Best In Show…August 12th

Clothes Make The Man, The Darcys, & Hollerado @ Le Boat

Thank you for flying Tight Air flight 339 to Big Sex. Where you have no seat belt and ageism is finally a thing of the past…

Maybe it was Cut Throat Britva guitarist Zaddi Pesino smiling your way, or simply meeting Menno and his lovely new fiancé Annie that wound your karma maker for the night, but nothing quite says ‘special snowflake’ like learning the best kept rock and roll lifestyle secrets from the best kept rock and roll lifestyler himself, Mr. Serb Superb.

If you’ve been to birthday parties at the Boat before, you know this one was by far the best.* The bar was to the tits with cats for a night of exceptional music and good times. Highlights included: Huffing wine in the alley, Clothes Make the Man’s fire starting Bon Jovi cover, ‘Nightime/Anytime’, and a flake or two of confetti. You should be glad you were there because it’s nights like these that remind you just how great Toronto can be.

*The Untold City’s summer birthday jam party at the Boat became a whole lot more important to me with the announcement of a) a Constantines hiatus yesterday, and b) the Casby Awards nominees. By far one of the best Canadian bands of our lifetime and towing along with them sounds from the young bucking Arkells, our Golden Horseshoe boys will surely carry on. But suffice to say, the Constantines will be missed and I hope their paths weave again soon AND bouillon to the Manotick boys, sitting pretty with 4 nominations this year! ~KLV

Photo Credit: Courtney Lee Yip

Warpaint w/ Javelin @ Wrongbar

Ok, so granted not every show you pay your painstakingly hard earned cash to attend is going to go off without a hitch, sometimes you really think somethings got to give. A classic case of bait-and-switch. We’re promised a stacked bill with Warpaint, Javelin and Beach Fossils so it’s pretty safe to say it’s going to be fantastic, no doubt. Then things slowly start to change. First it’s announced that Bassmentality(with Juan Bassman no less) is scheduled to make it’s Wednesday night debut starting around 11; meaning it’s going to be an early show. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just means that bands will stay true to their allotted set times and scheduling (read: no encores). I can live with that. Then Beach Fossils mysteriously disappear from the line-up, allegedly loosing their passportswhich is a total bummer, but again I can live with that. Luckily the ’give’ part came with vengeance and I was served up a healthy dose of badass with a side of NY.

Javelin was up first and I felt as though I was partaking in a archaeological dig into layers and layers of sounds. Known to be a flint of sorts in igniting a party, their shows are BYOB – the B standing for boombox, naturally. Their concept of broadcasting their shows via FM transmitter alone should be enough incentive to check them out. I didn’t catch any boomboxes, ghetto blasters or jamboxes in the crowd but not everyone can pull off the look like Julian Casablancas can. Their music is an anomaly. They erase the lines of distinction between genres and produce an undefinable sound. Their mixtape of a setlist kept the audience engaged if for nothing more than to hear what was coming next. This Brooklyn duo was full of good vibes that bounced around stage amidst their boomaatats. Minus the one rather limber gentleman in the front, the vibes weren’t reciprocated until their final track but the crowd was definitely left wanting more. Or maybe they were confused.

After a very short break we were whisked away to the sunny west coast by four total babes who restored my faith in all-girl bands entirely. Warpaint are phenomenal. Sure, it helps to have the considerable backing of oh, I don’t know say John Frusciante, but these ladies can definitely stand on their own 2 feet. Equal parts talent and looks, their arrangements can go from simple to complex in an instant. They bounce vocals that are both airy and sultry back and forth. Their songs are lackadaisical yet profoundly meaningful. They had the audience eating out of the palm of their hands; entirely captivated in a dream-like trance. Their sound came pouring out the speakers and lazily floated down to be readily absorbed. While their set was disheveled in comparison to the one played at NXNE earlier this year, the ladies took breaks between songs for pow-wows to sort themselves out which further cemented their darling status and made them that much more endearing. Together on stage they each individually exude talent and their collective arrangement allows them the flow freely while casually exchanging giggles.

Missing from the set was “Billie Holiday” off the 2009 released Exquisite Corpse EP but a chilling rendition of “Burgundy” more than compensated for it. Instead of covering all the tracks off the EP they heavily favoured their new material which utilizes the full band. Stella Mozgawa on the skins is an excellent addition. Playing now as a quartet, their sound seems complete and it is definitely working to their advantage. I highly encourage you to check out their first full length to be released in the fall.

The set was raw and beautiful and I was completely swept up in their mystique. ~Kate Masewich