those pesky canadians

Montreal seems to be a real hotbed for indie rock these days. A couple of weeks ago I saw French-Canadians Malajube open for Snowden and completely blow them away in the process. Tonight were The Besnard Lakes doing much the same to Brooklyn's Dirty On Purpose.

There are so many reasons to like The Besnard Lakes: they seem to be very nice people - Jace was among the crowd for the first act, and even helped them get their gear off the stage; canadian accents (even poking fun at themselves a bit with outbursts like "take off, eh?" and "total fuckin' beaut!"); smoke machines; and, let's face it, they totally fucking rock! I feel awfully fortunate to have seen them at the Hi-Dive with probably about 100 other people for their first Denver show. This band is hot hot hot right now, and will likely only get hotter. Tonight they played:

Rides The Rails
Devastation
For Agent 13
On Bedford And Grand
Because Tonight
Disaster
And You Lied To Me

Dirty On Purpose took the stage to a far smaller crowd than had been there for The Besnard Lakes. Which is too bad - despite being a bit upstaged by the Canadians, they did play a nice set. However, they were not quite as good tonight as I'd hoped. I fell completely in love with last year's album Hallelujah Sirens, and tonight's set fell just short of my expectations. The vocals were mixed pretty low and hard to hear, and the band just didn't seem as tight as they could have been. Which is not to say they aren't fun... Joe mentioned that he'd been watching Dancing With The Stars downstairs and decided that he could win. Then we got to see his Michael Jackson moves. I've never seen DWTS, but I'd vote for him. :) With two songs left things started breaking down... Joe broke a string and had to use one of The Besnard Lakes' guitars. Then there was some problem with the bass. But at least we got a joke out of it: How did the pig get to the hospital? In the hambulance. Yeah, groan, I know. Their set (partially, anyway - don't have it all worked out yet and I'm damn tired):

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Monument
Your Summer Dress
Ways To Drown
Fake Lakes
Car No Driver

Opening up the whole evening was local band Mothership. They were... adept. The crowd loved them, but they were just too "jammy" for my tastes, and all the songs started to sound the same. Which is not to say they were without bells and whistles (literally). Adam alternated guitar, whistling, baritone sax and this odd black box with an antenna that made noises when he moved his hands near it. Noises that kind of sounded like a... mothership. Those are all technical terms, too, I swear! Brian had a cool Star Wars guitar. Brendon alternated guitar and trumpet. It sounds like it should all add up to something spectacular, but it just didn't hit me the right way I guess. I did enjoy the last song of the set, though - called Ida Lee - about leaving earth in a homemade spaceship in 2012 (or 2013, I can't remember the exact date...). Awesome.