NXNE 2010: Thursday (Part 1)

NXNE — North by Northeast Festival, Toronto, 2010.

Thursday, June 17, 2010. Featuring: Imaginary Cities, Young Galaxy, The Besnard Lakes

7 P.M.: Imaginary Cities @ The Mod Club

Into the Mod Club just a tick before seven o'clock. Pretty quiet inside for the early show.¹ I wasn't here to see Imaginary Cities so much as because there weren't a lot of other options at this hour. And anyways, this was where I wanted to be later on.

Imaginary Cities, taking the stage at seven sharp, turned out to have a familiar face in Rusty Matyas (of Winnipeg rockers The Waking Eyes, and recently passing through town as a touring member of The Weakerthans), who had formed the band in partnership with singer Marti Sarbit. Some supplemental reading informs that the band came together after the pair bonded over some classic soul covers, and that influence comes out strongly in Sarbit's vocals. But the band isn't merely some sort of Motown revival vehicle — the sound was generally soulful, but without resorting to over-the-top signifiers. Maybe call it "trucker hat soul", after the most popular headgear on stage. They did take from their R&B influences a likable penchant for quick, punchy songs — the band packed eight in their half-hour set — but there were also a lot of other things in the mix. "Calm Before the Storm", for example, simmered nicely in almost a trip-hop way, featuring Matyas' agreeable trumpet at the end.

Sarbit was more than a capable vocalist, animating the songs without overdoing it. And the band — still a fairly new unit — were competent, growing towards the end of the set towards more of a big guitar rock sound.² Given the vox and musical performance, it felt like the material was the weakest link, as the songs didn't really stick with me. There's a solid base here, so let's propose that there's still room for growth. And in the meantime, they were fun enough to listen to.³

Listen to a song from this set here.

8 P.M.: Young Galaxy @ The Mod Club

Things were now filling in pretty well for what would be an extraordinarily loud set from Young Galaxy.⁴

Besides the volume, the band also had some Electric Company-ish animated projections behind them. All of which is suitable, as this is a band whose musical vision implies some spectacle. Singer/keyb player Catherine McCandless certainly knows this, and brought a sequin-y dress and some dramatic, back-lit gestures to accompany her vocals, which have arguably become the best thing about the Montréal-based band.

The set started off with "Invisible Republic" which segued into "Sister", one of the highlights from last year's top-notch Invisible Republic.⁵ "Come and See" was dedicated to The Besnard Lakes⁶ — that and set-closer "The Alchemy Between Us" would be the only selections in the set from the band's self-titled debut. "Long Live the Fallen World" ended with a lively raveup while the band also debuted a new song, "We Have Everything", a mid-tempo number with lead vox from McCandless that would fall more towards the "pop" end of the band's spectrum. An interesting number, but it felt like it was building towards a chorus that wasn't there.

A solid set, which might sound like faint praise, save for the fact that I was underwhelmed the last time I saw 'em and was glad to see a stronger spark here. Once again I kinda had that sense that there wasn't that same on-stage excellence that had first won me over to the band. On the other hand, if Young Galaxy have reached the point where they're more impressive in the studio than on the stage, I'd take that, given the high level that they're at there. Word is the band is striking while the iron is hot, with their third album slated for release early next year, and I am looking forward to that.

Listen to a track from this set here.

9 P.M.: The Besnard Lakes @ The Mod Club

After that chest-shaking set, I was wondering how loud The Besnard Lakes — a band known to like their volume — was going to be. The band, just by virtue of their milieu, tend to get labelled "indie rock", but sonically they're pure stadium-sized classic rock, more suited to an FM station playing full album sides than to a playlist. Singer/guitarist Jace Lasek certainly courts these kinds of associations, rocking a look that falls somewhere between Ian Hunter in 1973 and Chicago pitcher Steve Trout.⁷ There's also a certain Devil's Boogaloo Ball vibe that the band likes to invoke, including the use of a rather large amount of dry ice, which filled the stage to the intoning voice of Carl Sagan's Cosmos as the band took the stage. They started with an unrushed Floyd-ian intro to "Like The Ocean, Like The Innocent" (the leadoff track to this year's ... Are the Roaring Night) which segued into "Devastation", with Olga Goreas — who had emerged onto the stage wearing devil horns — on lead vocals.

The set was pretty focused on the new album, only reaching back for "Disaster" and the tasty "And You Lied To Me" (from 2007's breakthrough ...Are the Dark Horse) nearly an hour into the set. In fact, we might not have even gotten those, save for the fact that the headliners weren't getting the regular showcase half-hour-ish NXNE set. This seemed to surprise Lasek as much as anyone else, as he asked between songs "we don't have to stop at 9:40?" Told they could keep going, Lasek promptly promised a three-hour set, and the band celebrated by playing "Chicago Train", which wasn't in their setlist. Lush and downtempo over its first half, one could see why this might not make it into the compact set, but it was a nice change of pace here. The best one-two punch came with single "Albatross" followed up by "And This Is What We Call Progress", which had a pleasingly evil undertow to its groove. All told, the band actually played seventy minutes, and that included a one-song encore of "Land of Living Skies".

A satisfying set, and a nice reminder. It had been quite awhile since I'd paid any attention to the band, their new one slipping past me for one reason or another, so there was a sense of rediscovery. It didn't make me fall in love with them or anything — I'm still more of a casual admirer than a fan. I can dig the powerful volume and the bombast, but that's not something I'm looking for all the time. Jace Lasek's falsetto even less so. But still, the band do what they do exceedingly well, and deserve all the success that they're finding.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ Although as the opening band, Imaginary Cities didn't get as much of an audience to impress, the uncrowded area in front of the stage and the venue's bazillion-watt lighting rig meant that it was open season for photographers, who were out in force for this set. So if nothing else, this should be a particularly well-documented show for the band.

² Although the keybs could have been notched up higher in the mix.

³ For those who would like to check 'em out for themselves, the band has a couple local dates coming up: October 5 at The Dakota (with Peter Elkas) and October 7 at The Horseshoe.

⁴ Seriously — when the The Mod Club start getting so loud? There comes a point of diminishing returns for so much volume — and, frankly, something of a public health risk, even for patrons wearing ear plugs, which, fortunately at this show, I noticed many were.

⁵ The would-be title track, it should be noted, is not from the album, but rather from the follow-up digital No Art EP.

⁶ The two bands are frequent touring partners, and Besnard Lakes frontman Jace Lasek has done production work on both of Young Galaxy's albums.

⁷ Not, however, that the band aren't any sort of devout recreationists of past sounds. Lasek also had a laptop close at hand to run some sound manipulations, to give one example.