Friday, January 21, 2011

The Mountains and The Trees - Tranzac (Jan 20, 2011)

The Mountains and the Trees, a band name with a solo performer much like City & Colour, was the main attraction at the Tranzac on a cold evening in January. He was seemingly at ease, sitting down throughout his performance that featured many of the songs from his very listenable album I Made This For You. Lyrically his songs are quite transparent and therefore emotionally affecting, and it seemed that he was making connections in this large room occupied by only a small but adoring crowd. The mic'ed flower-patterned suitcase placed in front of him did indeed become percussion later in the set, and despite playing an electric guitar there was a mic placed to pick up his picking as well. On the closer he employed very deliberate looping, including the bowing of his guitar to great effect.

An added bonus to the bill was a set from the Provincial Parks who I hadn't even seen advertised but damn near stole the show. Compared the the solo sets preceding them there was much more going on here sonically. A welcome, if unexpected, dessert following the app and main course. Only a three piece they were rather dynamic, creating wonderful texture within their unconventionally structured songs somewhat akin to Akron/Family. There was plenty of high hat shimmering and it seemed that not a song went by without one of the members shaking a shaker. Having not played in ages they showed the slightest amount of rust but not enough to seriously detract from the performance. To name drop further I wouldn't feel wrong likening them to The Acorn as well, which is a high compliment that they deserve.

Opening the evening was Zachary Lucky who seemed quite ill at ease, especially when compared to Janes who followed. His acoustic folk songs were fairly straight-forward without much to set him apart from that crowded field. He was very appreciative, repeating "Thank you guys so much" more than a few times.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Bravestation, Craig Stickland - Supermarket Jan. 19

It came to my attention that Bravestation were playing the Supermarket and I'd never heard of them. I had heard positive reviews though and swiftly downloaded their EP, liked what I heard and rushed off to the PWYC event. Overall it was an enjoyable set, punctuated by the little extras coming in way of synth and percussion. Adding a standalone drum to songs like Their Calling, and an electric set at other times kept things catchy and fresh (unlike the fashion sense.. faux tie dye?... jean vest?...) With the fifth song of the set, Colour of Youth they seemed to hit their stride and rode it into their final tune, EP opener, White Wolves. A short, short set was long enough to get a reaction that demanded an encore and despite having scrapped the song from the set-list earlier stating they were sick of playing it, they were cornered into doing it last anyway. Young band, small catalog. It wasn't exactly the most powerful way to go out but it did feature the tambourine and was fairly catchy. Glad to have seen this band at this point so once they fill out to an LP's worth of music (and a full set) I can see how far they've come along.

It's been a month since the show and with apologies to Craig Stickland and his backing band not a whole lot is retained from the end of the set that I caught. My phone-notes don't elaborate much either - "standard mellow indie rock" reads one line. The next is "broke out acoustic and had a break down" which if I recall is near the end of the set when Craig swapped from electric to acoustic guitar and they played a song with a strong instrumental breakdown that stood out from the rest of the show.