Yamantaka // Sonic Titan, CTZNSHP - Garrison (Jan 18/13)

Yamantaka // Sonic Titan

It's a little disconcerting having a band soundcheck in their makeup like this, and even more still bumping into them like that backstage beforehand.



Then when they're finally ready to start the show the two front ladies swoop a dragon throughout the crowd before climbing on stage. Here they, along with their 4 cohorts already on stage, proceed to rip through an earnest, deliberate set of choreographed music and showmanship. They all appeared quite serious as they faithfully recreated the sound of the Polaris Prize shortlisting album YT//ST by layering their soaring voices on top of strong drumming, savage guitar and stellar synths. The set closer was hard-hitting (also the album closer?) and had us calling for more. They did return, after leading us through an initialism chant, with the 'nicest' song from the album Hoshi Neko (obviously a relative scale). To close it all off they did a cover that I didn't recognize but didn't take away from the enjoyment just as the new, non-album songs featured earlier in the set were promising as well.

CTZNSHP
This male three-piece from Montreal were vowel loathing like early JPNDRDS yet more melodic than them or PS I Love You who also employ a similar guitar drone. Perhaps it's the addition of the bass or maybe it is that his singing is exactly that, more sing than scream. With all that said it was the top notch drumming and somewhat intriguing time signatures that really brought this band home. Their recorded demos online didn't turn my crank the first time through but this show has made me think twice, and think hard.

Planet Creature
With lilting synths, the five-piece all female band put on their show. Due to the somewhat tone deaf singing all around (both guitarists and drummer tried their hand) it came off as slightly amateur. That may just have been inexperience leading to a lack of comfort or stage presence. The music itself was alright if leaning toward unoriginal. A few people in the crowd seemed to enjoy it enough to dance but even that was limited.

Sheezer Post-Halloween (Lee's Palace, Nov 2/12)

Unlike the Dwayne Gretzky halloween show this post-Halloween concert didn't have much buy-in on the costume front. Hard to do anything after the fact. However the bands did get in the spirit as the four members of Sheezer decked themselves in Kiss make-up and costume, with Laura Barrett even rocking some mechanical wings. I'm not sure if it's a testament to Weezer, who the band obviously covers, or people's taste as they only cover the Blue and Pink.. albums, or Toronto fans loving their own - regardless of the reason it was amazing to see Lee's Palace damn-near capacity, having sold out of pre-sale tickets for the gig. Opening with Tired of Sex and then blasting through a fine number of tracks from these beloved early albums it was a joyous atmosphere with much singing along as the ladies themselves played the music pretty accurately. Three of the four of them swapped out Rivers' vocals as well, not that it mattered as there were passionate singalongs to most of the tunes anyhow - especially Buddy Holly, El Scorcho, and Undone (The Sweater Song). 

To commend those who did bother to dress up they were invited onstage to give the opening conversation of Undone and this quickly spiralled into a fan-stage party which was fun to see also. In the end they may have given away the hits a little early during the main set leaving a couple B-sides (Susanne included) and Only In Dreams for the end of the night but regardless of ending on slightly less than a high, it was a super fun night.

On a personal note Undone was the song that won me access to the gig as I wrote in to declare it as my favourite:
"Undone (the sweater song) because I discovered it WAY back when on some Spin magazine giveaway mix CD and loved how unique it felt, from the intro conversations through to the music as well as the semi silly, yet easy to envision lyrics. Still a Weezer classic and a fan favourite!" Thanks Exclaim!

Planet Creature opened in matching blonde wigs - though I'm not sure exactly who they were going for. It was pretty basic punk influenced rock that truthfully wasn't very good.