Wavelength 507 (feat. Minotaurs / Fond of Tigers / Eucalyptus / Secretary City)
The Garrison. Friday, September 24, 2010.
A very pleasant September evening where it felt almost too nice to head in to see a show. Stepped in to the early-quiet room, hopeful that things would start on time, but had a few minutes to kill. Stopped and paused and looked around The Garrison for a minute, reflecting how rock'n'roll is like a country song — if George Jones aged thirty years in five, a music venue's maturing is probably even more accelerated. Living the rock'n'roll life has The Garrison's back hall veering into the sort of casual desiccation that gives a room, um, place-yness. Less than a year before, the floors — now dull, grimy, used — were fresh and shiny. The paintjob no longer looks fresh. And now we can act like this has accorded the place character in the way we hope the same for our own sagging faces — like it's seen some livin'.
But showing some age doesn't mean losing vitality, as the venerable Wavelength has shown. Transitioning from Sunday night institution to an occasional concert series hasn't changed things too much. On this night Jonny Dovercourt was filling in on MC duties, trying his best to rock the vote for the then-looming civic election before introducing Secretary City, who took the stage to a background typewriter beat. A "new veteran" band featuring members of local riot grrl units Cougar Party and Scandalnavia, the quarrtet wasted no time in showing their willingness to rawk, leading off with the thematically appropriate "Ready to Rumble".
In front of Amanda Lee's thundering drums, the band's composition was striking for its no guitars/dual bass alignment — often with one fuzzy and playing "lead" and the other in more of a melodic role. Vocalist Emma Phelan powered the whole thing, exhibiting an ability to belt it out without ever sounding forced.
Besides the fast ragers like the totally catchy "Rock the Shitty!", the band also showed a deft hand with the slower smoulder of "Secretary City". Playing just a quick six song, twenty-minute set, this hit me in the right place — this is stuff I dig and look forward to hearing more of. Given that some of the band are living on the other side of the continent right now, shows are a little thin on the ground — that means when you do get a chance, don't pass it up.1
Listen to a track from this set here.
The openers weren't cut from the same cloth as the rest of the night's bands, but it wouldn't feel like proper Wavelength without a stylistic left turn thrown in. After Secretary City's more elemental rock'n'roll lineup, there'd be more complicated set-ups for the rest of the night, starting with Eucalyptus, filling up the stage with seven players. That'd be the same number of bodies as when I saw 'em before, though this time out there was a vibraphonist replacing the piano. Plus, here, everyone was amplified and mic'ed up, which meant everything took longer to set up and get sounding right.
There was a bit of feedback to get sorted through — no surprise given the number of instruments to balance, but once that was fixed, the band was quite a pleasure to listen to. Once they started there were the same gentle, calypso-inspired sounds that I had heard from Brodie West and co. previously, evoking a sort of retro-cocktail-hour sophisticated coolness. With everything plugged in, Alex Lukashevsky's guitar was higher in the mix here, which gave a different edge to the sound.
Also adding to the sound was a constant layer of chatter coming from the back of the room, building slowly as the set moved along. By about three songs in, the bulk of the crowd were treating this as a backdrop to their mingling. Of course, against the idea of a band blandly playing background music, here the musicians were visibly "at work", thinking through the arrangements and occasionally pushing against each other a bit. During "Dirty Goods", the last track of the set, there was a sense of the music nearly coming out of sync, and one could see the rhythm players looking at each other, laughing as they torqued things a bit.
Probably not the sort of thing that a lot of people might be going to Wavelength for, which made it a good choice. And anyways, not everyone was ignoring it — the swaying danciness of it seemed to work on one couple who were soon making out against the wall for most of the set.
Interestingly, the crowd that had been busy ignoring Eucalyptus were rather more intent to see Vancouver's Fond of Tigers. Another complicated setup, the band rolled with seven members on stage, including dual drummers, violin and trumpet. No vocalists, though. The band's stock-in-trade would be finicky music with a propensity for sneaking up on itself in twists and turns, located somewhere on the boundary between jazz and post-rock, mediated through a vaguely proggy sensibility.
Playing music from their third album Continent & Western, the set started with sawing, slicing sounds before building up in density. Without a vocalist there was no real frontman, but trumpet player JP Carter at centre stage drew the most attention, especially as he'd turn to his electronics to manipulate his sounds. Founder Stephen Lyons, meanwhile, mostly played his guitar with his back to the crowd, watching the drummers.
Give Fond of Tigers credit for not playing rote post-rock clichés and for not just piling instrument on instrument — there were some nice delicate moments during the fifty-minute set. But there's something in "tricky" music, shifting time signatures, etc., that just doesn't capture my fancy. They were good, but didn't engage me.
Listen to a track from this set here.
With one last complicated setup to go, it was twenty past one when Minotaurs took the stage. With the late start I was feeling kinda wobbly, like this was hour twelve of a gig at The Shrine. Or perhaps that image just popped into my mind based on the punchy Afrobeat-inspired sounds from the band. The band got right into it, launching with the simmering groove of "Caught In The Light", one of several top-notch jams from their recently-released album The Thing.
"Everyone still awake?" asked bandleader Nathan Lawr at the end, and indeed I felt jolted back to awareness with the high-energy run of songs at the set's start. The band is designed for high-octane grooving, including the hefty punch of the three-man horn section and the guitar work from Dan and Ryan Levecque.
Lawr took the pace town a bit in the middle, for "Windchymz" (which isn't on the album) and "Runaway Lane" (which is), but even that's relative here, as even the slower material is cookin'. The album is pretty tasty, but it can't be overstated how well-suited this material is for live performance. Plus, the band is clearly getting more familiar with playing this stuff on stage, now starting to stretch out a bit more during "Pink Floyd". There was a thinner crowd by the end, but I got the impression that some of the people were lurching around from something other than binge-runs at last call.2
Listen to a track from this set here.
1 The band has five songs that you can download here to make a sort of demonstration EP.
2 Do not miss any chance you get to see Minotaurs live — I note they'll be playing Night 3 of the Wavelength 11th Anniversary Festival, February 18th at Steam Whistle Brewery.
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