No Shame All-Ages Matinee (feat. Army Girls / Modern Superstitions / Ruby Coast)
NOW Lounge. Saturday, March 26, 2011.
Following up on their look into the somewhat-underwhelming state of all-ages shows in T.O., NOW decided to be a part of the solution by turning over the Lounge on the ground-floor of their offices over to No Shame's Lauren Schreiber for an afternoon show. As I followed the signs chalked on the Church Street sidewalks into the Lounge, the show was a prima facie success, the room filled with kids of, um, all ages ranging from enthusiastic young'uns bounding underfoot to broody, Beib-coiffed tweens sullenly slouching in the booths along the walls. And on stage, I Eat Kids were probably closer to the young end of the spectrum. Representing for the ten-and-under demographic, the band's enthusiasm was so awww-inducing it was easy to overlook that they were playing songs they wrote at a pretty proficient level. Proud dad Tim Vesely (Violet Archers, ex-The Rheostatics) beamed happily at the side of the room, while a lot of friends danced around up front.
Some of that younger contingent (and their parents) slipped away after that, but there was still quite a mix on hand as rock duo Army Girls took the stage. The all-ages enthusiasm of vocalist/guitarist Carmen Elle (who noted, "I've been playing since I was fifteen") was quite apparent. Backed by drummer Andy Smith, the pair played tunes from their slim but potent songbook.
Out of breath after a churning take of "The Power", Carmen Elle commented, "when I was younger, that was easier to do." But when the sitting row of small-fry taking in the set from right up front started an organized back-and-forth wave during "Cold and Alcohol", she certainly still had enough energy to hop over and lean right up to them, happily hamming it up without missing a lick on her guitar. The set included the five songs that would later end up on the Close to the Bone EP as well as the equally-worthy "Guts".
Listen to a track from this set here.
It had been almost a couple years since I'd crossed paths with Modern Superstitions — they weren't even modern yet — but it seemed like they'd used their time well. They were a fairly taut unit back then, but now were also sounding more snappy — like a switchblade in the pocket of a leather jacket, sharpened and polished.
Vocalist Nyssa Rosaleen delivers with her strong voice, but still isn't super-animated on stage. Or perhaps excess flash just isn't the band's style — the best thing here might be a rock-solid rhythm section (Harry Burgess on bass and Ben Reinhartz on drums) that impresses with coiled potential more than kinetic pizazz. And guitarist Matthew Aldred still exercises a deadpan wit between songs.
All of which is to say there something pleasantly subtle about the band's delivery, a late-night vibe that was a bit at odds with the bright afternoon setting. "This next song is called 'School Days'. That's appropriate," commented Rosaleen, looking down the length of rectangular room, and commenting, "though the children have mainly left." ("Inappropriate!" shouted Aldred.) After the driving "No Shame" (titled, as the band took pains to point out, as a tribute to Lauren Schreiber, who supported the band and put them on her bills many times) they eased back for a couple slower ones, a nice change of pace before tearing back to close out the set.
Sunbleached, their debut full-length, is now near release1 so I reckon we'll be hearing more about this band soon. After their set, they had some of the show's young patrons sidle up to ask 'em for autographs, so you can take that as a positive sign.
Listen to a track from this set here.
Proudly hailing from Aurora (or at least not taking pains to conceal their hometown), Ruby Coast was playing songs from their then-just released Whatever This Is.2 Currently a core three-piece (guit/keyb/drums) playing with a bassist, the band led with the energetic "Stability" and slightly more addled "Dr.Acula".3
I have nothing bad to say about the band. They're a little yelpy for my taste, and maybe slot a little too easily into whatever cubbyhole you keep your Born Ruffians/Tokyo Police Club albums, which is admittedly not my thing.
Still, thanks to Keith Bradford's keyb work, there's an interesting commitment to atmospherics underlying the songs, and there's no doubt they're solid performers on stage — even managing to enlist some audience participation from the teenaged boys who moved up front to see them. Plus, I did appreciate that not everything was jammed into to a narrow musical spectrum, with stuff like "Liza Liza" slowing down the pulse a bit. Despite their album's newness, they even had some new material to present, and that was some of the stuff I liked the most.
Listen to a track from this set here.
Besides the ennobling notion of loading the heads of the next generation with good music before all the mersh crap can take root, I like all-ages shows because you're done efficiently early. In this case, with plenty of time before dinner and, um, the evening's rock'n'roll show. Having made their point, we'll see if NOW takes any further steps to help foster more shows like this in town.
1 You can hear some songs off it on their soundcloud.
2 The album is available for free at their bandcamp.
3 Am I the only one who thinks it would be kinda awesome if Drew Smith did a cover of this?
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