Yard Act Created a Musical Utopia at Théâtre Fairmount.
What do you get when you mix the bands Gorillaz & Cake? Yard Act, but cooler.
By cool, I mean quirky, but quirky is cool. At one point during the show, James Smith (Vocals) admitted that he was slowly losing the persona he thought he should be as a musician, giving way to his real self.
Being genuine is a brave choice, one that often results in a deeper connection with the audience. The Montreal crowd truly connected with the band from Leeds.
Omni
The Fairmount had a decent, but still sparse crowd for Omni, a Post-Punk band from Atlanta. They were a great choice as openers because in some ways, they resembled a low-key Yard Act. I appreciated the complexity of their songs, often given the “mathematical” label due to high skill level of the players, who somehow manage to play without calculators.
Heads were nodding in the audience, but it felt like a slow start. The challenge of the opener is to engage a crowd that is normally not aware of their existence, and are keeping them away from the band they want to see.
As their set progressed, their sound slowly grew on me, and they played an interesting cover of Sheryl Crow’s “All I Wanna Do.”
Yard Act
The venue had filled by the time the PA played “The Look of Love” by Dusty Springfield to introduce Yard Act.
The band started with “Dead Horse” off their first album. The horse is a post-Brexit Britain “bold in its idiocy.” The head nodding was now replaced with an audience unable to stand still. I’m dancing tonight people!
Ryan Needham, delivered a trembling baseline throughout the night and “Payday” really kicked it up a notch. Gentrification is a global issue, so if we use The Clash anthem’s title, we can ask: Should I Stay, beat the odds, get the big pay check and live the dream, or Should I Go not believing the fairy tale of hard work always pays off.
The latest album is titled Where’s My Utopia? Tonight’s first offering would be “Fizzy Fish” with lyrics like “The weather is irrelevant when they’re nibbling at my toes.” Originally about the Fizzy Fish candy but it soon took on the meaning of the internal struggle to hold onto your true identity by putting on a persona mask, or letting others see your true self, connecting through vulnerability.
I’m happy to see that James is working towards full vulnerability.
I enjoyed how we were on a teether-todder between the first and second album…old and new intermixed.
“Land Of The Blind” allowed Sam Shipstone to shine on guitar as the song extended into a rousing solo, while James sat on the drum riser, lending the spotlight to his bandmate.
True to the title, “We Make Hits” is about creating music with those you care most of. It is also catchy as a child returning from their first day in school.
“The Overload”, a song about snippets of conversations overheard from a bar stool, and our minds trying to piece it all together. I can’t help but feel that Instagram/TikTok Reels are like those snippets of random musings that confront our brain with thoughts shooting out in a million different directions, creating an overload of dopamine, dulling our senses.
The song would also channel Bruce Dickinson whispering in Jay Russell’s hears: “More Cowbell!”
“Trenchcoat Museum” became a frenzy of energy on stage, as Lauren Fitzpatrick & Daisy Smith danced in unison and kept building up the momentum as James hit the sampler with all his might. The song extended to the point where we were all dancing out the stresses of this world.
The band returned for an encore and ended with “Fixer Upper”, where a more extreme Graham than the observer and narrator of the songs off The Overload boasts about what he has become. It was a perfect ending to the night, allowing us to both hear the classics we have come to love, and some new songs which seemed to hit more intently than just hearing it.
Conclusion
Yard Act put on a fantastic show, which defied us to lift our bodies to the beats and look at the world through the eyes of our imaginary tour guide: Graham. With dark humour, great storytelling and deep interpretive lyrics, we enjoyed a night of groovy beats, cowbell and showmanship.
October 8, 2024 was a musical Utopia, where we left our troubles as the door, left and forgot to pick them up again.
Writer: Randal Wark is a Professional Speaker and MasterMind Facilitator with a passion for live music. You can follow him on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. His Podcast RockStar Today helps musicians quit their day jobs with out-of-the-box advice from Ted Talk Speakers, Best Selling Authors and other interesting Entrepreneurs and Creatives. He created the Rock Star Today Music Business Jam Session for musicians. Randal is a collector of signed vinyl, cassettes and CDs.
Photos – Steve Gerrard
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