The Ukrainian Federiation is like a church hall/gymnasium, but with movie theatre style seats. It was really nice to be able to sit down and watch a show. As I entered I asked the volunteer at the door who was on. She told me that “Some cute boy who is really overly self concious”. Really, I thought, then I made eye contact with the girl standing next to her, who simply looked back at me and said “Bahamas”. Merci. A trend throughout the festival was that the Pop volunteer staff were pretty to look at, but mostly useless when it came to knowing anything about the event they were actually volunteering for.

It became very apparent that I would not like Bahamas, othewise known as Afie Jurvanen, as soon as I got there. He was sporting a goofy mustache, a lumberjack jacket that was too large for him and he had amusing charming banter with the audience between each of his catchy and mostly acoustic songs. Yes, Bahamas is going to be rich and famous and be able to get any woman he wants. Screw him. Do you like Hayden? Do you like Peter Elkas? Then you are going to love Bahamas. I liked the story about how his song Hockey Teeth is about how he would always knock teeth with a girl he used to date when they kissed. It happens.

Next up was Amy Millan. Backing her up on horns was Butterscotch Ripple (is that what they refer to themselves as?), a three piece horn section fronted by Even Cranley. That guy is always backing up somebody. It is only a matter of time before Evan releases his own solo project.

Amy played a varied selection from her two full length releases. After the first verse of Run For Me she paused and then eventually quit the song becasue she couldn’t remember the lyrics. She commented about it being her Cat Power moment and then told us that what Cat Power would do in this moment is just say that she didn’t feel like playing this song now. She came back for an encore to finish it. It was cute. Her voice has goosebump power. It was pretty awesome. All in all, it was a totally enjoyable evening.

Bahamas and Amy Milan are back in Toronto at the Mod Club on October 14th. If you go to this show, you will be entertained and leave smiling.

Get ready for some Pop Montreal reviews. Even though I was only there for the first two days of the festival, I was able to check out some quality shows and get a feel for what the festival was all about, kind of.

My trip started off in Toronto by meeting two dudes on Yonge Street to share a ride to Montreal. Horary for Craigslist rideshare!! My two new buddies and I made the trip to Montreal in just over 5 hours. Arriving safe and sound my spirits were high after meeting up with two strangers and enjoying some pleasant conversation without being touched in my icky place.

After grabbing my press pass and my drink tickets I quickly started trying to sort through the shows. As previewed earlier, The Phenomenal Handclap Band were playing on Wednesday night at Le National. Their band write-up in the program read as follows:

“…Like Broken Social Scene but with better harmonies and more awesome hippiness.”

Really? Anybody who knows me knows that I have been listening to BSS since 1991. Back then they were known only as Scene because they hadn’t been broken yet. To compare your New York band to BSS is a pretty tall order. So I went to the show to judge for myself.

TPHB were playing at Le National. It is kind of like a cross between the Mod Club and the Phoenix, but with a slanted floor, which really helps us out who tend to hang out at the back. The sloped floor was not needed on this night as the audience was thin.

TPHB are an 8 piece band who know how to groove and shake a tambourine.
Their song, 15 to 20 has been in my head for the past week. It reminds me of the first time I heard The Go Team. It has that catchy, hookey, dancy vibe to it. It is anthum-isk. Ricky posted the video HERE a few days ago. The rest of their songs were very clappy with a strong emphasis on the tambourines. As for their comparison to Broken Social Scene, well, they seem like a dance and groove band who want to be cool like Broken Social Scene, but arn’t quite there yet. I don’t see it. If I was TPHB, I would contact my publicist and change the band bio. As for their performance, I wouldn’t call it phenomenal, but it was pretty close to phenomenal. Once I got over the whole BSS thing, I was able to hang low and enjoy the show. It was really fun and a great fist show to kick off Pop.

The Phenomenal Handclap Band visit Toronto on November 6th with Simian Mobile Disco at the Mod Club. Worth checking out. I’m gonna go see them again, hopefully the venue will be packed and I’ll be able to get the full TPHB party experience.