Artist: Ty Segall
Songs: Annette's Got the Hits (feat. Steve McDonald) + unknown*
Recorded on the Captain Matthew Flinders (Bruise Cruise @ NXNE), June 18, 2011.
Ty Segall - Annette's Got the Hits + unknownMy notes for this set can be found here.
* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!
Bruise Cruise (feat. Jesuslesfilles / Uncle Bad Touch / Young Governor / Ty Segall)
Captain Matthew Flinders. Saturday, June 18, 2011.
Amongst the barbeques and in-stores that have increasingly been filling up the daytimes during NXNE, this little excursion was perhaps the most anticipated. The idea of being out on the lake, taking in some sun while watching cool bands play is pretty irresistible. Cue plenty of "I'm on a Boat" jokes.
The reality was a bit more banal. The day was clear, blindingly bright and scorchingly hot, even in the gentle breeze while out cruising. So it might have been a blessing in disguise that rather than having the bands weren't playing out on the deck, they were down in the bottom-level ballroom. That made things feel rather less exotic — so much so that a large proportion of the attendees, putatively here to see the bands, never bothered coming below from their sun-drenched networking/consumption of overpriced drinks.
The day was presented by the M pour Montréal festival, and appropriately lead off with a couple 514-area bands. Jesuslesfilles were the first to take the stage — or, rather, the railed-off mini-dancefloor in the fore (up front, to us landlubbers) of the space. There was plenty of elbow room for the musicians, even with the drumkit set up on a riser behind them.
There were a half-dozen rows of people up at the front of the room taking this in, leaving lots of empty space behind, but it felt like enough bodies to make an audience for the five-piece. They were singing francophone lyrics, often delivered with male/female co-vox, but given the slightly-muffled nature of the improvised PA, their voices would have been semi-incomprehensible in any language.
Of Montréal bands that I know, I figured I could see this lot on a bill with, say, The Peelies1, though JLF were a bit less "punk" in their execution. They were still pleasingly rough around the edges, with quick songs in the two-three minute range. It got a bit less engaging when they slowed down, but on the whole, good stuff.
Listen to a song from this set here.
It was amusing to see the land-based social order was replicating itself on the boat, with the too-coolsters staying topside, indifferent to the opening bands. There weren't many more folks on hand for Uncle Bad Touch2, another Montréal act. This trio had a straight-up rocking sound, with a bit of sleaze-nasty in the guitar sound and occasional hints of metal. Given the aggression with which they played, it was no surprise that the drum kit was being slowly pushed forward, soon at constant risk of tumbling right off the riser.
Though the lyrics were in a language I was more fluent in, I'd have to say that the band didn't leave a huge impression on me. But with nine songs in just over twenty minutes it didn't stick around long enough to get boring, especially toward the end, when the boat started to roll a little underfoot.
Listen to a couple songs from this set here.
When I came back from a wander to check out the views of city and the calm waters of Lake Ontario receding off in the hazy distance there was much more of a crowd on the lower deck to see Ben Cook (a.k.a.Young Governor), who was attired in a cruise-appropriate tropical sunset shirt and captain's hat. "I've been called Bernie and I've been called Michael J. Fox today," he commented. "So I'm doing all right."
There was a bigger crowd on the stage, too, with his not-officially-credited but most definitely present backing band The Scuzz — including a keyboardist that sat out the previous day's in-store. The keybs were quiet at the start but more prominent a bit later on for stuff like "Bedtime Stories". That additional element didn't upset the musical balance too much, however.
One part of the expansiveness of the band's sound, relative to some of Cook's other projects, is a propensity to not rush into songs, several of which included lengthy instrumental introductions (often powered by smooth saxophone licks) that would basically double their length. And though the music references classic rock forms through an especially 80's-vintage power-pop lens — "The Beat of My Heart" which could have slipped through a timewarp from a Rockpile setlist — there's still an elemental propensity to veer headlong into velocity, like "Summer Girl", which finished at about twice the speed it started at. Showing as much eagerness as the crowd to get to the headliner, the band careened through the more-punkish "Call Me When the Cat Dies" before clearing the stage to make room.
This whole nautical experience seems to have had an impact on Cook, who liked this set enough to issue it on a tape3 — and who has more recently shifted his attention to a new project called Yacht Club.
Listen to a song from this set here.
There was still plenty space at the back of the room as Ty Segall and his rhythm section took the stage but it was rather packed up front — I was about four rows aft and even from there I could hardly see a thing. Mostly just occasional flashes of Segall's tie-died shirt — and that was before the intense mosh-y action got started.4
Wearing a pair of sunglasses — and with another pair perched on his head — Segall lead off with "Imaginary Person" from 2010's "Melted", picking out some tracks from his ever-growing discography. The highlight of the set came fairly early on when he invited Redd Kross' Steve McDonald (who was at NXNE as a member of OFF!) to join in on bass for a run through "Annette's Got the Hits", which dates back to 1980, when the band was still known as Red Cross — a song older than Segall himself. "That was the coolest thing that has ever happened to me," he commented after.
With the boat pulling into the dock, there was an increased urgency in the room, and at the end of the slower-starting "Finger" the crowd suddenly exploded into a moshing frenzy. With the boat back on land, the band cranked through the last few songs, ending with a run through "Paranoid" wherein Segall leaped into crowd, being held aloft under the rather low ceiling, his face and guitar both smooshed right up against it as he kept playing, taking time only to stick his head up through the foam ceiling tiles. Given that he invited the crowd up to sing along for that, it was no surprise that the show ended with a general stage invasion, feedback shreiking as the bandstand filled up — and from there, rocking out covers (including GG Allin's "Don't Talk to Me") pretty much until he was told to stop.
As always, a bracing live experience. And if this wasn't all that exciting as an aquatic excursion (the boat hugged the shoreline out to about the mouth of the Humber and then back), it was a worthy daytime experience, enough so that it would be repeated for the next NXNE.5
Listen to a couple songs from this set here.
1 Which turns out to have been on point, given that the two bands have shared a split tape.
2 The band has more recently rebranded themselves under the more compact, less creepy moniker of UBT.
3 Though by now it might be tough to get your hands on a copy, Cook released my recording of this show as one half of the The First Three 7"s / Live On A Boat cassette.
4 I've mentioned it before, but I'll renew this curious observation: I certainly dig Segall's music, but it's mostly "punk" by association, and I don't quite understand what it his about his performances that engender such an enthusiastically mosh-prone response from the crowd when nothing of the sort happens to other musicians with a similar level of rockitude. It just seems mildly odd to me.
5 Segall seems to enjoy our neck of the woods: he's covered some Southern Ontario proto-punk heroes and retains connections to some local bands. He's also been a fairly frequent visitor to Toronto, playing at increasingly large venues, including (on February 6, 2013) The Phoenix.
1000 Songs: Richard Trapunski
I have now posted one thousand songs from my live recordings to this blog. My introductory thoughts on that landmark can be found here, but long story short: I asked some folks to pick some of their favourites to help me celebrate.
Today's list comes from local music scribe Rich Trapunski, who manages to get a lot of cool bands some exposure in NOW magazine, but can also investigate a trend when the situation calls for it. He's making a valiant effort to add a layer of scuzz and confusion to CMW in helping put together this Resonancity showcase, co-presented with Dan Burke.
Congrats on the milestone, Joe!
This is from the Constantines’ secret show at the Garrison in 2009 as part of their 10th anniversary celebrations (otherwise centred entirely at Lee's Palace). It was cool to see the now-defunct IndieCanRock institution in such a small room – likely the first, last and only time I’ll ever see them – but this was back when the Garrison was the loudest venue in the city, so it's nice to hear a recorded version that won’t give me tinnitus.
I wrote a review of the show for my blog, Resonancity (in my pre-NOW days) and posted it on Stillepost, where the one of the late forum’s lovable curmudgeons predicted something along the lines of this: "the writer seems destined to churn out infotainment pieces for Eye Weekly." Close, but no cigar.
Broken Social Scene - Sweetest Kill
This was the "legendary" free Broken Social Scene gig at the Harbourfront Centre, a makeup gig for their cancelled Olympic Island Gig in 2009 (depending on who you asked, it was either due to the garbage strike, noise from the Molson Indy or low ticket sales). Having failed to get there before the masses, I ended up stuck behind a couple of older patrons who spent the entire concert standing on their seats. Despite my seething annoyance, I was still seduced by the love-in vibe at this two and a half hour marathon, complete with all the "special guests" that now garner their own marquees (i.e. Feist, Metric, etc), but the only way that I’d ever be able to actually see the gig would be to rent Bruce MacDonald's This Movie Is Broken.
Fucked Up's epic "Year Of..." songs rarely get played live, so I’m lucky to have witnessed "Year of the Ox" twice. Having caught the band's soundcheck earlier in the evening (I interviewed Ben Cook about one of his many other bands, the Bitters, before the show), I knew we'd be in for the whole strings/guest female vocalist treatment, but it sounded even more incongruous in front of a wild – but strangely civilized – all ages crowd... at the Toronto Reference Library, of all places.
Four Corners II - Losing Touch With My Mind
If you haven't been to a Four Corners show at the United Steelworkers Hall, here’s the concept in a nutshell: four bands each set up in a corner of the room and alternate playing songs, while the crowd stands in the centre of the action. The song captured here is all four bands – Rituals, Sun Ra Ra Ra, Quest For Fire and Lullabye Arkestra – all playing together on a chaotic, Zaireeka-style cover of Spaceman 3's "Losing Touch With My Mind". It's a "chaosbomb", to quote Joe himself, but this recording is an apt reconstruction of the maelstrom of barely coherent noise that was the grand finale. Bonus: I’m pretty sure that’s my voice asking "do you know what song this is?" at the 2:48 mark.
Ty Segall - Standing at the Station + Girlfriend
Ty Segall's Toronto shows tend to be louder, sweatier, more bruise-inducing shows than his melodic garage-pop nuggets would have you believe, and this CMW performance at Wrongbar was certainly no exception. After being knocked around and distracted by the energetic, beer-swilling crowd, Joe's recording is a helpful reminder that there were actual songs under the madness... and damn good ones, too.
You can always click on the tags below to read more about the shows these songs came from. Have there been four or five songs posted here that made an impact on you? If you'd like to get in on the action and make a list, feel free to send me an email: mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com.
CMW 2011* (Saturday) (feat. Fred Penner / Mockingbird Wish Me Luck / The Pack a.d. / Heavy Cream / Ty Segall / Teenanger / White Wires)
Friday, March 11, 2011.
This is an expansion of my initial notes from the festival, which can be found here.
8:30 P.M.: Fred Penner @ The Drake Underground
Well, this was a bit of an outlier on the schedule, venue-wise but even moreso in terms of sentiment. When I first saw the name "Fred Penner" on the schedule I laughed, and then I double-checked that it wasn't an ironically-named pop-punk band, then I marked it in my maybe pile.
And then I showed up to see him. Fred Penner and I have a history, though perhaps not the one that you'd expect. I am, in fact, just a titch past the age to have been mesmerized by the original run of Fred Penner's Place on the CBC. I remember it being on, but with typical kid acumen I dismissed anything I was too grown up for. However, years later, on the day I matriculated from university, Penner was the recipient of an honourary degree — so I've always felt a special affinity for him as a fellow member of my graduating class.1
And it looked like the bulk of the crowd at The Drake also had some long-standing ties to Penner. If you do the math, you'll note that a wide swath of today's hipsters, bloggers and music writers probably did grow up with Fred Penner, so when that familiar theme music chimed out of the speakers there were a lot of smiles about.
"Imagine a log that I just crawled through," said Fred Penner as he stepped on to the stage at the song's end. Wearing a wireless hands-free mic, he told the crowd to stand up straight, clear their throats and sing along. And as he launched into "What a Day", they did without reserve — some things can just cut right past the scaly growths of irony.
Penner was backed by guitarist Paul O'Neill and two backup singers, who would turn out to be his daughters Haley and Kendra. Penner had his acoustic guitar, but mostly relied on his guileless charm. "It's a little different atmosphere than the usual Fred Penner concert," he said, looking out into the crowd in the darkened basement bar. "But the energy is the same and the joy... is the same." There were some slight nods to the grown-up crowd: inspired by Del Barber, who had played before him, Penner declared he wanted to get back to his folkie roots and announced a Pete Seeger song, pausing to chastise the crowd when they didn't cheer in recognition at the name. The topical "Garbage" was followed by another period piece, as "Happy Feet" (presented complete with kazoos) is well-known as a Fred Penner song but in fact comes from the 1930 flick King of Jazz.
After that he paused for storytime, telling the tale of daughter Haley's first bike ride, pantomiming it while guitarist O'Neill added sound effects. The audience was duly prevailed upon to raise their hands and pledge they'd never ride their bikes with their eyes closed. And as that became the lead-in to "Proud", I looked around at the people clapping along, thinking to myself, "yeah, this is shtick-y as all git-out, but so what?" Even I felt some of the emotional resonance at this stuff.
Speaking of shtick, "Company Coming" paused for some shenanigans from O'Neill, trying to work in the intro to "Stairway to Heaven" to impress any industry types in the crowd before the big finale. For "Sandwiches" ("our all-time second most requested song"), Penner pulled up a couple young women from the audience to sing along and play tambourine — they looked somewhere beyond delighted. And then it was no surprise as the set closed with "The Cat Came Back" and an overpowering wave of unabashedly giddy joy in the room as Penner segued into a mini-medley of "Hit the Road Jack" and "Crabbuckit", complete with cat-appropriate lyrics. As I made my way out, there was already a queue forming at his merch table with people looking eager to take Penner up on his offer of saying hello or getting a picture. This is the stuff that memories are made of.
Listen to a track from this set here.
9:30 P.M.: Mockingbird Wish Me Luck @ Wrongbar
I have much less to say about Kitchener quartet Mockingbird Wish Me Luck. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to catch 'em at all, but Wrongbar was running its sets on the half hour, and as I strolled in they were taking the stage. My pre-festival homework had told me that this wasn't particularly my thing, too, but I knew I was going to be camping out for the night at Wrongbar, and I knew it was going to get busy, so I reckoned to beat the rush.
Featuring an amped-up version of a Heartland college-rock sound, the most distinctive thing here was the fact that the band had not one, but two hoarse-voiced singers. That's a "punk" signifier that doesn't do much for me — in fact, my notes describes their vocal stylings as "Hrarrarrar Huurgh!". That aside, the sort of songs the band were playing reminded more of, say, Buffalo Tom more than anything. Which is a good starting point. But I just couldn't get past the vocal style.
The band's efforts weren't helped when a kick drum pedal died on them and the set kinda skidded to a halt for a couple minutes. I'd been taking this in from up in front of the stage, but after that I went and found a place to sit down and kinda tuned the rest out.
10:30 P.M.: The Pack a.d. @ Wrongbar
The room was filling nicely as this Vancouver duo — Drummer Maya Miller and guitarist/vocalist Becky Black — took the stage. Launching what would be a recurring feature through the night, there were some feedback issues and monitor trouble as the set started. Despite having trouble hearing each other, the pair generated some convincing scuzz-blooze.
Black is a howler and Miller drums with hair-flinging intensity. She was also an engaging ham and a charming banterer between songs. In a between-album phase, the pair were no longer entirely focused on 2010's we kill computers, but were only mixing in a handful from what would become their highly-praised Unpersons, though a few like "Hear Me Out" got an airing. The music is mostly a straight-ahead garage-punk version of the blues, but they did take the foot off the gas pedal a bit after a few songs, for relatively more sedate stuff like "Oh Be Joyful".
Being associated with the blues idiom can be a bit of a stylistic trap, and being a guitar-drums duo can certainly make for certain easy comparisons, but it didn't feel like the band was unduly limiting themselves. The bluesy-ness was more pronounced on some of the older stuff like "Don't Have To Like You", with Black forcefully mumbling the lyrics, but for the newer stuff, it's too reductive to play the White Stripes card — at least live, the band's vibe is more garage-punk splatter, with definite pop potential on songs like "Deer" and especially "Crazy".
They certainly had an evil-invokin' rock'n'roll hoodoo thang going on — especially for one woman in the crowd, who danced in front of the stage for most of the set, then suddenly took to kicking one of the barstools a few times. And during the last song, she picked it up, hurling it across the dancefloor. Good fun 'til somebody loses an eye.
Listen to a track from this set here.
11:40 P.M.: Heavy Cream @ Wrongbar
The sound issues that had plagued the last band were multiplied for Heavy Cream. After a dragged-out turnover, the Nashville four-piece welcomed the crowd with a steady loud hum behind them and had to pause following their first song for a secondary line check. After that, the momentum was never quite there, and the sound was never quite right — for most of the set it was stuck as a dull loud roar punctuated by feedback yelps.
Despite that, the band plunged through and it did get a little better as the set went along. One gets the impression that they've probably played their fair share of basements and dive bars, given their inclination to just make do and plunge onward. It took a little effort to extrapolate, but what was going on underneath the sound problems was definitely good stuff. Catchy poppy punx with a dynamic frontwoman in Jessica McFarland, even with a truncated set stopping short of twenty minutes — three of them spent adjusting things — the band managed to tear off nine songs. No fault of their own that this didn't feel entirely satisfyin', and I marked the band down as one to revisit.2
Listen to a track from this set here.
12:20 A.M.: Ty Segall @ Wrongbar
The joint was now at maximum crammage, that state where it's almost impossible to move or breathe when you're anywhere close to the stage. I was here mostly out of curiousity, but there was obviously a rabid local fanbase for Ty Segall. The prolific Bay Area rocker took the stage, looking every inch like an All-American, a fair-haired cornfed surfer golden boy who could muster a plucky grin in the face of adversity. Which is to say, he didn't look entirely the part of an up-from-the-underground rocker.
His music, too, was apparently not what it seemed to be. Sounding, to my ears, like scrappy DIY rock jams, it was received by the crowd as pure, unadulterated punk. I never really understand how people collectively decide that some artists are meant to be moshed to, so even if Segall's music doesn't immediately register as, y'know, especially mosh-y, the crowd was quickly roiling along. I guess it's some combination of the fact that he plays rough'n'ready rock, delivered with punk-ish intensity and that a certain audience has adopted him. Whatever the recipe, the outcome was barely-controlled chaos, both on the stage and in the crowd.
Playing in a quartet, Segall was backed by second guit, plus bass and drums. With a pretty hefty catalogue of songs to pick from, Segall careened through a dozen or so songs in his thirty-five minutes. Thank goodness that mid-set he had to cadge a spare guitar, allowing a moment's respite. I'm normally one to hold my position, and while I wasn't even in the thick of things, the crowd was so tightly packed, pulsating around me, that eventually I had to bail and find a bit of personal space. Even if it was a good-humoured and amiable crowd — I got a friendly "sorry" from a guy whose arm had bounced off me — it really was more than I liked. Working my way around, I eventually ended up facing perpendicular to the stage, where it was a little calmer.
On the whole, it was good stuff, albeit more of an experience than musically excellent. And like life, I suppose, you can celebrate that you endured it.
Listen to a track from this set here.
1:30 A.M.: Teenanger @ Wrongbar
With a lot of people heading out after Ty Segall, there was a much more manageable crowd left over, though there were some shove-y people pushing their way to the front as Teenanger started. By this point of the night, I was well content to stand behind them. Interestingly, in my mind, Teenager's sound — which can be summarized as "throbbing bad vibes" — was well-suited to the late hour and was exactly the sort of thing that should merit the sort of crowd action Ty Segall received. It's strange to me that people come out for the out-of-town hype and split before the local band that's working at just as high a level.
For their set, the band was focusing on their newer (and then-unreleased) material, some of which will just now be seeing the light of say on their Frights LP3. There's some fabulous songs there, like "S.L.W.". The set included an anti-shout-out to Rob Ford, and some songs (like "Tired of You") burst by in whitehot minute-long flashes while a couple further on in the set stretched things out — including the set-closing rendition of "Frights" that pulled back the velocity to good effect. Keep an eye on Teenanger in 2012, folks.
Listen to a track from this set here.
2:30 A.M.: The White Wires @ Wrongbar
As his bandmates set up around him, bassist Luke Martin was busy with a bit of DIY instrument upkeep, daubing whiteout dots on the frets of his instrument's neck. Such roughshod charm co-exists with precise rock'n'roll songcraft in the band's music. Launching with statement of purpose "Pogo 'Til I Puke Tonight", The White Wires are easy-to-grasp in the best way — when I first saw 'em, I noted they have "as much Eddie Cochrane as Young Canadians in their lineage" and that seems about right.
Playing with the wobbly certainty of the last band up (and therefore being the ones partying for the longest while waiting), singer/guitarist Ian Manhire uses breakneck speed to elevate his songs on the evergreen topics of rockin', partyin' and lookin' for a little love. Zipping by in something of a blur, there was a sort of soft ending to the set — after efficiently cranking out ten songs in twenty-five minutes, the band thought they were done. Told they had ten more minutes, they shrugged and went back at it for three more tunes. Things started pulling apart at the seams a bit toward the end, but it felt about right. White Wires are pretty great live band, and this was a good way to wrap up the festival.
Afterwards, the remnants of the crowd lurched out into the night. With the time change it was now four a.m., which made it feel even more like the end of a full day's night of rock'n'roll.
Listen to a track from this set here.
* A note on nomenclature: for years both the industry showcase and music festival components were known as Canadian Music Week. But as of 2009, this was deemed to be too simple and straightforward, and the music portion was "rebranded" as Canadian Music Fest, under the aegis of the larger Canadian Music Week. I see no reason to put up with this and will simply refer to everything as CMW — although there was a part of me that also considered using the slightly cumbersome "Canadian Music Fest presented by Canadian Music Week" throughout.
1 This was, in fact, by far the most memorable part of my convocation, as after receiving his degree, Penner pulled out his guitar and did a couple songs reminding us all that we could be whatever we wanted to be.
Fred Penner should be on hand to greet undergrads on their first day of university telling them that.
2 And in fact, I did so at the next available opportunity.
3 Coming out on January 24 on Telephone Explosion records, there are a lot of folks salivating for this record — some scene-watchers even venturing to predict that this might push the band up into the wider consciousness.
Artist: Ty Segall
Song: Standing at the Station + Girlfriend
Recorded at Wrongbar (CMW 2011), March 12, 2011.
Ty Segall - Standing at the Station + GirlfriendFull review of this show to follow, but you can check out some quick notes here. My full notes for this set can now be found here.
CMW 2011 (Saturday)*
While these shows are fresh in my mind I want to get some quick notes down. I'm a nerd for not wanting to throw my full reviews out of sequence, so there'll be a fuller accounting of the night by and by.
4 p.m.: Zoobombs @ Bait Shop
This daytime show was at a skateboard shop, a very cool old warehouse-y space with the band set up on a platform above a half-pipe. The crowd was both below them in the flat bottom of the half-pipe and above in the overlooking loft. A good environment for the gonzo apeshit rock'n'roll that Japan's Zoobombs bring. Trapped half a world away at a time of grave crisis in their homeland, the band rocked to ease their broken hearts. It'd been a couple years since I'd seen 'em and I'd forgotten a little how much energy and craziness singer/guitarist Don Matsuo puts into it, spinning his guitar around, climbing the walls, mugging for the cameras, all while unleashing a nonstop heavy attack. Absolute fun.
5 p.m.: Dinosaur Bones @ Bait Shop
"Fuck you for making us play after the Zoobombs," joked Dino Bones vocalist Ben Fox, knowing there was no way they could duplicate the intensity that had come before them. Instead, the competed on their own terms with their more anthemic approach. It had been nearly a couple years since I'd seen these guys, too. They were touted as being on the cusp of bigger things even back then, and now, with a new album just out, it looks like their moment may be here. One can see why, with Fox's reach-the-rafters projection and a musical approach that might be summed up as "active brooding". Not entirely my thing, though they do have a couple winning songs. And bassist Branko Scekic is still no slouch in the climb-up-stuff department wither.
8:30 p.m.: Fred Penner @ Drake Underground
Taking the stage to his old show's theme music (of course), this one was — to put it mildly — a bit of a departure. And one for beloved children's entertainer Penner, too, playing to anything but his usual sort of audience. Accompanied by a guitarist and two of his daughters on backing vocals, Penner packed in a mini variety show in his half-hour, with the songs broken up with a storytime break and a couple skit-like interludes. It was shticky as hell, natch, but as adults we're conditioned to treat anything this completely direct as mere corn. So what? This was also kind of awesome, filled with audience singalongs and ending with his most requested song — I think you could guess what that is.
Listen to a track from this set here.
9:30 p.m.: Mockingbird Wish Me Luck @ Wrongbar
Thought that would occupy me long enough to get to Wrongbar, where I was planning to settle in for the night, before the crowds but after the night's first act. It turned out, however, that the sets were running on the bottom of the hour so I got there as this Kitchener quartet was starting instead of ending. I'm sure there's nothing at all wrong with this combo — musically, they brought to mind, say, a harder-edged Buffalo Tom — but they still rubbed me the wrong way. Chalk that up to a pair of gravel-voiced singers, who invested every syllable with a shouted/growled huurgh hurrgh hurgh. Just not my thing.
10:30 p.m.: The Pack a.d. @ Wrongbar
I've been passingly familiar with this Vancouver-based duo for awhile, but I'd never seen them live. That is, according to multiple sources, where Maya Miller (drums) and Becky Black (guit/vox) really shine. And, in short, that's correct. Bringing their own punk-infused approach to the blues, the best moments here were great fun. Miller is an action hero, with hair flying and sticks ablur, as well as a bit of a ham while posing and chatting between songs. There were a couple spots where if felt like they were restraining themselves a little, but it can't all be white-hot intensity. If it were, the one woman dancing like a maniac right up front might have inflicted more property damage than just drop-kicking and hurling a barstool around.
11:30 p.m.: Heavy Cream @ Wrongbar
I'd done no research on this band, figuring I was going to be here to see 'em regardless, so they turned out to be the pleasant surprise of the night. Even while fighting some massive sound issues, this Nashville crew sent out a salvo of fireball punk bursts. Poppy fun throughout their short set, I'd definitely like to see 'em again when the sound wasn't being sucked into a dull low roar.
12:20 a.m.: Ty Segall @ Wrongbar
I also didn't know a lot about San Francisco's Ty Segall, but the reports of his past visits to the city were pretty glowing. The recorded material that I've heard has more of a psychedelic-pop tinge to it, but live it was all filtered through a punkrock roar and came out all like one intense blast. At least I think it was like that — truth be told, my recall of the music is pretty spotty, as it was all subsumed to the intensity of the experience. By this point, the venue was rammed-beyond-rammed, and the crowd up front was moshing so intently that it would have been dangerous if people weren't packed in shoulder-to-shoulder, making it more like a sort of violent brownian motion. I lasted about two-thirds of the set at the edge of it before fleeing to a mildly less crammed spot. As Av. put it afterward, "a Ty Segall show is a good time you don't remember having."
Listen to a couple tracks from this set here.
1:30 a.m.: Teenanger @ Wrongbar
The crowd thinned out after that, but those who remained just had more room to knock into each other for locals Teenanger. Projecting their throbbing bad vibes out to the crowd with maximum intensity, this again falls somewhat into the realm of "you'll remember the experience more than the songs", but it's a pretty fun ride.
2:30 a.m.: White Wires @ Wrongbar
Wrapping things up to a thinner crowd was Ottawa's White Wires, who play good old-fashioned rock'n'roll with pogo-til-you-puke velocity. Vocalist/guitarist Ian Manhire does a good line in catchy choruses, and this was a satisfyingly bouncy way to end the night, giving me a burst of energy to mask my last-night exhaustion.
* A note on nomenclature: for years both the industry showcase and music festival components were known as Canadian Music Week. But as of a couple years ago, this was deemed to be too simple and straightforward, and the music portion was "rebranded" as Canadian Music Fest, under the aegis of the larger Canadian Music Week. I see no reason to put up with this and will simply refer to everything as CMW — although there was a part of me that also considered using the slightly cumbersome "Canadian Music Festival presented by Canadian Music Week" throughout.
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