Toronto – Reviews can be a bit of a tricky thing. It’s pretty hard to be completely objective when reviewing anything – the reviewer’s biases are bound to come in to play, as are their moods. And as far as Friday’s M83 show at Lee’s Palace, goes, I was not in the best of moods. In fact, I was downright grumpy – I had just awoken from an unplanned nap on the couch, had missed a few crucial moments of that week’s episode of Fringe, was still tired, and felt a bit sick. Obviously this would colour my opinion of the show to an extent.
Active Child was up first and certainly sounded great, but not as good as the first time I saw them. This may have had less to do with my mood and more to do with not being able to discover them live for the first time as I did when they played The Garrison back in September. Pat Grossi’s voice still impresses though, and the band’s mix of harp playing with electro RnB style jams works well. Is it weird that I kind of want them to do a Terence Trent D’arby cover though?
As the time approached for M83 to take the stage, you could sense the anticipation amongst many in the young crowd. Starting the show off with the band’s weird mascot thingy walking onstage amid a haze of smoke, the band emerged shortly thereafter and proceeded to deliver a high energy set, which was good since it countered my generally low level of energy, and got me up to a slightly higher level. They sounded impressive in the way that all of the best live versions of electronic music can be – a full band always brings a lot more to the table than just one guy with a bunch of electronics. Full of heavy guitars and catchy keyboard hooks, it lived up to the full on rock ‘n roll moves of frontman Anthony Gonzalez. By the point near the end of the set where Gonzalez started shouting “Toronto! TORONTO!!” I was totally grinning and even almost kind of dancing. The guy definitely knows how to put on a show.
So I’m sorry M83, you probably deserve better than my tired, grumpy old ass complaining about how tired and grumpy I was during your set, but it’s all I have to give. Hopefully I can catch the band some other time when I’m more well rested.
Here’s the setlist for the show: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/m83/2011/lees-palace-toronto-on-canada-3bd1e80c.html