After a month touring around North America, the Jaguar Sunshine Tour rolls into Casa Del Popolo this Friday night.
Listening to tonight’s opener, Carissa Myre, aka Layzi, in advance, I arrive at the show expecting one woman with a laptop and very little else; the twee indie pop I’ve heard certainly suggests as much. Indeed, Layzi purports to make all her music in her bedroom. Unless her bedroom is a bona fide recording studio, what else would you expect?!
In reality, it’s a four-piece band that arrives on stage. Immediately, you notice a much beefier sound, with drums, bass, and guitars. And not a laptop in sight! The sound is still lo-fi, very reminiscent of Snail Mail, though a cover of Nirvana’s Come As You Are is obviously grungier. The rest of the band sit cross-legged while Carissa sings solo on her acoustic for one song before returning to their feet to close out the set. Definitely not what I expected coming in, but even better!
With the last-minute cancellation of co-headliner Jaguar Sun, it’s left to JW Francis to close out the truncated show. He arrives on stage with his two-piece band, kicks one of his effects pedals, and Jump by Van Halen starts playing over the PA. The band then start a choreographed dance routine, much like OK Go used to do, though it looks especially cool on the tiny Casa Del Popolo stage! JW then jumps down onto the floor to high-five as many people in the room as possible before running back to the stage to start the set with I Love You, bouncing around the stage throughout with bassist Gambee.
The pace continues on the epic Orbit, and indeed throughout the set. In conjunction with the dim light of the room, it’s beyond the capabilities of my iPhone to take any decent photos to accompany this review, so my apologies for the blurriness!
A set highlight appears early on when a fan from Toronto named Matthew (who isn’t old enough to attend the Toronto show) holds up a sign requesting to sing Mississippi along with JW, who duly obliges. Matthew arrives on stage armed with a colour-coded lyric sheet for himself and JW, and the pair exchange vocal parts like seasoned pros. Matthew was ready for this, that’s for sure! JW appreciates it too; at the end of the song, he proclaims: “That was wholesome and awesome!”
JW is an engaging frontman throughout, telling various anecdotes between songs. Prior to Is That the One, he relates how that song is about calling your Grandma on the way home from work. Afterwards, he details his quest to find YouTube user Jose43122. Six years ago, they commented that the outro lyric “I love you more than I thought” actually sounds like “I love you more than iPods,” and JW has been trying to find them ever since! Apparently, his Uncle once told him, “If you had more songs like Swooning, you’d go somewhere!” The song in question follows, to rapturous applause, and is definitely another set highlight.
Gambee busts out an epic wandering bassline on Maybe before really cutting loose, flailing hair like a metalhead on set closer Gold in conjunction with JW’s distorted riffs. The Darwin Deez vibes of Pretending sound particularly good tonight too.
All in all, it’s a great 65 minutes, and despite the cancellation of Jaguar Sun, the Montreal stop of the Jaguar Sunshine Tour is a resounding success!
Setlist
- I Love You
- Orbit
- Casino
- Turtleneck Weather
- Mississippi
- Maybe
- Pretending
- Is That the One
- Picture That
- New York
- Swooning
- John, Take Me With You
- Gold
Review & photos – Simon Williams
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