Demolition Waltz

concert review: The Fembots, Nathan Lawr and The Minotaurs @ The Music Gallery(Toronto, Ontario), April 21, 2007

After a long absence from playing in Toronto as a full band(I believe they played a few duo shows in the last year or so), The Fembots returned to Toronto for an intimate show at The Music Gallery this past Saturday night, playing songs spanning their career(in album sequence, no less) from their duo-tape-loop days of "Mucho Cuidado", to the full band compositions of "Small Town Murder Scene" and their masterpiece to date 2005's "The City". Opener Nathan Lawr(who along with his band The Minotaurs were the openers of the night) joined The Fembots on drums and if I recall correctly a few of the Minotaurs filled out on guitar and bass guitar. Hyzoloists Paul Aucoin was a welcome addition on xylophone and vibraphone. A gentleman named Tom filled the violinist position(usually taken by the lovely and talented Julie Penner who has been touring with Broken Social Scene and Do Make Say Think lately). I'm not too familiar with the earlier material but the songs performed off "The City" were beautiful from the wounded melancholy of "Demolition Waltz" and "History Remade" to singalongs like "Count Down Our Days" and "My Life In The Funeral Service"(which if I recall correctly might have been the song that they said had 'killed' at their recent show in Guelph.) The borrowed horn section from Nathan's band was also a nice compliment especially on the coda of "Gilded Age". My only disappointment was the general reservation of the audience(and I guess I'll have to blame myself as well) - they were appreciative for sure in terms of applause at the end of songs, but singalongs and handclapping never came to be during songs which would have definitely have livelied up the show. I know it's a church, but it just didn't seem right to sit down especially during the more uptempo numbers.

Opening the show were Nathan Lawr and The Minotaurs. Stylistically similar to The Fembots folk-ish, country rock but without the Fembots penchance for experimental sounds, the earlier songs of the set didn't quite grab me but as the set went along, especially with the addition of added horn arrangements(and its slight soul influence), vibrant piano, and stronger melodies, the songs started to make an impact. Nathan Lawr and The Minotaurs and The Fembots made for a good double-bill, but next time let's book this at the Horseshoe.

MySpace: The Fembots
MySpace: Nathan Lawr and The Minotaurs

Thanks to Sweet Static for linking to an mp3 of Dave MacKinnon of Toronto's FemBots being interviewed on Guelph campus radio station CFRU's 'Mich Vish Interracial Morning Show'. I had a chance to listen to the interview and Dave says the band's been working on a follow-up album to "The City" and that they have many 'bits and pieces of songs', but it'll likely still be a while before a new album surfaces. So in other words, pretty vague.
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Looking towards the summer, the Hillside Festival website is showing a list of acts that have been so far confirmed. Some of them(Chumbawamba, Do Make Say Think) I already knew about, but others like The Dears(who are scheduled to perform the Saturday night of the festival) are a welcome addition.

The Harbourfront Centre website has a preliminary listing of their upcoming summer festivals, although no acts have been confirmed yet. So no festivals catering to indie music like the Indie Unlimited and Gobsmacked festivals in previous years, nor an alt-country festival which they had a few years ago. The Beats, Breaks & Culture festival(one of North America's leading electronic music and culture festivals) returns for its 4th straight year which is great. It's scheduled from Friday, July 6 to Sunday, July 9. Also promising is the Global Hip Hop: The Four Elements festival scheduled from Friday, July 27 to Sunday, July 29. As previously announced, Final Fantasy will be at Harbourfront on July 1(Canada Day) but a little birdy has also told me that Do Make Say Think will also be there although I've yet to confirm that.

Yonge and Dundas Square has it's annual Summer Serenades and Global Groove schedules now up although the only act I'm remotely interested in catching so far(but mostly because she's the only one I'm familiar with) is Basia Bulat who'll be playing a lunch time concert(starting at 12:30 PM) at the Square on September 12, 2007 closing out the Summer Serenades series.

Mississauga's free weekly indie music concert series, Beating Heart Festival, returns for a second year. No details/lineup info yet but according to The Diableros' MySpace they'll be playing the festival on August 17. Also Mississauga's The Duke Of Marlborough Pub MySpace lists a whack of Beating Heart Festival After Party shows scheduled from July 6 to August 31, bands TBA.

Arts & Crafts most recent signees are Cardiff, Wales act Los Campesinos who have nothing to do with Latin music and have everything to do with youthful exhuberant indiepop music that sort of reminds me of a cross between Architecture in Helisinki and Broken Social Scene. Sort of. Well, sometimes. Ok maybe not really. Ah, Whatever. Check them out for yourself. Arts & Crafts will release their debut enhanced EP, "Sticking Fingers Into Sockets", July 3.