This Week in Shows

Liars: Lee's Palace, June 21

Liars - Hold Hands and It Will Happen Anyway (live)

Whatever you might have imagined that a Liars show in support of the Drum's Not Dead album would sound like, the reality is that it has much more of the following than you might have expected: drums (which may not seem surprising, until you realize that the guitars are actually being played as drums), stimulants, and trans-gender costume changes. Each of these small surprises was enough to make me extremely happy to be standing inside the least air conditioned of all the Toronto clubs, but the highlight was undoubtedly the seemingly endless supply of energy channelled by the band throughout the whole show, despite the oppressive heat. The brand of noisy and experimental rock music the band does so well is easily turned to pretentious wankery in the wrong hands (as was the case when I saw Animal Collective earlier this year). Fortunately, the Liars attacked their instruments in a punk rock fashion, beating noises out of their drums and guitars that were at once jarring and refreshing to hear.

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José González, Juana Molina, Psapp: Trinity St. Paul's, June 26

Walking into a packed church and hearing an infectious bossa nova beat instead of someone preaching about Jesus was enough to make my day, but it was the first in a series of pleasant moments that would occur over the course of the night.

Psapp - Hi

Given that the two ladies that make up the core of Psapp began each song by reaching into a canvas bag with the word "Magic" written on it and pulling out a different ridiculous children's musical instrument to play along with their usual singing and violin playing duties, there was almost an infinitely small chance that I wouldn't like them. But the stage props, which also included homemade cat dolls that were thrown periodically into the audience, were indicative of a band that were actually having fun and making some playful music backed by enough creative and good ideas to make it far more interesting than most of the indie-pop clones that seem to be clogging up the internets these days.

Juana Molina - La Verdad (live)

That one person is capable of making so many beautiful and strange sounds with their voice and just a few musical instruments is one thing. That they are able to do it alone in a live setting, in front of a large audience, and actually make it sound better than a recorded album is something else altogether. Whether imitating dog barking noises in the most musical way imaginable or creating layers of sampled loops that never seemed repetitive, Molina created sounds that were orchestral in scope and seemed almost out of place coming from such a small person, alone on stage.

José González - Teardrop (Massive Attack)

Of all the artists at this show, I knew José González the least coming in and was perhaps least excited about when I left. Undoubtedly, he plays beautiful, technically proficient music in his shy, understated way. But after a while, all the songs blended into one another until I found my mind drifting elsewhere. However, he was able to fully regain my attention with an outstanding cover of Massive Attack's "Teardrop" (thanks to Chromewaves for this recording).

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[Liars tourdates; Psapp tourdates; Juana Molina tourdates; José González tourdates]