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Review Fri Apr 23 2010
Review: We Are Wolves @ Subterranean, 4/22
Being a music writer who is also a morning person isn't fair. I want to be able to stay awake and not fade as the night grows longer. Sometimes I don't always make it, but last night's show at the Subterranean had me very happy to be up. In fact, I didn't want the show to end.
I got there just in time to see Parlovr play a few songs. Post rock duo El Ten Eleven set up quickly and gave a wow factor to end most wow factors. I believe people were impressed with the mad skill of double neck guitar/bass player Kristian Dunn's ability to maneuver such an instrument. I however, was more impressed by his dance moves driven by the insane sound. The fact that I found him very cute complicated the set for me as I shifted from grooving to the lush ambient, yet danceable music to checking him out. It was a very difficult decision. The band covered Joy Division's "Disorder" which they made their own, while still paying homage.
The We Are Wolves set was even more insane, but in a different way. The French Canadian art rock band was a swirl of influence ranging from electronic to punk to psychobilly. Their stage presence was not to be ignored as lead singer Alexander Ortiz dressed in a garish pancho and three foot tall fuzzy hat commanded the stage. To the right was keyboardist Vincent Levesque all decked out zapatista style.
The set started out the set with the first two songs from their latest release Invisible Violence, "Paloma" and "Holding Hands". There was never any gaps in sound between songs. Alexander loved to to play with the synthesizers and say "Hello Chicago" or "Chee-caw-gooooo" with a robot french accent. Sometimes people never know what to do with the few awkward seconds when there is no music or banter. Fortunately for those people at last night's show this was never an issue. The band played song after high energy, dance making song never letting anyone take a break.
For the most part their songs were in english, but I truly wished I had taken French in high school be able to understand what the boys were getting so worked up about in "Magique" from Total Magique, their 2007 release. I am guessing something about magic, (which is what is needed to keep me up past 11 O'clock) and this band has it! I was still with it at midnight when things started to settle down and the guys ended the night with my favorite of the entire set, "La Rue Oblique" a seriously catchy new song.
It was a great show that surprised my senses and made me realize that staying up past my bedtime is sometimes worth it if discovering some cool new music is the tradeoff.
superfrye / April 24, 2010 12:00 PM
right on!! i was there too, and you have it down. fun times. nice review.