First Off, Besnard lakes. I finally know how to pronounce their name now ! Was it "bai-nard" or "bess-nar-d" ?? Well, I lost my bet. It's indeed pronounced bess-nar-d. But should I trust the friendly jazzfest announcer ? :)On with the show.... They played 7 of 8 songs on their current album (strangely omitting the cute Cedric's War). Not to be too kind, but all the songs sounded amazing and showcased a wide variety of talent within the band. Some instrumentations were so inspired it made me doubt my own musical abilities (which only happens in front of great artists). I found the vocals to be endearing, emotionally charged and full of interesting references from Brian Wilson to Pink Floyd, but always with a fresh twist. The lead singer's voice really touched me: it's one of those voices that appear cold on the surface but really have much going on in the backseat.
One this that came out of this show is how much the band really resembles their Montreal counterparts The Arcade Fire. First off, a friend of mine made me notice how the formula applied : tons of musicians, baroque instruments, husband and wife as leads, epic songs.... However, I was way more impressed by yesterday's cooled down, down to earth performance, than by Arcade Fire's circus freek show at the Maurice Richard Arena. The music takes its rightful place at the center-stage and we appreciate it so much more...
Being an Arcade Fire fan myself, I do have to admit that the Besnard Lakes just seemed like a more mature band (both in music and attitude) and could very well go ahead of them in my Montreal Band pantheon.
Back to the show... the highlight for me was Disaster, arguably the best song on the album and definetly the best at the show. It started out slow, and slowly built up to a mind-blowing finale that had me almost shiver. Also noteworthy was the fabulous And You lied to me, which really rocked! Overall, all other songs were ranging in the great-to-excellent category and I won't comment further to avoid boring everyone....
patrick watson review coming very shortly.... (when I find some time to pause during work hehe)
2 comments:
Patrick Watson called them the "beznard" lakes, too. My favorite song they played was "And You Lied to Me"
And You lied to me was my second favorite ;) (as I said in my review)
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