Death From Above 1979 - Secret Show - Queen Street Toronto (September 3, 2014)

If you're going to fit in while waiting a few hours for a DFA79 concert you'd better bring a carton of cigarettes. Twitter blazed with news of a pop-up shop this morning which immediately sparked secret show rumours which didn't take long after it opened at 10am to be confirmed. The shop itself had a collection of prints, tees and tats (real, for free) for each of the new tunes but disappointingly not the album itself meaning the day(s, tomorrow too) wouldn't have been anything without the gig. Ducking out of work early was a key strategy for fans as even at 5:30pm there was already a short line since the crew had turned it out until 6. Tardily after that they allowed wristbanded patrons first access before slowly letting a trickle of unbanded fans from the line, myself among them, around 6:30. The downer was the set didn't start til 9 which is where the butts come in handy.

Finally 9pm rolled around and the smoke rolled out - more on that later - and anticipation grew for the duo who would finally show their hometown a little special love. Worries of a new-material-only, in-store-special show were dispelled from the start as they dug right into Cold War. As always Sebastien Grainger held down the vocals while simultaneously giving his clear drum kit his all in white overalls. In contrast Jesse Keeler donned all black, with a hog belt buckle behind his transparent bass which emanated the thick bass lines all night as they performed much of The Physical World. With Right On, Frankenstein! they introduced us and carried on with Virgins before resorting back to Turn It Up which did just that - the pit finally broke out from the few restless souls who had been pent up in this lot for three hours. The keyboard and electronic drum patch were both on stage but neither was noticeably utilized as they stuck to rocking their bass and drum standards.

First single Trainwreck 1979 played as well live as it has been over the local Indie88 airwaves which meant that people were already yelling along, probably louder than Jesse's low mic but maybe not as strong as the occasional screech of (unintentional) feedback. One of the initial strongest new tracks, Crystal Ball, aptly followed before a Woman/Machine break. If Going Steady got the moshing started again then Little Girl set it off - small but energetic! It was not all that surprising that following this there was a warning that they were getting shut down. Earlier Jesse had thanked the neighbours as he remarked that he used to live a couple doors down and would have been peeved had this been happening.. and then the two shrugged and muttered "what's the point if we don't.." before launching back into the second leaked tune, Government Trash. As if in penance they gave us a "slow jam," asking if we'd like to pair off and then played White Is Red which did cool the warm, end-of-summer night a degree. That reprieve would not last long as they tore up the night again with Romantic Rights. Without warning at the close of Always On the two departed.

Sure we'd had more than the perfunctory five songs but if you're going to haul out a stage, crew, lights, security (and by this point a fire truck had arrived), not to mention hundreds of rabid fans at the last minute, you're not going to stop at that. Our "DFA" chants spurred the pair back on stage where they reported that it hadn't been that they were getting shut down but.. they'd set the fire alarm off in the apartment next door! With nary another word they closed out the gig just as they close out the new record, with the deliberate beat of the title track, The Physical World. Seb waved and walked while Jesse set the feedback through his pedal and also turned to go. The crowd just cheered on a welcome return and reintroduction from these massively missed locals.

Cold War
Right On, Frankenstein!
Virgins
Turn It Up
Trainwreck 1979
Crystal Ball
Going Steady
Little Girl
(Shutting down discussion)
Government Trash
White Is Red
Romantic Rights
Always On

The Physical World

9pm-9:50pm