Women @ the WISE Hall, 4/5/09

A few weeks ago, my friend Mike told me that he had seen Women live, and while they had been good, the set was cut short due to an over-exuberant opening band. Perhaps this is a ploy to get away with playing a shorter set, or maybe they’re just unlucky—whatever the case, Women’s set last night at the WISE Hall was similarly truncated. With a midnight sound curfew looming, the band didn’t take the stage until 11:30, offering an advance apology for the necessary brevity of the performance.

The band opened with a chirpy, ska-infused new song, followed by the bouncy pop-rock of “Black Rice.” But it wasn’t long before things veered into noise-rock mayhem, with a feedback-laden take on “Woodbine.” Much of the set sounded like Liars at their most murky, with the guitar part of one new song consisting of little other than wild open-string strumming and manic whammy bar dives. As on their self-titled debut from last year, Women turned the rhythm section up high, to the point that the vocals were almost inaudible.

After half an hour (down to the minute), the band left the stage with a mumbled thank you, waiting several minutes before granting the audience an obviously-reluctant encore of “Group Transport Hall.” Unlike the snappy, acoustic strumming of the album version, the song was slow and chugging, a fittingly ominous end to a blistering set. It’s just a shame Women didn’t really seem to want to be there.

It’s no surprise that Women ran out of time, since the show had three opening acts. Church of the Very Bright Lights and Kidnapping both delivered solid sets, with each group showing promise, but lacking a strong enough vocalist to deliver on its potential. The clear standout of the openers was the local punk-metal duo Nü Sensae. Dressed in flannel and looking like they had wandered off the set of Airheads, the pair delivered a series of relentless of drum-and-bass thrashers; squealing feedback marred the few brief pauses between songs, ensuring that the audience didn’t have even a moment to catch its breath.

Sebastien Grainger @ Zulu Records, 4/5/09

No matter what he does, Sebastein Grainger‘s name will always be affixed with the qualifier “formerly of Death from Above 1979.” But it’s a shame that he’s doomed to be compared to his prior work, since his solo debut album, last year’s Sebastein Grainger & the Mountains, is worthy of being judged on its own merits. His music can still be roughly described as dance-punk, but compared to DFA 1979’s brutal minimalism, Grainger’s solo work is slicker and more easily-palatable. With soaring choruses and arena-sized guitar chords, there’s even a hint of classic rock traditionalism to compliment the ever-present new wave influence.

Grainger is playing a show tonight at Richard’s on Richards, which I am unfortunately unable to attend, due to it being on the same night as Women (more on that tomorrow). Still, I was able to catch him this afternoon at a free in-store appearance at Zulu Records.

Crouched on a small stool in the folk/country section, Grainger played an electric guitar with a tiny amplifier that was barely able to fill even the small record store. He began with a cover of the blues traditional “Nobody’s Fault but Mine,” singing so far back from the microphone that it hardly picked up his voice at all. This quiet opener segued into a slow-downed take on the album-standout “(Are There) Ways to Come Home.” Played back-to-back, the two songs were surprisingly similar, making Grainger sound almost like a blues revivalist.

It was a haunting and intimate beginning, but the set lost track during the pauses between songs, when Grainger made awkward banter with the crowd who had gathered in a semi-circle around him. Confessing that he was hungover and sick, Grainger went through the motions for two more songs before announcing he was finished and cracking opening a beer.

Unfortunately, however, the show didn’t end there; although he didn’t play any more songs, the crowd remained gathered around Grainger as he continued to make awkward banter for 15 excruciating minutes, rambling on about the economy, the Bible, the Junos, and seemingly anything else that came to his mind. Unable to take anymore, I left as Grainger requested than the house music be turned back on, hoping to disperse the crowd still gathered around him.

Be sure to listen to Grainger’s solo debut (out now via Outside Music), but perhaps give any local in-store performances a miss.

Hey Rosetta! @ the Media Club, 3/27/09

Normally, I couldn’t care less about the self-congratulatory corporate sideshow that is the Juno Awards (anything that glorifies Nickelback is the enemy). But this year, with the awards being hosted in Vancouver, I’ve reaped the benefits of JunoFest, the city-wide festival showcasing many of the country’s best independent acts. The folk-rock collective Hey Rosetta! is one of the many bands burned by the award nominations, but the Junos gave the St. John’s band its due credit in the form of a headlining slot at the Media Club on Friday night.

Shawn Hlookoff opened the show with a set of slick, serviceable folk ballads and sensitive piano pop. Accompanied by a guitarist and a percussionist, his music sounded pretty much like anything you’d hear on the soundtrack to Grey’s Anatomy (think John Mayer crossed with McDreamy).

Second on the bill was local pop rock five-piece Said the Whale, who kicked things off with the much-YouTubed single “This City’s a Mess” from last year’s Howe Sounds/Taking Abalonia. The rest of the set, however, was dominated by new material, as frontmen Tyler Bancroft and Ben Worcester traded off on cuts from the group’s forthcoming album. The stand-out moment was the smash-hit-in-waiting “The Magician,” a chunky riff-rocker with a hook so massive it could make Rivers Cuomo blush. The set was capped off with another new song, “Goodnight Moon,” which began as a gentle ukulele ballad before exploding into frantic strumming and euphoric “ba ba ba” shouts.

Next up was the Midway State, and the Toronto group immediately lost my interest by beginning its set with pompous arena lighting and dramatic, prerecorded intro music played over the PA. It sounded a bit like “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by the Who, and it might have been impressive if performed in a stadium in front of 30,000 people; in a stuffy basement club, however, it came off as silly. The set itself was comprised of grandiose piano pop, its blatant Anglophilia making the group almost indistinguishable from Coldplay or Keane.

Thankfully, Hey Rosetta! brought things back down to earth with a no-nonsense set of impassioned chamber folk and whiskey-fueled roots rock. Despite having six musicians on stage, singer Tim Baker’s voice soared above it all, his sonorous vibrato resembling John Frusciante on the best day ever. The band’s sound was more hard-hitting live, with blistering takes on “Red Heart” and “There’s an Arc” that far outstripped their recorded versions in terms of sheer energy. With a dual guitar attack and the occasional extended jam, the band sounded at times a bit like My Morning Jacket (this is what Evil Urges could have been if it didn’t suck). The highlight came on the final song of the night, as the group showed off its Newfie roots on the folksy “New Goodbye.” With the clock nearing 2 AM, the song swelled from an acoustic ballad into a full-blown epic, its transcendent pay-off coming with the lyric “I will die wide-eyed.”

Plants and Animals @ the Biltmore Cabaret, 3/18/09

Plants and Animals have a lush, anthemic sound, thanks in part to the many guests the band enlisted to flesh out its latest album, 2008’s Polaris-nominated Parc Avenue. Going in to Wednesday night’s show at the Biltmore, I had expected the trio to be accompanied by backing musicians to help replicate its studio sound. Only the three original members were present, however, meaning the group’s sound was stripped down to its basic parts.

The band turned up the gain to compensate for the sparse set-up, and the result was a chaotic set that transformed the lush arrangements of Parc Avenue into muscular blasts of noise. Unlike its choppy, vaguely funky recorded form, “Good Friend” was lumbering and punkish, with the low end turned up high to accommodate for the lack of a bassist. “Feedback in the Field” ended with a gleefully noisy solo by guitarist Warren Spicer, with swells of guitar feedback and muted strumming over drummer Matthew Woodley’s steady backbeat. Nicolas Basque switched between guitar, bass, and keyboards, also providing some awkward banter about “sensual dinosaurs.”

Amazingly, the minimalist arrangements were no less powerful than their grandiose studio incarnations.”Bye Bye Bye” was soaring and majestic, with hollered vocals and cascading drum fills. “Fairie Dance” was drawn out to epic proportions, prompting an audience sing-along in its sped-up final movement. Best of all was “Mercy,” which evoked the jammy dance-party atmosphere of a Phish concert without any of the unfortunate hippie-stoner connotations.

Local four-piece DRMHLLR opened up the show with a solid set of instrumentals, resembling Broken Social Scene at its most easy-going (think “Pacific Theme”). Unfortunately, the band isn’t likely to get far without a vocalist, but that’s beside the point, since the catchy guitar riffs and danceable jazz-funk grooves provided enough to capture the audience’s interest.