For whatever reason, I hadn’t seen sisters Romy and Sari Lightman since their Ghost Bees days. I enjoyed Ghost Bees quite a bit, but simply hadn’t gotten around to seeing them again since their rebranding as Tasseomancy. Since then, the sisters have also performed as part of Austra alongside Katie Stelmanis, joining the large number of Toronto musicians (seemingly most of them) who are in more than one band. In their newer incarnation, Tasseomancy have broadened their sound considerably while still keeping the core of what made their sound so interesting to me in the first place. Moments into their set, I was wondering why I had waited so long to see them again. And kicking myself for it, though not literally as that would have weirded out those around me.
Aside from the band’s dense and musically adventurous sound, there seemed to be some degree of sonic exploration going on within the context of the live performance – along with the repetitious, chantlike refrains and beautiful, eerie harmonizing, there was some extended jamming, including copious sax accompaniment peppered throughout, seemingly to the surprise of Romy Lightman, who turned to her bandmate with a smile and said, “Whoa, saxman! Who knew?” The sax was great, even when it veered close to Kenny G territory. Perhaps a reassessment of Kenny G’s career is in order. Ok, maybe not. Another great moment came when Romy hijacked the keyboardist’s mic after realizing that it had some awesome effects on it. Clearly, the band were enjoying themselves.
Army Girls were up next and Army Girls are great, but I still left after Tasseomancy’s set. I enjoyed the vibe of it so much that I felt that it was the right time to go. Much like George Costanza, I wanted to go out on a high note. Also, it was getting a bit late and I’m old and boring. Maybe next time, Army Girls.