Toronto – Sorry for taking so long. With the set pieces for the main act on stage, Lewis and Clarke opened at the Bat for Lashes gig the other night. Singing amongst Jesus statuette, leg lamps and dolls, the guitar started strumming. Melodramatic music ebbed and flowed into my ear. And the beginning was stamped on the never-returning stream of time.

I’m pretty sure they started with Petrified Forest (also funny how there were two little angel dolls with fiber optic wings, coincidentally also in the lyrics). Not being overly into sad tunes, I either listen to decisively upbeat or downright murderously depressed music. The vocal was dead-on, creating the same mournful feeling that I felt listening to them on myspace. They had a good stage presence, holding the crowd’s attention well. And not only because they nearly didn’t make it from Pennselvania and joked about Canadian customs officers. I’d qualify these guys as Ra Ra Riot reciting Edgar Allen Poe sans the anger. My only problem with them is that although there were clearly breaks between songs, it felt like they never occurred. The entire set seems intertwined but perhaps that was intentional. The same feelings were expressed from the beginning to the end. By the time they hit the last guitar note, I was a little drained. Maybe I need Ritalin, but I can only be everlastingly lovelorn continuously for 30 minutes. If they had chanced with some different pace half way through, it would have been much nicer. But either way, it was a nice and calm way to slide into the evening’s focus.