BADBADNOTGOOD with BRENDAN PHILIP at the Harbourfront WestJet Stage, Friday, August 30. Rating: NNN
SoundClash Music Award winner Brendan Philip treated Hot & Spicy Food Festival goers to a set that was as varied musically as his crowd-working was entertaining. From a cover of D’Angelo’s Devil’s Pie to the affecting Wild Side, Philip gave the audience an impassioned glimpse of his unique artistry: his soulful funk, delivered with a haunting voice and teasing lyrics, left the audience wanting much more than the 40-minute set they were given.
More than adequately filling the void, Toronto jazz trio BadBadNotGood followed with their twist on classic hip-hop tracks Kanye West’s Flashing Lights has never sounded so nuanced. The guys lived up to their introduction as a band that “bonded over their love of Odd Future, Gucci Mane and Lil B” by performing a mix of original material and the covers they’ve become known for, including TNGHT’s Bugg’n and Mane’s Lemonade. The latter was the crowd favourite and show closer, but their take on Flying Lotus’s Putty Boy Strut was warm and inspired on a drizzly night.
Holly Mackenzie
DEPECHE MODE at the Molson Amphitheatre, Sunday, September 1. Rating: NNNN
Depeche Mode’s self-reinvention as a stadium rock band came off a bit weird. It’s like they don’t think being an electro band cranking their music out of synths and drum machines is worthwhile. But maybe it’s more about ego than it is about feeling uncomfortable in their own shimmering skin: they’re not satisfied to be the world’s greatest electronic band they want to be the world’s greatest rock band, too.
On Sunday they made a pretty convincing run at the title with a carefully curated set for the sold-out crowd. Songs plucked from this year’s totally okay Delta Machine (Welcome To My World, the prowling, Nick Cave-y Angel) opened a show that mined the band’s back catalogue for hits and rearrangements like the bare-bones But Not Tonight and a peeled-back version of Personal Jesus that had the full band kicking in to join singers Dave Gahan and Martin Gore partway through. The move between new material, standards and live remixes was welcome, proving the band’s unparalleled ability to deliver while still fucking with the crowd’s expectations. They’re Depeche Mode. They can do whatever they want. And get away with most of it.
John Semley
BEAR EMPIRE at Parts & Labour, Monday, September 2. Rating: NN
When Bear Empire guitarist Eric Pentz walked onstage with earplugs, it was a sign of things to come: the local three-piece ground through a very loud set with very loud screaming and very loud banging that shook Parts & Labour’s subterranean concrete den. At one point, this reviewer let her hair down – not to rock out, but to create a makeshift barrier.
Noise levels aside, Bear Empire show immense promise but seem to be still hammering out a signature sound. The songs with discernible melodies, catchy bass lines and guitar riffs, accented by Tan Arcade’s reverb-affected vocals, were by far the most interesting. Plenty of songs, however, would take an abrupt turn, descending into distorted breakdowns, accompanied by Arcade’s staccato shrieking, that sounded more like 90s alt-rock. Although Bear Empire bill themselves as a “psych-punk” band, their live show encompasses a lot more than a fusion of those two genres. Sometimes more is better, but not in this case.
Samantha Edwards
MUDHONEY at Lee’s Palace, Monday, September 2. Rating: NNNN
Mudhoney are celebrating their 25th anniversary by doing the same thing they always have: setting up in gloriously time-weathered rock bars and cranking up the superfuzz. While grunge is still retrospectively inflated as the great revolutionary movement of the 90s, Mudhoney are the only remaining vestige of the “Seattle sound” in its original form: cynical, ironic, murky, riotous and hysterical.
The thought of 50-somethings playing the same bleary-eyed rebellion music of their youth is enough to put your guard up, but age actually suits Mudhoney: always hilariously bitter and caustically cantankerous, singer Mark Arm now has a grizzled veteran perspective to boot. It was surprising to see him lay off the stage banter at Lee’s, instead channelling his bile into his gloriously off-tune howl, fitting a career-spanning spate of songs into their set, from old favourites like Touch Me I’m Sick to newer barn-burners such as I Like It Small.
They’re a well-oiled machine now, strutting and soloing with the experience of two and a half decades. It’s hard to look like you don’t give a fuck when your live show runs like clockwork, but Mudhoney are impressively convincing.
Richard Trapunski
