The show starts at first with silence, followed by the sound of a single breath. Then another.
And so began the performance of electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick‘s latest piece, entitled As I Live and Breathe. An appropriate title as the bulk of the piece was made up of the sounds of Subotnick’s own breath and various other vocal utterances spoken into the mic and then, through some sort of synthesizer magic, transformed into something else entirely.
Billed as Subotnick’s final live performance in Canada, this was a unique and memorable show, with the 90 year old synth legend joined onstage by Berlin media artist Lillevan, who provided live video accompaniment during the set.
Starting out slowly, the music evolved throughout, beginning as an ambient drone before building to an epic and cathartic release in its final moments, with Lillevan’s visuals acting as a perfect accompaniment.
I overheard someone saying afterwards that they felt like they’d been transported to another world during the show and that’s as good a way as any to put it. Simply put, this was a brilliant performance.
It may seem odd and maybe even a little wrong to see a metal band called Bell Witch play a show at a church, but it many ways, it was a fitting pairing of band and venue. On Sunday night, Bell Witch put on a performance that was heavy, beautiful, and cinematic, with a sound that seemed somehow appropriate for a venue that regularly plays host to classical music concerts. Though not quite in the same ballpark musically speaking, Bell Witch’s performance set a mood not entirely unlike to what I’d imagine one might find at those classical performances.
Touring behind their latest, the recently released Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate, the Seattle-based doom metal duo put on a compelling performance of the album at Trinity St. Paul’s. That album is made up of a single album-length track and their performance for each show of this tour consists entirely of that one single track, which on this occasion lasted for roughly an hour and 15 minutes, give or take a few minutes.
One nice thing about going to see a band touring behind an album that’s just one epic song is that you know going in exactly what you’ll be hearing. And what we heard this evening was fantastic – an epic, slowly unfolding piece which approached a kind of transcendence at times.
Towards the end of his set at the Drake Underground on Tuesday night, Gruff Rhys announced that he was about to go into “dangerous territory” by playing a request, more specifically a request he did not foresee.
Like most performers, Gruff Rhys has a setlist that he works from, and so deviating from that setlist could indeed be dangerous territory. But if he was in any way daunted by the addition of an extra song, Rhys certainly didn’t show it, other than him taking a brief minute to decide if he wanted to slip the song in before his planned set closer “Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru” or not. He opted to end things off with that request, “Colonise The Moon,” and the song made for a solid end to a set that also included such highlights as “Celestial Candyfloss,” “Iolo” and “Bad Friend.”
Following Rhys, This Is The Kit took to the stage. The English folk rock band, fronted by Kate Stables, put on a memorable show, with the bulk of the songs taken from their latest album, the Gruff Rhys-produced Careful of Your Keepers.
A few songs into their set, Stables announced midway through “Inside Outside” that it was a special show as it was bassist Rozi Plain’s birthday and followed that announcement by firing off a tiny confetti cannon onstage. It was a memorable moment, followed shortly thereafter by a quip from Stables as she took a moment to tune: “I used up all my smooth on the birthday announcement and now it’s just going to be 45 minutes of tuning.”
Another humourous moment came after the band played “Slider” and Stables pointed out that in Bristol, a children’s slide is referred to as a slider. This led to an audience member volunteering the information that a mini burger is also referred to as a slider, which in turn led to someone else adding that a kid on a slide could also reasonably be referred to as a slider.
I could have contributed further to this conversation, but decided not to mention anything about the old Jerry O’Connoll TV series Sliders as that would have been far too much of an ordeal to explain if she wasn’t familiar. Though that didn’t stop another concertgoer from bringing up an Evel Knievel documentary when Stables later mentioned that it was the legendary motorcycle daredevil’s birthday that day as well, so maybe I should have taken my chance to talk up the ’90s sci-fi series.
This Is The Kit continue on their North American tour into early November before heading back across the pond to play a series of shows across the UK and Ireland. Check them out if you get the chance.
Following an excellent opening set by The Schizophonics, Cosmic Psychos took to the stage and demonstrated that have quite a bit in common with The Chats. Not only are both bands Australian, but they also share a similar ethos with their hard-hitting live shows and big, dumb punk songs about drinking and going to the pub. The Psychos have been at it a lot longer though, getting their start way back in 1982 and putting out 11 albums over the years, with the most recent being 2021’s Mountain of Piss.
Up next were The Chats, who proved that not much has changed since they were last in town a year ago – singer/bassist Eamon Sandwith is still rockin’ the mullet, the venue was similarly packed, and the band ran through a similar set of short, fast, and fun punk rock tunes. And you know what? That’s fine – it’s not like I was expecting the band to have shifted into their Spinal Tap Jazz Odyssey phase. And really, nobody wants that from The Chats. No, you go to a Chats show to see them run through 25 high energy songs in just under an hour and the band did just that, much to the delight of the crowd, with songs such as “Struck By Lightning”, “Better Than You” and “Smoko” inspiring many a crowdsurfer.
