Toronto – Brooklyn’s The Drums were in town on Saturday to play to a kind of packed house in promotion of their hit debut album Summertime!. Allison was the first one of on our blog to profess their love for the 80s dreampop revival band, but the rest of us eventually warmed up to them. Dressed in what I can only imagine was vintage jacket of some sort, lead singer Jonathan Pierce dazzled the crowd for an hour with some expressive singing, out of the world dancing and interesting deliveries of the word “thank you”. Having seen him before at the tiny British Embassy Bar in Austin, I was only briefly introduced to Pierce’s dancing, which I can only describe as Ian Curtis meets Tim Booth meets Stuart Murdoch meets gravity. It’s like no other leading singer dance, but u can’t take your eyes off it. Moving from one side of the stage to another, Pierce delivered each of Summertimes! tunes with a punch of intensity.
The sound at the Mod Club was a bit underwhelming for this show, which is a surprise given that the club tends to have excellent sound. The vocals seem a bit distorted, the guitars a bit off. Maybe it’s what the band wanted. It gave us a more raw sounding experience which was a nice contrast to the polish sounds of the album. What is quite clear is that the Drums can write really good pop music, as songs such as Best Friend (“this is about my best friend, who is dead” which drew an awkward response), Submarine(could be a Cure song) and hit single Let’s Go Surfing are all extremely catchy.
All in all, a good way to start off a Saturday night.
The Drums – Best Friend by racshade