Pink Mountaintops' McBean The True Canadian Idol

As another season of American Idol winds down and another round of Canadian Idol gears up, the key problem with the shows has become more evident than ever: perfection.

Perfection is boring. It leaves no room for creativity and is simply tailor-made to be absorbed clinically by radio listeners. Standing opposite to the Idol machine is the world of indie rock — a world full of imperfection that somehow results in perfectly awesome music.

The true Canadian Idol right now is Stephen McBean, the president and CEO of the Black Mountain Army, who brought his Pink Mountaintops to the Horseshoe on Sunday.

Before the man of the hour arrived, Texas' Black Angels rolled out a set of songs from their recent full-length release, Passover. Sounding like a collision between Brian Jonestown Massacre and Black Heart Procession, the group's basslines shook the room and droned with stoneriffic superiority. Unfortunately, too many of the songs sounded exactly the same and some were so slow you could feel them oozing through the room; not the most pleasant feeling on a (mostly) sober Sunday night.

The biggest surprise when the Pink Mountaintops rolled onstage a half-hour later was the sheer size of the band. The project may be a mostly McBean solo endeavour in the studio, but they were seven strong in performance, including two percussionists and often two synth players. The result was a filling out of the songs on the band's self-titled debut and most recent release, Axis Of Evol.

McBean and his Black Mountain mate Amber Webber wailed through a thundering version of "Cold Criminals" and a guitar-filled "New Drug Queens," while "I (Fuck) Mountains" was transformed from a slow jam to a full epic. The band invited The Black Angels on to play tambourines for "Sweet 69," which turned the stage into a bigger party than the dancefloor.

Through it all, McBean was at odds with his ever-growing reputation as a magnetic frontman. Between songs he could barely muster thank-yous or, "You make us feel like the cool kids at school," but his energy during the songs made him a stellar presence. His vocal trade-off with Webber on "Tourist In Your Town" was the highlight of a show that perhaps ran a little bit long, but all credit to the band for playing every song they knew.

If you'd told me last year that this band could have equalled Black Mountain song for song in terms of showmanship, I'd probably have laughed in your face. The fact that the two were even close to on par means that you should do your best to keep your ear to the ground for the next time McBean rolls through your town with any of his increasingly fantastic groups.