COUSINS with BY DIVINE RIGHT at the Silver Dollar, Saturday, April 28. Rating: NNNN
There’s something about the lo-fi crunch of Cousins’ bare-bones garage-pop that sounds perfect coming through the speakers of the Silver Dollar.
Playing to the half-full bar, the Halifax duo showed that as good as their latest album is at capturing their noisy fuzz-pop, it’s a pale alternative to the live experience.
Though they both remained seated throughout the show – Aaron Mangle played a kick drum with his feet, in addition to guitar – they never let the energy dip. But underneath the high-voiced hooks and overdriven guitars was a studied, polished set of live chops. Mangle and drummer Leigh Dotey have been touring heavily, and it showed in their well-handled stop-start rhythms and musical chemistry.
Openers By Divine Right also impressed with their own high-energy set of indie rock tunes. Jose Contreras has been the only constant in the long-running CanRock institution, but his current trio (featuring Sheezer shredder Alysha Haugen on bass) seems to be a good one.
