City Authentic

concert review: City Field @ Bovine Sex Club(Toronto, Ontario), December 3, 2004

I decided to check out the City Field gig on Friday night after reading a little blurb on the band in eye. My appetite was whet after finding out that this was a band put together put guitar-pop extraordinaire Matt Murphy of Super Friendz and Flashing Lights fame. eye reports that City Field was put together after The Super Friendz reunion last year and that the band is made up of a couple of his Haligonian friends, including songwriter/lead singer Mitchell Wiebe and singer Sarah Gregg. eye said the show was going to be an early one(starting at 9:30 pm) so I showed up to the club just after that. I'd never been to the Bovine Sex Club and all my expectations of it being some sort of gothic-themed venue went out the window, thankfully. It was alot more normal than I thought, albeit a little more dingy than I expected. I was kinda pissed the show didn't start at 9:30 pm as eye had indicated, so I spent about a half hour waiting for the show to start. At least there wasn't a cover charge. Apparently, the Exclaim staff were there that night, wearing name tags and all, and I felt like I had crashed their staff x'mas party or something, but since no one kicked me out, I hung around for the show to start.

City Field are actually five members, including the aforementioned three members above, with Dave Eweison on drums and Brent Randall on bass. It's hard to escape the Super Friendz comparisons especially when Matt Murphy sang. Aside from Matt Murphy's vocals, City Field also emulated some of The Super Friendz' guitar-pop sensibilities. What really set City Field apart were Sarah's and Mitchell's vocals. Sarah's vocals were spot on melodically and gave the music an extra depth, her vocals reminding me of a subtler version of Neko Case-by-way-of-The New Pornographers. Mitchell had a definite Bowie-esque vibe that added a glam-my sheen to the music at times. And with Matt Murphy's distinctive melodic vocals, it was interesting to hear the vocal interplay between the different vocalists' styles. The rhythm section of Dave on drums and Brent on bass were quite direct with simple but solid rhythms that gave the songs a new-wavey, post-punk feel. The highlight of the evening for me was their bouncy-pop rendition of their song called "Pretenders", kind of like a 3-way duet, with slight country-ish overtones. The band's got a independently released EP called "City Authentic" "Authentic City" which I purchased at the show[you can also purchase it at Soundscapes in Toronto for around 8 bucks or so], and it's quite addictive. It's already one of my favourite Canadian releases of 2004. It's that good. Can't wait to hear a whole album which Sarah had mentioned they're working on.

ps. I have more photos which I'll try to post a link to in the future.

Torontoist has an interview with Scott Kaija of Toronto's 'it' band, controller.controller.

My friend and I went to the Ted Leo show yesterday at The Mod Club. I'll try to post a review tomorrow, but for now read a review over at Chromewaves. SHOT was also there and he proclaims Ted Leo as the "George Clooney of power-punk-pop". You're so cheeky, Brian.:-)