Lightning Strikes Twice For Wolf Parade

La Sala Rossa

Montreal, QC

on Aug 25 2007

Noah Love (CHARTattack)

08/27/2007 1:00pm

Exactly two weeks ago Saturday, a band made my head explode. It was an unusual experience because it was a group who I'd seen numerous times in the past, one who I hadn't exactly lost my passion for, but who I thought would never reach the sheer unmitigated highs they'd provided during my earliest viewings. But at the Wolfe Island Music Fest, Wolf Parade put on a set so astounding, I haven't stopped talking about it since. And so it was that I ended up in Montreal on Aug. 25 to see the group again, this time completely uninterrupted by Wolfe Island's unfortunate ferry schedule. The question was, could lightning strike twice? To steal a line from the person I attended both shows with, "It's like lightning struck and then, in that exact spot, an atomic bomb went off."

Mild hilarity ensued when the opener turned out to be the exact same group who preceded Wolf Parade two weeks ago, Holy Fuck. Brian Borcherdt and co. put on a more concise set with yet another new drummer who seemed a little more in-tune to their improvisational sampling than Jon McCann had been. The highlight was by far a track that they had screwed up several times over on the last go around, one based on a deceptively slow keyboard loop that their drummer this week immaculately kept time with. The energy rose throughout the song and by the end, the seemingly indifferent audience had focused their attention squarely on the stage. The lowlight came immediately after when, for the second time in a row, the performance passed its natural conclusion and devolved into wankery. "We should probably end there," Borcherdt announced, "but we have five more minutes." Why some musicians can't just end on an insanely high note is beyond me. An MC came out for the last song, during which he babbled incoherently about love into two microphones. To their credit, the crowd gave them a lot of said love for the mess, but it was a sour ending to what could have been a rock solid opening set.

I can't really complain too much, though, since, amazingly, the night was running on schedule. Wolf Parade took the stage only 10 minutes late (truly shocking for this particular band at a homecoming, headlining show), and Dan Boeckner announced that the night would feature a lot of material from the group's forthcoming, still untitled, still undated sophomore album. The first track, a staccato-driven, Boeckner-sung piece, was as great as it had been before, but the crowd wasn't as overwhelmed by it as I was. It wasn't until the third track, "Language City," a truly epic Wolf Parade rocker, that the room finally started to realize they were seeing something special.

"It's funny," Boeckner snorted midway through, "that no matter how many shows we play, no matter how long we've been together, we'll never reach the level of professionalism of a band like, I don't know, Interpol." People booed this sentiment, and for good reason. It's the same reason that I don't feel any particular passion when I see The Arcade Fire now. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy seeing both those bands perform, but there's a big difference between watching something that can actually raise the hair on your skin and a solid concert. In the cases of both Interpol and Arcade Fire, the extremely high level of professionalism has sucked the spontaneity out of their live shows. With Wolf Parade and bands such as The Black Lips, Deerhunter and Gogol Bordello, there's an element of precariousness. With some of those groups, it always feels like a member could injure themselves, the guitarist could blow out a monitor or that any number of other things could go wrong, leaving you breathless as the fate of the show hangs in the balance (case in point, Deerhunter, whose Lee's Palace gig in July ended after 35 minutes when the bassist blew out his amp).

In that respect, Wolf Parade are on the top of the heap. There is an unreal tension between Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug, two men who couldn't seem more different from each other, both personally and musically. And yet, when it comes to this band, they both bring their A++ game. Krug's new tracks are miles and miles ahead of anything he's done with Sunset Rubdown in the last two years, while Boeckner's have more depth and passion than the songs on the Handsome Furs excellent Plague Park debut.

And when the applause died down for the newer material, they would bring the energy to even greater heights with the best songs from Apologies To The Queen Mary. Main set highlights included "Shine A Light" and the one-two punch of "You Am A Runner And I Am My Father's Son" and the furiously paced "Fancy Claps." When they announced they were winding down, people started screaming at them to keep playing.

"It's a really long song," Boeckner said. "Like, Yes-long, like Genesis 'Lamb Lies Down On Broadway-long.

"After the barn-burning closer, the crowd refused to let the band walk off silently into the night. I thought either of two tracks could have provided the note-perfect conclusion. When Boeckner announced they would play two more songs, "both in the key of C," it was clear that this would be an unbeatable set. Blazing versions of "This Heart's On Fire" and "I'll Believe In Anything" whipped the crowd into a frenzy one more time and Wolf Parade left the stage as hometown heroes.

Without overselling it too much, Wolf Parade's new album is going to be your album of the year. Or, well, mine, at least. Just which year, this one or next, remains the only question.

(PS. Probably next.)