A downsized version of Halifax's The Heavy Blinkers, currently performing as a trio, came to Toronto yesterday for a performance at Canadian Music Cafe as part of the Toronto International Film Festival. That was by invite only but the the band played an intimate show at The Casbah in Hamilton ON later that day. Fortunately, I was able to catch that show. Unfortunately, the show was criminally underattended. I was one of maybe 8 people in the audience yesterday(not counting some of The Heavy Blinkers' Jason MacIaasac's family who were in the audience). Even though I'd gone to the show solo I still enjoyed the artists' sets immensely. The Heavy Blinkers were playing as a trio and perform some new material whose song names you can catch over at their blog. The 'Blinkers yesterday evening consisted of Mr. Jason MacIsaac, David Christensen, and their hired vocalist Jenn Grant who they'd only met a month ago. Jenn's taking over vocal duties for Ruth Minnikin who's currently on tour with her own psychedlic-country band The Reels. As much as I enjoy the delicate vocals of Ruth, there was a robustness to Jenn's vocals which was really awesome to hear. Yes, did she nail the vocals and then some. Instrumentally, the songs were basically down to keyboards and acoustic guitar with a nice touch of clarinet on several songs. If you're a fan of The Heavy Blinkers' brand of orch-pop/Brian Wilson inspired music, I guarantee that the new songs will pierce your heart. And remember these were acoustic versions. I'm looking forward to the gussied-up band versions. Bookending The Heavy Blinkers set was Snailhouse and Julie Doiron. Snailhouse performed his typically stark emotional set, but not without showing he had a sense of playfulness. With a nod to the low turnout, he expressed that he could "take chances" with his set which resulted in a very casual run-through of his material. He pulled out a Sebadoh cover, then asked the audience for any requests which at one point someone yelled out "Side One of Disc One". Actually, that song's called "21 years"(off of "The Opposite Is True") and I was hoping for it. Mike was a bit apprehensive about performing it without a band, even taking a few seconds to get the guitar parts in order, but once he got going it was amazing. Towards the end of the set, Julie joined Mike to sing on "Witches and Snowmen".
Headlining the night was Julie Doiron. Looking back at the quite decent turnout for Julie's Wavelength show this summer, I'd have figured people would have turned out for her. Yeah I really felt Julie's disappointment with the low turnout even though she put on a brave face and smiled through it. Julie played a great set of tunes with her typical quiet "thank you" at the end of most of her songs which was quite endearing. She also played a really good cover of Paul Simon's "Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard". Preceding her last song, she took a good 3-5 minutes(maybe longer) thanking the audience for coming, joking about the low turnout, but then philosophizing about her career, about enjoying making music for its own sake balanced with earning a living as a musician. She talked about whether she should make more accessible music, maybe losing some of her "moroseness" as she put it, but really all of her talk seemed like her way of opening up to us. I appreciated her honesty very much.
After the show, I talked with Jason a bit, as well as their current chanteuse Jenn Grant. I want to mention that I had e-mailed Jason about getting into the Canadian Music Cafe show and he even e-mailed me back and said he'd put me on the guestlist as long as I e-mailed him. Well, the day I had received the e-mail, I had read the e-mail pretty late in the day, so I e-mailed Jason back to say thanks for the guestlist offer but if it wasn't possible to add me to the guestlist, I'd try to catch their Hamilton gig. When I mentioned this to Jason he said he had actually put my name on the guestlist. Doh! I was working that day but it would have been possible for me to leave work early and catch their Canadian Music Cafe set, which was taking place in the swanky Yorkville area. I recalled Jason mention that he got Sondre Lerche to sing on a track(or two?) for The Heavy Blinkers' new album and that the band(the full band this time) should make its way back to Toronto for a show within the next couple of months.
I also talked with Julie(especially about my disappointment with the cancellation of the Ear To The Ground Festival in Toronto which she and Snailhouse were to take part in) before buying one of her CD's. I would've said hello to Mike Snailhouse but he looked like he was busy talking with some other people.
Yes, it was a great show and you guys missed it....[photo from http://../]
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Here's a torrent(two different file formats) of The New Pornographers live session @ Lou's Records:
[via Largehearted Boy]
Styrofoam will be at the Rivoli for a show on November 26th. [from rootmeansquare]
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