[from Toronto,
Canada] Gorgeous. Not the
transvestite stage spectacle and loud queer politicizing I expected, but rather
a focus on the music, which is more beautiful and orchestral than I realized
from their studio recordings. I finally understand why they’re described as
chamber pop. Young cute Canadians – maybe not cute – they were each a little
dorky and odd in their own way. The lead singer pleased me with his tall
lankiness and dark eyes, and his distinctive prettily quirky voice that warms
me like the sound of a well-liked familiar friend. There were two fiddlers, a
keyboardist, an occasional trumpeter, a drummer – maybe 7 or 8 people on stage
total? Their songs are complicated but hooky, like The Shins but more
comfortable. They toy with sounds and their voices and the instrumentation in a
sophisticated and sonically pleasing way. They’re often billed as “gay church
folk music,” and part of what attracted me to them in the first place was their
blaspheming of religious imagery by jumbling it up with explicit homosexual
lyrics. While there is something majestic and holy in their sound, the term
“folk” doesn’t do credit to their sound. This band and I were meant for each
other. (Photo courtesy of
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