NXNE — North by Northeast Festival, Toronto, 2010.
Friday, June 18, 2010. Featuring: The Soft Pack, Revolvers, The Schomberg Fair
Midnight: The Soft Pack @ The Garrison
Walked up to the The Garrison from Queen, and got there just a couple minutes past midnight. I'd been vaguely worried about capacity/lineup problems — this was another buzz-y band — but although the room was pretty full (and quite sauna-like), I still managed to get in and work my away up the far edge of the room to get a decent vantage point.
I'd been hearing good things about The Soft Pack, out of San Diego, for a couple years now, stretching back to when they were known as The Muslims, but in the band overload environment we're in, I'd never really investigated them. As I settled in, they were just starting up with opener "Pull Out", stand-up drummer Brian Hill's straightahead Mo Tucker beats driving things along. Added to those crazy rhythms were the Feelies-like textures of "More or Less", which was pressing all the right buttons for me. I'm a total sucker for anything third-handedly Velvetish — and, hell, this might even be genuinely second-handedly Velvetish. The band quickly settled into some propulsive, guitar-driven garage rock, more concerned with rhythmic interaction than flash or noise. One is tempted to call Matt Lamkin's vocal delivery a bit pedestrian, but I think that would miss the point, as the pleasure of the band's music is textural in a I-can-dance-to-this-some kinda way. Which also excuses a sound that some might find a bit too consistent.
There were, however, a few songs that mixed up the formula enough to keep things from getting too same-y, like the mid-tempo "Mexico", with slide guitar and a melodic bassline from David Lantzman, which felt like a ballad after the rollicking songs before it. And the highly satisfying "Bright Side" (from one of their early singles) had a big singalong hook, bringing to the fore an overt poppish side that is pushed aside in some of the other tunes. Otherwise, there was a lot from their self-titled debut album.1 With one song left, the band made the best of it, stretching out for a nine-minutes rave-up run through new single "Gagdad" (with a catchy refrain of "I Can Tell") that sent them out in style.2 Not a flashy band, but very worthy for those who like that steady rhythm sound and a beat you can dance to.
Listen to a track from this set here.
circa 1:25 a.m.: Revolvers @ Rancho Relaxo
And that took care of my list of "must sees" on the night. With no particular rush to get anywhere, walked up towards the College/Spadina nexus, figuring I'd make up my mind on the fly once I was closer to some options. Walked past the El Mo, where Golden Dogs were playing, and looking in from the street, it looked like a big crowd having a sweaty fun time, but I didn't feel like trying to squeeze in up front to catch the end of it. I kept moving and ended up at Rancho, where things must have been running a bit behind schedule, as I ended catching about twenty minutes from Revolvers. Unplanned, but a good result — I hadn't caught them since last summer when they were celebrating the release of Apocalypse Surfin', their promising debut album.3
As I came up the stairs to the venue, the band were playing "Break it Loose", the album's opening track and and possibly their best — a proper little Nugget of garage-psych goodness. Which might make them sound like just another band in a pretty crowded field, although Revolvers do have their own distinct niche. They play with a controlled restraint that some similar bands plow right past — even though their live attack is a bit rawer than the presentation on the album, these guys aren't kicking over microphone stands or bathing their songs in random feedback bursts. Plus, their rawk attack contains no small does of the blues. It works well when they get the balance right, such as on an extended ramble through "Cadillac 21", which fuses the Velvets' "Run Run Run" with something like a Chess sound. There were also a couple songs that aren't on the album, so it sounds like the band is still working on new twists to their sound.
Listen to a track from this set here.
2:10 a.m.: The Schomberg Fair @ Rancho Relaxo
Stuck around to catch another local act, one that I've been meaning to check out for awhile but had never crossed paths with. The Schomberg Fair, with a couple albums under their belts, are well-loved in some corners of this town and have a rep for a blistering live show. They're not the first to attack traditional song-forms (and traditional songs) with energy and velocity, but they do so with such zeal that the tag "speed gospel" has stuck with them. The songs operated like a cart careening down a steep hill — a giddy ride that feels dangerously fast at times.
Vocalist Matt Bahen (switching off between banjo and guitar) was backed by the bullfrog roar of bassist Nathan Sidon (his croak is one of the band's more distinctive elements, and might be a bit of a deal-breaker for some), with drummer Pete Garthside holding it all together. The switching off of lead instruments gave the songs different characters — "Poor Me" had some roaring guitar power. "Take Me to The Water" had a menacing throb that didn't offer any of the redemption promised in Nina Simone's song of the same name, but the the theme was continued with the following song, the traditional "Wade in the Water". Mixed in with their original tunes (including a new one called "Orphan Bones"), the band kept mixing in covers like Blind Willie Johnson's "Trouble Will Soon Be Over".
Sometimes the fast stuff was a bit too much of a clattering rush for my taste — I liked it better when they slowed down on "Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down" (familiar to some from Uncle Tupelo's version), with stomping gospel intensity and howls of feedback. But the uptempo stuff was well-received by the heaving, sweaty crowd in front of the stage. Entertaining, but for a band that's so concerned with redemption (or its opposite), I felt somewhat agnostic — though not unwilling to wade back into the river on another occasion.
Listen to a track from this set here.
1 I subsequently picked this up on the strength of this set and have been enjoying it quite a lot. Recommended.
2 This one is available as a free download over at RCRD LBL.
3 Word on the street is that the album will soon be getting a vinyl re-up on Optical Sounds.
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