Session: Ohbijou

Ohbijou

Third Floor Studios at Ryerson University. Saturday, December 5, 2009.

A slightly unusual Saturday afternoon outing. Headed down to Ryerson and found the R----s Communication Centre¹ at the corner of Church and Gould and up to the titular third floor, finding a little hive of activity in a network of small rooms off a main hallway. Unsurprisingly, I suppose, the place was filled with students, though it's now to the point where it shocks me a little bit how young they look these days. Why, when I was their age, I —

But I digress. This whole thing was an effort of SPIRITlive — "a 24-hour a day, 7 day a week live Internet Broadcaster, produced by students in the School of Radio & Television Arts". As a bunch of us built up in the hallway, the technical folks were getting everything in place before letting us into the studio proper. Which turned out to be a rather tiny space — the advertisement wasn't kidding when it indicated that limited admittance was available. Not a bare, spartan room as one might mentally envision a studio — someone had gone to some trouble to decorate it up nicely, with hanging paper lanterns and strings of white christmas lights adding some atmosphere. Quite an elaborate setup, with the band and all their gear spread out across the front and various technorigmarole lining the walls. We were further hemmed in by the video crew, with taped lines on the floor demarking lanes for them to operate in at the sides and down the centre. As I looked over the thirty or so of us in the crowd, I once again had that pang of being the oldest, least student-y guy in the room² but I was at least able to draw some comfort from the fact that some of the members of the band are closer to being my contemporaries.

Anyways, everything in place, the band began to play, starting off with "Jailbird Blues" (from this year's wonderful warm hug Beacons) and it was quite glorious to soak in the sounds. A setup like this combined the spark of live performance with the sonic fidelity of a studio recording, so even if it was a sort of cramped and constrained, it was a splendid opportunity to just listen. Not making any radical rearrangements or digging out any rarities, the band put their best foot forward with eight tracks (five from Beacons, three from debut Swift Feet for Troubling Times). Being music that I've listened to a fair lot, I could pick out a few little tweaks in the arrangements here and there — "To Rest In Peace On Righteous Tides" had a slightly softer edge to it than it used to, say. But mostly I was just luxuriating in it — songs like "Make It Gold" so gently pretty and revivifying somehow.

The set was followed by a short interview with Casey Mecija and then out. I wasn't in a rush to get where I was going, so I had some time to stroll around the Ryerson campus, and exchange a nod with old man Egerton before wandering off.

One of the more winning features of this series of sessions is that they are being put online for download afterwards, so you can grab the whole thing here. Or, for just a taste, I have one track up in the usual manner here.

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¹ I shan't impose on you the name of the dead tycoon emblazoned on this building.

² We tend to think of ourselves as being more or less the same as we were back in our student days, and to some degree I still carry a mental image of myself with my long, curly hair, slightly affected penchant for Foucault and a sweeping sense of self-disapprobation. I suppose it's only natural to sorta romanticize the salad days, even if it means sweeping some of the Other Stuff under the rug. All things considered, I was so much older then — I'm younger than that now. So I probably don't have a lot to complain about, creeping entropy notwithstanding.