ELEVEN! Festival (Wavelength 515 – night 3) (feat. Doldrums / Romo Roto / Pat Jordache / Minotaurs / Woodhands)
Steam Whistle Brewery. Friday, February 18, 2011.
As with the previous year's festival, what you could loosely call the "dance" night of the Wavelength anniversary was being held in the roomy event space at Steam Whistle Brewery, in the roundhouse at the foot of the CN Tower. It feels a little bit out-of-the-way, but it's a cozy space inside, and pleasing to look at the bricks'n'beams layout.
There was a decent crowd on hand as the night started with the abstract pop stylings of Airick Woodhead's Doldrums project. Rather than a sequential series of discrete songs, his sets unfold more like a hip-hop mixtape, with bits of songs popping up, disappearing and being reprised around sampled dialogue, randomly jacked beats, and chunks of other people's songs. Here, after some of that looped/sampled dialogue, things started with a slower jam, full of whirring, fluttering sounds (most of which were crafted from vocal loops constructed on the fly) that eventually turned into a real-time remix/deconstruction of itself.
Perhaps as a bit of a mischievous tweak at the night's corporate hosts, Woodhead played a sampled/détourned Bud Lite ad. And after another one of his own jams, he threw on a Madonna song, jumped off the stage to run over to the bar for a beer, then jumped back on stage to chop + screw with the the song for a bit before replacing it with a beat of his own, commenting after, "I was just gonna try that one out on you guys. It's called 'Get Into the Groove'. D'you like it?"
Listen to a song from this set here.
After one more song that was mostly composed of a choir of looped backing vocals and a slow beat, Woodhead moved into another segue/deconstruction as Alexandra Mackenzie and Tomas Del Balso — also known as Romo Roto — took the stage to join Woodhead in a smooshy jam, their two sets of drums and vox melding into the Doldrums synthscape. Declaring that "the caterpillar is now the moth!" Woodhead then departed.
From there it was more like Romo Roto's standard stock-in-trade — pummelling dual drum beats ("tribal" with scarequotes being an operative mode here) with back and forth vocals veering between chants and moans. Mayne I was just belatedly catching up to their sensibility, but the pair came off more like a slightly-oddball band than the wholly-oddball art project they'd conveyed earlier on. Special notice should be taken of Mackenzie's increased stage presence — facing the crowd and really delivering her vocals with conviction, there was much more a sense that she was prepared to be the focus of attention. In moments like "Catapillar Massacare" [sic] there was a most pleasing sense that their frantic drumming and catchy singalong sensibilities were jibing nicely.1
Listen to a song from this set here.
Following that was a slightly prolonged changeover for Pat Jordache. In fact, there were signs that this Montréal unit (here making their T.O. debut) were still working out the kinks, with some signs of a new working unit — that slow setup paralleled with some slow transitions between songs as the musicians swapped instruments and got themselves sorted out.
It's also possible that Jordache (the stage name for Patrick Gregoire, formerly of Islands and Sister Suvi2) was fighting off a bug — with a mildly medicated presence, he looked somewhat drawn out and appeared to be fighting a cough, so perhaps his singing voice (somewhere just above the Nick Cave range) might be capable of a more sonorous presence than he brought to this show. And similarly, a four-man backing band (including a small second drumkit) with the players often swapping instruments between songs didn't yet sound like the band was really occupying the arrangements. Jordache had recorded his Future Songs (then forthcoming, now out on Constellation Records) as a solo project, and with the band staying busy on the road (including a couple more recent local stops) they may well have gelled some more.
Leading with "Get It (I Know You're Going To)", most of the setlist would subsequently show up on the album, but the best stuff in the set would be the presumably-newer stuff not found there. I mildly enjoyed the "Matters of the Heart", where Jordache hit a sort of croon-y sweet spot, and there was one (possibly called "Talk to You") that had a nimble, vaguely discofied guitar that animated the song's earnest new wave-y vibe. It received an extended instrumental bridge when a keyboard temporarily went on the fritz, showing the band thinking on their feet.
At first, there was a large open deadzone in front of the stage, but as the band got going Daniel Woodhead (who had also been right up front watching his brother performing in the opening set) started grabbing crowdmembers from the hanging-back zone and tugging them forward to create a dance party. Surprisingly, it took, and the audience seemed to enjoy the set. But, to be honest, I couldn't say it made much of an impact on me.
A more intense brand of grooving after that as the eleven-headed beast that is Minotaurs took the stage, with leader Nathan Lawr surround by a pair of guitarists, vibes, percussion and a four-man horn section (Jay Hay, Jeremy Strachan, Nick Buligan, Steve Ward). With Fela-esque afro-funk rhythms underpinning Lawr's songs, this is a crew that I've liked a lot every time I've seen 'em.
The crowd was at the right density by this point, not uncomfortably packed in but with enough people up close, shuffering and shmiling with the music. Having played these songs together for awhile now, there was a bit more relaxed agitation to the whole thing, as if the band knew the material, and now they could really lean into it. Even Lawr was in action pose, forgoing his keyboard stand and standing up most of the set.
Jumping right into the groovy "Get Down" got the room's attention and held them for the more-simmering "The Thing", title track of the band's album. An extra-fuzzy electric piano sound to start off "Runaway Lane" gave it some pleasing grit. "Caught in the Light" came with an extended intro and even fave "Pink Floyd" felt amped up and stretched out to close out the set.
Lawr is a respectable-enough songwriter, but the best thing here is how the band distracts from his work, embroidering it into something larger. It's a sign of confidence and maturity that Lawr allows the songs to push him from the centre, and with this band it's the source of his greatest success.
Listen to a song from this set here.
Just like last year's Steam Whistle show, the night closed with a band whose appeal reaches well beyond Wavelength regulars into a cadre of devoted fans, although Woodhands do indeed have a history with the series. But now the floor was getting packed in with a different dort of crowd. There was a guy in front of me wearing an embossed baseball hat reading "OH S#?T WOODHANDS", and I saw a woman whose t-shirt simply read "DANCE!".
Promising a whole lot of new material, the set lead off with an instrumental — though it did have some interjections from Keyboardist Werb of the "hunh!" variety. The duo employs Werb's keyboards and the fantastically frenzied drumming of Paul Banwatt (also of The Rural Alberta Advantage, and one of the very best ion the city) — and no samples or backing tracks — to create squirmingly groovy dance music. The vibe was enhanced by the extent to which the pair were having enormous fun on stage all night long:
Banwatt: So, I gotta share some distressing news with you guys. It probably distresses me more than anyone else. We had a laser malfunction. [crowd good-naturedly boos] And our main laser battery is down.
Werb: Toronto — do you forgive Paul Banwatt for fucking up the laser show?
Crowd: Nooooo!
Banwatt: I'll make it up to you...
Werb: [interrupting] Can he make it up to you... in drumming?
And meanwhile, the band frontloaded the goodness, bringing out Maylee Todd for duets old and new with "Dissembler" (from last year's Remorsecapade) and favourite "Dancer" (from debut album Heart Attack). The latter came in an extra-extended version, with Banwatt trying to make up for the laser debacle by bringing out a cowbell — always a crowd-pleasing move — stretching the song out to about nine minutes.
And, as promised, they were also sporting some of their new material, including "Victory Nap" (getting its first public airing) and the song premiered at their previous Lee's Palace show ("gonna march you down the street" is the memorable hook) — that one especially was a showcase for Banwatt's drumming. And there was another guest appearance with Laura Barrett taking the mic for "Sailboats" to close out the main set.
It was a sweaty, bouncy good time, even before the pair returned for "I Wasn't Made For Fighting" and "Be Back Soon". Creating some sort of short-circuit to the brain's groove centres, Woodhands are one of the most talented bands I know at being able to bypass any sort of critical response and just create a fun, in-the-moment vibe.
Listen to a song from this set here.
1 I've heard it said — but I have no official source on this — that these two have moved on from the Romo Roto project. Del Balso can still be seen in DD/MM/YYYY and Mackenzie in Wet Nurse.
2 Recently, the latter was mostly referred to in passing as the pre-solo launching pad for Merrill Garbus, who is now making waves for her work as Tune-Yards. There'll be a reunion of sorts on the September 26 when Jordache opens for Tune-Yards at Lee's Palace.
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