My thanks to Jamie for giving me the opportunity to review this show for http://concertaddicts.ca/
I don’t know why this piece gave me so much
difficulty. I have opinions (plenty, usually), that’s why I review events, but
this time, I’m left ‘unwowed’ - if anyone reading this had a similar experience
or can help me put my finger on it, I’d welcome some insight.
For anyone who’s never been to Joe’s
Apartment (this was my first time), it is a narrow rectangular space (maybe 25’
by 120’) – there is a stage at the far end with the word ROCK in solid marquee
lights with a balcony above it, for artist gear, and stuff, a quasi-backstage
area. There is a huge chandelier hanging over the centre of the dance floor and
a few tables and stools in front of plush upholstered benches along the bricked
walls. To balance the room, there is a balcony above the foyer/entrance with
tables, chairs, the requisite TVs. Although I didn’t like the music that was
playing, the space has good sound and an equally good sound system. I was
sitting far house left, right by what became the Jets Overhead merch table.
Judging by the bannering below the stage, this was an “Almost Famous” showcase
presented by The Peak 102.7.
The first band was called “In Bliss” who
started at 9 pm with about 50 people in the place. They are a four-piece,
acoustic guitar/bass & back-up vocals, electric guitar and lead vocals,
drums, and a female singer. The two main singers have a really nice tonal blend
to their voices. The four are rather young – university-age, and when
performing look rather serious, but not uncomfortably so. That being said, it
did rather take a while for someone on stage to crack a smile. Their music is
rock/pop and pleasant sounding. The vocals can sound very soft; controlled not
weakness. They do a great cover of the Paolo Nutini song New Shoes and really
make it their own. Not a lot of song introductions so I can’t report on the
names of many songs – one I knew, and one other was introduced as Dust and
Bones. They did encourage the audience to come to the front and a few actually
listened. By the time their 30-minute set was done, they had played 8 songs and
about double the number of people were in the audience. So, a good beginning to
the evening.
Next was/were Kytami who had the oddest
set-up I’d ever seen on stage: 2 turntables, a Mac AirBook, a drum kit. I knew
there was a fiddle because Kytami had done a photo shoot against the brick wall
earlier in the evening and she doesn’t let it out of her sight. She came
on-stage wearing a costume feather eye-mask that I think may have been passed
to a female member of the audience to take turns wearing after a few minutes.
But back to the music: DJ, drums, and fiddle totally works! Watching her
bowing, I’d say she was classically trained and her music blends DJ beats &
drums with traditional (as in East Coast/Celtic) styles, but also classical as
she did include Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D, albeit a very rocked-up
version of it. It’s hard to tell how many songs she played because as in
traditional music, she does ‘sets’ going from reel to reel, jig to jig, moods
ever changing by slowing things down and then ramping the energy and speed right
back up. She is the one to watch, by her band, by the audience. Kytami oozes
confidence – she’s this dark-haired, cafe au lait skinned tiny slip of a thing
with a rock chick vibe, which becomes more evident when she uses the microphone
like a DJ/MC. She makes use of sampling – plucking and melody overlays to make
her sound like a 1-person string quartet, and even while you’re watching her do
it, you don’t actually pick up on it until she’s presented you with the
finished melodic product. Calling her set “impressive” is an understatement.
She played for 45 minutes and had the room under her spell for the duration.
And I learned the Ky- in her name is pronounced to rhyme with “pie”.
Jets Overhead came on just after 11 pm. I
really like their music – I bought the CD No Nations years ago and bought Boredom
& Joy at the show. I’ve seen music journalists call their music
“atmospheric rock”, I prefer to call them almost “ethereal” for certain songs
because Antonia’s and Adam’s voices blend so perfectly well and I was glad to
hear that this wasn’t an engineered phenomenon – they actually do mesh that
well together. This was my first time seeing them live and as much as I truly
enjoy their music, their voices, their sound, and maybe it was an off-night for
me or maybe it was the problems with the microphones Adam was experiencing, not
due to any fault of the band, I felt underwhelmed.
The audience (at this point in the evening personal
space on the dance floor was a luxury) seemed to be more familiar with the
songs from the No Nations CD than Boredom & Joy (there was a really
enthusiastic fan close to me who whooped every time they played something from
that CD – which was most of the 15-song set – who I found amusing).
About the set: Love Got in the Way had
this very cool borderline disco feel to it, complete with falsetto from Adam;
the song I don’t know the name of (it is from Bridges) was difficult to get any
lyrics for but it was a nice rockin’ tune for them; I Should be Born was
gorgeous and on the CD you don’t hear the wonderful undercurrent from the bass
line; the guitar part in the CD’s title track Boredom & Joy had an almost
Caribbean feel to it rhythmically and it was really kind of cool; Heading for
Nowhere – my favourite bits have always been Antonia’s long phrases on the
lyric “we got the time”, but she didn’t do that. Maybe that’s normal, maybe
because it was the last song.
The setlist: Sink or Swim, Beach Dream,
Love Got in the Way, No Nations, Sure Sign, Always a First Time, (the
aforementioned song from Bridges), Time and Place, Saved by it, Breaking to Touch,
Your Desire, Butterflies, I Should be Born, Boredom & Joy, Heading for
Nowhere.
There was no opportunity for an encore as
the house DJ (who jumped behind their on-stage stations between sets and it
seemed to me were loathe to give up the stage for the music-playing talent) was
right there on hand to start his set within seconds of the band saying “good
night” at just after midnight.
Like I said before, technically there was
nothing wrong with the performance, and despite my ‘meh’ overall feeling, Boredom
& Joy will be spending time in the CD changer and on the old iPod.
Image: Cover of Boredom & Joy courtesy of http://jetsoverhead.com/
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