Wolf Parade Triumph At Tour Opener

"Give Me! Your Eyes! I Need! Sunshine!"

Trust me, I know opening a concert review with a band's most iconic lyrics is about as trite a way to do it. But if the proverbial fly on the wall came away with any lasting moment from Wolf Parade's triumphant return to Montreal, it was Spencer Krug, Dan Boeckner, Dante DeCaro, Arlen Thompson and an impassioned audience's venue-rattling performance of their most famous song, "I'll Believe in Anything."

The now five-year-old number from the group's most revered album, Apologies To The Queen Mary, was the one that set off the likely sold-out crowd, most of whom have been camped in Wolf Parade's corner long before tonight's pilgrimage.

To see those standing in the pit, as well as those in the balcony, waving their fists and singing along louder than Krug, in unison proclaiming this to be their song, the significance was not lost on someone who considers Wolf Parade to be their favourite group.

Born in Montreal and raised in the suburbs, it was ironically the one time I was living away from my hometown — an academic sojourn in Buttfuck, Colorado in 2005 — where I first listened to Apologies in its entirety. It was a slice of home I was starting to long for, and something I could share with the younger, musically curious American students.

When I finally returned to Montreal, the initial Wolf Parade explosion had faded somewhat, and as was the style back then, I started hyping up other bands I didn't like as much.

So seeing everyone sing along so passionately to "I'll Believe in Anything" to the extent I did that one mid-morning in an empty Colorado dorm-wing, or the many times I popped in the CD while drunk, stoned, in love, trying to forget love or while driving around or, well, you get the picture, was an acknowledgement, perhaps even vindication, that fads come and go, but Montreal's musical heyday (now that we're removed from the eye of the hurricane) has yielded a few all-timers a great many of us will be singing along to for the rest of our lives.

"I'll Believe in Anything," and in descending order "This Heart's On Fire," "Language City," "You Are A Runner And I Am My Father's Son," "Dear Sons And Daughters Of Hungry Ghosts" and "California Dreamer" were canonized last night. They typically receive huge pops, and maybe it was just the lengthy absence Krug and Boeckner both alluded to, or how tight the now-quartet has become live, but this night felt different.

It had me thinking backwards and forwards, dually asking myself "Fuck, are these guys even better than last time?" while pondering, "I'll still pay money to see these guys in 30 years, when we're all old men."

Frankly, having seen the band multiple times live, and now in the process of digesting their new record Expo 86, never have the group's primary songwriters, Krug and Boeckner, seemed more in lockstep. Invariably, any talk about the band becomes a referendum on which of the two is better, but a Wolf Parade live show proves yet again we're all better sticking together than being apart.

The live performances of the new tracks exemplify that although they're capable of writing masterpieces on their own, the way Krug and Boeckner fill each other's spaces is what makes Wolf Parade such a rare meeting of two unique musical minds. The skeletal Boeckner and the increasingly Beethoven-coiffed Krug may have different approaches to songwriting, but the Boeckner-penned "Little Golden Age" really takes off thanks to Krug's vocal intro, while new crowd favourite "What Did My Lover Say?" is a Krug contribution where Boeckner's guitar roars throughout.

Actually, the extended, repetitive, and frankly amazing guitar riff at the end of the song was performed by DeCaro live, and the new material as a whole felt more like a quartet jamming than ever before in the band's history.

It's easy to mock Thompson as well for his simplistic drum playing, but if Krug and Boeckner are Lennon/McCartney, then Thompson has a Starr air to him, always keeping time and keeping everyone in check. Could you even imagine "You Are A Runner" without Thompson's drumming?

Another highlight among the new cuts was Boeckner's "Palm Road," which concluded with one of the better outro freak outs of the night, and Krug's "Cave-O-Sapien" — a surefire future classic with an easily imitable "oh-oh" for the audience (quite a few were already prepared for it) and an ultra aggressive third section.

As my ringing ears a day later can attest, it was a really loud show, perhaps to the detriment of Krug's keys during the most recongizable hook on the still epic "Kissing The Beehive." The Boeckner straightforward rocker "Pobody's Nerfect" was well-received, another cut featuring easy to remember lyrics and Wolf Parade's more movement-based songwriting.

Expo 86 opener "Cloud Shadow On The Mountain" came across as a tough cut for Krug, seeing as the band tends to play sped up versions of their songs live and the vocals on that track are already pretty quick. So fast is their live playing sometimes, in this instance the show was nearly two hours long yet felt remarkably brisk. Simply put, it was a night starring my favourite band, playing my favourite songs, in their hometown at the height of their game.

A couple of weeks ago, I briefly met a music journalist from BBC Radio 1, sent to Montreal from London, England on the eve of the latest Arcade Fire release, tasked with finding the next "it" band from our fair town. I shook her hand and nodded politely, but in reality I wanted to tell her to run, that the band she was looking for didn't exist back when Montreal was being hyped relentlessly, and doesn't exist today.

It's not that there aren't any great bands here, but you'll never find a young act as developed as an Arcade Fire playing in a club for 20 people, waiting to be plucked from obscurity.

In hindsight, I should have asked her if she remembered Wolf Parade, because if they're not as loved outside of Montreal as they are by their hometown fans, capable of reciting their lyrics as if they were their own, then perhaps it's time to get re-acquainted.

Here's what Wolf Parade played:

"You Are A Runner And I Am My Father's Son"
"Ghost Pressure"
"Cloud Shadow On The Mountain"
"Palm Road"
"Dear Sons And Daughters Of Hungry Ghosts"
"It's A Curse"
"Language City"
"Oh You, Old Thing"
"What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had To Go This Way)"
"Little Golden Age"
"This Heart's On Fire"
"I'll Believe In Anything"
"Pobody's Nerfect"
"California Dreamer"

Encore:
"Cave-O-Sapien"
"Shine A Light"
"Kissing The Beehive"