CMW 2010* (Thursday) (feat. Elk, The Treasures, Leif Vollebekk, We Are The City, Broken Bricks, Hey Marseilles)
Thursday, March 11, 2010.
First full night of CMW, and this time, there would be no getting stuck in lineups — my agenda was to avoid the hot spots, and be prepared to adjust my plans on the fly. Although there were plenty bands that I really like playing in the festival, I was aiming to avoid them, and see as many bands that I'd never seen before — and, where possible, bands from out of town that might not be making their way back through these parts any time soon.
8 P.M.: Elk @ Comfort Zone
Figured I'd start things off at The Silver Dollar, but arriving outside, I noted that the sidewalk sign was listing everything starting on the half-hour. Which made a kind of sense, as the shows in Comfort Zone, right underneath were going on the hour. So, with slight trepidation, I headed down there to pass some time. "Trepidation", because, basically, Comfort Zone is one of those places your mother warned you about. Somewhat notorious as a semi-boozecan den of iniquity, CZ has only recently re-opened after a series of well-publicized busts from the vice squad. Early on, and pretty much empty, however, it didn't seem that bad — high on the dank-o-meter, but not so scary. A low-ceilinged basement space, it had a sort of sprawling layout, with plenty nooks and crannies to lurk in. The largest open area hosted the round-edged stage in front of a funky mural.
Not too much going on, I sat down and waited a few minutes, the rest of the patrons looking to be members of Elk and their friends. With dented metal tables and squat, sturdy chairs under blacklight fluorescents, the whole space had the vibe of a post-apocalyptic roadhouse — if the New York City of movies like The Warriors had a roller rink, this could have been the snack bar off to the side. By now is was about quarter after and with some seeming reluctance, the band took the stage. It's certainly rough for the bands that get stuck on the early fringes of the schedules for these nights, and one could see how they might want to wait a bit to see if a bit more of a crowd'd wander in before they played. As it was, when the St. Catharines four-piece got going, there were only a handful of people on hand to hear their slightly chug-y garage rock. There was an engaging muddiness to it, even if what I head was a bit undistinguished. I was taken with "Sometime Together", the last of the tracks I heard, and it sounded like the band was just getting properly warmed up. The rest of their set held promise, but I decided to stick to my schedule, and move upstairs for the 8:30 slot.
Listen to a track from this set here.
8:30 P.M.: The Treasures @ Silver Dollar
Moved up to The Dollar with enough time to settle in as The Treasures took the stage. Looking the part of the contemporary urban country band, the members were all in plaid — except for drummer Daniel Poskanzer, perhaps missing a memo or something, in a basketball jersey. Harmony vox from all members and Adrian Cook's pedal steel gave this band a classic Cosmic American Music sound to back Michael Poskanzer's songs. Decent songwriting included some nice local touches ("sitting on swings in Christie Pits") and I found this to be quite likable, bringing to mind, say, The Jayhawks at several points. The alt.country (or whatever name the rootsy stuff is going by these days) isn't quite my bag in the way it used to be, but in a musical ecosystem where The Wooden Sky and Great Bloomers are thriving, The Treasures could do well for themselves.
Listen to a track from this set here.
9 P.M.: Leif Vollebekk @ El Mocambo
Walked across the street and over to the El Mo to catch Montréal singer-songwriter Leif Vollebekk. With a well-reviewed album out on the reliable Nevado Records, this is the sort of thing I have some interest in, but not enough to have gone out of my way to have seen under regular circumstances, making it an ideal festival showcase pick. Vollebekk played mostly in the classic singer-songwriter troubadour mode, with acoustic guitar and harmonica, plus a voice capable of rising to an emotive trill. As I'd heard mentioned, there was a strong Dylan-ish influence at play in some of his lyrics ("every story has two sides, it seems like you have ten"). Certainly Vollebekk was not afraid to show devotion to the past — whether in lifting a melody from Lou Reed, or in a couple covers.
"Don't Go to Klaksvik" might be the best example of his straightforward singer-songwriter material, and after that he complicated things a bit by switching to electric guitar and violin — both at the same time, thanks to a looping pedal. It was in this configuration that he did an excellent slowed-down, melancholy take on Neil Young's "Barstool Blues".1 Winning stuff overall, and it's apparent why Vollebekk has already gained notice over the field of singer-songwriters.
Listen to a track from this set here.
10 P.M.: We Are The City @ El Mocambo
Stuck around to catch We Are The City2, a young trio out of Kelowna. With guit, drums and keybs, the band aimed for a fusion of yelpy indie rock and pop-prog bombast. This slightly uneasy marriage, if nothing else, made them sound like they were aspiring to be a spikier version of Queen rather than trotting out dull Coldplay-isms. Or, at least, mostly — a couple songs listed towards a less-engaging ponderousness and too-tricky stop-start groovelessness. I'm willing to write off the less-engaging moments as partially being just not my thing, and partially that these youngsters still show a lot of room to develop their sound.
11 P.M.: Broken Bricks @ The Central
After a bunch of sets clustered close together, moved a bit further afield, heading over to The Central, on Markham Street behind Honest Ed's. To the extent that this was on my radar as a live music venue, I'd thought it was more of a solo acoustic kind of place, and when I made my way into the narrow back room it was apparent that that would be the best use of the space. With a small stage, it was a tight squeeze for four as Broken Bricks were getting ready to play. At the moment listed as a three-piece, it looks as if drummer Steve Foster (of The Miles) was just sitting in with the band, but did a solid job. The band features a pair of lead vocalists in Marlon Chaplin (also guit) and Luke Kuplowsky (also keybs) bringing relatively more snarling and soulful approaches to music borrowing from British R&B combos like The Kinks and The Who, infused with a bit of a punkish edge. Though young, they appeared to have learned that the distance between the two isn't that great — The Sex Pistols didn't cover "Substitute" for nothing — though I wouldn't want to overplay the punk-ish elements here. In any case, the band has a nice sound, some decent songs, and a musical approach that mixes the rough and the sweet in proportions that I dig. The room and sound system didn't do them any great favours, with the guitar sounding a bit on top of everything else. Regardless, this was a solid set and a band worth seeing again.
Listen to a track from this set here.
Midnight: Hey Marseilles @ Clinton's
Made one more westward hop, to the back room of Clinton's. Home to many a dance night and low-key show, I'd never actually been in to this space before, but it seemed to have an agreeably comfortable vibe. There were a fair number of people standing over by the bar, but I made my way past them and found a spot to sit right up at the front.
"We're going to rock you as much as possible with the implements at hand," said Matt Bishop of Seattle's Hey Marseilles on taking the stage. Given that those implements included accordion, violin, cello, trumpet and a marching band drum, that might actually amount to not a lot of rocking. Which is absolutely fine, as HM's stock in trade was more like lively orchestral folk. With that instrumentation and Bishop's somewhat Colin Meloy-ish vox, the obvious point of comparison here is The Decemberists (albeit back when they were more folksy and, um, good). So long as that's something you can waltz to, Hey Marseilles should be a good time.
Making their first foray out East, Bishop tried to engage the crowd, including asking if there was a big rivalry between Toronto and Vancouver, but wasn't getting a lot of response back. There was general appreciation after each song, though — at least from those who were paying attention to the band. Over on the left side of the room, more people were continuing to just stand around and talk.3 For me, it was good stuff, quite lovely to listen to without being too lush. And bonus points to the band for a delightful cover of Daniel Johnston's "True Love Will Find You in The End" — a song that never fails to bring a tear to my eye, old damp towel that I am. Plus the band had a couple top-drawer originals in the mix as well. An enjoyable enough set to end the night on.
Listen to a track from this set here.
* A note on nomenclature: for years both the industry showcase and music festival components were known as Canadian Music Week. But as of 2009, this was deemed to be too simple and straightforward, and the music portion was "rebranded" as Canadian Music Fest, under the aegis of the larger Canadian Music Week. I see no reason to put up with this and will simply refer to everything as CMW — although there was a part of me that also considered using the slightly cumbersome "Canadian Music Fest presented by Canadian Music Week" throughout.
1 Pulling a couple different influences together, there was also a cover of Dylan's "Mama, You've Been On My Mind" that perhaps owed a bit to Jeff Buckley's arrangement.
2 Not to be confused with the similarly-monikered We Are The Take, who were playing CMW on the same night.
3 Mike from For the 'records', who got to this show a couple minutes behind me was taking photos from that side of the room and seemed to have found the chatter to be much more invasive where he was.
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