Though I can only really speak for myself, the events of election week felt like a hurricane wrapped in a garbage fire – one that left me half-speechless, half-raving, and all-fried. To be honest, I felt kind of weird going out to a show, and when I got to Bar Le Ritz PDB it seemed like the crowd – and the bands – might have felt the same way. Still, as saccharine as it might sound, you can’t overstate live music’s power to electrify an audience and help them drop their worries for a little bit. And with a triple bill of high energy/high quality acts like Gulfer, Mercury Girls, and Foxing? I think its safe to say to say that the show left everyone feeling at least a little better.
Montreal’s own Gulfer stepped to the stage first, setting up their gear while bassist David Mitchell admitted “We’re really nervous,” to the dead-silent crowd. No one was quiet for long, though, as the band delivered a wake-up call to both hearts and minds with their fusion of emo and math-rock. Drawing in equal measures from the propulsion and heady time changes of Battles and American Football’s guitar-tapping and impassioned vocals, Gulfer’s songs never drag on – but even overflowing with energy, they don’t feel rushed, either. Instead, vocalist/guitarist Vincent Ford seems to know exactly how long to let his band linger, finding just enough time between bursts of desperate rock like “Bloody Lookin’” to stop and smell the hypnotizing serenity of a single repeating guitar line.
Mercury Girls were up next, opening the set with the catchy-as-hell post-punk dream-pop of recent single “All That Heaven Allows”. If that genre description makes you scratch your head, that’s probably a normal reaction. Mercury Girls somehow defy easy categorization, bringing enough jangle and edge to the comforting fuzz (re)popularized by The Pains of Being Pure At Heart to make it feel fresh and exciting. Big points on this front are due to the big voice of Sarah Schimineck, who lifts the Philadelphia five-piece up to new heights on standout “Holly”, from recent compilation Continental Drift. Schimineck mentioned a few times how nice it was to get a break from Pennsylvania, and I don’t think that was pandering. With the band locked into a jittery groove and Sarah swaying back and forth, just listening to the music, it looked like Mercury Girls were able to relax for the first time in a long while. I’m happy we could help.
Headliners Foxing are a different beast, though no less beastly, trading in energy for intensity with a series of multi-section musical portraits. The St. Louis sextet certainly earns their association with “post-rock”, but there’s definitely something more going on there. My live experience with the genre has mostly been limited to sitting down and spacing out at shows like Explosions in the Sky and Godspeed! You Black Emperor, so it was something special to be part of a crowd that was so into it by comparison, pumping their fists and hanging onto frontman Conor Murphy’s every word and defiant trumpet line.
Murphy’s voice, seemingly a vocal cousin of The Rural Alberta Advantage’s Nils Edenloff, Scott Hutchison from Frightened Rabbit, and Animal Collective’s Avey Tare, is at once fragile and mighty. Able to conjure up moments of fire and tenderness at will, he whispers, yelps, and soars to suit every song’s careful build to climax. On highlights from this year’s Dealer, like “Glass Coughs”, “Night Channels”, and “Redwoods”, the band slowly turns up the power until you can feel your heart in your chest and the bass in your butt. It was almost a relief to punctuate these moments of intensity with Murphy’s affable between-song banter, who tempered his bitterness toward being made to feel like a refugee from his band’s “sad shit country” with genuine appreciation for The Ritz’s crowd and their city.
There were no encores, and I don’t think any encores were needed. What started off as a weird night at the end of a weird week became something a lot more special and a little therapeutic, helping both the crowd and performers share in a quick moment away from everything else. The bands didn’t linger long, giving the sense that as nice as this was for them, life goes on. But this was good while it lasted – and a much-needed reminder that music might not solve every problem, but it can definitely take the edge off.
Review – Dan Corber
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