Canadian Music Week 2006: part 1

concert review: Canadian Music Week @ various venues(Toronto, Ontario), Thursday March 2 and Friday March 3, 2006

Even with the disappointment of Isobel Campbell's Saturday night show at Revival being cancelled, over the course of the three-day festival I was still able to catch a bunch of worthy acts. I consciously decided this year that rather than catch the 'buzz' bands/artists, I'd tried checking out bands/artists who were for the most part unfamiliar to me. Recipe for disaster possibly, but I did my homework(checking out websites, audio samples) and the bands I ended up checking out turned out to be good, some even really good. It turns out that of eight bands I did see, it was an even split between Canadian and foreign acts.

PE'Z(Thursday 10 pm @ Gladstone Hotel): I made it to the venue a little after Japan's PE'Z had just taken the stage. It was my first time at the Gladstone and it's a beautiful venue with high ceilings and nice wooden floors. Attendance was a little sparse but there was a Japanese(at least Asian) contingent of fans who came out to see PE'Z. While the crowd was quite subdued, PE'Z performed an combustible blend of jazz, swing and rock n' roll. The horn section of trumpet and saxophone provided the melodies, and were accompanied by some insane keyboard playing, rumbling bass lines, and energetic drumming. The set was mostly instrumental but one song featured the keyboardist shouting into his mic. Overall their spin on jazz music was quite refreshing. It would have been better if more people had shown up because it could have been quite the dance party.

The Gin Club(Thursday 11 pm @ Gladstone Hotel): Brisbane, Australia's The Gin Club were up next. Eye Weekly described the band's music as a "unique blend of alt-country, folk, pop and psychedelia rock", drawing comparisons to The Band, Pogues, and The Sadies. After having seen them live, I'd say that everything that Eye Weekly said was quite on except for The Sadies comparison; The Gin Club were really not that twangy from what I could remember. I found the alt-country influence to be most dominant and they mostly reminded me of bands like early Wilco, The Jayhawks and Blue Rodeo. The music was mostly a guitar/bass guitar/keyboards/drums affair but also featured some accordion and harmonica. A young woman taking photos of the band set, ended up joining the band onstage to contribute some keyboards and background vocals. What I found most interesting was that lead vocal duties were taken on by most members of the band which meant that lead vocals changed at least seven times; and they were all good at it too, each giving lead vocals their own unique flavour! While most of the songs hovered in that alt-country territory my favourite song of the night, called "Drug Flowers" was a more uptempo pop tune.

Barzin(Friday 9 pm @ Holy Joe's): Recently releasing Tomorrow their second album "My Life In Rooms" will be released on indie label Weewerk Records. Toronto's Barzin's performance at Holy Joe's was my favourite of the CMW festival by far. Within the intimate surroundings of Holy Joe's living room environment, Barzin performed a hushed set of Red House Painters-influenced tunes. The vibraphone was a nice touch and overall the instrumentation, vocals and melodies floated over the crowd while the disco lights overhead transformed the performance into something quite beautiful. On one instrumental number, the coda to the song featured melodica and trumpet, instruments which I hope they utilize more in the future.

Radiogram(Friday 10 pm @ Holy Joe's): I'd been aware of Vancouver's Radiogram for a little while and had sampled some of their songs(in that alt-country/orch-pop vein) in the past so I was a aware what I was getting into when I stuck around for their set. I was a little disappointed that it turned out to be a solo set from Radiogram's Ken Beattie. Fortunately, though the strength of his songs(which were mostly new ones) held my interest. Accompanying himself with some simple guitar strumming and or arrangements, Ken sung a set of tunes which were mostly in a acoustic pop/country vein. Still, I'd have been a much happier camper if I could have heard the songs embellished with additional instrumentation, most notably strings and or horns.

Audiotransparent(Friday 11 pm @ Holy Joe's): Audiotransparent are from Groningen, The Netherlands. While I think the band name is a little bland, it was Eye Weekly drawing comparisons of the band's music to Low, Sigur Ros and Sparklehorse which got me interested to see this band. The band performed a good set of tunes that straddled the line between slo-core indie rock and the epic-ness of Sigur Ros. There was a sad quality to Audiotransparent's quieter tunes but when songs would build up to epic proportions with drums and guitars in a massive collision of sound, it felt quite uplifting. The lead vocalist mentioned touring with Great Lake Swimmers in Europe where they played in one club to ten people and that it was nice to see Great Lake Swimmers play a 'full house' this time(this time being an hour before just downstairs at Reverb).

Update: Here are photos from Thursday(@ Gladstone Hotel) and Friday(@ Holy Joe's).

- Part 2 tomorrow -