Recording: Terror Lake

Artist: Terror Lake

Song: Whispering Death^*

Recorded at The Garrison, November 28, 2015.

Terror Lake - Whispering Death

Rocking 'til the snare-drum wires snap, Terror Lake brought their finely-tuned surf-grunge out to celebrate at this reunion show of their contemporaries The Diableros, showing the range of choices that are available on/beyond the burn out/fade away continuum for bands that are in it for the long haul.

^* Thanks to Tim for passing along the working title to this one. Will update in the future if that changes.

Recording: Terror Lake

Artist: Terror Lake

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Silver Dollar Room, June 5, 2015.

Terror Lake - unknown

Still one of Toronto's great under-appreciated bands, Terror lake brought their razor-blade surf-inspired grooves to set the stage for their old friends in Dany Laj and the Looks.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!

Recording: Terror Lake

Artist: Terror Lake

Song: Lockjaw^*

Recorded at at The Magpie Taproom, February 27, 2015.

Terror Lake - Lockjaw

Terror Lake's Tim Okura put this (satisfyingly early-starting) show together, and one got the sense that it was as much for the bands to have a chance to hang out and watch each other play as to gather in an audience. TL work (and perform) at their own pace and never act as if they need to impress anyone — but they're always an impeccably-tuned machine on stage, cranking out song after song. This one pauses to simmer a bit longer than most, giving some extra time for the guitars to tense up and release.

^* Thanks to Tim for passing along the title to this one.

Recording: Terror Lake

Artist: Terror Lake

Song: VHS/BETA

Recorded at The Garrison's front room ("Swap, Don't Shop" for Girls Rock Camp), November 30, 2014.

Terror Lake - VHS/BETA

Community service should always be this fun. Once again, kudos to The Garrison for hosting this seasonal fundraiser, with the back room taken over by a clothing swap while bands played to kids and adults alike in the front. And huge props to Girls Rock Camp, who have expanded from summer sessions to an after school program launching in the new year as well as a March Break camp.

Continuing to pop out for gigs fairly infrequently, Terror Lake remain a perennially-underappreciated band. Their chosen sonic terrain — garage-surf with dual guitar interplay — might seem unambitious, but they've found a lot of ways to expand their sound without retreating from their core identity and they've put out some very tasty recordings. All I can say it you'd do well well not to miss them whenever you get a chance to see 'em in action.

[There's lots of ways to show your support for Girls Rock Camp — the compilation of bands from last summer's campers is now available, and it will be celebrated with an all-ages launch party at Smiling Buddha on February 7, 2015.]

Recording: Terror Lake

Artist: Terror Lake

Song: Runaway^*

Recorded at The Magpie Taproom, October 19, 2013.

Terror Lake - Runaway

Full review to follow. Like an old friend that lives on the far side of town, Terror Lake can slip out of sight and out of mind for awhile, but it's always an endearing occasion to run across 'em. With some long-awaited recordings finally surfacing on their bandcamp this week, perhaps the band will be back in circulation a little more. Perhaps not wanting to upstage the occasion of Chang-a-Lang's final show they didn't even mention the new album while on stage, but here's hoping there's a proper release celebration coming up.

^* Thanks to a commenter for confirming the title to this one.

Sunday Playlist #23

Sunday Playlist #23

Zeus - The Renegade

Broken Bricks - Need You Here

The Pinecones - For in the Shadow of a Moonbeam + Ardmore Jenny

Ghostkeeper - Well Well Well

Terror Lake - Redskin Panic

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Sunday Playlist is a semi-regular feature that brings back some of this blog's previously-posted original live recordings for an encore. You can always click the tags below to see what I originally wrote about the shows these songs came from.

Recording: Terror Lake

Artist: Terror Lake

Song: No Fuss

Recorded at The Horseshoe Tavern, February 21, 2011.

Terror Lake - No Fuss

My notes for this set can be found here.

Gig: Chang-a-Lang

Chang-a-Lang (Terror Lake / Elk / Cigarettes)

The Horseshoe Tavern. Monday, February 21, 2011.

After five nights in a row out for the Wavelength Festival, the only logical thing to do was to follow it up with a Family Day Special. This free night at the 'Shoe hit the spot just right — no sprawling collectives to be found here, just from-the-gut rock'n'roll.

The exception to that would be the more thoughtful sounds of opener Cigarettes. A vehicle for the songwriting of Brad Casey (who, for awhile, told his Personal History in Song, displaying his gifts as a storyteller) whose vox and guitar work are supported on stage by drummer Mike Duffield. Leading off with "Burst Black Dreams" the music was on the spare side, but more than just a backdrop for Casey's lyrics, which were delivered in a higher register than you might have first expected. Other songs included "Ramblin Rose" (not an MC5 cover) and mostly came from the same set that would emerge on his Will to War and Wreck It album — Casey was excited to be able to announce the CD release on stage. He also paid tribute to Keith Hamilton — Casey sings in the choir of his Hamilton Trading Company; Hamilton played bass on Casey's album — by covering one of his songs.

The lyrics have have a pleasing solidity to them, as if they were invested in things in the world and not just vague ideas. The music, meanwhile, found a middle ground between poppy-catchy and "challenging" — usually not overtly hook-y stuff, but not going out on any limbs or anything. It's not going to shake you by the shoulders, but if you listen to its intimations there's some interesting stuff going on — a thoughtful, well-read approach suggested by song-titles like "Duende and the City". The set ended with the expansive "I Saw You Once"¹ which led off sounding like a cousin of Big Star's "Kangaroo" and built into its own mini-epic. Not rabble-rousing like the rest of the night's bands, but well-suited to the early hour in the quiet-ish 'Shoe.

Listen to a track from this set here.

It had been almost a year since I'd first encountered local-via-Niagara-region rockers Elk, but their surf-beat-happy party rock had stuck with me. Leading off here, "Spin Me Around" had a slightly different vibe than what I recalled with a bit more choogle in the boogle. But after that, "Shaking Hands" — which got a few people up moving on the dancefloor — gave me me what I was expecting, a rambunctious surf beat and a catchy singalong tune with plenty backing vox.

In fact, overall, the vocals were shared around quite equitably. Drummer Josh Korody might be the best of the bunch here, but the division of labour generally works. On songs like by the nifty "Sometime Together" the only criticism one might raise is that the song had pretty much the identical beat as the previous one.²

Elk brings a good groove and a very coherent sound — the flipside might be they veer a bit towards the too-samey, but there were some recent additions to the material (the band's setlist referred to one song as the "new fast one") that are mixing it up a little more. Anyway, they're bringing good energy and a sense of fun to the stage, which makes them worth seeing. A recent dispatch from the band states they have a new album in the can, so there'll probably be plenty upcoming opportunities to catch 'em.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Chang-a-Lang are a band that plays around town a lot, but through one thing or another I hadn't gone to see them for too long. They seem eager to get on stage and rock at any opportunity — in fact here, after a very quick changeover, the band were so rarin' to go they were momentarily stuck standing on stage, instruments at the ready, waiting on the soundman to return to the board and cut the house music.

As if a throat-clearing gesture, they led off with The Ramones' "Judy is a Punk", announcing that this is where they're coming from — and proceeding from there with a series of rapid-fire blasts from their own songbook. With the band then on the cusp of the release of their No Clean Rock and Roll album (now available on their Bandcamp) they powered through songs like "Japanese Eyes".

Their ultimate destination is more powerpop than pop-punk (they even made an excursion towards jazzy terrain with the introduction to "Ol' Roncy") and the vocal give-and-take between Brian Okamoto (guit) and Jeanette Dowling (bass) added to the appeal. With a solid backbeat from Jake Torrie, Okamoto looked pleased to be on the relatively expansive Horseshoe stage, frequently wandering back a few steps from the mic to give himself space for his Rock Moves. They could also switch things up and take the foot off the accelerator with Dowling taking some more sedate lead vox.

One of the best in the set was "Shake the Sleep", even newer than their album with Okamoto handling verses and Dowling the chorus. In fact, the setlist had almost as many new ones as album tracks, speaking further to the band's work ethic. But on watching them, you don't really dwell on that too much, as this is a band that's fun to watch because they're having so much fun on stage. Keeping things short and sweet, the band managed to pack in a dozen songs in thirty-five minutes and move things along for one last band on the night.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Terror Lake share with Chang-a-Lang a penchant for on-stage physicality, with guitarists Tim and Matt anything but rooted to the ground while they play. (There's no last names, thanks, for the trio — just like there's no bass here.³) The opening combo of "Jix" and the sass of "Sucks 4 U" reminded me of everything I like a whole bunch about this band: not just the taut grooves, but their willingness to let a song roll along before the vocals start — the band has several three-minute songs that are instrumental for their first half — so much so that I actually forget that some of them have lyrics at all. "Junebug" has such a "surf instrumental" vibe I'm always taken aback when drummer Wendy starts to sing.

Like Elk, they use a surf-y beat a lot, but it never calls attention to itself too much — give credit to the musical range they're working in, to say nothing of the eminently pleasing guitar tone on stage. They quickly had a big crowd up and dancing, including on "No Fuss", hitting here with a force that I hadn't heard from the song before. There was also a new one dedicated to Brad Casey — "cigar, cigarette" was about the entirety of the lyrics. The slowburning "Redskin Panic", which stretches the band's boundaries in new directions, is a fantastic bit of work, but it does cost the band some of the dancers. Closer "Shitstorm" still had enough enthusiasm to carry the crowd along for the last lap.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ If this isn't a Jandek song title, it should be.

² That surf beat is like MSG — you use it once, suddenly you feel like you need to have it in everything.

³ But don't let that scare you, my friend — let that liberate you! 'Cause when you're free flying with Terror Lake, man — what do you need a safety net for?

Recording: Terror Lake

Artist: Terror Lake

Song: Chief of Staff

Recorded at The Piston, September 17, 2010.

Terror Lake - Chief of Staff

My notes for this set can be found here.

Gig: Planet Creature

Planet Creature (The Two Koreas / Terror Lake / Persian Rugs)

The Piston. Friday, September 17, 2010.

In an epic burst of bad streetcar luck, the night got off to a lousy start. By the time I straggled my way over to Ossington for my pre-gig pho, I was a good chunk late on my dinner plans. So once I got there, I decided I just wasn't going to be in a hurry for the rest of the night. Though I have a certain rigourous dedication to getting to places to catch the bands at the bottom of the bill, sometimes you just have to take a deep breath and relax and count on the fact that you'll have another chance to see 'em again. Having good company and tasty, tasty pho made it easy to recalibrate and accept that for the gig I'd get there when I got there.

And anyways, you can usually count on a gig to start late, so despite thinking I'd miss 'em entirely, I still managed to catch the last few songs from Persian Rugs. Which was lucky as I was definitely interested in checking this new-ish combo out. In the big family tree chart that we will someday make of beloved local bands, Persian Rugs would be one generation down in the lineage from The Airfields and The Diableros — who will be colour-coded in the chart in such a way to designate beloved-and-missed groups now gone. The face I most recognized was guitarist Ian Jackson, although I have seen Ali Sunderji playing before as well.

The winning surprise here was keyboardist Kaye Hamilton, whose textures tied the music together. Plus, in a band employing a bit of a pass-the-mic approach to vocals, she provided the top contenders here, including the lovely "Always All".¹ With a textured, slightly dreamy vibe informing the best of their material, the band exhibited a very argyle sort of sound, just like Jackson's sweater. I assume he was wearing it to reinforce just this sort of association, as it was damnably hot in the room. That said, they could rock out a bit too, throwing in a cover of Television Personalities' "Part Time Punks". I was definitely glad to have gotten a quick taste of the band, and looking forward to more.²

Listen to a track from this set here.

Between sets, I had a chance to properly take a gander at the venue. On Bloor beside the big Long & McQuade store in the spot formerly occupied by the Concord Café, The Piston is a comfortable space, split into two parts with the bar (giving the feeling of a reasonably cosy local) up front and the venue in the back, all in a fairly long, narrow alignment. That layout means that, similar to, perhaps, The Rivoli, there can be a bit of a bottleneck when passing into the back space, especially if there's a crowd intent on hanging around at the back of the room, but it opens into a roomier zone in front of the low stage, with a few seats along the walls. All told, a decent space for a show like this.

It hadn't been so long since I'd seen Terror Lake, so I was curious to see if I'd be getting a "more of the same"-type show. But as "Junebug"'s count-in³ led to the driving surf beat, the pleasing rush of the band's sound pushed any worries out of my mind. And there's enough live electricity give-and-take in the two-guitar attack that the songs don't get to sounding too rote or predictable. As it was, the setlist was also mixed up a bit, though there was the same buildup to the more deliberate "Redskin Panic" toward the end. The sound (with Pete Carmichael behind the board) was mostly sharp throughout the night, but especially during this set, with both guitars crisp and distinct in the mix, filling the room nicely without being too loud.⁴ Meanwhile, the band was as eager as the rest of the crowd to hear Planet Creature, so they kept their set to a succinct six songs.

Listen to a track from this set here.

The Piston's stage looked a little crowded with the five bodies of The Two Koreas, who played a set scattered with material from their forthcoming third full-length, Science Island.⁵ Although the sound was a little mushy for them at first, the band mostly keept things bouncing along with their avant-new-wave-boogie-insecurity anthems. As always, vocalist/critic Stuart Berman was out to entertain his bandmates and the crowd, his antics, as always, exploring the tension between planned showmanship and improvised goofing. Here, for example, after falling to the stage at the end of the first part of "Retarded Architect", he took care to dramatically twitch a bit before springing to his feet to resume the song.

As I think I've suggested before, I'm never sure if these well-read theoreticians are trying to deconstruct rock'n'roll as they make it or if they live in a realm of particularly rich in-jokes that they constantly deploy to amuse each other. Or even if they just like to leave weird traces in their wake to see if anyone will pick up on them — here, for whatever reason, the band's setlist was written on Manolo Blahnik stationary: is this some sort of jape about rockstar conspicuous consumption? Do they just like wearing Manolos? Well, anyways, a few years ago, I wouldn't have really said that The Two Koreas were a band you could go and dance to and have a fun time — but now they are, and we're better for it. Any metatextural flourishes you happen to pick up on are just a bonus.

Listen to a track from this set here.

And after that, a long-coming moment in the spotlight for Planet Creature, celebrating the release of their first EP. The well-recorded Pigeon is a nice demonstration of where the band's at, showing their different musical sides and including a couple real aces. Their set pulled from that, but also the rest of the stock of songs they're building up.

Besides having a recording to boast about, the band has become increasingly solid on stage, with their vocal arrangements starting to become a real strength. There was good energy in the galloping guitar line of "Ramona", and it didn't take long for a dance party vibe to prevail on the floor, with Optical Sounds compadre Lee Brochu (of The Hoa Hoa's) leading the way. There's an interesting range in their sound, from the tougher-tinged garage stuff ("Loaded") to the glorious C-86ish harmonies of "Das Pirates", a cracker of a song that brings The Shop Assistants to mind. Playing that one, the band got a bit unstuck and out of sync — it looked like that was one spot where the bandmembers couldn't hear each other very well, but there was enough self-assurance and danceparty forward momentum to keep things going.

There were some other signs of the band's increased proficiency, too — they've got their instrument switcharounds down to a much smoother process than they used to be, and the whole set had a streamlined, steady pace. Closing out with the snappy "Tetris", where Kristina Koski's squiggly keybs sounded not unlike videogame background music, the efficient set went out with leave-'em-wanting-more good vibes.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ The band is giving a demo of this song away at their bandcamp.

² I have subsequently managed to catch a full set from the band, and will have more to say when I get caught up to that show, though you can check out a track from it here. Suffice it to say, this is a band worth checking out.

³ It's one of those small things, but drummer/vocalist Wendy Fowler might grace the band with some of the best count-ins in the the city, always delivered with an excited cheerful eagerness.

⁴ Although the room seems to have a decent sound system, its Achilles heel on this night was the stage sound — I'd later overhear a member of one of the bands commenting that there wasn't great sound on stage, and later I got the impression that the night's headliners were having some trouble hearing each other.

⁵ This is now slated for a March 1, 2011 release on Last Gang, so keep your eyes out for it. One can assume there'll be an album release party to go with that, as well.

Recording: Terror Lake

Artist: Terror Lake

Song: Redskin Panic

Recorded at Rancho Relaxo (Pitter Patter Festival), May 28, 2010.

Terror Lake - Redskin Panic

My notes for this set can be found here.

Gig: Pitter Patter Festival 2010 (Friday)

Pitter Patter Festival 2010 (feat. Terror Lake, The Famines, Pkew Pkew Pkew)

Rancho Relaxo. Friday, May 28, 2010.

The Fucked Up gig at the Reference Library ended in good time for me to make my way down to Rancho, climbing up the stairs and emerging into a comfortably-filled room pretty much just in time to catch Pkew Pkew Pkew finishing their set-up on stage. Previously unknown to me, I soon found out that there's no bait-and-switch here, as the band exhibits a level of sophistication pretty much on par with their band name — the blessing and curse of it all is right there on display. It's a little bit like the same gang of boys who had, a few years ago, been playing with toy guns in a tree fort with a "no girls allowed" sign out front had moved on to a garage band, the sign replaced with lyrical sentiments like "friends don't let friends move in with girlfriends".

Live, they sounded at times like a very drunk Weezer running through a B-52's cover, forgetting what they were playing and ending on some old chugalug country song. Kinda fun but they lost me some when they led off "Clever Girl" with a chorus of "Kokomo" — these lads are obviously too young to remember the widespread psychic damage that this song caused in the late 80's. Which is also about the last time some of the jokey sampled sound effects (cheering audience noises, etc.) might have seemed clever. Plus, sometimes the maturity level of the lyrics ("Why does the dick have to be such a cock?") dipped to somewhere below the schoolyard potty-mouth level.

On the flipside, though, that lyric comes from "Asshole Pandemic", which still manages to be insidiously catchy — and that counts in the band's favour.¹ Plus, the lads handled themselves well on stage, with solid musicianship segueing effortlessly from one song to the next while they were obviously having a ball on stage. Employing that contemporary yelpy team vocals thing, with songs based on repeated chantable bits, makes it hard not to hit on something a little catchy now and then — but it can also get same-y in a hurry. Not everything stuck with me — or even hit me the right way, but they were certainly likable on a song like "Demille Bop" with its deadpan sing-speak.

Ending with their self-titled ode to friendships forged through drunkenness and inertia ("We ain't got nowhere to be tonight so we're just gonna sit and drink here/ We're all buddies and we all brought beers so we're just gonna sit and drink here") this band is willing to share a clubhouse with anyone who wants to raise a pint and revel in life's simple, pottymouthed joys. If that sounds beneath you, well, it's nowhere near impossible that maturity might catch up with these guys, smooth out the shout-y edges and shape them into slightly wiser (if no less boozier) songsmiths. So keep an eye on 'em.²

After the loose and relaxed approach of the opening set, things got tenser and tightened up with The Famines. The duo (guit, drums) from Edmonton hit the stage with an aggressively harsh sound. It's common, when speaking of two-man bands, for people to say that they sound like more. Famines do in fact just sound like two guys, albeit two guys playing bloody loud. There's a certain underlying spareness to their sound, and not much bottom end, but still enough noise to make your ears bleed a little. As far as duos go, this one's lineage might be somewhere a few generations down the evolutionary tree from Deja Voodoo, but without the swampiness. Indeed, there was a whiff of 80's postpunk hardrock at play in their music.³

Live, the focus was less on the songs than the performance. The dance floor wasn't packed, and with some open space in front of him, singer/guitarist Raymond Biesinger ranged well off the stage — at one point confusing the hell out of a patron entering the venue at the top of the stairs, clearly not expecting to find a guy with a guitar standing a couple feet away from him. The cat-like Biesinger seemed eager to explore any spot that he could squeeze himself into, and by the middle of the set he was sprawled out on the ground, and after that almost curled up in a foetal position between the cabinets at the foot of the stage. Meanwhile, while he was cozied up there, drummer Garrett Kruger took to the floor, too, dragging a mic stand with him and wrapping the cord around a guy standing in front of me, pulling him against the wall in some sort of embrace. All of which is to say that even if the songs weren't memorable, the overall performance was a good time.

I'd seen Terror Lake at last year's Pitter Patter, and had enjoyed them enough that I'd been meaning to see them again. Though it took longer than I expected to revisit the trio, I'm glad to note that everything I liked last year is still in place, the band still mixing surfy twang and raucous energy in just the right measures.

the set launched with the catchy "Freehold", light on lyrics and long on energy. I dig the way that the band is comfortable starting their songs off with a couple minutes of instrumental groove before drummer Wendy⁴ would add her voice. Guitarist Matt sang on "Tigers & Lab Rats", which was welcome for adding some variety to the set, although his vocals aren't as cuttingly distinctive as Wendy's. In fact, it was good to see the band knows both the formula that they work best in as well as when to push away from it a bit, such as on a run through the VU's "Rock & Roll", which is a bit of a departure from their core sound but still fits in nicely with the two-guitar interplay.

The band also slowed things down and stretched them out on "Redskin Panic", which had some nice textured edges before ending closer to the starting point with the spiky kiss-off "Sucks 4 U". The crowd wanted one more ("are you sure?" Wendy asked, making it sound more like a genuinely surprised question than rock-star toy-with-the-crowd move) and the band stepped back in for "Jix", which segued into a rockabilly-styled number that that sounded like a distant grand-nephew of Johnny Burnette's "Train Kept A-Rollin'".

Terror Lake are a superb party band and a lot of fun to listen to — but don't take that to imply that there isn't some solid craftsmanship under the hood. Well worth seeing, and more than once a year at that.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ Which is one of a half-dozen tracks on their recently-released Royalty EP, which captures the band's energy level fairly well, mixing the campfire singalongs ("Friends Don't Let Friends Move In With Girlfriends", "Oysters & Wine") with the shouty group chants ("Stop Calling Us, Chief", "Asshole Pandemic"), in a package that plays to the band's strengths without hanging around for too long.

² And if you're eager to see 'em right away, take note that they are playing this Friday (August 13th) at The Silver Dollar, and also have a Saturday night (September 11th) lined up at Rancho.

³ And, interestingly, as seems to be disproportionally common for rock'n'roll duos, this pair seem to have a flair for design exhibited in a rigourous visual aesthetic — on display from the stylized "F" on the kickdrum to their meticulously packaged merch (including a seven-song live cassette accompanied by "accompanied by 268 pages of contextual liner notes").

⁴ "No Fuss" may be as much of a motto as a song title for the band, with no last names furnished at the band's myspace or website — just Wendy (drums + vocals), Tim (guitar) and Matt (guitar).

Recording: Terror Lake

Artist: Terror Lake

Song: Junebug

Pitter Patter Festival. Recorded live at Sneaky Dee's, May 30, 2009.

Terror Lake - Junebug

My notes for this gig are here.

Gig: The Diableros / Sports: The Band / Terror Lake / Archipelagos

The Diableros / Sports: The Band / Terror Lake / Archipelagos

Pitter Patter Festival. Sneaky Dee's. Saturday, May 30, 2009.

In an unusual confluence of gig-goin' events, this turned out to be my third Saturday night in a row at Sneaky Dee's.¹ Paid-what-I-could for entry to a Pitter Patter powered night and was on hand with the early crowd to see the lead-off band, Montreal's Archipelagos, the quickest summary of whom might be "Sounds Like: The National". By which I kinda mean rather a lot. Which isn't the worst thing in the world, by any means. Vocalist Jesse LeGallais even had a version that grip-your-own-forearm-and-twitch thing that Matt Berninger is remembered for.² This is not to sound snarky or dismissive, as the band were quite entertaining in their own right. With dramatic, carefully sculpted guitar parts and a smart sense for dynamics, the band's songs built up into some crafty little maelstroms. Suffering from the aftermath of van-related traumas which forced the band to stay overnight in Belleville while en route down the 401, the band played pretty intensely for a sparse crowd. Certainly worth keeping an eye on.

Terror Lake were a complete unknown to me, but left a very positive impression. A three piece, with two guitarists playing interlocking parts, drums and no bass. With that line-up and Wendy Fowler's vibrato, the words "Sleater" and "Kinney" might come to mind. But the band's approach is more akin to surf music, which gives them their own sound. Stripped-down and lean sounding, the band got great mileage from a rigourously lean aesthetic. Their half-hour set punched my buttons and are now on my list for another taste.

Listen to a song from this set here.

A bit of a change of pace after that as Sports: The Band took over. Smart pop, with boy-girl vox and a bit of a new wave sensibility. But also, as the set moved along and the band found their groove, increasingly dance friendly. Keyboardist/vocalist Robin Hatch, celebrating a birthday, came equipped with an elegant hat — we're talking hat-box-worthy — and took lead vox for some of the band's better material, including a peppy number presumably titled "Postcard". Sports had an eager crowd on hand which responded warmly for the whole forty-five minute set. Reasonably good stuff — a few of the songs didn't totally gel, but the band seems to be working towards a more interesting cohesion.³

The capper was the real treat of the night. The Diableros always put on a good show, and it'd been a decent stretch since seeing them last. With the prospect of new material in the offing, this was something I'd been looking forward to. The band lead off with a series of tracks from their soon-to-be-recorded EP that are a logical extension of their signature sound — like all of us, growing less fuzzed-out and sound-saturated with age.⁴ Of the new stuff, "Heavy Hands" had the best showing out-of-the gate.

The current lineup (containing only Pete Carmichael and guitarist Ian Jackson as long-time holdovers) seemed at ease with both new material and old. That Pitter Patter maven Keith Hamilton found time from what was presumably a busy weekend to play bass was pretty impressive. As the hour grew later, the crowd thinned out a bit, which left more room for the random intrusion of a gang of possibly drunk people intent on wrapping each other in police tape.⁵ It was a highly satisfying set, and I'm looking forward to hearing the new songs in their finished forms.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ Although it might have a bit to do with the fact that, at the end of my kid-with-a-new-toy binge with my recording gear, I've found that my mics seem to work particularly well at Sneaks. Undoubtedly partially because I picked 'em to work well in small, loud spaces, but some credit is also due to Steve the Sound Guy, one of the city's best, who does a pretty amazing job, especially when you consider the sheer number of set-ups and changeovers on stage on a night like this.

² But the panicked, thousand-yard stare, his eyes bugging out and looking like they were about to roll backwards into his skull as he fell into a seizure is his own thing.

³ Although I think I'm going to quietly align myself here with the side that's advocating against vocoder use.

⁴ In fact, one of the new songs, rolling out at a sedate pace for The Diableros, talks about that fear of getting old, but holds out for the hope that "we'll still have rock and roll".

⁵ One of whom shouted, between songs, to one of her friends, "What's the name of this band? Chart Attack?" Guessing from the banner on the stage, she proceeded to chant, "Chart Attack! Chart Attack!"