Gig: Out of this Spark 3rd Anniversary Party

Out of this Spark 3rd Anniversary Party (feat. The D’Urbervilles, Forest City Lovers, Evening Hymns)

The Garrison. Saturday, January 22, 2010.

The anniversary celebrations for local label Out of This Spark have been a warm spot in January's cold for the past couple years, and this time around the party had moved from the Tranzac over to The Garrison. Looks like they coulda picked an even bigger room yet, as the ticketless were being turned away at the door when I arrived, a bit late, missing Jenny Omnichord's opening set. At least that meant a most pleasant lack of dead time as Evening Hymns were just taking the stage and strapping on their instruments as I was finding a spot on the pool table to store my parka.¹

Now a five piece, James Bonetta's band has slimmed down from when I'd seen them previously, with Tim Bruton on extra guitar plus Sylvie Smith adding bass duties to her vocal role. On the stage, a swirling, ambient instrumental introduction built up for a couple minutes, textures of keyb and guit with multitalented/man-of-many-bands Shaun Brodie laying down some trumpet licks on top. That opening build led into "Lanterns", rising up to a climax with more trumpet underneath Bonetta's treated and looped vocals, before collapsing into the regret-tinged "Dead Deer", with Smith doubling the lead vocal, and Brodie switching over to accordion. For my money, these robust arrangements to start the set were the sweetest fruit in the band's basket. Launching into "Cedars", Bonnetta commented, "this is a quiet song. Do what you gotta do." Given the less-than-stellar time I'd had with chatty people at the Garrison the night before, I was worried that that might mean general talking and ignoring the band, but it wasn't so bad on this night.

Then the band exited the stage, leaving Bonnetta alone as he launched into "Mtn. Song" — a surprising choice for a solo spot, given that this was previously a big, roiling band production with extra percussion. Turns out, though, that Bonnetta had some tricks up his sleeve, and the song was turned into something else entirely. Starting off slow and quiet, it slowly went from a coffeehouse folk song into an extended coda, recreating the album version's almost psychedelic ending, with Bonnetta adding layers of vocals via looping pedal à la Nif-D or Jamie Lidell. Stretching out past nine minutes, I don't know that I preferred this to the previous arrangement, but I surely do appreciate Bonnetta's willingness to tinker with his songs a bit and find different ways to present them. After that, the band — who had come around up front to watch that happening, not just holing up backstage to pound back some beers or anything — returned for a rollicking take through "Broken Rifle". The set ended with a new one whose name I didn't catch ("Cabin in the" something — "Cabin in the Burn", maybe?) that the band clearly enjoyed rocking out to. I've found Evening Hymns is sort of on the cusp for me, in terms of how much it engages me, but the fact that the live incarnation is ever-changing and treating the songs as malleable processes and not Songs Fixed In Place For All Time gives me cause to stay on their side.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Keeping one step (or several, preferably) ahead of the talkers, I decided to be proactive and moved right up to the front to see Forest City Lovers, settling in pretty much under the stage right speaker. Which turned out to be the right move for the half-hour set, as it sounded pretty good up there.

Although the band is and shall ever be most closely shaped by vocalist/songwriter Kat Burns, the D'Urbervilification² of FCL continues apace — in addition to Kyle Donnelly on bass, Tim Bruton (who we've seen joining the band on stage in the past) is now listed as a full-time member.³ Over the past couple years, there's been a slow and steadily evolution of the band's live sound into something a bit meatier and more "rock", which is totally to my liking. On this night, the band sounded close to excellent, with perhaps only Donnelly's bass a bit high in the mix early on.

The set started with "Don't Go", sounding better than I've ever heard it, and the band was playing with a pleasing self-assuredness from the outset. FCL is now building up enough of a catalogue that it faces us with that happy dilemma of having too many good songs, and with the influx of new material, we're not going to get to hear all the old favourites every time. Fortunately, the new stuff is pretty good. The band played both sides of their recent 7", with Sylvie Smith coming out to add some backing vox to "If I Were a Tree", a slightly-dendrophiliac romantic sketch all the sweeter for sly double entendres like "if I were a tree / I'd give you wood". We also got what were told was a brand new song (opening lines "clear winter morning / we walk by the lake") and another one that I believe is new, ending with the refrain "we are what we believe in".⁴ I wouldn't have minded another song or two, but a very fine set overall, and Burns left the stage saying, "there'll be a special surprise after the D'Urbervilles, so stick around".

Listen to a track from this set here.

High energy as always, The D'Urbervilles started their set with a blast of new material — although we've been hearing some it if for long enough that some, like "Get In or Get Out", is already familiar, while "Spin the Bottle" can not be certifiably introduced by John O'Regan (now a blond, and possibly having more fun) as "an oldie". In fact, the bulk of the set was satisfyingly devoted to new stuff, which is, at turns, harder hitting and slinkier than previous. Completely entertaining but unassuming on stage as always, O'Regan and co. were rather fabulous, taut and energetic throughout. The set started off with a two-guit attack, though most of the songs involved O'Regan or Tim Bruton on keyb. The half-hour went by in a whir, again leaving the crowd wanting more. In case I haven't been adequately clear: solidly in the top tier of this city's acts.

Check out the band's set-opening salvo here.

And then, re-emerging, O'Regan said, "I guess we'll do some more... we'll all do some more." Members from all the evening's bands were assembling on stage for something of a re-enactment of the beloved joint performance at last year's Summerworks Festival. Let's dub them the OOTS Family Band after the performers' propensity to refer to their label in that rhymes-with-boots way. A raucous three song effort, leading off with the D'Urbs' "Dragnet", featuring Jenny Omnichord on bass. Following which, she sat down and plugged in her omnichord to lead one of her own songs, the full band sound (and Mika Posen's violin in particular) adding some lovely flesh to the song's bones. And then closing with a brisk and urgent take of FCL's "Country Road". Certainly in keeping with the shared spirit of the evening and Out of This Spark as a whole.

Listen to a track from this set here.

A very fine evening, and a tantalizing glimpse of what we can only hope is increased success for the label and these bands. With D'Urbs and FCL both headed towards new releases, I think OOTS will be staying on our radar in a big way for the rest of the year, and we can only hope their biggest problem will be finding a place big enough to hold their anniversary party next year.

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¹ Reading back over this, it never occurred to me until just now that it's mildly odd that the folks at The Garrison have kept the pool table opposite the bar pushed up against the wall. Given that it functions well enough as a leaning place and communal coat pile, it seems functional and all, I guess. Maybe they push it out to the middle of the floor during the day and hustle folks just in from the countryside.

² This is my new favourite word, and is offered free of charge to anyone who wants to use it as the name of their D'Urbs cover band.

³ I'm slow on the uptake — when did this happen?

⁴ If true, then that's cause for concern for me about eighty per cent of the time.