With neurons now firing on all cylinders, I stumble over to the El Mocambo for Denver Colorado’s Woodsman.
I arrive to an (almost shockingly) empty El Mocambo just in time to see the last half of Woodsman’s set. This psych-heavy three-piece rely on electronic elements, reverb pedals, and other button-heavy-machiney-things to produce a sound that is easily reminiscent of, Panda Bear, Caribou and all of the other animal herds that are prowling our sonic jungles these days.
While their sound is a little more accessible, they do share a similar obsession with capturing a dense, foggy atmosphere as their other beastly-named brethren.
Warm guitar tones, looped melodic pieces, and grainy feedback meld together with the focused prowl of a deep-woods hunter.
Guitarist, Trevor Peterson and guitarist/vocalist Mark Demolar spend most of the set on bended knee or with back’s bent at 45 degree angles over various pedals, knobs and bright colourful buttons– building wave upon wave of, dense, fuzzed-out songs that unfurl organically. There’s not need to rush in to these things.
The ambiance is a bit intoxicating, a very solid set, though it all got a bit swallowed up in the big open corners of the almost empty venue.
Chains of love at the Silver Dollar
A complete contrast from the vacant El Mocambo, The Silver Dollar is jammed to the teeth with an expectant crowd waiting for Dirty Beaches and Crocodiles to take the stage– while both are worthwhile live shows to take in I’m actually here to see another home-grown Canadian band, Vancouver’s own Chains Of Love.
After elbowing my way in to a spot, I look up to witness a hot, sweaty, sequined, 60’s inspired dance “partay” is breaking out on stage as lead vocalist Nathalia Pizzaro channels the ghost of Tina Turner’s finest (pre-Ike) moments and Rebecca Marie Law Gray grinds out the garage chords on her vintage(?) Rickenbacker.
The whole set evokes The Shangri-La’s, The Cramps and (insert your favourite band from the Nuggets compilation here). It’s sexy, cheeky and just a whole bunch of good, old-fashioned fun…
At a time when a lot of what’s out there is easily cast aside in search of “the next thing”, Chains Of Love are churning out some timeless songs, grounded in solid fundamentals, that are sure to put a high-voltage jolt up your poodle-skirt.
One last jaunt south on Bathurst St, to Cherry Cola’s Rock N’ Rolla Cabaret (winner for best-named club in the city) to take in the swirling, garage-rock typhoon that is The White Eyes.
So, remember when “Made in Taiwan” was a bad thing –a sure sign that what you were getting was something sure to break within days, with no staying power, but at least it was cheap? This is definitely not the case with Tapei-based The White Eyes.
Lead by a yowling, short-short clad, whirling dervish of a lead singer in Xia Gao, the white eyes ripped through their set with wild abandon, with nothing but high-quality rock n’ roll craftsmanship on full display.
Each song was ended, then quickly introduced “…this one’s called, NO NO NO… 1, 2, 3, 4!!!” no time to catch your breath in this infectious freak-out of a set, it just keeps coming at you with a knife in its teeth until you just give in and lay your neck under Gao’s boot-heel. Wow…
As you can see, Day Two was a much more high-powered night of some good, ol’ fashioned rockin’ and a rollin’ than Day One. Let’s try to keep that trend going, shall we? Two down, three to go… more to come… stay tuned…
Further reading from todays line up:
Rusty
Child Bite
El Mocambo
Woodsman
Chains Of Love
Cherry Cola’s Rock N’ Rolla Cabaret
The White Eyes
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