Tuesday night adventures can go one way or the other. Some Tuesdays you might just end up with a cello player in your kitchen, teaching you about how certain tones can make you see colours. Other times you just go home and sleep. Guess I got lucky.
So, last Tuesday, August 27th, I found myself (like many other restless-Tuesday-night-goers) slowly drifting up St.Laurent to Casa
De Popolo to see Voilá! and Darling Ghost.
How was it? Let’s just say these two bands pinched the crowd’s brains and transported
us all back in time (god, I love Casa and their
selection of artists).
First things first (writing as the line-up appeared, cause I’m a nerd like that) Voilá!. When I think about instrumental songs, sets and bands, I tend to remember the early days of Broken Social Scene (who I love with all my heart and don’t care what you say). It wasn’t until about a year ago that I truly began to enjoy little to no words in songs. I’m a big fan of lyrics because, after all, they are poetry. And If you feel the same way I do, it always feels like something’s missing when no one’s singing. But, I didn’t feel that way when Voilá! was playing. Their instrumental set tweaked my brain awake.
Voilá!, based in Montreal, is the sort of band you stumble upon some random early-in-the-week night.
You know, one of those nights where you just need to get out and be about town? Those are some of my favourite nights because I always (and probably you too) come across some of the most enchanting local bands, such as Voilá!.
Voilá!’s ability to smoothly integrate all their instruments reminds you that indeed you do have a brain and indeed it is still working. It’s a pretty common fact (or so I think thanks to that McGill Prof and his brain being on music) that listening to this type of genre kick-starts your brain waves, gets your heart pumping and you know, just overall reminds you that you’re alive. It’s a pretty nice feeling.
After we all had our minds woken up, Darling Ghost appeared on the stage. Darling Ghost is a musical time machine. A time machine that takes you, your ears and your eyes to a place and time that we have only seen in pictures – a time when your great-grandparents were cool drunks.
It’s pretty neat when you see (even more so live) bands who remove their everyday personality
and style and create a complete alter ego, as a whole. It’s been done yes, but I don’t think I can say,
on a local level, like Darling Ghost does it. Plus, it’s a great add-on to the music (I love themes).
When I listen to Darling Ghost’s music I can’t help but think of emotionally starved marionettes being brought back to life in a classic wooden theatre box, with dark purple velvet curtains (you better not be thinking about that N*Sync video right now). Of course, this is not for every song, but Darling Ghost does
give the general overall feeling of a performance, not just a show.
Not to mention they’re a set of interesting individuals made up of some seriously complex ingredients.
For example, lead singer Sheena Bernett attended ballet school in Toronto and then moved to NYC to attend theatre and music school. That’s some pretty serious stuff (or at least I think). This brings a completely different effect to the audience and as I watched them, I’m sure they were (or at least I was) thinking, “holy shit, this is intense (intense in the best way possible).”
On last note, let’s just say a certain band didn’t show (cough, cough Dear Ashes). I was going to rant about how super cool it is when bands bail on everyone, leaving other bands guessing and a shitty first (maybe second?) impression on the audience, but, in these situations I try to remind myself, “Okay Cassie you never know what’s going on in someone else’s life.” So, I’m just gonna say, I guess his phone, internet, mouth, body and consideration just weren’t working that morning, afternoon, evening or night. Oh, and I hope he’s okay. No worries Dear Ashes, Voilá! and Darling Ghosts were well worth the wait.
* Darling Ghost’s MySpace is not the current line-up of the band featured at the show. This video is:
