Gig: Daps All-Ages Concert Vol. IV

Daps All-Ages Concert Vol. IV (feat. Ruzan Orkestar, Sean Nicholas Savage, The Miles, Santa Guerrilla, Casey Mecija)

Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts & Culture. Saturday, January 16, 2010.

All praise to the Daps Duo! Dan and April of Hooded Fang have a nice sideline in inclusive, fun matinées presenting bands across a range of genres. With the shuttering of Rolly's Garage, their spiritual home base, the latest show landed in Kensington Market, in the friendly basement confines of the Kapisanan Philippine Centre. A long, narrow room, low-ceilinged, with the bands set up on a low stage at the far end. Back by the entrance, there was a merch table and hot chocolate for sale, and the long walls were covered with drawing paper, encouraging all comers to add their marks. A nice crowd on hand, mostly younger, but pretty much all Good Attendees, dancing when called for and quiet and attentive when that was required.¹

"Hi Everyone... we're Ruzan Orkestar, and this is our last show ever," announced Patricia Auchterlonie at the start of their set — is a bit of a bummer, as far as introductions to bands go. Don't get too attached and all that. On the other hand, the understated melancholy of that greeting nicely set up their first piece of music, a Dirty Three-esque violin-led dirge rather appropriately entitled "Elegy". The band's stock-in-trade was Godspeed-like instrumentals, and perhaps the stuff here wasn't breaking new ground in that regard, but the band showed talent in their compositions. "Stay Golden, Pony Boy", with Egin Kongoli's shouty vocals, was a bit of a departure — feeling a bit like Slint atavistically lurching back into Squirrel Bait — and in this context a little bit jarring compared to the music around it. Auchterlonie's wordless vocalisations on "Emmett's Blood" were a better fit.

Featuring a fill-in drummer stepping in for his departed predecessor, it was clear that this band was a learning experience for all involved right up to the end, and though it seems this project has run its course, it looks like we'll be seeing more from some of the members again in new capacities. The band were selling a two CD-R set of their complete recordings after the show and I picked one up, so I guess they'll now be in the "gone, but not forgotten" drawer.

The band has a link to a download of their set at their myspace, or you could listen to a track from my recording here.

Playing an old acoustic twelve-string, Montréal's Sean Nicholas Savage vamped a bit and sang a few taroola-lays while waiting to see if the sound guy could throw some reverb on his voice.² Proceeding without, he started to sing in an utterly non-rock'n'roll manner, all high and quavery — sort of like a twee, folksy Roy Orbison. Playing ten songs over a half hour, not all of the selections were winners, but it was pleasingly refreshing stuff from a distinctive voice. In fact, I'd say this was the sort of set that grew on me more after the fact, so I wouldn't object to further exposure.

Listen to a track from this set here.

When I saw The Miles last spring, I was impressed: "like a boys' varsity B-52's" was my summary. A second time round, they remain impressive — and, if anything, tighter and more confident than previously. Looking like private school boys toying with the notion of running away to join the rock'n'roll circus, perhaps some of my admiration stems from the fact that a younger me would have been totally thrilled by/jealous of them, what with their looking bookish but not nerdy, and able to, like, impress girls with their rock moves. Their new wave surf party tunes (mostly about being interested in/tired of girls) aren't yet winning any nobel prizes for originality, but they're delivered with such groovy gusto that that just doesn't matter. Delivering some of the highlights from their album³, including "Stingray", "Trash" and the incredibly hummable/danceable "Can I Speak to Shawna?", these lads continue to leave a tasty impression.

Linking up the location and the music, Santa Guerrilla — the resident music collective at the Kapisanan Centre, with the members rotating to learn all of the instruments — brought the Pinoy vibe. There was a familiar face on the stage in the form of Alexander The, who has previously shown his pop skills in Times Neue Roman. Here he added Korg-y keyb sweetening to the to percussion-based ensemble. Rocking the kulintang (racked gong chime) and agung (large gong), the sounds blended well into a hip-hop sensibility, with the crew adding rhymes to the traditional sounds. Totally unexpected and highly delightful — this is music that deserves to be heard beyond the walls of the Philippine Cultural Centre.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Casey Mecija has apparently been working on her one-woman-band skills, bringing along a small kickdrum/cymbal combo to accompany herself. And for additional safety in numbers, she was joined by her sister Jenny and Anissa Hart on strings — a configuration that was pleasingly intimate without sounding sparse. We had a chance to hear stories about incentives at childhood recitals (a trip to Wendy's, or Arby's if things went really well) along with some lovely new tunes that will possibly be surfacing on the next Ohbijou album.

Leading off with a lovely cover of Nathan Lawr's "Barking At Your Door", the set included a couple old favourites — "Black Ice", plus a version of "The Otherside" where, in the overlapping vocal section at the end, Casey was so caught up in listening to Jenny's part they ended up harmonizing the same lines with each other instead of alternating them. "I honestly thought your voice was my voice," Casey laughed at the end. "No Arby's!" someone in the audience shouted back. The crowd, mostly sitting on the floor, was raptly quiet, right up to the final selection, a very pretty love song ("true one / we've only begun") that Casey played solo. A fine capper to the afternoon.

Listen to a track from this set here.

And then, out at about quarter after six, time a-plenty yet to enjoy the evening. A very well-organized day and smartly put together. You'd be well advised to keep your eyes open for the date for Volume V.⁴

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¹ It's nice to have a reminder that it's not young people, per se, that are ill-mannered distractions at shows. It's the booze that's the problem, really, when folks hit that age of majority and suddenly have licence to go out and drink and be loud and inconsiderate, because — and I can certainly identify with this some — it's generally assumed that the booze makes other people loud and inconsiderate, but it makes me fun and as charming as anything.

Thinking more about this, I also wonder if attentive, sober underagers become loud, talky bar patrons just because, on the whole, shows in bars are way less interesting than shows like this. If I had been lucky enough to have grown up on a diet of extraordinarily cool all-ages shows before I was old enough to drink, I would have found the transition to dark and oft-dire clubs to be as depressing as hell.

² Savage's music gave the impression that he was utterly mis-named. Perhaps "Cardigan" or "Bramble" would serve as truth-in-advertising surnames, though I guess that might be a bit too obvious.

³ Their album's title, Blood on My Blazer, contributes to their Max Fischer-esque image, and comes in a nifty hand-made package with the CD backed against a silkscreened old 7" single — mine is a Philles Records pressing of "Unchained Melody" by The Righteous Brothers. Quite nifty.

⁴ Word on the street is you should keep March 27 April 10 open in that regard.