The Alchemy Between Us

concert review: The Besnard Lakes, Young Galaxy, The Airfields @ Horseshoe Tavern (Toronto, Ontario), October 12, 2007



Having already seen live two of the three acts at the Horseshoe Tavern last Friday night, The Besnard Lakes and The Airfields, it was a pleasant surprise that the relatively unknown act to me, Montreal band and recent Arts and Crafts signees Young Galaxy, were the most entertaining.

Toronto C86-influenced indiepop group The Airfields were the first openers of the night, as well as last minute replacements for Australia's New Buffalo, apparently due to Visa troubles. I know The Airfields can make their live set count like they did back in April at Sneaky Dee's, but this night was a fairly no-frills set of just good indiepop music. The band did just come back from Pop Montreal and maybe their still tired but I'm hoping the next time I see them live they'll infuse a little more energy into their set. On the plus side, the band was performing songs from their newly released limited-to-100-copies "Yr So Wonderful" 3-inch CD single which I snagged a copy of at the merch table and which you can currently listen to over at their MySpace. By the way, Frank Chromewaves shot the photo that graces the inside cover of the single.

For a moment, I'll skip ahead to headliners The Besnard Lakes. I saw them live back in March at Lee's Palace during Canadian Music Week and this time around their sonic blend of pyschedlic influences, 70's rock and Brian Wilson was as about as enjoyable as it was back in March. I'm no sooner becoming a bigger fan of them though unless perhaps they starting writing more songs like the haunting and spacious "Disaster" which has to be one of the freshest takes on Brian Wilson's influence I've heard in a long time. The Besnard Lakes can bring the jam-my rock but sometimes it 's more than my patience can take post-midnight.

Montreal's Young Galaxy were the sandwiched act of the night, but rather than get lost in the shuffle, they were the ones that stood out the most and got the best audience response. Young Galaxy is the brainchild of Stephen Ramsay and Catherine McCandless. Stephen was once a guitarist with Stars, but Young Galaxy[even with the co-frontpersons role of Stephen(guitar/vocals) and Catherine(vocals/percussion)] don't sound much like Stars in my opinion. Rounding out their sound with bass guitar, keyboards and drums, and enshrouded during much of their set in smoke-machine smoke and coloured lights, the band performed a tight set of pop music spanning the genre from the spacious, synth-y "The Alchemy Between Us", to the spare, solemn electro-pop of "Swing Your Heartache" and the magnificent, invigorating "Outside Your City" featuring the lead vocals of Catherine McCandless who transformed the song into something reminiscent of 90's Sub Pop indiepop group Velocity Girl. Yay, Velocity Girl. I could listen to "Outside Your City" all day. Of all the Arts & Crafts artists Young Galaxy possess the slickest pop sheen, but at least from what I witnessed last Friday, not to the detriment of the music.

As usual I took some photos at the show. Smoke-machine overload. Whoah.

More reviews/photos of the show over at It's Not The Band I Hate... and petenema.com.

Video: Young Galaxy - "Outside Your City" (music video)
Video: The Besnard Lakes - "Disaster" (live september 17, 2007 @ the hi-dive in denver) *
MySpace: The Besnard Lakes
MySpace: Young Galaxy
MySpace: The Airfields

* courtesy of dthawkley

CMW - March 9, 2007

concert review: Canadian Music Week in Toronto, March 9, 2007

1)The Besnard Lakes, Rock Plaza Central, Wayne Petti, Woolly Leaves @ Lee's Palace



I'd unfortunately missed Baby Eagle's set and only caught a few songs of Woolly Leaves acoustic country-folk but did manage to catch Cuff The Duke's Wayne Petti's set in its entirety. I was already a fan of Cuff The Duke's brand of alt-country, a band who put an interesting spin on country music with an interesting, sometimes artier interpretation but always had a knack for writing a good melody. Wayne's solo material maintains that melodicism with great success. He even tried to get the audience along for a sing-along which he achieved with at least partial success. Torontonians might not dance but they can definitely sing.



Rock Plaza Central definitely had a more energetic show this time around compared to their opening set for the Apples In Stereo at Lee's Palace a few weeks ago. They had the benefit of a 10 pm slot, and an energetic and appreciative crowd. The simple 3-chord melodicism of "Gutterdance" with the urgency in it's instrumentation and vocals was the highpoint of the set for me. The band's 3-way brass arrangements and background vocal harmonizing also were standouts as were the drummer's fluid playing and the violinist's lovely playing. At one point or another, every one in the band had their moment to shine. Best banter of the set: one of the brass playing members of the band who took the task of renaming everyone in the group using names of members from Public Enemy. I wonder if Public Enemy(who were in Toronto for CMW coincidentally) were in the audience if they would have found the joke funny.



The Besnard Lakes performed a set of eerie-sounding rock-pop psychedelia, utilizing alternating male/female vocals from Steve Raegele's cool falsetto at times to Jace Lasek's sweet(but not too sweet) vocals. Definitely something I'd like to explore in the future. And having read reviews about the band's music(well the vocals, melodies) being compared to the Beach Boys, yes I did hear that influence but Besnard Lake's version was more eerie than I would have imagined.

Here's the rest of my photos from Lee's Palace that night.

2)The Zoobombs, Mongrels @ The Comfort Zone



I rounded out the evening choosing to catch Dan Burke's show over at The Comfort Zone where I caught a portion of Montreal's Mongrels who played a devasting set of rock riffage led by the Janis Joplin-esque vocals of their female frontperson who wore a satin-y black/white/grey patterned dress with long black boots. Closing out the evening were Japan's The Zoobombs who didn't let the Mongrels upstage them in the least. I'd say that The Zoobombs played a much more varied sounding set this time compared to the times I'd seen them live in the past, going from garage rock, to funky jams, to something which almost aspired to hip-hop and even a song that closely resembled melodic indie rock. The Zoobombs only played about an hour with no encore, but since it was getting late I couldn't really blame them.

Here's the rest of my photos from The Zoobombs' set that night.