Still Life Still / Kids on TV
The Theatre Centre (Summerworks Festival Music Series). Sunday, August 9, 2009
Subpar rock'n'roller I am, I have it as a rule of thumb to avoid Sunday gigs, so as to finish off all the chores and get to bed nice and early to start the new week all fresh etc, etc. But still, sometimes you have to break the rules to free your heart.1 So, heading out in the middle of a beautiful/mildly terrifying thunderstorm, I ducked out during a break in the driving rain and actually made it down to the Theatre Centre a bit earlier than I'd planned. Fortunately A. arrived on the scene not long after me, so we chatted while we waited for the doors to open — mildly late, as seems to be par for the Summerworks course.
A sparser crowd on hand, not surprising given the Sunday/lousy weather situation. The night was designated a fundraiser for Sketch, an arts program for street involved and homeless youth — a cause that Kids on TV have supported in the past. On this night, we got an eight-song set again showing off their newer material and a couple old tracks. The crowd (except myself and A.) seemed largely to be there for Still Life Still and were hanging back on the seats as KoTV took the stage. Thank goodness there was an intrepid front-stander to lead the charge to the stage, although after a bit the music started to draw more people onto their feets and some dancing ensued. Adding to the multimedia spectacular, most of the songs came with flashy new video art. The disco-y "Dazzler" impressed even more in this setting and was a rockin' good time. "Poison" was beset by the same electro-gremlins that had visited Miracle Fortress on Thursday2 with the sound system cutting out in the middle of the track. The band gamely took a mulligan, and when the sound died again, persevered with one more re-start and managed to get through the track3 The set ended with "Breakdance Hunx" and its attendant party breakdown — stretching her mic cord to the limit, Roxanne took to the seats to bust out a verse and John hit the dancefloor to show off his breakdancing skillz. A ripping set wherein the band overcame the technical issues and a crowd that was not necessarily there to see them.
Between sets, A. decided he wanted to be alert at work in the morning and split for home. Fortunately, changeover entertainment was provided by Masta Myst, a young rapper who has honed his craft and done some recording at Sketch. That filled things in well enough until Still Life Still were ready to go. My previous encounters with the band had left me mostly ambivalent, but I was still willing to see if there was something there to interest me. The crowd, on the other hand, were right into this, and there were plenty folks dancing and singing along straight from the get-go. It's an A&R reality I'll readily acknowledge — if it comes down to whether a band impresses me or impresses a dancefloor full of girls, I know which I'd use as an indicator of future success.
Fighting against shock-inducing rented gear, the band put together a respectable set. All things considered, SLS' decentred sound should be right down my alley — no obvious frontman, vox shared around, and instruments melding together into a smeary haze. But somehow it seems this galling limitation must not be persevered in — sometimes it feels that the band is occupying its patch of musical real estate a bit too securely. A couple "new" songs — newer than their as-yet-unreleased album — are generally cut from the same cloth. I suppose in the end it's just that what they have doesn't quite hook me in, but, truth be told, I did enjoy this more than my previous encounters, and felt like three or four songs really connected. This is already a capable live act, and I can only imagine some road work concomitant with the new album will only sharpen that further. Whether this gets them to the point where they're too successful for random women to just wander on stage mid-set to get some pictures of them remains to be seen, but I do reckon we'll be hearing plenty about 'em this fall.
Listen to a track from this set here.
1 Marge: "You got that from a movie poster."
2 Weirdly, it's been the electronic acts, with their DI'ed gear that've been having all the bad luck with the fusebox, and not the rockers with their amps and whatnot.
3 This supremely catchy little number will be featured on the soon-coming Friends in Bellwoods II comp — start making your plans to get your mitts on a copy!
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