Toronto – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros played a sold show on Tuesday at the El Mocambo. Prior to Monday afternoon, I didn’t know who they were. Then I got an invite to go. At first, I was like, who the hell are these guys and why is this show sold out ? So I asked Nick, my Edmonton music friend:
me: have u heard of edward sharpe
Nick: sounds like some twilight character?
That was of no help. So I checked out the youtube video provided and it was pretty good, then I asked Wade about them and he was like ‘yeah saw them on Letterman a few days ago, they were good, go check them out or something’ (I’m paraphrasing).
After witnessing the show last night, I can easily say that I think these guys have a chance to be big. They were quite awesome live. Alex Ebert and Jade Castrinos have great chemistry on stage (as lead vocalists) and bring forth memories of Johnny Cash/June Carter in terms of interactions and banter. By memories, I mean stuff I saw off documentaries and tv. Maybe Josh was alive back then, I’m not sure. BURN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Their music is hard to describe, so I’ll use lazy journalism (more then the usual amount) to say they would be what Arcade Fire would sound like if they grew up happy and half of them grew up in the country and the other half grew up in sunny California, and they all listened to 60s music. I’m not saying they are better then Arcade Fire (two entirely separate entities), I’m just saying that’s the first thing that came to mind. Alex Ebbert holds the mic and sings into it like he’s a reverend trying to save your soul while Jade comes off as a flirty retro pixie chick who is always, always happy. They both have pretty good voices.
The crowd was completely into the show and made me wonder why I haven’t heard of them before. It seems that I have not heard of a lot of bands before. Am I losing my edge? Have I become too ‘complacent’ with my musical knowledge? Am I watching too much football? Maybe I should devote more time to discovering new bands and less times analyzing my fantasy hockey teams. I don’t know, it’s like my quarter life crisis or something. Back to the crowd, yeah from the opening song 40 Day Dream to the mid set crowd favorite Home to the confusion over what the last song should be, the band had the crowd in the palm of its hand, an amazing feat considering this is really the bands first tour. I fear to see how much better they get the next time they come around. There was an old dude near me wearing a leather jacket through out the entire show. It was pretty warm in there, I don’t know how he managed it.
They are playing tonight at the El Mocambo once again, I would suggest you try to get in somehow, because the next time they come around, I’m pretty sure it’ll be a much larger venue and it’ll be sold out just as well.
Here is some random youtube video
Here is a review of the same show from the gossip mag the National Post
Check out the music-movie series by the band on Spinner here