Les Savy Fav
with North Of America, A Newfound Interest in Connecticut, Kitchens & Bathrooms
Monday Apr. 8, 2002 @ The 360 Club, Toronto

On a night when there were a number of other rock shows happening in Toronto and the surrounding area,The 360 Club was the realplace to be if you wanted to see something a little unique. The turnoutwas fairly good considering that Thursday and Sparta were also playing just down the street, effectivelydividing the audience in half (although this show no doubt benefitted from the fact that Thursday didn’t end upmaking it across the border). Either way, as far as I’m concerned this double bill that would pair upLes Savy Fav with Halifax’s North Of America was the more highly anticipated performance of the two.

Kitchens & Bathrooms opened up the night with a 3-piece assault of noisy guitars and off-time rhythms.At some points their sound resembled Don Cabellero, although unlike Don Cab, both the guitarist and drummerprovided harsh vocals to accompany the music. They were not quite melodic enough for my liking, butstill, an interesting band and a pretty good warm up act nonetheless.

A Newfound Interest In Connecticut followed shortly thereafter, with a set of music that wasclearly inspired by The Get Up Kids in name, and Moneen in execution. They are a young band emulating the music ofmany of the emo bands that are so popular right now, and they do it fairly well, although on thisnight they did not sound particularly adept.They did their best to match the intensity and raw energy of Moneen by swinging their guitars aroundand frantically jumping all over the stage, but unfortunately for them, live musical performances usually go overbetter if you actually play your instruments as well. Their inexperience, poor quality gear, and sloppy playingleft their music sounding like little more than a muddled mess. There is some talent in this band,it just hasn’t been given enough time to develop yet.

The show really hit stride once North of America took to the stage. They exploded through a number ofsongs off their latest release, This Is Dancefloor Numerology, including favourites like “Let’s On”and “Revolt On =/= Revolution”. With their discordant dual guitarattack and screamed co-operative vocal delivery, they were very loud and very aggressive, opting forenergy instead of precision in their playing.They seemed determined to steer clear of their older material, particularly the catchier,Pavement-esque material from These Songs Are Cursed, and instead decided to play a couple of brand newsongs (which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing). Unfortunately their time spent on stage was all tooshort, and they couldn’t have played more than 6 or 7 songs before they subsided in order to makeway for Les Savy Fav.

At this point, I feel I should point out that Les Savy Fav are one of those bands that don’tinclude images or photographs of themselves with their albums. They are far too mysterious andartsy for that type of thing, and this is why the appearance of the lead singer of thisband came as quite a shock. He is a chubby, balding guy with a big bushy beard, and onthis night he was wearing a ratty old Edmonton Oilers t-shirt. At first glance he seemed much more likelyto be a roadie than the lead singer of the band. Considering that all of the members of Les Savy Favare or were supposedly art students (at the Rhode Island School Of Design to be exact), it just didn’tseem to fit… although the rest of the band members definitely looked the part of ultra-hip art types.Once they had set up their gear, however, and he stood up on stage looking out into the audience, it all becamea little clearer to me. The guy was obviously a little bit loopy.

He started a weird little piano loop on his beatbox machine, and then bobbed his head ashe stared out into the crowd with a demented look in his eyes. Then he walked to the back of thestage and repositioned a stage light by pointing it directly into the audience, blinding everyoneand muttering “You’re not reaching your true star potential! They had you out there hiding in thedark!” I knew we were in for some good times with this nutcase on the loose.

From there, the band launched into their set and proceededto rock everyone’s asses off. The lead singer danced around the stage, looking out into the crowd maniacally, and makingstrange facial expressions as he sang the bizarre lyrics to their songs. At times he made hisway out into the crowd, weaving his way through the people, sometimes walking, sometimes crawling,sometimes stopping to stare at someone, or other times letting someone else sing into the microphone.Upon spotting an old piano sitting against the wall of the club, he excitedly ran out to play a littleintro to one song, before returning to the stage to continue singing.At another point, he actually decided to crawl right underneath the stage to see what he could find.When asked what was under there, he reported that Sparta apparently were. Other strange behaviourexhibited by this man included spitting water all over his bassist and the audience members, pokingand prodding at stage lights with a mic stand, and crawling along the floor in between audiencemembers nudging a tiny candle along in front of him while singing at the same time.

It also happened to be the guitarist Seth’s birthday, so about halfway through their set,the singer disappeared backstage for a few minutes duringthe end of one song, before re-emerging with balloons and streamers in hand, which he threw all over the stage andinto the audience.

Aside from the wacky onstage antics though, this was just a great rock show. Les Savy Fav were tight,the sound was great. They only have one guitar player, which issomething you don’t see too often among indie rock bands that have weird and/or complicated guitarparts, but they pulled it off live without a hitch.

The selection of songs was perfect too. They covered a lot of great songs from their new album Go Forth,including “Reprobate’s Resume” and “Adopduction”, and also a number of favourites from The Cat And TheCobra such as “We’ve Got Boxes”, “The End” and a blistering version of “Who Rocks The Party”.They even played a couple of songs from their Rome Written Upside-Down EP.Their set concluded quite satisfactorily with a chaotic rendition of “Dishonest Don Part 2″.

Les Savy Fav definitely lived up to their reputation for being a mind-blowing live act (little bits ofmy brain had to be mopped up afterwards), but it’s interesting how your perception of a band canchange due to the live experience. I’m sure these guys left an impression on everyone in the club,and even if an encounter with a seemingly genuine weirdo makes some people feel uneasy,it also makes the eclectic music of Les Savy Fav seem that much more genuine (and that much moreingenious) as well. — Sean