Diamond Rings (PS I Love You)
The Lower Ossington Theatre (SummerWorks Festival). Wednesday, August 11, 2010.
An early, eager crowd waiting to get into this one, with two well-regarded artists on the cusp of releasing their debut albums. As the doors opened, the crowd swooped in to grab seats. I followed Av.'s admirable example, skipping to the chase and grabbing some floor right up front — this isn't a proper show for sittin'. Checking the setup, I noted that both bands' gear set up on stage, promising a quick turnover between sets — and the possibility of some collaboration.
Paul Saulnier (who puts the "PS" in PS I Love You) took the stage with sweatbands on his wrists, thick laces in his untied sneakers, cut-offs, and a shirt with its sleeves shorn off, looking like it was dropped off at a thrift store after Bruce Banner had a particularly stressful day. They lead off with "Subtle and Majestic"1 (from the band's self-titled EP) before moving into the songs from the then-still-forthcoming Meet Me at the Muster Station album, each one with its own tasty waves of guitar. "Breadends" and "Little Spoon" made especially strong impressions.
Although the songs are based around Saulnier's axework, he doesn't overdo it — these are quick songs, most lasting less than three minutes. The shred-y moments fold in well to the songs, and the crowd loved the guitar heroics, fingertapping and all. With the guitar and footpedals2 to attend to, Saulnier isn't the most voluble on stage, remaining hidden behind an unkempt fringe of hair like a lion's mane, and passing along just a few quick comments between songs. Drummer Benjamin Nelson was likewise also all-business, so the songs had to do most of the communicating here.
Over the half-hour set, the pair played pretty much everything that would be on Muster Station, and ended on a "brand new one", with all the familiar elements in place, and the guitar work perhaps even picked up a notch, a particularly Dinosaur Jr.-esque solo in the middle reflecting Saulnier's growing prowess and confidence.3
Listen to a track from this set here.
And then, more of those people who'd grabbed seats at the outset took to the floor in preparation for Diamond Rings, who was, it would turn out, playing to an increasingly screamygirl demographic. Never one to show up underdressed to one of his own gigs, John O'Regan was in full back-to-back World Series glory, right down to a '92 championship ribbon. That went along with his cut-off shorts and golden leggings, plus fingerless leather gloves. The shortest descriptor for his hair/make-up combo would be "Grace Jones-esque". From show to show, O'Regan gets a little more confident and the stage set gets a bit more elaborate — this time out, there was a fog machine added to the stable.
As usual, the set started off with the keyboard-driven stuff ("Play By Heart", "On Our Own") before O'Regan picked up his guitar, which on this night was a special-occasion Flying V, complete with pink strap to match his nail polish. The big rock guitar added some extra oomph to "Wait & See" and a tearingly electric version of "Something Else". And then, back to the straighter synth-rock, activating the fog machine to try and recreate the vibe of the video for "Show Me Your Stuff" before closing out the main portion of his set with the delicious slow-jam "It's Not My Party".
Listen to a track from this set here.
But that wasn't all. To celebrate the informal first anniversary of the split 7" that had started it all, PS I Love You returned to the stage to join O'Regan on both of the career-launching songs from that single, leading off with "Facelove". Seeing Saulnier standing next to O'Regan always provides a bit of an odd couple vibe, like seeing Frodo standing next to Gandalf, but the mutual support is quite tangible between the musicians. Meanwhile, "All Yr Songs", the first and most familiar of all these tunes, was renewed here as a rough and rangy guitar rocker including a totally sizzling solo from Saulnier.
And then to cap things off, for an encore the combo group debuted a brand new co-write called "Leftovers", featuring driving drums and plenty of room for dual-guitar action. Despite O'Regan taking lead vocals, it sounded much more like it might belong on a PS I Love You album. Regardless, even though both these artists are going to be busy for the next while touring those first albums, it's nice to get an early glimpse of them thinking beyond that already. A fun show.
Listen to a rockin' joint effort here.
1 Confidential to women: Any time a guy says, as this song's lyrics begin, "I'm not trying to be / romantic / but I made you this mixtape", he's probably not being entirely truthful.
2 The pedals were rather low in the mix for this set, leaving the band's sound thinner on the bottom end than would be optimal.
3 PS I Love You are playing tonight (Dec. 27th) at The Drake Underground, as part of the "Out of the Box" series — five bands a night for five bucks, which is quite hard to beat.
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