c.c in kgstn - "You need to pay attention"

Last night Kingston got its groove on as the wickedly funky controller.controller graced the stage of the Elixir. The show was hosted by Rockcrew Productions who are pretty much single-handedly responsible for bringing good music to Kingston. It was their third anniversary so to celebrate they gave away free cds from bands that they have brought to town. I got an ep from Everlea and a guy left his beside me on the bar so I also picked up a disk by The July 26th Movement who I never heard of before but seem pretty good (now apparently known as The Coast). These wouldn't have been my first choices but hey, who can argue with free?

The show started with Kingston's own The Roamers. While this name brings to mind a East Coast kitchen band in my mind it is actually a pretty good four-piece rock outfit. The guys are really young and sort of need to break away and find their own sound they are very good technically and know what they are doing. They sound like alot of indie/alt-rock bands but the most direct comparison I could make is with Dinosaur Jr. - and that is a pretty awesome band to be compared to. One of their songs had an alt-country feel to it and was one of their best. Certainly a band to watch out for.

Up next was Camouflage Nights - based out of Toronto but originally from Halifax. While my initial impression was "pretty good although not really my thing" by the end of their set I was hooked. It have a very Cake-like feel with rap-y style vocals. They are not big on complex lyrics but rather take the approach of looping and repeating phrases or verses while the music does the same, moving to a climax of funkiness. The band is comprised of six members, with a bunch of instrument swapping and each takes turns at the vocals although two of the guys do most of the singing. They have two organs/keyboards/synthesizers which are used to great effect. The band is really really tight and put on an excellent show. They don't have an album out yet but there is a 12" single and an mp3 for your listening pleasure on their site.

The headliners, controller.controller, were nothing short of awesome. There wasn't a single person in the place that was standing still - their disco-inflected post-punk ditties refused to let you rest - they screamed "YOU MUST DANCE!" so that is what we did. This band has gotten some crazy-good press: Time Magazine announced that their forthcoming album (due out Octoberish) is one of the most anticipated indie albums of the year; Pitchfork gave it an 8.3 (out of 10) - a pretty exceptional rating - and had nothing but really positive things to say about the whole thing. They played all the songs off of their super-funky EP History (do yourself a favour and get this cd immediately if not sooner) and played a bunch of stuff off their forthcoming album. It was an absolutely fantastic set, which led to the audience calling for an encore. Much to our delight the lead singer, Nirmala Basnayake, came out picked up the mic but instead of singing she proceeded to sit on the stage in the dark and explained that they would love to come back out and do another song but the police came and informed the club that they were violating noise laws and had to shut it down (it was before last call! What the hell?!?) She was extremely apologetic and we thought that was going to be it until guitarist Scott Kaija came out plugged in his guitar and started playing again very loudly. Basnayake just shrugged, said that it was a "fuck the law moment" and the rest of the band came out and they played a scorching encore. Which was? Awesome. They are on a mini-tour right now and are in Toronto on the 20th and I can't recommend going to see them highly enough.

After the show I hung out and had a beer with the other guitarist Colwyn Llewellyn-Thomas who I went to highschool with. We hadn't seen each other since 1997 and it was really great to catch up with him and hear what he has been up to.

It was all in all a great concert. The place wasn't really packed and the A/C was still effective so it was pretty cool in there and people weren't tramping on each other while getting their groove on on the dance floor. I was pretty wiped out today but it was totally worth it.

The next event in Kingston that will be chock-full of indierock goodness is the Wolfe Island Musicfest featuring Jill Barber, Luther Wright, Sarah Harmer, Apostle of Hustle, Cuff the Duke, Chris Brown Citizen's Band (f. Kate Fenner), Matthew Barber and the Union Dues, Tomate Potate and others so mark your calendars for August 5th and 6th. It is going to be great.
rgsc