Sunset Rubdown's Thanksgiving Treat

Lee's Palace

Toronto, ON

on Oct 13 2008

Matt Littlefair (CHARTattack)

10/14/2008 1:36pm

While standing in an oddly half-empty Lee's Palace at 10:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving Monday, I briefly toyed with the notion of creating a list of things to be thankful for in relation to Sunset Rubdown.

Some of these things would be vocalist/keyboardist/guitarist Spencer Krug's extremely esoteric but wildly entertaining and highly literate lyricism and the group's ever-present ability to build to some of the best crescendos in all indie rockdom. I then quickly realized that this was a simplistic, lazy and contrived approach to the show (but I worked it in anyway).

Nonetheless, on an unseasonably warm fall evening, Krug and his cohorts proved once again why Sunset Rubdown are a totally different (and I'd argue better) animal when they're let out of their recorded cage.

In a sort of Caveat emptor, I am in every way a massive Sunset Rubdown fan. I've seen them live innumerable times — OK, it's pretty easy to count, seven times — and I've played both Shut Up I Am Dreaming and last year's Random Spirit Lover to death.

Every time I've seen the band — and Monday night was no exception — I've wished that they were able to capture their live intensity on record. Too often they sound overly cautious when they're tumbling out of my headphones. But live, they play fast, loud and with more than a bit of reckless abandon and last night was no exception.

The Montreal-based quintet were a pleasure to watch as they beguiled fans expecting the same delicate delivery of their recorded material. My only hope is that the music the band recently spent some time recording (as mentioned by instrumental multi-tasker Camilla Wynn Ingr) continues the slight shift in tone that last year's Random Spirit Lover hinted at.

Sunset Rubdown delved heavily into freshly minted material, devoting more than a third of their set to songs that haven't appeared on any of the group's proper LPs. Krug didn't proffer any titles for the group's latest efforts and while I'd love to speculate, I'm a bit reticent. Of the new offerings, the best is entitled "Idiot Heart" (according to the always reliable internet), but with Krug it could just as easily be titled "The Warrior Actor Stole That Peanut Butter Sandwich From Your Mother's Ghost IV." Any way you slice it, it was a visceral, drum pummeling affair dotted with the usual Krug lyrical tropes and all around goodness.

Aside from the new stuff, Sunset sampled equally from both Shut Up I Am Dreaming and Random Spirit Lover. "The Taming Of The Hands That Came Back To Life" took on a renewed energy live and inspired at least two people to dance like they were possessed. Sunset Rubdown were loose and raucous and imbued songs with a raw edge that included some jaw-dropping guitar work from Jordan Robson-Cramer, who came out from behind the drum kit for a handful of songs including set closer and Krug favourite, "Stadiums And Shrines II."

When the dust settled after nearly 90 minutes, Krug, drenched in sweat, thanked the audience for the fifth time as everyone filed off the stage as quietly as they'd entered, leaving everyone more than a little grateful. You might even say, thankful — HA!