Wolf Parade Bulk Up

I saw my favourite show of 2007 at exactly this same time last summer. Wolf Parade hadn't played a concert since the year before that and their first show back was a headlining gig at the Wolfe Island Music Festival in Kingston, Ont. Instead of showcasing a few new songs and shaking the dust off their classics, they performed nearly an entire album that had no title or release date. This record — eventually named At Mount Zoomer — that wouldn't even see store shelves for another 10 months. What they played that night was simply stunning.

The music sounded a bit different 364 days later at the Kool Haus on Saturday, but the feeling remained the same. Wolf Parade are a band who you have to see live in order to realize how good they really are. I'm practically beside myself when people express ambivalence toward the quintet. If you're on the fence, see the show.

First, even though most of the songs were the same, none of them sounded stale. Wolf Parade pride themselves on tweaking their material in concert to keep the performances fresh. The songs from At Mount Zoomer (which was played in its entirety, though not in order) have been beefed up on guitars and keyboards. Yet, the sound in the Kool Haus, which has been hit and miss through the years, was immaculate. That every note of every song was perfectly audible only made an already potent performance more explosive.

The crowd, an odd mix if there ever was one, couldn't have produced a bigger response. They spontaneously clapped during "Language City" and the applause for the encore was noisy and genuine (rather than forced and tired, as it so often is in Toronto). When said encore closed with "I'll Believe In Anything," it was the perfect cap to a perfect show.

I was a bit worried about Wolf Parade's ability to translate their intense, strangely intimate sound into a room like the Kool Haus, but they laid all of my fears to rest almost immediately. From the pounding opening beats of "You Are A Runner And I Am My Father's Son," pure excitement reverberated through the room, and it didn't let up until the encore's final flourish. It's not a stretch to say this will probably hold up as my favourite show of 2008.

Here was the set list:
"You Are A Runner"
"Soldier's Grin"
"Call It A Ritual"
"Grey Estates"
"Dear Sons And Daughters Of Hungry Ghosts"
"Language City"
"An Animal In Your Care"
"Shine A Light"
"Bang Your Drum"
"Fancy Claps"
"Fine Young Cannibals"
"California Dreamer"
"This Heart's On Fire"
"Kissing The Beehive"
"Grounds For Divorce"
"It's A Curse"
"I'll Believe In Anything"