Pat Lepoidevin does Tranzac again (Oct 23, 2011)

Twas a small but captive audience at the Tranzac Friday to take in the Pat Lepodevin set. He opened with Fire, and a few other slightly louder songs from Highway Houses in an attempt to compete with the sound bleed from the rock show in the next room. As endearingly modest as ever he bantered about things including his mother's pastimes (she did the album art for the latest LP), a fan story about mixing up Ringo the Rat for Moonwolf Departure at a wedding (then playing both) and repeatedly apologized for forgetting his capo. It was barely noticeable and not necessarily detrimental. 97 was great again, although the standout was You Know Your War. Possibly the most exciting thing about this show is the promise of what is to come. From a forthcoming project, where Pat writes songs inspired by a friend's stories, was a densely layered and really enjoyable new song. It seems that this change of approach is really going to benefit all of us. Highway Houses wasn't played like last time, but instead one of his personal favourites, Last Winter, closed the second and final set. Great to see him again before the moonwolf departs for Korea for a year - all the while the anticipation for that new project will build.

Paper Lions reside in the Supermarket (Sept 14/11)

My third run-in with the pack of Paper Lions this summer and a few notes on how this encounter differed from the others. For starters the first couple occurred outdoors whereas this was confined to a Supermarket in Kensington. This setting allowed them to show how well they hunt as a pack - their harmonies really standing out. Furthermore they are not scaredy-cats when surrounded, as evidenced by their fully acoustic song when they took one guitar and their vocal cords to the centre of the audience mid set to delight (once they got the sound guy to kill the house music he'd flipped on). They aren't one-trick kitties either, as they left their Peter Gabriel cover out in favour of a Fine Young Cannibals jam (in honour of the Dwayne Gretzky cover band they were sharing the stage with). Possibly the most exciting factor was the new material they debuted here. The tried and true keys of Trouble still sounded sweet but the new Sandcastles and especially new closer, Parent's Talk, were fine additions.

Said the Whale, Sarah Lowe (Mod Club, Sept 8 '11)

Said the Whale had a darn near full house for their Mod Club gig and looked pretty happy about it. The dual lead male vocals are a huge advantage for the 5 piece, and their female keyboardist rounds them out nicely. Hopefully not a smug reflection on Toronto from this Vancouver band, they opened with This City's a Mess before a non-album cut in Love is Art. Actually there would prove to be a great deal of unfamiliar songs played as they debuted a large number of new songs from an as-yet unreleased album. (From my perspective, having never seen them before, I would argue a few too many bumping my favourite Out on the Shield.) The new stuff sounded decent, with some clap-alongs and sing-alongs (if only for repetition). However there was a standout from the bearded and chapeau-ed singer, whom I prefer, in the very uniquely paced Hurricane Aida. Otherwise it was great to hear Camillo, and dance to The Light is You. They also did the quieter Holly, Ontario, Black Day in December, Emerald Lake, AB, and False Creek Change amongst others. In finale was the appropriate Goodnight Moon that starts slow and sweet but saw the backing crew from Hollerado crash the stage for the closing clashes.

For their encore they asked to play two new songs and who were we to say no? Following these we were asked to stay real quiet for a somewhat uncommon live version of Curse of the Currents. It is quite the song and even though the rumble from the downstairs club was impossible to fully ignore it still carried great weight and was a stirring ending to a complete show.

Rah Rah did a helluva job opening too.

Sarah Lowe opened with just herself and a piano (okay, keyboard tuned to piano). You have to cut her slack for not hauling a piano from Manchester, and the Toronto crowd, as we're apt to do, did do just that and welcomed her warmly. The show was somewhat lackluster as the majority of solo performances are, and it didn't help that she kept telling us to imagine the six musicians that normally fill it out. Despite this her voice is rather lovely and the songs nice enough.

Rah Rah smash The Mod Club (Sept. 8 '11)

Rah Rah have been a delight every time I've seen them so I was excited to discover they were warming up the Said the Whale crowd. Off the top the sextet got The Betrayal Pt. 1 out of the way with the most fun a betrayal ever has. The arrangement saw women on drums, keys and accordion/violin, while the guys were more traditionally posted on a couple electric guitars and a bass. This wasn't to last much beyond Henry and Tentacles though. Following the drumming-on-the-speaker slow-down of Beaches the rotation began; bass to drums to keys to bass. The drummer-turned-keyboardist with the large quaff of hair also picked up vocal duties on the tired/sleep lyrics of Salty Cities that approached proggy territory on the outro. Another song with a strong ending came next in Duet for Emmylou before the keyboardist returned to her original post and added vocals to My Guarantee, while the multi-talented drummer now slipped a bass over her shoulder. It didn't end there either, for those of you keeping score at home the female violin player then took the keys and lead vocals for What About Love while the the key lady grabbed keys of a different sort - synths. Next was a slightly odd interlude where the dude on drums led a call and response about all the bands playing that night (I say - you say) followed by Ghosts. More swapping saw the lineup close to the same as off the top but with the lead male vocalist doing a turn on bass. It worked for Arrows, which prominently featured the violin in a great way. All of this to say the band is dynamic.
To add to this they tossed massive R A H balloons into the crowd to be batted around under a blast of confetti (something to do with Hollerado in the crowd?). There was a joyful feeling as they carried on with an instrumental intro to Breaking Hearts then stormed through Cuba/Peru in finale. It was a smash just like the pinata they destroyed during it. The band is so upbeat, so multi-talented and so much fun! Every time I see them is a joyful experience.