Boats, Les Jupes, Federal Lights - Winnipeg Music - Supermarket (Nov 28/13)

Boats
They have a weird kind of out there energy, especially their lead.. Uh, singer.. Who seems to not care about much judging by his caveman look. The young band around him brings exuberance to the music as it was more a communal vocal effort for the most part, with a bunch of repetition, shouting and call and response. It was fun even with the break in the flow due to a bass amp blowing up mid set.

Les Jupes
As a showcase night it was interesting to see the band play a short set of strictly new songs. They swapped instruments from time to time, maybe just to prevent the bass player from headbutting everyone. It was a quick progression of intensity as it stepped up before they closed with awfully titled Interview with a Contract Killer. The synths nicely offset the gruff singing voice of the lead man.

Federal Lights
I was intrigued to see Rusty (Imaginary Cities) as a part of this five-piece, including a female on xylophone and keys, electric and acoustic guitar, bass and drums with the vocals coming primarily from the male lead but backed up all around. They had pop sensibility, including throwing their single in second for a little recognition for an up-and-coming band. Again a short set, cut even shorter by pre-show sound issue that cut a song from the end and had them push up the finale tune that sees the lone female (and singer's wife) take on a larger vocal role with decent results.

Greg MacPherson, Tom Keenan (Manitoba Music, @Supermarket, Nov 22, 2011)

Greg MacPherson played an impassioned solo electric guitar set, shimmying and pacing all over the stage. His confidence was high and vocals and guitar rang clear, especially on opener First Class. The one man routine did grow tiresome after a while and wasn't fully saved by the addition of a drummer part way through. Nor the different drummer who joined him after that. Not that it was bad, just that it was much of the same.

With his acoustic, Tom Keenan sang mostly personal tales of failure, as he put it. Additionally he rocked a harmonica too. Nearing the end he implored us to singalong, to some degree of success. It was a decent set for another solo acoustic guitar but nothing to write home about.

Les Jupes (Manitoba Music, @Supermarket, Nov 22)

Les Jupes have got a look. (It was hard to choose best hair in the band - eventual winner, bass player for his tussled yet all-up do). This was no fashion contest though - this was a show and they gave us one. Following an opening new number they did my introduction to them, Myth #3, as well as Someone Lit a Fire Under Kruschev. On the latter they were giving it their all considering it was song three, as the drummer was leaving his seat to pound it out and guitar was cranking up the pedals for a searing sound. Outside of this the bass/synth player was confidently holding it down and the female keyboardist also provided xylophone on the slower, steadier, mid-set One Solemn Oath. Later, on another new track, she was great in her echoing backing vocals. In what turned out to be another all-too-short set they played a hard hitting version of Myth #7 (Honour) before closing out with the slow burn into crescendo of A Caveman Returns Home to Find the Fire Has Gone Out. I've been wanting to see this band for some time now and even with the wait and the anticipation I was not disappointed. Now I just want to see them again (and have them play Awake, My Ghost!).

The Details (Manitoba Music, @Supermarket, Nov 22, 2011)

Whoever decided to put The Details, arguably the best-known band, first up on the Manitoba Music night  did me a disservice. However the tail end of the set that I did catch was impressive enough. Familiar primarily with The Original Mark it was the first song I heard in full and it was flippin' good. The five-piece from Winnipeg have got it down - couple guys on guitars including a rather capable frontman, a female violinist and a girl wielding a massive bass, all in front of their drummer. The intro to the next song medleyed "Live like a refugee" into "Moves like Mick Jagger" before launching into a fantastic original that exhibited their musicianship, including some violin showcasing. It was fantastic. Their final song was a short ditty and before I knew it they were done. But like the Jets, they will return amidst eager anticipation.

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.

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.