On pure songmanship, The New Pornographers' show this past Sunday will rank high on my year-end list. I count myself as someone pretty open to many types of music but sometimes a good pop song just really hits the spot. In that sense, The New Pornographers' show succeeded in spades. Opening the show was the three-piece, Immaculate Machine. I hadn't heard their music before and had only heard Kathyrn Calder's vocals on some live session New Pornographer tracks for which she'd been subbing for Neko Case. Kathryn has a very pretty voice, a little more conventional than Neko's twang-inflected vocal style, but admirable nonetheless. While the spunky indiepop stylings of Immaculate Machine were good I'm not quite enraptured yet. Their best quality still is Kathyrn's vocals. Her accompanying keyboard playing was also very good. Her other bandmates Brooke Gallupe (vocals/guitar) and Luke Kozlowski (vocals/drums) were an enthusiastic back-up to Kathryn's mostly-lead vocals(the guitarist sang some lead vocals also). Her quiet droll expression of "rock n' roll" in response to some feedback was funny and endearing. While I did't count myself beforehand as a big fan of Dan Bejar's contributions to The New Pornographers' material, after seeing his set with his band Destroyer as well as seeing him sing during The New Pornographers' set, I've warmed up to him. He has this peculiar voice that I wasn't quite fond of at first, but within the context of his band Destroyer's slightly off-kitler but surprisingly melodic pop songs his voice somehow made sense. Mr Bejar's stage presence had a sort of a Wayne Coyne-meets-crooner quality about it as Dan picked up the microphone and sang gleefully. When he picked up his guitar to sing on some quieter tunes he had a folkier stage presence. At all times though, his whimsical vocals were very much at the forefront. Musically, I was reminded of Robyn Hitchcock whose peculiar vocals and pop song structures are comparable to Destroyer. Given that I'm only a Robyn Hitchcock novice, I hope I'm not too far off. Although I didn't listen to the lyrics closely, I still had this feeling that he was singing about something fantastical even if he had only been singing about something as conventional as love. (But then I guess, love can be fantastical in itself.)
I am now convinced that "The Bleeding Heart Show" is the pinnacle of "Twin Cinema". When "Twin Cinema" first came out, I was awe-struck by the immediacy of such pop confections like "Use It", "Sing Me Spanish Techno" or the CD's title track. But after seeing The New Pornographers this past Sunday, I've finally realized the goosebump-inducing wonder of "The Bleeding Heart Show", from Carl Newman's plaintive vocal introduction, to the crescendo of the mid-section vocals and instrumentation and then the euphoric finale of the combined background vocals of "hey la" and Neko's repeated "We have arrived too late to play the bleeding heart show". In any event, there were many cases of goosebump inducement. While the band was enthusiastic enough on stage(but still relatively reserved compared to other bands) with drummer Kurt Dahle in particular acting the part of comedian during moments between songs, it was really all about the music. The setlist ran like a greatest hits compilation and it's all but impossible that a consensus will ever be reached as to what everyone's favourite song was. In all likelihood, each song The New Pornographers sang was someone's favourite song. They played a good mix of songs from all three albums, "Mass Romantic", "Electric Version", and "Twin Cinema" and played every song I hoped for including "Miss Teen Wordpower" which I had had on repeat in my car for months. (I had previously only had a burned copy of "Electric Version" but I finally remedied that and bought a copy at the merch table.) Even the Mr. Bejar-sung "Jackie Dressed in Cobras" was outstanding. I was towards the front near the right side of the stage so I absorbed alot of the music's energy. My heart was already racing due to a combination of cold medicine, caffeine, beer and adrenalin but by the time The New Pornographers were done I was in a state of euphoria.
Related links
- my photos from the show
- chromewaves and suckingalemon also have reviews of the show.
- check out Jackie Treehorn's photos from the show. [via Technorati]
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The Great Beyond has an interview with The Heavy Blinkers. [via The Heavy Blinkers Album #5 Blog]
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