What do you do when the promoter that had "lined up some bands" for a Wednesday night suddenly vanishes into thin air and all you are left with is an empty gap in the week? Well, if you are Lucky's, you get in touch with Devin Perfect of Handsome Distraction who scrambled and succeeded to pull this show together by the skin of his teeth. Normally, it is a day reserved for "The Mod Club". A night where the kids who are too cool for school come to dance. Well, there wasn't much dancing tonight. As the bands tried to coax people in with free shot tickets [got mine], there was a much bigger show in town. Jets Overheard and Maurice played that night, which left a lot of bars vying for the spot of "after party". As I entered the venue, it felt a bit lonely. What can you do besides hope for the best?
Opening the night was notorious local band 7 Year Old Poets [who have come out of hiding]. For a band that hasn't rehearsed for four months, they were incredibly tight. All the members sang in some capacity but it was members Tungsten Shoestepper and Bosma Von David that handled the main duties. This is a group that wears their influences on their sleeves. When Bosma was on deck, the songs came across as very Modest Mouse. He yelped like he stepped on a bear trap and the songs definitely had that vibe with the arrangement and layers. Shoestepper, on the other side of the stage, was more of a Wolf Parade sound. It was a grittier element of the band. It was almost a who's who of early 2000 indie. If you closed your eyes, you may hear The Constantines or for one song, The Libertines. Seamus Knuckles moved freely with his bass and I got the feeling he could play it in his sleep. Ching had some early problems with his kick pedal placement, but he contributed a solid beat throughout the show. The great thing about this band is that they thoroughly enjoyed playing together again. I'm sure their lives are in much different places right now than six years ago. The chemistry is still their and all the instruments mesh together in a genius way. They closed the set by feeding off some feedback from their amps. It made me think, why is this band opening? Well, they chose to. I go to receive my free shot, and the bartender says it's not redeemable. She rips it up in front of my face.
The middle spot went to Year of the Rat. A band I have seen many times around Victoria, but from the get-go, something was off. It seemed like half the band was asleep as they ran through their catalogue of favourites. Not that they were missing notes. It was just a sloppy performance that I know they could do much better with. An odd thing happened...the crowd 7 Year Old Poets brought had emptied out besides a few, and the band went bi-polar. Coll menaced over his keyboards and his voice bellowed out. Stringer planted his feet firmly on the stage with bass in hand, letting the notes ring out with passion. McNeil created thunder when his sticks met the snare. He is a heavy hitter [yet I've never seen him break a stick!]. Sanderson made it look easy with his flavourful leads, which really suite the songs and never come across as "hamming it up". Basically, they became the band I knew and steered away from being that band I used to know. They are set to work on their new EP, and a lot of the songs I am familiar with at this point. In fact, it's almost crazy that I would have assumed all the songs were just on The Code EP, but it looks like they've held back really strong material for the follow-up. The band stayed away from covers this evening and stuck to strong songs like Harder Than Knowing and Every Night a Vampire. It was a fine finish for the band that has been quite busy these days.
Remember that free shot debacle? Turns out the manager just didn't inform the bar staff. The situation was rectified by Mr. Devin Perfect, who just turns out to be the frontman for Handsome Distraction. Here they are now! Upon stage, they gazed out into the sparse crowd. Handsome Distraction is a band that maintains a high standard of playing. I've never seen them play a bad show [even two years ago when they played the Cambie in Esquimalt with a different roster and no bass player]. They have hit a definite mark on their performance level, and I would hope, if there is any justice in the world, that their star power rises in this little town of ours. Blowing through tunes like Dirty Knives and Who Do You Love?, the band was firing on all cylinders. Although all the band members sing, they aren't much for harmonies. It's all about beefing up the vocals, which works. It's really hard to say anything about this band that I haven't already said. The guitars intertwine between Francis and Perfect without overpowering eachother. Each member plays to their own strength. I don't see any big egos on stage or stereotypical rock stars. Weaver's bass flows to the beat. Reiber is still one of my favourite drummers in Victoria. Serious, Handsome Distraction is a band I would recommend to anyone. If I could suggest anything to take it to the next level, would be to entertain the idea of harmonies more instead of just doubling/tripling/quadrupling. It's hard to really put this gig down because it was so last minute.
All in all, it was a good night for music. It doesn't come often that I get to see a band that I haven't seen before. Seems like a lot of the same bands keep grouped together so they are always sharing a bill, or does it just say something about the current Victoria scene? Is this basically it? We have a little bit of this and a little bit of that? It's a close knit community with these bands. It would be nice to see someone really shake up the bills around town....or more people making bands. Yes, MORE BANDS! They aren't making any new Guitar Hero games, how about you try a real instrument?
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