I think that the best thing about our city is that even on a terribly rainy Sunday evening there is always the opportunity to find good live music. This past Sunday was no exception as Royal Canoe (Montreal Rampage interview HERE) and Bombay Bicycle Club put on a killer show. Royal Canoe opened and I was throughly impressed. These six beautiful lads from Winnipeg can give you a show. When they played the incredibly catchy single Bathtub the audience was mesmerized…. My own hypnotism with this band commenced when they played Nightcrawlin’.
Royal Canoe fills the stage with double everything: double keyboards, double drummers and the prodigious double microphones. The layering of the two mic’s is like the cherry on top. The sound that comes out is almost sexual sci-fi as lead vocal’s Bucky Driedger’s voice is extremely soulful to begin with, and with the overly dubbed ghostly effect it took me completely off guard. Not to mention that every band member has their eyes closed, bending and hovering over their instruments, dancing in-sync. It was like watching six guys who are head-over-heels in love with their instruments. The overall performance of The Royal Canoe was breath-taking to say the least. We’re in luck as this Canadian six-piece is scheduled to play Osheaga this year!
The first thing I noticed about the headliner of the evening, Bombay Bicycle Club, is the extremely young and nice fan-base. The crowd they drew was about four hundred polite, smiling, exuberant twenty-somethings. Starting off the performance with their track Overdone and with each song that followed, the energy only continued to rise both on-stage and off. I loved how they used the whole stage, bringing in a half-drum, switching percussion instruments and of course their adorable dancing. Bombay Bicycle club’s genre is a combination folk, electonica and indie rock with a nice touch of British accent.
A great moment was when the secret weapon Liz Lawrence was revealed. The marriage of her and Jack Steadman’s voices was beautiful. Every song had an infectious character that made everyone’s limb’s move. The combination of the amazing sometimes-strobe lighting (thank God there was no epileptics in the audience) and projected graphics gave the performance a magical feeling.
Even though Bombay Bicycle has been on tour for a few weeks, I had the impression that it was such a treat for them to perform for us. Steadman had the cutest little boy grin during the entirety of the show, and it was contagious to everybody in the room. The encore has yet to remain my favorite part of any show, and they killed it with Carry Me and Always like this. Eavesdropping on everyone’s overall great time at the show, everyone filed out of the venue raving about the bands and their complete musical satisfaction.
Royal Canoe and Bombay Bicycle Club played Virgin Corona Theatre on May 4.
You nailed the essence of the night, wish I could go back and be on time..
Nice use of prodigious!