the discussion you have with friends after the end credits will be lengthy and intriguing.

-Andrea Boulet
@AndreaMtl