TV ON THE RADIO at Sound Academy on Tues, June 2. Rating: NNNN
Partway through TV on the Radio‘s Sound Academy set, guitarist/singer/bassist Kyp Malone suggested that the crowd at their previous show, in Winnipeg, a much smaller city than Toronto, knew how to have a better time. “It’s just an observation,” he murmured through his forest-thick beard. “But we can change that.”
The Brooklyn five-piece drew heavily from 2008’s Dear Science, and the atmospheric subtleties that work so well on record were often lost in the cavernous venue. But when they took it up or down a notch – like on older rockers Staring At The Sun and Wolf Like Me, and quieter tunes like Family Tree – everything clicked.
Other highlights included the vocal tapestries created by Malone and mesmerizing frontman Tunde Adebimpe, and the rich brass section by Antibalas’ Martin Perna on saxophone and Metric’s Jimmy Shaw on trumpet. By the drum-circle encore, during which the band, guests and openers Dirty Projectors smashed every percussion instrument known to man, the crowd was definitely kickin’ it.
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