handsome furs

Concert Review: Bishop Morocco, Handsome Furs, June 23, Lee’s Palace

Posted on June 26, 2010 by Mark in Concerts | Leave a comment


Toronto – Bishop Morocco opened for the Handsome Furs last Wednesday at Lee’s Palace. Their music sounds a little like Joy Division; and by a little, I mean a lot. They had the droning bass, the droning vocals, and the general format down pat. What really hamstrung their performance was the robotic fourth member of the band: the dreaded drum machine and programmable sound creating doohickey.

Drum machines are weird. It’s understandable that musicians use them to keep things together when laying down tracks. However, in a live setting, it’s like listening to a musician playing with an earlier recorded version of himself. It’s predeterminism at its worst. Every little tidbit of the song has been pre-routed and planned. There’s no opportunity to stray from the path, improvisation is cramped, and the interplay between the musicians and the crowd is restrained at best.

At the end of this show, I made myself a promise. I’m going to build a robot. A robot with one simple directive: to roam the earth in order to seek out and destroy all drum machines. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Mark, don’t you know that a drum machine is itself basically a robot? And a robot will never kill a fellow robot?” Of course I thought of that! For frack’s sake! Give me some credit here. This is why I will *remove* my robots’ ethics chip before instructing him to fulfill this nefarious deed. (See the tooltip on the robot picture for how this might unfold)

In any case, Bishop Morocco does have potential. If they can branch out from the Joy Division umbrella and get a living and breathing drummer, I’d be curious to see what they could accomplish.

The biggest compliment that I can give to Montreal-based Handsome Furs is the fact that I signed up to review their show. With my mind still reeling from NXNE, and the Toronto Jazz Festival already upon us, I had but a few precious days of break time at my disposal. When I saw that the Handsome Furs were playing during my stare-at-a-blank-wall-in-silence time, I barely hesitated to sign up. I had caught the last 20 minutes of their CMW set last March and jumped at the opportunity to see them on their own terms. Despite my bleary eyes and general sense of exhaustion, I’m glad I went.

The Handsome Furs consist of husband-wife duo Dan Coeckner and Alexei Perry. Before I get into the details of their show, it’s worth mentioning that the couple spent much of the opening set out on the floor. They were listening, dancing, and occasionally making out. Not only was that a pretty classy and supportive move, but it was also as cute as fuck. Dan does the lions share of the singing and guitar-playing, while Alexei covers the keyboard beat machines and the cartwheels. Anyway you cut it, the Handsome Furs is one adrenalin rush of a live show.

With only two people on stage, it can be difficult to maintain such intense energy throughout an entire set, but somehow they’ve figured out the formula. Alexei is like a heart beat on heroine. She kicks her legs out with abandon, jumps up and down, and mouths the words to all the songs. Their brand of electronic rock is infectious. They admitted to using the Toronto crowd as guinea pigs to test out some brand-new songs, and we certainly won’t fault them for it. Alexei’s trepidation and slightly panicked approach to this new material was positively endearing.

CMW: 2010 Festival Highlights

Posted on March 29, 2010 by Mark in Canadian Music Week, Concerts | 1 Comment

Toronto – Well the dust has settled on another Canadian Music Week. I’ve had an opportunity to take a step back and have a good think about the shows I’ve seen, so I’m ready for my recap.

Best show:
It’s a tie between Plants & Animals and the last 20 minutes that I saw of the Handsome Furs set. I’m going to go with the Handsome Furs because it was so intense and energetic.

Best show from a band you have never heard before:
Bahamas. He is a solid guitar player and singer. Of the Jason  Collett/Zeus/Bahams trifecta, it was the aesthetic of the Bahamas songs that I was most drawn too. In terms of musicianship, he seemed like a cut-above his band mates.

Worst show:
The angry music during the middle of the Constantines set at the Indie music awards had me high-tailing it out of the Royal York before they were finished.

Best CMW moment:
The Handsome Furs encore. Because encores are so rare at music festivals like CMW that have strict set times, and because it was so good.

Worst CMW moment:
There are two worst CMW moments. The first would be showing up early to see Joel Plaskett, only to wait in line for the better part of an hour in the cold windy rain. On top of that, they were running behind so the doors opened late.

The second is a vicarious moment. I met a young woman who was so discouraged about the Plants & Animals lineup that she decided to forego that show to make sure she got to see the Handsome Furs. She arrived at the El Mocambo early but accidentally went upstairs instead of downstairs. When she realized her mistake, they wouldn’t let her in downstairs. This was a shared culpability situation, but better handlers at the door could have easily avoided this problem.

Here were Paul’s moments at CMW

Best Show: Parlovr @ Sneaky Dee’s. It was 2 AM. They seemed totally drunk, off the cuff, and a little bit goofy, but still blew me away with their songs and their stage presence (which was actually probably due to the apparent drunkenness) and proved that they were more than just another band of Montreal hipsters.

Best show from a band you have never heard before: A tie between The Atlas Moth And P.O.S.

Worst show: Nothing totally sucked, but Homicide @ The Comfort Zone was a bit of a letdown. Mind you, I only caught like 1 or 2 songs.

Best CMW moment: Separado! That movie just made me feel good.

Worst CMW moment: The mandatory coatcheck at The Phoenix. I’m fine with keeping my coat on, thank you very much.

CMW Review: Handsome Furs, Mar 12, El Mocambo

Posted on March 14, 2010 by Mark in Canadian Music Week, Concerts | 4 Comments

Handsome_Furs_El_Mocambo_March_12_2010

Toronto – As we’ve mentioned before, at music festivals like CMW, it’s likely that you’ll only catch parts of certain sets. Especially if you are busy hopping from venue to venue. For the first time in 28 years, CMW was completely sold out this year. As the festival has grown, the fans have become more plentiful. Sold out shows have made venue-hopping increasingly difficult. Throughout the week I’ve ran into a number of frustrated fans who were unable to see the bands they wanted because of lineups and capacity crowds. Unfortunately it seems like CMW has become a victim of its own success, despite the cold and wet weather thrown our way.

But CMW is about discovering and enjoying Canadian talent, so let’s get to the music. It’s not entirely fair that I cover the Handsome Furs show last Friday at the El Mocambo because I only caught the last 20 minutes of it. Not surprisingly, it was a much hyped and very sold out show. However, it was such an amazing experience that it deserves mention. Montreal-based Handsome Furs consists of guitarist singer Dan Coeckner (from Wolf Parade) and his wife Alexei Perry. They play a supremely charged and intense electro indie rock that is insanely infectious.

Since it was the last night of the show, they got the opportunity to perform a festival rarity by playing an encore. It was the most intensely charged 20 minutes of music I heard at CMW this year; I will be jumping at the opportunity to see them live again.