Show Review: Zeus bring thunder to Pontiac

News: They have a new album "in the can," as Neil Quin put it, to go with Say Us and Busting Visions.

2 things that surprised us: (1) How outstanding the band's vocals were. Beautiful, pitch-perfect harmonies. "We do rehearse," Quin confided. (2) There were several obvious fans in the audience at the Pike Room, belting out lyrics and even wearing jackets with the band's name hand-stenciled on them. 

Details: In Greek mythology one of Zeus' symbol is the thunderbolt. Zeus the band from Toronto came with the first thunderstorm of the year.

Songs we loved: (1) The really promising new material we got to hear FIRST because Pontiac was the first stop on this tour. (2) "Are You Gonna Waste My Time?" and "Love/Pain."

2 things we liked: (1) How easily and democratically Carlin Nicholson, Mike O'Brien and Quin shared vocal and instrument duties while Rob Drake anchored it all on the drums. (2) Once Zeus realized the audience really knew their music, they added extra favourites to the set list.

What we didn't like: Nothing. This will be one of our top shows of the year for sure.

Photos: Russ Gordon/N2D Images

SHOW ALERT: Finally We See ZEUS

Yeah. We know. After seeing 1.3 songs at St. Andrews (and some nice chattering)  and saying hello at NXNE (car being towed incident) we FINALLY get to experience an actual Zeus show. 

Nobody will waste your time, these guys are here to stay. As the songs are marching through 

your head, you will realize that this is how you feel and that's all. 

Show Alert: The Pack A.D. Engage Pontiac

Fri., Mar. 7
The Pike Room @ The Crofoot ~ Pontiac, MI 





Maya and Becky are back, just north of the former chicken processing facility that has produced their latest album 'Do Not Engage.' Jim Diamond - Ghetto Recorders (catl) has once again nailed it, wider in range than before, but still a welcome explosion of sound to your ears.

http://music.cbc.ca/artists/The-Pack-AD

Show Alert: Trick or treat?

It's a little of both. A treat that so many great Canadian indie bands are playing shows in the Windsor/Detroit area over the next few days. Trick if you can get to more than just one. We'll be at Born Ruffians on Wednesday, Lindi Ortega on Thursday. Smell our feet.

Weds., Oct. 30

Born Ruffians (alt pop/rock from Toronto), The Magic Stick, Detroit: They were last here on the same date in 2010. Listen: "Oh Man"

BRAIDS (atmospheric electronic from Toronto) The Loving Touch, Ferndale: The buzz band from 2011 is back with a new album. Listen: "December"

Rah Rah (alt rock from Regina, SK) and The Blue Stones (blues rock from Toronto), Phog Lounge, Windsor: Can't go wrong here. (Pssst, it looks like Ian Blurton is producing the next Blue Stones album). Listen: Rah Rah, "Art and a Wife"; The Blue Stones, "Rolling with the Punches"

Thurs., Oct. 31

Lindi Ortega (alt rock/country from Toronto via Nashville), The Pike Room, Pontiac: We're not big country fans, but we're big Lindi fans. Excited to finally see and hear her incredibly emotive and powerful voice live. Listen: "Don't Wanna Hear It"

Bear Mountain (folk-flavoured electro pop from Vancouver) and The Belle Game (arty alt pop from Vancouver), The Magic Stick, Detroit: Bear Mountain was a big hit with CBC Radio 3 blogger friends at NXNE this year. Listen: Bear Mountain, "Two Step"; The Belle Game, "Wasted Light"

Fri., Nov. 1

Repartee (pop rock from St. John's, NL) and The Fisher Kings (alt blues rock from Windsor), Phog Lounge, Windsor. Listen: Repartee, "I Would Die Before You"; The Fisher Kings, "Get Behind Me"

Show Alert: Hollerado bring their So It Goes tour to Pontiac

Tues., Oct. 7
The Crofoot - Pike Room - Pontiac
Opening for The Features

Cover art for Hollerado's new album, White Paint.

When we first attended NXNE in 2010, we did it all wrong. We didn't stay in the city. One of us had a media pass, the other had a wristband. We didn't have a schedule. And we left on Saturday to see a show in London, Ont. (a great show, three Polaris short-listed bands, but still...)

Friday night we wanted to see an artist and a band we absolutely love at the Dakota Tavern: Old Man Luedecke and The Wheat Pool. Silly us. After an expensive cab ride because we were late, we wilted at the sight of the long line. S2W's media pass meant immediate entry, but N2D of the lowly wristband had to wait in line.

Always the gentleman, S2W refused. After realizing entry was futile, we took another expensive cab ride to catch part of Sloan at Yonge-Dundas Square. They were good, but hungry and dispirited we made our way to the nearby Hard Rock Cafe. And found out Hollerado were playing there. It was only a year after they self-released their first album, the rock-solid Record in a Bag, but obvious that a lot of people had the record out of the bag.

It was like the heavens opened and beautiful music spilled out and fountains erupted and the sun shined down on us-- okay, so it was the band cranking through irresistibly fun singalongs like "Riverside" and "Got to Lose," spraying beer at the ceiling in unison and confetti raining down. By the time the show was over, we'd had the time of our lives, and it was all worth it (just don't ask us what it took to get home that night).

We still keep some of that confetti in our backpack.

Hollerado are very like a college student, balancing classes and partying. They sound like they're not taking anything too seriously, and yet writing about death, World War II, doing creative presentations on Americanarama, and referencing Kurt Vonnegut. If Record in a Bag was a freshman, the long-awaited follow-up White Paint is absolutely a sophomore. They've matured a bit, but they're still having a good time.
 

Photos: Russ Gordon/N2D Images

Show Alert: Get stoned

Elephant Stone
Sat., Aug. 17
The Pike Room - The Crofoot, Pontiac
w/ Red Stone Souls and The Men From Corporate

There are a lot of Canadian indie bands and artists channeling the 60s these days: Jay Arner, Malcolm Jack, the Shilohs... but Elephant Stone (Montreal) have been tuned in since 2009. Keep heading north on Woodward Saturday night to Pontiac and leave the Dream Cruise behind for Elephant Stone's dreamy psych-pop infused with sitar. It's their last North American show before they head off to Europe to continue touring their second full-length eponymous album.

Listen: "Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin"

PHOTOS - Hannah Georgas @ Pike Room - Jan. 31, 2013

Hannah's voice and band are what make the beat stuff beat; it's not robotic and the dance floor was hopping under the red and blue lights of the Pike Room.

Photos: Russ Gordon/N2D Images

Show Alert: We gotta Hannah to you

Hannah Georgas
Thurs., Jan. 31
The Pike Room ~ The Crofoot, Pontiac
W/ Decades and Mountain Babies

In the States, you may only know Hannah as that voice in a 2009 Walmart commercial.

She wasn't a whole lot better known in Canada then, either.

"This girl named Hannah was supposed to open for Said The Whale when they released their album nationally at the Phog Lounge (in Windsor)," recalled co-owner Tom Lucier. "I was like, 'Who? Oh, okay if Said The Whale thinks so.' And then she opened with Said The Whale as her backing band and she tore the fucking roof off the place. It was easily one of my top five favourite shows of all time."

We saw Georgas when she returned to the Phog Lounge in 2010; it made our top shows that year. In 2011 she was nominated for two Juno Awards,“Best New Artist of the Year” and “Songwriter of the Year.” Still not convinced you should make the trip to Pontiac on Thursday? CBC Radio 3 listeners voted Georgas "Hottest Pipes" for "Robotic," from her new self-titled album.

Show Alert: Hurricanes, Plants and Animals, Royal Canoe, Country French

After a bit of a break following our Said the Whale/Chains of Love doubleheader last month, this week there are not one, not two, not three, but four great Canadian indie bands playing the Windsor/Detroit area, and we're hitting every one, beginning with...

My Son The Hurricane - Russ Gordon/N2D Images

Weds., May 9
My Son the Hurricane (w/ Theatre Crisp)
The Dugout, Windsor
If you see what looks like part of a marching band brassing their way through downtown Windsor, follow them. It's probably My Son the Hurricane (St. Catharines). We liked their unique fusion of brass band and hip hop so much when we saw them last year, they made our list of top shows for 2011.

 Thurs., May 10
Plants and Animals (w/ Wavvy Hands)
The Pike Room (The Crofoot), Pontiac
With songs like "The End of That"-- which features one of our favourite lyrics of the year so far, "With your bee sting lips and your pepper grinder hips"-- it's hard to believe Montreal's alt rock/progressive pop trio Plants and Animals started out as an instrumental group.

Sat., May 12
Royal Canoe
The Garden Bowl (Majestic Theater Complex), Detroit
A good reminder not to judge a band by one song, Winnipeg's Royal Canoe got a lot of love on CBC Radio 3 for their ode to Kasparov, but their progressive electronic pop is so much more than that. This is a FREE show, so you've got nothing to lose by coming down to check them out.








Sat., May 12
Will Currie and The Country French
w/ Dance Movie, Quiet Parade and Years of Ernest

Phog Lounge, Windsor
With four bands on the bill, we're hoping to have time to run over to Windsor after Royal Canoe to catch Will Currie and The Country French (Waterloo) and their unique brand of piano-driven, intelligent alt pop. Read our show review from the last time they were at Phog here.

Show Alert: Austra w/ Young Galaxy and Tasseomancy

Tues., Nov. 29
The Crofoot - Pike Room, Pontiac

Tasseomancy's Ulalume is available
as a waterfall candle + vintage matchbook
+ digital download package.

Hopefully you don't feel broke from all that Black Friday consumerism, because you'll want to Feel It Break tomorrow night (Nov. 29) as one of the year's best lineups of Canadian indie talent plays Metro Detroit. Tasseomancy (Toronto) opens with otherworldly, label-defying music from their August album, Ulalume, then join headliner Austra ("ow-stra"). Fronted by powerhouse vocalist Katie Stelmanis, few bands in Canadian indie this year have generated as much buzz as Austra (Toronto). Their debut release Feel It Break was barely out a month before making the Polaris Prize short list, and went on to strong short list contender.





We're also looking forward to another opportunity to see/hear Montreal's Young Galaxy (2010 @ Call the Office), who've had back-to-back albums on the Polaris long list: Invisible Republic and this year's Shapeshifting. With Young Galaxy, you don't just get buzz, you get The Buzz in My Flesh.

Show Alert: Memoryhouse and 1/3 of a Mouse

Monday, Nov. 14

Mister Heavenly @ The Crofoot's Pike Room
w/ Mr. Dreams and Burning Ponies

Memoryhouse @ Magic Stick Lounge
w/ Indian Guides

Maybe you'd like to keep the weekend going. Maybe your weekend never got going, and you want to make up for it. For either case, we prescribe one of the two great-- and very different-- Canadian indie shows in Metro Detroit tonight, Nov. 14. You know you want to go.

Put together one member of Islands and the fabled Unicorns (Nick Thorburn), one member of Man Man (Honus Honus/Ryan Kattner) and one member of Modest Mouse and The Shins (Joe Plummer) and you get a supergroup: Mister Heavenly. You also get some super heavenly music as a result. They only had three ground rules: a) Keep it short; b) Keep it simple; and c) Keep it rooted in some semblance—harmonic, lyrical—of classic doo-wop. (from the Mister Heavenly website).

Put together a musician inspired by the neo-classical and modernist modes of the past century (Evan Abeele) and a photographer-videographer who focuses on the blurred boundaries of the moment, of memory, and of what will manifest (Denise Nouvion) and you get Memoryhouse (Guelph). "Their music seeks"-- and indeed finds-- "this blending of the contemporary with the forgotten, the traditional and the technological, the visual and the aural, within the sonographic landscapes of pop music. Listen.

Show Alert: Said The Whale w/ We Are The City @ The Crofoot

Sun., Oct. 16
The Pike Room at The Crofoot, Pontiac
Doors at 5 p.m
 
Sometimes getting a band to come to your city is as simple as asking. More often it involves a lot of waiting, hoping, near-misses and then, finally, when you least expect it-- Camilo the Magician steps in and suddenly there is no difference between real and a show.

"I need to see where you made that card go..."

Every Sunday the Crofoot features a lineup of Metro Detroit bands playing the Pike Room with an early door time of 5 p.m. "We got a call from Said The Whale's agent looking for a date in Detroit," said Chad Nicefield, talent buyer for The Crofoot. "We already had our local show going on in the Pike, and our Eagle Theatre and the ballroom were too big, so they agreed to combine the local acts and their tour package."

"Watch my eyes, put a coin in my hand now and squeeze real tight, I'll make both sides heads..."

The results bring the intelligent, picturesque alt pop of Juno award-winning Said The Whale (Vancouver) to the Detroit area for the first time ever, along with the spare yet expressive alt rock of  We Are The City (Kelowna). Our review of We Are The City's show at Windsor's Phog Lounge in March remains our third most-viewed post; read (and hear) more about Said The Whale, the subject of CBC Radio 3's first documentary, here and here.


Local bands opening for Said The Whale and We Are They City:


Sean Earle
Trey Simon
Suitable Paradise
Kisses For Charity
Armour The Lion
 

Our Detroit area venue guide for bands

We are NOT booking agents. But, because we've had the distinct pleasure of chatting with and getting to know so many bands, more and more we're being asked: "Where can I play in the Detroit area?" So we decided to get all official and post something we hope will be helpful. Just click on the link above for our new page listing venues and information about them around Metro Detroit that book Canadian indie bands. If we've missed anything-- venues, details we should know about-- just drop us a line at n2ds2w@gmail.com and we'll update our list.

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.

Destroyer ~ Crofoot's Pike Room Wed., March 30

Hey Band Agents!

Sometimes the decision making process that results in a tour lineup seems inscrutable to fans. Just days before the Hot Hot Heat/Hey Rosetta! Show last Saturday in the Crofoot’s Pike Room, we discovered that the 22-20s had been added to the bill. What? Who?

Waiting to see Hey Rosetta! for the very first time was like walking into a classroom in the fall knowing that a professor you admire will be teaching it. Every step closer to the door in the long line and every step up the stairs brought us closer to the realization.

Then, as we were getting IDed and banded, the first notes hit us. “Hey Rosetta! are the opener? How can this be?”

Luckily there were a few spots at the front side of the stage waiting for us, as the Pike Room was packed. It seemed like we’d been there for only minutes when we heard Tim announce “This is our last song.” Once again, disbelief: “How can this be?” Only six songs by one of the best indie bands in Canada?

This is not a 22-20s review nor a Hot Hot Heat review. Both these bands were outstanding and rocked their asses off. It is a review of the agent who, in our eyes, had the opening acts in the wrong order.

Tim waxed poetic on the HR! tour blog the following day.

The fields are beautiful and on a day that finally feels like September should (warm and cool all at once) it’s a perfect sight. Much like the packed Pike Room at the Crofoot in Pontiac last night. What a time. Maybe it’s the proximity to the border, but it felt kinda like home; full and friendly, drunk, unafraid, brimming and lit. We made all sorts of friends and played all sorts of excellent rooms. I told people we’d be back soon and I don’t know if that’s true but I hope it is. We shall let you know.

We sure would love you to be the headlining act next time, because in our world, you are.

Based in St. John's, NL, the six-piece group is comprised of Tim Baker (vocals/piano/guitar), Adam Hogan (guitar), Josh Ward (bass), Phil Maloney (drums), Romesh Thavanathan (cello) and Erin Aurich (violin).

http://www.heyrosetta.com/

http://radio3.cbc.ca/bands/Hey-Rosetta

@HeyRosetta on Twitter