After a two month concert hiatus it was good for me to get back in the game after getting so pissed off the last time I saw a live show. This was back in January when Father John Misty played with The Walkmen at The Danforth Music Hall. It wasn't the band's performances that were bad, but it was my old pet peeve the inconsiderate, talkative, and just plain selfish asshole fans. Yes, I got stuck beside one of these idiots-the guy talked about his trip to Calgary and snowboarding expedition the whole fucking concert. I was so mad I didn't even do a concert review of the show and I swore that was the last gig that I would attend....ever!!!
Alas, I had major live music withdrawal in February and I was itching to see some live music. Django Django playing last night at The Opera House provided the remedy. Actually March seems to be a good month for Scottish bands playing live in Toronto as there are four groups stopping in town during the month. Unfortunately Veronica Falls was playing the same night as Django Django over at The Garrison and obviously I was unable to see them. Tried to get Frightened Rabbit tix as well but they were sold out. I will be going to see buzz band Chvrches when they play Canadian Music Fest next week.
The opening band was a group from Minneapolis named Night Moves who specialize in indie rock that is inflected with country. The band seem to be influenced by seventies AM radio country rock (think Bob Seger, thus the group's name) and after 5 or 6 songs I began comparing them to Band Of Horses. They were okay but seemed an odd choice to open for a dance rock band.
Night Moves- Headlights
Django Django arrived enthusiastically on the scene at about 9:15 and all of the members were wearing matching shirts. The concert kicked off like the band's S/T album, with the instrumental track "Introduction" morphing into Hail Bop. The track proved that Django Django were a lot more dance oriented than I had originally thought and can even be compared to Hot Chip when they play live. In fact synth player Tommy Grace could be a dead ringer for Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor.
The next three tracks, "Storm", "Firewater", and "Wave Forms" kept the rave going with the music turning the area in front of the stage into a full on dance floor. During "Wave Forms" all three members took to the synths and played like 1986 Depeche Mode.
Lead singer David Maclean was like a circus ring leader instructing the crowd to put their hands in the air and even brought out a cow bell to play. At one point he had to share that he had found out that John Candy was from Toronto. Must be a big fan.
The concert slowed down when the band played "Love's Dart" (meh!!!) and the acoustic number "Hand of Man"which provided a nice peaceful song for the audience to clap along to. This was okay because it allowed the guys to have a rest from the frenzy of the other parts of the show.
Next up was the weird but cool Egyptian sounding song 'Skies Over Cairo" which had Maclean acting like a snake charmer while banging on a bass drum and yelling to the crowd “People of Toronto, are you ready to come up up up with us?”
The big hit came next as the band launched into "Default". The crowd were digging it but unfortunately the sound mix was a little off. That's okay, it wasn't that bad and the audience barely noticed as they were lost in dance.
"Life's A Beach" was the track that sounded the most rock on the night. There was no synth on the song and it could be compared to the band's countrymates Franz Ferdinand.
"WOR" was the last song of the night (besides the encore) and probably the coolest. The surf guitar intro was accompanied with air raid sirens before turning into a bopping great ending tune.
The group only played one encore song, Silver Rays, which was a fun bass and synth track. As usual the crowd were disappointed that the concert was so short but as Maclean pointed out they only have one album worth of material. He promised more songs next time.
And as for the audience, they were very well behaved and restored my faith in live concerts. Next time you happen to be standing next to a douche who thinks he or she is more important than the live act....just move. Also it helps to have Brendan Canning from Broken Social Scene standing in the area. Bet he doesn't take any crap.
Setlist:
1 – Introduction
2 – Hail Bop
3 – Storm
4 – Firewater
5 – Waveforms
6 – Love’s Dart
7 – Hand of Man
8 – Skies Over Cairo
9 – Default
10 – Life’s A Beach
11 – WOR
Encore:
12 – Silver Rays
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