TOM FUN ORCHESTRA + Mars Hill @ Les Saints

By Jackson MacIntosh - Track Marks - 11/21/2007

“We’re an extremely important and  successful rock band” were the first words out of Tom Fun Orchestra frontman Ian MacDougall’s mouth during their set at the decidedly urine-scented Les Saints. MacDougall’s deadpan restraint in assessing their situation was admirable, as there were about 90 people in a club built to accommodate about 500. Things probably looked pretty bleak from up there. They’d drove 20 hours from Sydney, Nova Scotia the day before to play their first Montreal show, and they’d been busking in the metro all day to drum up support for their show. While they’d made a handsome sum in loonies and toonies, it clearly hadn’t been successful as a promotional effort.

Before I write too much, I think it would only be proper to admit that many members of the Tom Fun Orchestra are close friends of mine, and that I’ve seen them about 50 times in the past two or three years. I grew up playing music with them, and we’re all from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. I’ll probably be fairly partial towards them because they’re my pals -- and that’s what we do with our pals when they start making headway against the swift current of Failure River and we can see they’re not too far from the sandy beaches of Success Point. Just today I saw their new teaser EP advertised on the iTunes front page, and it warms the cockles of my cockles.

So it was especially nice to see them win over the sparse crowd, which seemed to increase continually throughout the evening. They play folk instruments, but I wouldn’t dare call them a folk group; it’s more like a hillbilly wall of sound. There are three guitars, a banjo, a fiddle, an accordion, a double bass, a trumpet, some drums, and sometimes a mandolin, and they are all being played hard at almost all times. There’s an admirable irreverence in their live shows, and Ian’s an excellent showman with a good growl.

The opening band, Mars Hill, were not quite as rewarding to see, although they are clearly technically proficient and serious about what they do. I gather that they recently moved to Montréal from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in a bid to be closer to where the action is. While I admire their take-the-bull-by-the-horns attitude, I am not so fond of their jam band sensibility and the overall sterility of their sound. They’ve built up a loyal following on the East Coast, though, and I imagine that within their particular niche they are held in high esteem. They make excellent gouda in Prince Edward Island, and I’m pleased to see that they now have other kinds of cheese to export.

Moving on. By the end of the night, the Tom Fun Orchestra had the audience riled up enough to have them demanding an encore, which they provided in the form of a song called “No Sex with Monks” which concerns some of the finer points of the Roman Catholic Church. It was met with uproarious approval and applause, and the band members showed their enthusiasm by piling on top of one another, which is very dangerous, considering they were all holding sharp-edged musical instruments; I am surprised nobody lost an eye. What a foolhardy young group. If they come to your town, I would recommend going to the show, but bring and helmet and wear some kneepads if you really want to be prudent.  

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