Recording: The Highest Order

Artist: The Highest Order

Song: Somewhere Out Of The Way

Recorded at Galleria Shopping Centre (Long Winter: Galleria), January 30, 2016.

The Highest Order - Somewhere Out Of The Way

An ambitious "takeover" project from the Long Winter crew saw their usual mix of music + art transferred to the near-derelict/doomed-by-gentrification Galleria Mall. It was a sonically awkward environment to hold a show (there's a lot of muddy "mall reverb" in these recordings) that attracted a rather different crowd than the regular LW events — skewing older, and perhaps towards those feeling a sense of pre-nostalgia for kitschy but less-corporate spaces like this. (Ironically, having a larger 19+ component in the crowd made for long lines for anyone wanting to get into the event's licenced areas, but that notwithstanding everything on the night seemed to run pretty smoothly.) Highly-attuned to the inequities carved into our social system, one could readily imagine the characters in one of Simone Schmidt's songs shopping at the Dollarama beside this show's stage. Chatting about the city's unfancy malls (and the pre-set deal she scored over at the event's Bunz Trading Zone pop-up) The Highest Order looked right at home in the Galleria, even while pausing to muse on what will be lost when the mall is replaced by condos. Musically, they stretched out for some sweet cosmic-psych grooves, including this one with Paul Mortimer taking the vocals.