Blitzen Trapper Play Like Two Bands

Horseshoe Tavern

Toronto, ON

on Feb 21 2009

Chris Burland (CHARTattack)

02/24/2009 2:13pm

It may have been cold and snowy on the streets of Toronto, but the heat inside the Horseshoe Tavern felt like a blistering sirocco off the Sahara Desert. The small club was sold-out for the return performance of Blitzen Trapper, fresh off the late 2008 release of Furr.

The night began with the at-times maudlin sound of Alela Diane, a Nevada singer with a strong affinity for the newly popularized psych-folk death country genre. Tales of love gone black seem to populate Diane's songs, and there was something naggingly familiar about it all as her set unfolded.

I kept asking, "What does this remind me of?" Then it became clear as the band struck some familiar chords for a song I hadn't heard in many years: Fleetwood Mac's "Gold Dust Woman." Diane is channelling Stevie Nicks into the 21st century. Now the sound made sense, and the short set was quite pleasant.

After a short respite, Blitzen Trapper took the stage without a single reindeer head in sight. The band's popularity has grown exponentially since the release of Furr on Sub Pop, and the live presentation matched the album's intensity.

Most of the early part of the show was devoted to Furr songs that were all performed exceptionally. The opening keyboard swells of album-opener "Sleepy Time In The Western World" blasted through with duelling guitars and dynamic harmonic vocals courtesy of guitarist Marty Marquis and drummer Brian Adrian Koch. This song showcased the intricacies of singer/guitarist Eric Earley's budding songwriting prowess. The band soon dove into brilliant renditions of "Saturday Nite" and "Gold For Bread," with Earley switching between guitar and keyboards for each song.

After only a handful of songs, the band left Earley on stage alone with an acoustic guitar to perform "Not Your Lover" and a cover of his mom's favourite song, "Cocaine Blues."

The band soon returned to continue the performance, and this is where things went off the track.

While the poppy psych-folk and rock of new songs "God + Suicide" and "Fire + Fast Bullets" was solid, the band quickly distanced themselves from their audience when they ramped up the speed and volume for some jamming freak-outs on their older material. Erik Menteer's glam rock guitar overtures were greeted with less and less enthusiasm as the night progressed, and the band's tendency to fall into some cacophonous instrumental breakdowns started sending the faint of heart to the exits.

Blitzen Trapper regained our complete and undivided attention after returning to songs from Furr. The soon-to-be classic title track, a Celtic-tinged acoustic number, had people wanting to hear it again when it was finished. The same happened for the dark and disturbing "Black River Killer," which featured an amazing synth solo.

But then the performance would veer back to some less imaginative and older "rawk" tune that stunted the momentum of a great show.

We witnessed two bands up there — one holding on to the past with its wild, undisciplined punk-fuelled prog rock desires; and the other more mature group, revelling in the presentation of some of the best material this side of Arcade Fire. Hopefully, in time, Blitzen Trapper will weed the wheat from the chaff and distance themselves from their earlier, less sophisticated material.