Canis Lupus Parade

Montreal-via-Victoria indie darlings Wolf Parade are quite the strange beast. From about the second spin of their debut, Apologies To The Queen Mary, I was hooked. There was just something infectious about the damned thing. I listened to it so often that I had a feel for every nook and cranny.

So then I was terribly disappointed when I saw them live for the first time. It was a Saturday show at The Phoenix -- probably the oddest one I've ever attended. See, it was Caribana weekend, and the doors opened incredibly early so that the place could be crunked up for a dance party later on in the evening. (We were kicked out... so I guess no indie kids allowed!) Because of this, I missed all of the openers, and made it just in time to see WP rush wildly (and terribly) through their set. Everything was so sloppy that they could've been an unknown band coming out of their parents' garage for the first time to play a show. Ugh. Highly upsetting.

(Side note: The highlight of the night, er, I mean early evening (it was still light out when we were thrown back out to the streets), came when the band performed an encore of "Dinner Bells." The venue obviously didn't want the band to play anymore, and had been freaking out at the side of the stage towards the end of their set, since WP had obviously gone over their allotted time. So when the house lights went up, the band came out for that one song, and even though they were being rushed, it was the most relaxed that I'd seen them play all night. How ironic… maybe in an Alanis Morissette kind of way.)

ANYWAYS, so yet another Saturday show rolls around, this time (at night, thankfully) at the Kool Haus, and Wolf Parade had a lot to do to win me back. Yet again, I missed the openers, but friends told me I didn't miss much. WP definitely surprised me when they took the stage. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't think they'd be able to draw such a huge crowd -- and an excited Toronto crowd, no less. They continued to surprise me a little, really committing to their new material from At Mount Zoomer, but at the same time, it's not an album for which I've been able to offer the same type of commitment. (Although I have to say, "Kissing The Beehive" was excellent.)

And once again, these guys ploughed through their old tracks, and it killed me. The drummer was even off-tempo for one of the songs. THE DRUMMER! Seriously, people. Shouldn't you guys kinda, like, know these songs by now?!

I know there can be slopp-awesome, but seriously, this was sloppy-gross-sloppy. I wonder when the day will come that reviewers and fans alike will be able to see through their incredible indie sheen...

-j