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The XX and Friendly Fires
If anyone needed proof that Britain’s The XX are a full-blown phenomenon at this point, they’d do well to have attended their debut performance in Montreal, opening for labelmates and fellow Britishers Friendly Fires. Playing the opening slot of a pricey, early-evening midweek show, the very young group packed the not-inconsiderably sized Le National with seeming ease – complaints of scalpers hiking tickets into the $50 range cropped up in the usual places. Their already iconic logo / album cover graced a few t-shirts. All this for a band almost no one (outside of Rough Trade’s surely giddy staff) knew existed six months ago.
What is to account for their quick ascension? xx, their debut, distills two decades of seemingly disparate influences – from Young Marble Giants to contemporary R&B – along with the saddest swath of reverb this side of Turn On the Bright Lights, and holds it all together with the duet vocals of guitarist Romy Madley Croft and bassist Oliver Sim, who almost never harmonize, instead hovering intimately around the same vocal lines, lazily intoning the whispery nothings of teenagers in lust. It’s a combination that sounds like annoying pastiche on paper, but the results are distinctive and oddly affecting – and weirdly assured.
It bears mentioning that only a couple of weeks ago, The XX lost a member (founding keyboardist Baria Qureshi), and decided to carry on as a three-piece. Anyone expecting awkwardness as a result of that departure was thankfully mistaken – remaining synth whiz NAME gracefully pulled off double duties on most tracks, often playing one of their trademark skeletal drum machine rhythms on one hand and sampled, reverbed guitar sounds on the other. With the barest of stage accoutrements (just two lit-up black boxes graced with, of course, the ever-present X’s), the trio played almost the entirety of their debut, mostly faithfully. The principal difference between live and recorded XX is the bass sounds – not unlike Fever Ray’s live show, the bass frequencies were mixed to almost punishing levels, making for a surprisingly bracing experience at times. Beyond that, and a few musical embellishments here and there, their live show is not a radically different prospect from their album – even Croft and Sim’s distinctive voices are identical in a live environ. Just seeing these nascent idols in action was most likely enough for the rapt crowd.
After the group left the stage to the sounds of their Florence and the Machine remix, the crowd thinned out a little, confirming suspicions that this was, on paper at least, The XX’s evening. Truth be told, Friendly Fires’ recorded material has never been my cup of tea – I like a little non-frothy sentiment to go with my beats. That being said, the group puts on an undeniably killer live show. Six-strong with their two horn players onstage, the group, led by bellowy singer ed Macfarlane, were remarkably tight, assured and exuberant. Macfarlane, in particular, bears special mention not only for his strong (if slightly character-free) vocals, but also for sheer rump-shaking prowess. That kind of swagger just doesn’t happen on this side of the pond very often. Despite my misgivings about their blandly celebratory lyrics (I’m looking at you, “Jump Into the Pool”) and slightly anonymous tunes, the ‘Fires worked every cut like it was a chart-topper, not letting up their intensity for a moment, and constantly mixing up their rhythm section with an added drum here or an instrument swap there. Special notice goes to guitarist Edd Gibson, whose lines were consistently vibrant and creative.
So in the battle of the shaken but confident wunderkinds and the high-performing underachievers, who came out stronger? Predictably, the headliners got more bodies in motion – danceability is certainly not The XX’s stock in trade – but I suspect the younger group had won the battle for hearts and minds just by showing up. They’re here, they’re sad, and they’re very shortly going to be completely omnipresent. All hail our epically coiffed leaders.
-Simon Howell
(You can catch Simon as part of the Sound On Sight crew on Mondays from 8 to 10 pm, and also flying solo during Sucker Blues, from 7 to 8 pm on Thursdays)
CJLO Punk Rock Night at Club Katacombes!
Do you want to punch Thursdays in the face!? Don't miss CJLO's monthly punk rock DJ night at Club Katacombes! Katacombes has moved into a new awesome space at 1635 St Laurent corner Ontario and we'll be there the first Thursday of every month!
It’s all going down at 9 PM and there will be DJ sets by your favorite CJLO Djs past and present:
AndreWIXQ
Idle Matt
DJ So-So (from Bawston)
Brian 'Countdown To Armageddon' H
DJ Catatonia
Katrina 'Break It Down' K
Anyone who makes a request gets a free CD!!
And it's a double holiday: April Fool's & Good Friday Eve!! BAM.
Drinks are CHEAP and the music is going to be bumpin' so don't miss it!! See the Facebook event for more details and RSVP here!
The Swell Season
If there's one thing that The Swell Season's Glen Hansard can be applauded for, it's his willingness to wear his emotions on his sleeve. Watching the Irish songsmith slowly seduce a crowd over a lovely evening using both his hard-luck, tough-love theatrics and witty, heartfelt stage banter was a rare sight to behold.
Hansard has an innate ability to be able to take an entire room and reduce the atmosphere to something akin to a show given at a tiny coffee shop, making every audience member count. His mannerisms and ways of speaking brought both the audience and the performer closer together, telling stories, joking and actually discussing his love of the city of Montreal with concrete examples. None of that bullshit rockstar "YOU ROCK, (insert name of city)!" It was all earnest, all of the time. Though Olympia was filled right up to the top of the balcony upstairs, I've rarely been to more intimate-feeling shows.
The band, now comprising of Hansard and Marketa Irglova as well as members of Hansard's other project the Frames, took to the stage and spent 2 1/2 hours working their way through both bands' catalogues, taking cuts from newly-released gem Strict Joy (including slow-burner 'Low Rising', as well as 'The Rain' and 'High Horse'), their award-winning Once soundtrack and some of the Frames' later albums.
The band configuration would change from song to song, depending on what the structure required. The haunting ballads were stripped down to simply Irglova's piano-playing and Hansard's scratchy, plaintive voice, singing of forlorn love and other lost sentiments. Other songs, such as the aforementioned 'Low Rising', found the stage full of musicians. Those tracks took on a life of their own, alien to the quiet numbers, creating musical peaks and valleys that lasted the entire evening, ensuring that the melancholy mixed well with the sweet sounds of primal rock, bordering on full-band folk music.
Hansard once again managed to obliterate the invisible barrier in-between performer and audience during the encore, where he began to play his acoustic guitar and sing without the aid of amplification. The hushed silence of the audience was a clear signifier of respect for the man at the center of the spectacle, who obviously spent a large part of his teenage years (and beyond) busking and knew how to play to a crowd.
Then the entire band, opening act Doveman (who himself shared his enjoyable brand of piano-driven singer-songwriter with the audience) and members of the audience watching from the wings joined in together for a rousing rendition of Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere", whose refrain was echoed over and over again, a suiting coda to a night of great music.
Porcupine Tree
Porcupine Tree is a band that makes you forget that there is a world outside the concert hall.
The reason? Well let me start off right away with the fact that Porcupine Tree is a phenomenal live act. I, like many, am not well versed when it comes to their music, so I enlisted the help of my good friend, Colin MacFarlane, who has been a loyal follower of Porcupine Tree, to accompany me on this melodic adventure and they did not fail to enthrall me.
They always kick off their concerts, as Colin told me, by playing their most recent albums in their entirety. In this case they played the newly released, The Incident, of which they played only one through fourteen, leaving out the last four songs on the album. They do this as if you are listening to the album on your IPod. They started with “Occam’s Razor” and ended with the fourteenth song, “I Drive the Hearse.”
During this musical journey we watched continual dark and disturbing videos of people in dire situations, and at other times, psychedelic images that rolled behind them. The videos that they chose to play behind them seemed to fall into beautiful harmony with their music, regardless of their dark nature.
Something that really hit me while listening to this concert is how they mix and match different musical styles and somehow manage to blend it all together to create a complete masterpiece of music. To make this all clear for those who are not familiar with Porcupine Tree: they take haunting melodies, such as that from the song “Kneel and Disconnect,” that remind you of Pink Floyd, then go a little harder with progressive rock sounds, like on the song “Occam’s Razor,” that remind you of early Rush, and then they blast into hard guitar rifts that have an Industrial sound, like with the title track of their last album, “The Incident,” that make think you think of Nine Inch Nails. I know that this sounds crazy, but it all works.
When looking around the Metropolis concert hall, it was easy to see that it works. It was so crammed that it was almost daunting. It was literally packed to the rafters. There were people hanging in the stairways and they were completely transfixed by this UK band that has been around since 1987. This show was completely sold out and it was very easy at the onset to see why. This band is not a band that makes you go wild, but mesmerises you and takes you to a different world.
It led me to beg the question “why haven’t we ever heard them on the radio?” Is it because there isn’t a market for them here? Obviously not, when you couldn’t even find a scalped ticket. This band has a cult following, which excites me in that it is not always necessary to go commercial to be successful. They have stayed true to who they are and their craft.
They continued to hypnotize us with eight more songs, from different albums, such as “The Start of Something Beautiful” from the 2005 album Deadwing to “Anesthetize” from the 2007 album Fear of a Blank Planet. They then ended our dream state with a two-song encore. They played The “Sound of Muzak” and “Trains,” both from the In Absentia album.
Porcupine Tree may not be a band for everyone, but they sure sucked me into their dream-like sequences. I will be sure to never miss them in concert again. They’ve made me a believer.
CJLO Has A Whole New Look!
CJLO is very happy to introduce its brand new website. After months of old website troubles, it was time for a whole new look. This website is bigger and better than ever before with a slew of all new features!
The CJLO Magazine has a brand new home and will be updated more frequently with a ton of new content making it the destination for all things arts & culture. We also now have a dedicated news page where you can keep up to date on all of the happenings in Montreal and around the world.
CJLO is host to dozens of bands every semester and now you can see and hear these live sessions on our Sessions page! Also be sure to keep up to date on all the wondrous things that happen at CJLO by checking out our live Twitter and Flickr feeds!
There are tons of things to discover so have a look around!
A Willhelm Scream + The Swellers + The Stitch-Up
I won’t lie, as I made my way over to Club Soda for this particular round of performances; I made a somewhat mischievous promise to myself that I would hear no Ska music that evening. A lofty goal, given that the show was headlined by none other than Streetlight Manifesto, one of the most popular bands left in the floundering North American Ska scene. However, my interest in the show had absolutely nothing to do with upward guitar strumming or horn sections and had everything to do with the monstrous Bad Religion meets Dillinger Escape Plan sound of New Bedford, Massachusetts’ A Wilhelm Scream. I discovered the band almost four years ago with the release of their sophomore record as AWS, Ruiner (though it was their fourth as a band since they released two full lengths under the name Smackin’ Isaiah.) However, after a while they kinda fell under the radar both due to a long string of inactivity before their newest effort, 2007’s Career Suicide and their tendency to not only not headline very often, but end up as the token aggressive band on mainstream Ska tours like this one (the last time they were in Montreal they were opening for Less Than Jake in 2006.) However, after their riotous and highly distributed performance at The Fest VII in October, the band re-entered my life with a vengeance and I didn’t want to pass on yet another opportunity to see them, even if it meant having to deal with obnoxious Montreal Ska Kids…and oh, were their many of them…so many, in fact, that the show sold out in advance. I’ll never understand just how Ska has remained so popular specifically in Montreal when it pretty much lost face everywhere else in…well, the world (though I suspect local heroes The Planet Smashers and Montreal-based Stomp Records have something to do with it.) Now, while I love Big D and the Kids Table as much as the next guy, they’re pretty much the only Ska band I can still listen to without wanting to claw my ears off these days (and that probably has more to do with A) The City of Boston and B) Operation Ivy, than anything else.)
Upon entering the packed show space I realized, to my chagrin, that the typical formula of “mainstream ska band with punk openers” wasn’t adhered to as much as I suspected with this tour, as openers The Stitch-Up were very much a young, three piece ska band (who, prior to the show, I was confusing with Ontario Emo quintet The Stick-Up who I now realize broke up three years ago.) Mercifully, since I showed up late, I was only subjected to about five minutes of upward guitar strumming and ironic ballads about the KKK adopting highways before their set ended…and at least there were no horns…so it was only a half-fail really.
Next up was Flint, Michigan’s The Swellers, an overly melodic hardcore act I’d been somewhat familiar with but had never actually seen. In short, I hadn’t missed much. While the band was relatively tight in terms of their musicianship, they were boring as all hell. It was almost as if the only records they ever heard with Thrice’s The Artist in the Ambulance and Lifetime’s Jersey’s Best Dancers, except they failed to understand what really made both those records so good and subsequently combined all of the annoying parts of both to form a band entirely dependent on unnecessary blast beats and overly melodic vocals. Not as terrible as I just made it sound, but not compelling in the least either.
Which leads us to A Wilhelm Scream, who after their first song (a riotous rendition of the first single off Career Suicide, “The Horse”) made it clear that they are huge sufferers of “big venue syndrome.” Some bands really do not come across well in venues with a capacity larger than 500 (or in this case 400, really) and AWS are most certainly one of them. The intensity and drive is ultimately diluted by all the empty space, so while the dedicated fans beating the shit out of themselves in front of the stage certainly had a great time, my perch from just in front of the sound booth left much to be desired and I’m sure everyone behind me and on the balcony got even less of why the band was so good (though given the sea of Streetlight Manifesto shirts, I don’t think they cared either.)
Despite the space concerns, the band was still tight as all hell. I don’t think I’ve ever seen two guitarists employ so much finger tapping, to the point that the majority of the guitar parts involved very little actual strumming, though their bassist’s attempt to playfully do the same on his own instrument fell flat for me. While I strongly support bassists stepping out of the shadows and holding their own on stage (mostly since I am also a bassist), you gotta recognize the limitations of your instrument and work with it goddamnit! Stop trying to LOOK cool and BE cool. Hitting tracks off their last three records (the aforementioned Ruiner and Career Suicide as well as 2004’s Mute Print) like fan favorites (and by fan favorites I mean my favorites) “Killing It,” “Jaws 3 People 0” and “The Rip”, they managed to easily blow away most bands in the admittedly flimsy post-hardcore scene (Paint It Black and Converge notwithstanding.) If anything, they need to embrace that scene a little more instead of constantly opening for ska crowds who view them as a token act at best or just ignore them entirely, though playing The Fest for the first time was a step in the right direction. As much as I hate to admit it, a big part of being a successful musician is placement…if you’re playing for the wrong crowd in the wrong place then you just aren’t gonna live up to your full potential, but they’ve done pretty well for themselves up until now and will probably continue to do so, so more power to ‘em I guess.
When their set ended I briefly flirted with the idea of at least sticking around for Streetlight Manifesto’s first song just to see what the fuss was about, but as the crowd around me got drunker and even more obnoxious I realized that they were actually making me hate the band and the genre even more by association…and I have just a little too much hate in my life already, ya know?
Planet Smashers + The Creepshow
The odd thing about The Planet Smashers is that I know they're a great band and I know I'll enjoy the show, but I never go see them. My guess is that it’s been at least 6 years since the last time I saw them. The thing that sticks out in my memory about that last time is that it seemed like I and my friend were the only two people in the audience who weren't dancing. Well this time I was flying solo, so take a guess how many people there were standing still…
Me not dancing isn't anything against The Planet Smashers, they're awesome, it's just dancing doesn't make sense. In fact, I have to give them credit for getting the-number-of-people-that-fit-into-a-sold-out-Club-Soda to do something so ridiculous. It really is impressive. Out of all the bands that I've seen live (which is a lot) The Planet Smashers have, by far, the best ability to get the crowd moving…
Anyway, The Planet Smashers delivered exactly what they were expected to: a nice, deep set of pure fun. What they do, they do well and the only surprise I can think of was the relative youth of the crowd. For a band that’s been around for so long, where were all of the old fans? I guess no one listens to ska after 20…
As for openers The Creepshow, they were, you know, alright. The only really negative thing about them was the singer's lame stage banter. The keyboardist and bassist were both pretty funny though, it's too bad that the singer didn't leave the talking up to them - but being the hot chick of course she's going to be the face/voice of the band. As for what actually counts - the music, I have no complaints. Not being familiar with them, I was expecting them to sound somewhat… creepy (come on, they're called The Creepshow!), but they didn't. That was pretty surprising. I would have preferred some creepiness/darkness over their pure upbeat poppiness, but that's just me. Despite not being their target audience, I still didn’t mind standing there for the duration of their set.
Flogging Molly+ The Aggrolites + Dub Trio
Flogging Molly has a very large fan base, especially in Montreal. The concert was sold out mid-day of the show and fans of this Irish punk band were lined up outside Metropolis an hour before doors were scheduled to open. Not only is Flogging Molly one of the most entertaining bands to see live, but they have this uncanny talent for picking the best opening bands. This year there were two very different bands that opened for good ol' Floggy and both were insanely good!
Dub Trio, their name couldn't be more different than their sound. Yes, there are three of them in the band but their sound is more metal than electronic and consists mainly of loud power chords. Needless to say they were awesome. These guys looked like they were really enjoying themselves on stage, almost as much as the crowd- who were shouting and dancing in the pit below.
Speaking of dancing, the venue was so packed for the show that there were absolutely no seats! The sitting area became the 'standing' area...not cool Metropolis, not cool.
Up next were The Aggrolites is a ska, reggae band. Now, the entire week preceding the upcoming Floggy show all anyone talked about was how this really awesome band were opening for Flogging Molly. So I was very curious as to whether or not these guys could live up to their reputation. They did and the crowd went mad. They were crowd surfing, dancing, screaming and singing along.
So far, this concert was the best I'd been to all year and I didn't think it would get better but it did thanks to Flogging Molly.
I've seen the band before and they didn’t disappoint, but this year they were amazing! The entire band was on that night, slightly drunk and all the more fun. Frontman Dave King is living proof that age doesn’t really matter. This guy is an energy drink… he boozed he shmoozed, sang and danced. Hell he even did a jig! (no joke) It was great. Flogging Molly is one of those ageless bands that gets better every year.
So get yer flog on and try and catch these guys the next time they're in town. It’ll make you happy. Seriously.
Street Dogs+ Hostage Life + Ashers
This is the fifth time I’ve attempted to begin this Street Dogs review with some kinda hyperbolic statement about how the show blew my mind and how Foufs is the perfect venue for a punk show and how the Street Dogs revolutionize street punk in 2009 but really? Who wants to read that? Not every show has to be mind-blowing or revolutionary to be good, and believe you me, this show was GOOD…except for one teency little programming snag.
Until about two days prior to the show, Boston’s own Ashers were set to play second as direct support for the Street Dogs while the show was to be opened by Toronto’s Hostage Life. However, once (the crazy cool) Shawna G and I made it to the venue we were greeted with two things I wasn’t expecting: one, a list of set times that put Ashers on first and two, an almost empty second floor of Foufs. By the time Ashers, who feature the legendary Mark Unseen (of Boston street punk monsters The Unseen) on vocals took the stage the numbers in the place weren’t much better, leaving the band to play to a nearly empty room. Now, this is only unfortunate since Ashers were DAMN decent. Blending punk rock with a semi-classic southern rock twang (which is funny given where they’re actually from), the only downside to the whole ordeal is that Unseen’s vocal stylings are SO unique that the similarities between Ashers and The Unseen are almost undeniable. Which is sad since the band really does have a more or less unique sound, even within the notoriously generic street punk genre, but they’ll always just be “Mark Unseen’s Other Band.”
Up next was the aforementioned Street Dogs…I mean Hostage Life. These Toronto punks, while well meaning (evidently), were just way too similar to the headliners they were warming the room up for that I couldn’t even begin to take them seriously.
Finally, the mighty Street Dogs took the stage. For those unfamiliar with the history of this band, they’re fronted by Mr. Mike McColgan, who was the original singer for some band no one has heard of called The Dropkick Murphys. After leaving the Murphys to spend time as a Boston City Firefighter, McColgan returned to music along with former Bruisers bassist Johnny Rioux and a motley assortment of Boston punks to form the Street Dogs. Over the past six years the band has released four full lengths and toured the world numerous times over. That having been said, while they’ve been to Montreal numerous times as part of bigger tours, this evening's show was their first headlining gig in the city and they wasted no time showing Montreal what they can do when the night is theirs. Much to my surprise, the vast majority of the set list was drawn from their much beloved 2005 sophomore release Back to the World including this writer’s personal favorite, “In Defense of Dorchester”. Leaving no corner untouched, they hit tracks from all four of their major releases including the rarely heard “Stand Up” from 2003’s Savin Hill, their latest single “Two Angry Kids” off 2008’s State of Grace and what can easily be described as one of the best punk rock anthems of the last ten years, “Not Without a Purpose” off 2006’s Fading American Dream.
As I said before, this show was not groundbreaking. The Street Dogs don’t revolutionize and re-invent the genre in any way, shape or form…but my God do they run with it well. In this day and age when a lot of new bands are clinging to the fad-aspects of the genre, it’s nice to see a band that actually gets what punk rock should be (and while it’s still uncertain whether it SHOULD be anything in particular…I’m fairly certain the groove the Street Dogs have is it.) Tight as all hell, pouring their hearts into every note and showing the new kids how it’s done. You really can’t ask for much more than that.
World/Inferno Friendship Society
Wasting no time on hyperbole, I’m just gonna jump right to the quotable: The World/Inferno Friendship Society skirt the line between innovation and outright inspiration and their entirely unique brand of orchestral, cabaret proto-punk may very well bring new life to a genre rife with cliché and stale personalities (and if you disagree you are wrong.)
Being an Inferno fan for quite some time now, I was more than a little stoked to hear they would be making the trip up to Montreal to finally play the city (and indeed Canada proper) for the first time in the band’s 13 year history. That having been said, I still did not know what to expect. Having seen the band three times before this (each time with a slightly different version of their constantly evolving lineup), I could safely make the claim that much of the magic of a World/Inferno show comes not just from what happens on stage, but the interplay between performer and audience. For those not in the know, there really is no such thing as a casual World/Inferno fan. If you don’t hate them then you fucking LOVE them and express that love by acting incredibly stupid (in the best meaning of the word possible) while in their presence. I would go so far as to say that the band not only encourages this, but bases their career on the unity and love shown by their fans (evident in, if nothing else, their name.) However, my worry going in was that Montreal, a city that loves their punk rock but at the same time doesn’t really allow for all that much innovation in said punk rock, might see a piano and a horn section and immediately call it “gay” (or worse, “ska”) and move on sight unseen and sound unheard. Without the intensity and backup of the crowd to compliment the intensity and creative energy of the band, would the Inferno translate as well live?
Turns out my worries were only half accurate: indeed, there were very few Montrealers present at Petit Campus that night (and a decent chunk of them were IN local openers, friends of CJLO and all around solid dudes Winslow or part of Team Winslow on the whole.) However, the true intensity and devotion of the average Inferno fan was a concept I had not considered in my predictions and by the time the band took the stage the dance floor was respectfully filled with some fine folk with entirely too much time on their hands from the band’s native New York (and a few unfortunate souls from Jersey), making the show itself seem just populated enough. Lead by the enigmatic Jack Terricloth, the slightly smaller than usual line-up (only seven members as opposed to the usual nine or ten, including new drummer and similarly solid dude Brian Viglione, formerly of The Dresden Dolls) took the stage and lead the audience in the traditional recitation of the band’s name before launching into long time Inferno set opener “Tattoos Fade.”
What followed was a full hour and a half of new material peppered with Inferno classics. While the majority of the set was made up of this new material, the band still found the time for fan favorite “hits” such as “Just The Best Party”, “The Brother of the Mayor of Bridgewater”, “Zen and the Art of Breaking Everything In This Room” and “Heart Attack ‘64”. Worthy of note is the fact that the majority of the new stuff featured Terricloth on a rather beat up but still functional acoustic guitar, which brought a smile to the face of THIS Sticks and Stones fan (if you aren’t familiar with Sticks and Stones and Terricloth’s role in it than you have some homework to do…trust me, you won’t regret it.)
While the band very much functions as a unit and includes many powerful musical minds, it really is the Jack Terricloth show and as a front man he has no equal (except maybe Eugene Hutz and even then it’d be close with Jack ultimately coming out on top.) Dressed in his usual custom suit and swilling red wine, he drew his audience in and enthralled them with stories of his three favorite things: money, drugs and sex and his interactions with them over his deceptively long life (which is the nice way of saying he’s fucking old…but as he says, punks age incredibly well.) It’s really difficult to listen to his words and NOT be inspired by his sincerity and mystique. While introducing one of the aforementioned new tracks he pointed out that one should never let a silly thing like the truth get in the way of a good story and just like that I had a new mantra to base my life on.
More a family reunion than a concert, a cultic ceremonial performance than a punk rock show, the band left the stage that night promising this may have been their first show here, but it certainly would not be the last. I’d say I’ll wait with baited breath for their return, but having them come to me is simply a convenience and by no means a prerequisite…I’ll probably be “that guy from Montreal at the World/Inferno show decidedly NOT in Montreal” for years to come (and I wouldn’t have it any other way.)
Cheers.
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