“That’s right. I’m a sad mime, you jerk.” Photos by John Moore.
Montreal-based sextet came to Monday night in support of their sophomore album “Arm’s Way,” due May 20 on Anti- Records. The melodic indie group reinvented themselves a few years ago with more radio-friendly songs and members than their previous project, .
The slim but faithful audience was immediately entranced with opening song “Vertigo,” which sports slow, moody, captivating lyrics like, “If it’s a crime, they’ll hang me every time I try to offer up a reason why.” The band is endowed with strong, symphonic musical versatility, but it seems they’re having a hard time finding their identity.
Sometimes you can hear worldly (island-like?) qualities in the songs, while other times it’s more in the glam-rock vein. There was a non-stop flow of music through the night, with little or no breaks between songs, making it sound like a schizophrenic soundtrack to an R-rated drama. The music was beautiful, but it became hard to follow the chord changes and hang onto the energy.
The back-up band’s collection of noteworthy sounds included the Chow brothers, who dueled with violins — almost forgetting anyone else was on stage with them. The air filled with the deep, reedy sounds of the bass clarinet as well as shakers, synths and percussion creating thick compositions, similar (at moments) to the Arcade Fire. It was unfortunate that the sound engineer didn’t realize all this music was drowning out the vocals.
The ups were very up, the lows so low they became redundant and sluggish. Lead singer Nick Thorburn’s vocals, similar to his music, can be all over the place but has contributes much to his storytelling. He croons a higher-pitched, modern indie style, but can descend to a more vulnerable and forced moan that sometimes sounds grating rather than soothing.
When he actually spoke to the crowd, which was rare, you wished he hadn’t. His mime-like face paint must have been there for a reason, but the minute he tried to make small talk, all that was fashioned for stage presence became lost. He should probably lose the face paint too, which felt pretentious and reminded us of a fad that is very much over.
The group warmed up toward the end of the set when covering Sinead O’Connor’s “Red Football,” nailing it more than any of their own songs. The show ended on “Swans,” an astonishing piece that caught a lot of attention when it was released on their debut album, “Return to the Sea.” It’s lengthy but sustains itself with low-level, persuasive turns and well-timed, anthem-esque chord elevations. It seemed perfect for the band to end on this note, forgiving the nightap more unenthusiastic moments.
Reverb contributor Lisa Gedgaudas also writes for .
John Moore is the theater critic for The Denver Post.
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