"Friends in Bellwoods 2" release party (Friday) (Featuring: Ohbijou / Forest City Lovers / Evening Hymns / Bocce)
Lee's Palace. Friday, August 28, 2009.
Out to Lee's on a Friday night for the second of three release parties for the Ohbijou-curated Friends in Bellwoods 2 compilation.1 Given that this double-disc set, forty tracks deep, feels like a bit of a snapshot of one corner of the scene du jour, these events bringing many of these bands together lent a sense of occasion to the evening.
First up on the "big stage" show at Lee's was Jonas Bonnetta's Evening Hymns, who had left me with something of a middlin' feeling when I first encountered them at Ohbijou's CD release party back in June. A second dose served to improve my disposition somewhat.2 Figuring there'd be some quieter moments that I didn't want ruined by the chattering types, snagged myself a position right up front, and perhaps the unadulterated access to the music made it go down easier. For those keeping track of the inter-band crossovers, Evening Hymns on this night still included Gavin and Wyatt from The Wooden Sky, Ohbijou's James Bunton on drums plus Sylvie Smith's secret-ingredient vox. After leading with comp cut "Cedars" and a rollicking version of "Lanterns", Smith took the mike to sing lead for her own FiB feature, the sweetly country-tinged "On Our Own". "Mountain Song" featured some extra percussion by Leon from Germans, and following the bouncy pop of "Broken Rifle" were some more special guests, the hoodie-clad D'Urbervilles taking the stage to join Jonas for a run through their FiB cut, a lean and menacing cover of Timber Timbre's "Magic Arrow". Very exciting.3
Listen to a track from this set here.
Next up were Forest City Lovers. Perhaps inspired by the "Family Band" configuration, conjoined with The D'Urbervilles, that they played in at their Summerworks gig, this was the rockingest FCL set I've seen. Part of that extra energy undoubtedly came from Tim Bruton of the D'Urbs, who sat in playing second guit for the bulk of the set. The extra energy undoubtedly pushed Kat Burns' vox down into the mix a bit, which is unfortunate, but the extra drive really added some zest to the proceedings. FiB track "Minneapolis" was followed by a cameo by Ohbijou's Jenny Mecija and Anissa Hart adding some extra strings. And then an amazing hat-trick of songs, with "Orphans" and "Watching the Streetlights Grow" — two of Burns' finest compositions — followed by an smoldering take of "Waiting By The Fence". I've seen FCL live in a variety of circumstances, and this was the finest set I have seen them deliver.
Listen to a track from this set here.
The club had filled in decently by the start of the Forest City Lovers set, but it was looking pretty much like a sell-out by the time Ohbijou took the stage. Still wanting to be in front of the talkers, I ended up right against the stage, in front of Casey's monitor, meaning I got to hear the set with plenty of Andrew Kinoshita's rhythm guit in front of me, but at least it was never overpowered by the crowd. The band helped in that regard, playing, like FCL before them a pretty peppy and upbeat set — Ohbijou in party mode. Which meant that a lot of the songs' usual nuance was left for the wayside in favour of a different kind of emotional connection. After a couple songs establishing this mood, the cavalcade of guest stars began with John O'Regan of The D'Urbervilles joining in on "The Otherside", swapping the melancholy for a jaunty edge. The stage was then filled full of even more friends for a singalong of "Staten Island Waltz", a song written by Sarah Creskey who contributed vox along with a crowd including Basia Bulat, Sylvie Smith, Jonas Bonnetta and quite a few more, all joining in as Casey passed around lyric sheets. Nils Edenloff then came on to trade verses on "To Rest in Peace on Righteous Tides", another track from the first album not aired out for a little while. And, after a couple more songs, Ohbijou pushed it to their disco-dancing zenith as Gentleman Reg and Kelly McMichael joined them for a cover of Annie's "Heartbeat", complete with extended wokkachikka riffing. Certainly different than a usual night out with Ohbijou, but a helluva party.
Listen to a track from this set here.
All of which set the mood well for Bocce, a Waterloo-based crew I knew only by reputation. With a drummer plus three guys up front on synths, effects and vox they created a frenzied dance party. It might not be totally inaccurate to assert that when it comes to evaluating the relative merits of DOR bands I'm a bit more of an uninterested observer than a disinterested one and also fair to note that someone without a slip in their hip isn't the right person to say if what the band was doing was working. Fair enough. But still, I stuck around to see what I could get out of it and found it to be a generally fun experience, if not strongly affecting me. The band, at least, knew what their job was and went about their business of catering chaos with a fair amount of enthusiasm. Tony Salomone4 was the most kinetic, moving around the stage and beyond into the crowd. The band was on for forty-five minutes, the set concluding with a pass-the-mic freestyle with a heap of guests that included Kat Burns quite credibly rapping a few verses5 and ended up with members of the audience dancing on stage. So, yeah, fun stuff and a good end to the night.
1 It's been a month or three since I've been to Lee's — when did they do that bit of interior design and straighten up the little jog at the entrance? Definitely a good idea.
2 Afterthought: Something in this set must've worked, since I've had "Cedars" stuck in my head for the past two or three days now.
3 So, back-to-back times I've seen the D'Urbervilles essentially storming the stage while another band was playing and taking over the gig — now I'm going to start expecting them to burst out of the the wings at, like, every show I go to, some sort of righteous vengeance force swooping down like KRS-One on P.M. Dawn.
4 Wearing a totally boss Thrush Hermit Smart Bomb t-shirt.
5 Not the first time I've seen her busting rhymes on stage, if you include her gangsta turn at the Rock Lottery.
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