Phog Phest 7 re-embraces the great outdoors

After two years behind doors-- mostly the Capitol Theatre-- this Saturday, Sep. 19 Windsor's Phog Lounge tells the Phest to go outside and play. In the true spirit of N2DS2W, The Crofoot in Pontiac has stepped in as co-host of a bill with something for everyone: Windsor favourites, Detroit's Ponyshow and George Morris (formerly of The Satin Peaches) and the Gypsy Chorus, Grand Analog for the hip, The Sadies for the rock and country roots and indie veterans Wintersleep. See ya there.

Show Review: Said The Whale - We Are The City

Canadian indie shows coming through Metro Detroit can be a lot like rare bird sightings. They happen with little warning and appear at odd times. Most people aren't even aware of the event. Some people see them and don't know the significance. But for a few, getting a glimpse of the Vancouver whale warbler or the Kelowna mourning dove and hearing their songs is something special.

We're kidding about the birds, but the bands are real. On Sun., Oct. 16, Vancouver's Said The Whale and Kelowna, BC's We Are The City flew into town for their first visit to Michigan at the Crofoot's Pike Room, earning a spot on our top shows of 2011 list.













We Are The City had a fly-by last March when they played Windsor's Phog Lounge. This time the band-- Cayne McKenzie at the mic and keys, Andrew Huculiak at the kit and guitarist David Menzel-- brought their forte/piano, creative, progressive alt pop to Pontiac. We love McKenzie's agile, Broadway musical vocals and the variety of their songs . Some have jazz inflections, some are just fun, some are thoughtful; some are just bites of musical bliss like "Dark/Warm Air" (with Huculiak taking a turn at singing).

Whether Said The Whale is winning America remains to be seen, but they'd won us over even before "Emerald Lake, AB," became our NXNE 2010 theme song. In 2011, they won over Juno voters to take home the New Group of the Year award; their video for "Lines," an homage to the movie Back to the Future, was voted Best Video by CBC Radio 3 listeners in the 2011 Bucky Awards. The band is personable, engaging and earnest, on stage and off. So are their irresistible songs that frequently evoke a strong sense of place ("Mermaid sits on a tide-washed rock in the harbour..."), and robust harmonies led by heartthrob Tyler Bancroft's appealing tenor to Ben Worcester's grainier counterpoint.

As the band prepares to release Little Mountain, the much-anticipated follow-up to their debut LP Islands Disappear, in March, whale-watchers will be happy to know the band is returning in April with not one, but two dates: Apr. 16 at Windsor's Capitol Theatre, and Apr. 17 at PJ's Lager House in Detroit. No binoculars required.

Photos: Russ Gordon/N2D Images

Show Review: Destroyer

They encored with "Bay of Pigs."

That's almost all you need to know about the almost-sold-out Destroyer show at the Crofoot's Pike Room on Wed., Mar. 30. We debated whether they would perform the love-it-or-hate-it 10 minute-plus introspective opus and thought, nah, no way. But predictable is not an adjective usually associated with Dan Bejar and Destroyer.

The famously enigmatic Bejar is probably best known as a member of the New Pornographers, one of the most prominent Canadian indie bands today. Destroyer, formed in 1995, actually predates the Pornos by two years. Bejar's prolific discography-- nine studio albums, including this year's Kaputt, three EPs and a cassette-- is as varied as the cast of musicians who have contributed and Destroyer's sound. Descriptions range from European blues to chamber pop to ambient disco to indie rock. CBC Radio 3 even staged a tongue-in-cheek contest that had listeners guessing which of two music clips were Kenny G and Destroyer.

After seeing Bejar appear (sporadically) with the New Pornographers during their show at the Crofoot Ballroom last year, we expected Destroyer would be equally memorable. From the moment Bejar took the stage, cast his eyes to an unseen muse overhead and poured his distinctive singspiel into the mic he held lightly in his fingertips as if it was an expensive cigar, our expectations were right. (And that includes standing behind a giant-sized gentleman with no sense of personal space who kept bumping Yort's arm with his behind as he danced).

What we didn't expect was predictability. Bejar and the band-- David Carswell (the Smugglers, the Evaporators, and with John Collins as JC/DC Studios, producer for many notable indie bands), JP Carter on trumpet (Fond of Tigers) and vocalist Larissa Loyva (Kellarissa), Pete Bourne (drums), Nicolas Bragg (guitar), Joseph Shabason (flute, sax) and the bassist whose identity escapes us -- were note-perfect on every track, which included most of Kaputt plus a few selections from Destroyer's Rubies, Trouble in Dreams and Your Blues. But we had the sense that the band never deviates from those notes. For a live show-- and a very good live show, don't get us wrong-- it was just a little too rote.

Nice, nice, very nice!

We have it from a pretty reliable source that Dan Mangan is in fact opening for Wooden Birds at the Crofoot this Thursday:

Go_N2Det_S2Win
@danmanganmusic Will Wooden Birds be with you in Detroit next week?

danmanganmusic
@Go_N2Det_S2Win in Pontiac? I believe so!

Because we are devoted listeners to CBC Radio 3, we already know that Dan Mangan's album Nice, Nice, Very Nice is on the short list for this year's Polaris Prize and he's one of Canadian indie's most popular artists, and deservedly so. For a guy who's "spent half his life in the customer service line," (or maybe because of it?) he sure knows how to write catchy, philosophical and witty lyrics set to catchy, lyrical and pretty melodies. So it boggles our minds that he will be largely unknown to the audience. (Photo credit: Jonathan Taggart)

On the other hand, Wooden Birds will be largely unknown to us. Somehow American Analog Set is off our radar, although we can certainly appreciate Andrew Kenny's association with Broken Social Scene. We like what we hear on their MySpace page and are looking forward to getting to know them better.

The Magic Majestic

We're pretty fortunate here in the metro Detroit/Windsor area to have not one, but three venues that book Canadian indie bands on a regular basis: the Phog Lounge in Windsor, the Crofoot in Pontiac and the Majestic Theatre complex in Detroit, which includes the Magic Stick. We're heading to the Stick for the Gregory Pepper/Islands show tomorrow tonight (watch for a show review posting); on July 2 we rocked out to a hearing-loss-inducing performance by Black Mountain and before that, caught Yukon Blonde there.

While I'm eagerly anticipating Dan Mangan on Aug. 26 and positively giddy about Hot Hot Heat/Hey Rosetta! on Sept. 11, both at the Crofoot's Pike Room, I just browsed through the Majestic's schedule and found more shows to swoon over:

8/07 @ the Magic Stick: Young Galaxy
9/21 @ the Magic Stick: Tokyo Police Club/Arkells
10/09 @ the Majestic Theatre: STARS
10/30 @ the Majestic Cafe: Born Ruffians

Know of a show? Tell us!-- Yort