By Katie Seline - Wrong Side of the Bed - 04/21/2007

There are certain things that music simply does not transcend. When paired with difficult circumstances and events, no matter how good, music can in some ways make the situation harder and in some ways, in the best of moments, more meaningful. I would not normally divulge any part of my life, nevermind my past, in something as mundane as a concert review, but I feel that to fully grasp the evening and the feelings that the music was capable of provoking, I need to skim the surface of something more personal here; something that stretches beyond my love for music, especially music that really, truly means something and attacks you and your emotions at the most unexpected of moments. This is the kind of music that I live for. This is the kind of music that keeps me going sometimes. This is also that kind of music that sometimes you just can’t listen to because it’s just too hard. I didn’t make it to the end of this show, but for once it wasn’t because the music was bad. This time it was because the music was just too good.

Young Galaxy has been tagged as one of the next big things to come out of Montreal. As the featured MySpace band of the week, their debut self-titled album holds great expectations. Comprised of husband-and-wife tag team Stephen Ramsay and Catherine McCandless, Young Galaxy’s music has that haunting and heartbreaking sound that only can come out of true love. As cheesy as this sounds, and I can’t believe I am saying this, but you can really feel this in their music. The rest of the band is made up of ex-members of Stars, Moufette, Tinker, and Tricky Woo. You can understand from where this hype is founded. My personal connection to this band is simple beyond the musical history of the members. I grew up with one of them, watched him evolve into a strong and talented musician, and was fortunate enough to end up with him being my first love at a time in my life when a first love was the perfect remedy for growing up. As first loves go, we both moved on, and four years later this was, to my surprise, the hardest show I have ever been to.

With all the hype and my own personal bias, I was expecting a lot from the band’s performance. I wasn’t disappointed and was greeted by the shivers and jitters that I had expected from the music. The band, instrumentally, was flawless. McCandless’ vocals were the weakest link in the set, but when she got them right they were unlike anything I had heard in a long time. Considering Young Galaxy was recently signed to Arts & Crafts without ever having toured together, their set was solid. With some more time, I can see them reaching above and beyond the expectations that have been placed on them. Hopefully this won’t just be another Montreal band. Their music can take them beyond this if this city that can be so critical can give them enough time to get there.

This was the second time I have seen The Frames in concert. My first experience was a special one as they were the first band I had ever had the chance to interview, and also one of the best interviews I have done to date (I have done a lot of interviews, all have sucked by comparison to how awesome this band was to talk to). Glen Hansard is both as humble and charming on stage as he is in person. The band’s music is honest, and even better live than on their albums. It was Hansard’s birthday coincidentally at both shows he’s played in Montreal and the crowd sang to him and he mentioned how thrilled he was that there were even fifty more people at this show than at the last one. "If all of you tell your friends, then maybe next time we can open up this balcony", he laughed as he promised to come back again for his next birthday.

The set consisted of all the usual suspects of medleys and lots of haunting violin solos. Their newer songs from their sixth release The Cost were all great as well as all of their old songs. They also covered a Magnetic Fields song, which was just enough to almost make me cry. It was at this point that I realized that it was time for me to get out of there. No matter how good the show, the music was only making the situation harder, bringing back emotions I had not felt in a very very long time. It was a nice blast from the past, but I wasn’t quite ready for it, and the show provided a soundtrack that was just too sad and eerie to be appropriate.


[Catch a generally happier, less introspective Katie as she hosts Wrong Side Of The Bed every Wednesday from 5-7 pm ET only on CJLO.]