Toronto – Since September 25, the San Francisco band Girls has seen their popularity skyrocket. Their Tuesday night show at the El Mocambo was completely sold out. I was lucky enough to snag myself a pair of tickets and so off I went on Tuesday to check out the latest pitchfork media buzz band.
We arrived earlier then expected for the show and thus, decided to go to the Red Room instead of hanging out at the El Mocambo. How clutch has the Red Room been over the years? Always the same cheap drinks, the same indifferent waitering, the same tasting tofu puffs, same vinegar drenched salad accompanying the same ketchup filled pad thai… no one ever said it’s good, but there’s something to be said about it’s consistency. If you think of cheap pre-concert drinking spots, Red Room is one of the top ones for the venues. Think about it.. there is nothing close to the Mod Club, the Blue Iguana (besides the Opera House) is pricey, you don’t want to be anywhere near the Phoenix and the Horseshoe is pricey cos of its Queen street placement. Lee’s Palace and the Wrongbar have decent pre drinking venues, I guess. But yeah, I definitely appreciate the Red Room for what it is.
The band came on around 10:20. Perfect for a mid week show. Accompanied by a drummer, a bassist and another guitarist, group leader Christopher Owens took the stage looking like he was transported from 1994 grunge era, long hair and all. As with most shows, I don’t really pay attention to what the setlist was, I just know most, if not all the songs from their debut album (called Album) was played. The whole show was very low key, Christopher Owens barely said a word between songs and mostly stuck to his singing/guitar duties. Considering this bands meteoric rise, I would chalk this non-audience-interaction to just not really being ready to play sold out shows.
The music itself was quite good, the sounds of the surrounding band members were rather muted, to the point where you were wondering if he was just playing a solo show. However, given the type of low-fi surferesque rock that the band plays, this was perfect. The songs that were played was a fairly similar representative of the album version, which in itself is kind of raw anyways, so I guess it’s expected.
All in all, I think it was a good show. Talent always shows and in the case of Christopher Owens, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the guy can write some solid songs, even if he wears his influences heavily. It will be interesting to see how they progress as they play more and more shows to larger and larger crowds. I’d definitely be up for checking them out again.