Gig: "Heavy Head Residency", Week 1

"Heavy Head Residency", Week 1. (Gentleman Reg / Hooded Fang / Kite Hill)

Drake Underground. Wednesday, February 3, 2010.

Do I ever get tired of being wrong? Reflecting on New Year's Eve upon the last of a fruitful string of local dates for Gentleman Reg, I noted, "I imagine we might hear a bit less of him next year." I was proven a liar within a few weeks when it was announced that Reg was taking a page from his label-mate Jason Collett and hosting a weekly residency every Wednesday in February downstairs at the Drake Hotel. Appealing lineups and a reasonable ten dollar cover were enough to get me out on a dreaded Wednesday night and check out the first installment of the "Regidency".

Opening things up was a short set from Kite Hill, with Ohbijou's Ryan Carley stepping into the spotlight, leading the band with piano and vox. Perhaps most widely heard on last year's Friends in Bellwoods 2 comp¹, the five piece — including Steve Lappano (drums), Mika Posen (from Forest City Lovers, violin), Anissa Hart (from Ohbijou, cello) and Tyler Belluz (double bass) — specialize in introverted orch-pop. Playing eight songs over twenty-five minutes², the band sounded excellent in presenting some songs from their forthcoming album, with a hoped-for June release date. Top-notch performances all around, such as on "Terns", presented with elegant pizzicato precision from the string players. Of special note was Posen's violin work, essentially taking the space of a lead guitarist with some nice flowing lines on "Gathering" and "Clouds of Living Things". This music is good enough that Carley could afford to exude a bit more righteous ego on stage, although his slightly defensive, closed-in body language and self-depreciating manner do accord well with the softness he's expressing with his voice and in his songs.

A word-picture: imagine a broken-hearted boy looking out a window at a grey forest on a rainy evening, feeling a wordless sense of loss at the ghost of a waltz in his head. That boy is a Kite Hill song.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Next up, the redoubtable pop prowess of Hooded Fang, taking a few extra minutes to get started with some keyboard cable gremlins on the loose. Once ready to go, the band launched into "Sleep Song", and then "Promiseland", which sounded like it had been switched into a higher gear, moving quickly on a tasty bed of rhythm guit. In fact, over all, the band was in a sprightly mood, playing with an energizing jauntiness. The band has certainly smoothed over some of their rough edges that they had a year ago, with less pace-slowing instrument swaparounds, and so forth. The setlist continues to more forward, as well, with only one song ("Land of Giants") from their EP making the cut on this night. That left the bulk of the set comprising of familiar, though as-yet-unreleased songs ("Straight Up" and "Younger Days" for example, plus "Highway Steam" from Friends in Bellwoods 2) though there was some 'new-new' material, such as "Mutant Bear". The only downside to the band's increased focus is that it seems to mean less of an opportunity for Lorna Wright to step into the spotlight, with Daniel Lee now singing pretty much all the leads. But a really fine set overall.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Taking the stage on his own, Gentleman Reg greeted the crowd and began his set with a stripped-down cover of Sam Phillips' "I Need Love", delivered with yearning intensity to a nearly pin-drop quiet crowd.³ He was then joined by the band — Jon Hynes, Kelly McMichael and Dana Snell — who launched into "Coastline". Reg was in high spirits throughout the night, celebrating the anniversary of Jet Black's release: "it was a good year — sold millions and millions of copies... we're all loaded. We almost didn't have time to be here because we're so busy and rich! But we made the time."

Besides the standard setlist fare, there was a smattering of new material, including a pair of songs getting their public debut. One was an upbeat rocker (leading off with the scenario-setting lyric "There was this one time I went into a bar") that gave Reg a chance to rock out on the guitar. Plus the sublime "It's True" (which we'll use as an unofficial title pending any further news) that proves how much backing vocals can add to a song — in this case, inducing delicious shivers. The band was joined by Shaun Brodie (trumpet) and Jessica Tollefsen of Green Go (keyb and backing vox) on "How We Exit". It was nice to see Tollefsen — who has probably been at more Gentleman Reg shows in the past year than I've been to — get called up to the stage. She also added some nice sounds to a version of "We're in a Thunderstorm" that saw Reg take to the floor and dance among the crowd to close out the set.

"We never headline shows — we're always opening for people," Reg commented after being called back to the stage. "We never get encores." Playing solo again, Reg debuted one more song, this one a lovelorn paean to a boy from Winnipeg that Reg met on tour ("Not to get too specific," Reg commented while introducing it). Then the band returned for a final blast through "The Boyfriend Song" to close it out. A full hour of Reg, and a rather good time. All told, a well-put-together night. There's still a couple weeks left in the Regidency, so it'd be worth your getting down there, Thursday morning be damned.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ The band played a fine set at the compilation's release party

² It's worth noting that the songs clock in at very economical lengths, with several right around the two-minute mark. Yet there's no stinting on the arrangements, as all sound fully-fleshed out. It seems more that Carley is smart enough as a songwriter to use less lyrics and let the music carry the emotional message. It helps, too, that the songs don't work as much on the verse-chorus-repeat kind of mode, each coming as more of a single developed image.

³ Strangely enough, given the quality of talent on hand, the show wasn't sold out — Wednesday night, I guess — but the room was just full enough to nail that sweet spot where there's some but not too much elbow room.