Bring Back To Life

Friday night, I headed to Longboat Hall, the below-ground venue at The Great Hall on Queen St. W. For the first band Pick a Piper from Kitchener, I watched them from the second-level to get a more better view of their knob-fiddling. This EDM-esque band had an interesting set-up including a modular synth and an electronic glockenspiel. All three also played percussion so there were some poly-rhythm passages. But in the end, it was still a bit too four-on-the-floor.

While waiting for the next band to set-up. I was approached by some people who turned out to be Christian proselytizers. It's happened before in various urban situations (street corner, subway) but at an indie music show was a first. At least they weren't just there to preach as they professed their love of Family of Things. This band played an up-tempo set of funky dance-pop with lead singer Brad Barnham often singing in a falsetto. The missionaries weren't the only fans as a sizeable crowd danced during their set.

With the room now hyped and chatty, it was hard for one-woman electronic outfit Petra Glynt to hold their attention. It also didn't help that the mix was muddy, reducing her music to mostly thumping beats. Despite swooping effects and a similar aesthetic as U.S. Girls in their DIY sampling days, Glynt's set wasn't too thrilling. Perhaps a recent and more varied set from L Con biased me in terms of my expectations.

Tonight's Rich Aucoin set wasn't as sonically pleasing as his show at The Drake. With only one 1 backup singer, and no Christine Bougie on guitar and Anna Ruddick on bass, there were less layers. Also, instead of playing his latest album in its entirety synced to Disney's Alice In Wonderland, it was less obvious the work that had gone in for that extra endeavour. But in other ways, this Aucoin show was even more high-energy. By mixing in his old hits, as well as projecting the lyrics to the chorus and "practicing" them on every song, he got full audience participation. Of course, his fans were already primed and ready to dance and sing along. There were plenty of confetti shot into the crowd and the giant parachute made its appearance on Are You Experiencing?