Why Library Voices are louder in the valley...

 I’m sure we’ve all got albums that we always listen to in our car, or maybe only on the back deck, every day on the walk home, or when we’re stuck on the bus… Some albums just sound better in certain situations, just as some bands just put on a better show in particular cities. Usually there are places that just fit with certain groups (Cuff the Duke at Maverick’s in Ottawa, or Elliott Brood at La Sala Rosa in Montreal…) but there are a few magical venues where everyone puts on their best shows- where the crowds are consistently supportive, the mix is clear, and the beer is just the right price. It’s why bands are always better at hillside, always better at the Kee to Bala, and most of all, always better at the Black Sheep.

Now back in high school I often went to see the same band several days in a row, sometimes even several cities in a row. Now I’m not talking like Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, here- I refuse to get on a plane to achieve this goal- but Toronto, Barrie, Bala is totally do-able, and Ottawa, Montreal is downright simple. I’ve recently revived this tradition going to both the Ottawa and Montreal legs of the last Elliot Brood tour, and most recently Library Voices, back to back- Tuesday at Casa in Montreal, and Wednesday at the Black Sheep in Wakefield Quebec.

The Montreal show was… interesting. Casa is the first place I ever saw Library Voices (my sister’s favourite band), a show that has become one of my all time top five concerts, but this time it was almost a completely different beast. Of course it looked the same and the pints of cider were still $4.00, but the crowd was quiet and standoffish (since when should there be a four foot buffer between the closest person and the stage?) and the band was- allright I’m just gonna say it- they were a little off. Over the course of their set I’m pretty sure every instrument on stage broke at least once, the songs didn’t seem to want to come out quite right, and Mike actually tipped over his stand sending various pedals and dials flying across the stage. When Carl said “So this is our last song” and someone in the audience said “nahhhhhhh” he replied, quite solemnly: “Yes. Yes it is.” It was just... odd.

Talking to the band the next night they described it variously as “Awful.”  “Just completely off.”  and “The worst show of this tour- by far.”  Everyone had a different suggestion as to why, but Carl’s was especially pragmatic: “sometimes you just have a crappy night, but I mean that’s how you know when its good, how would you ever know that you’d had a good night when you don’t have crappy ones to compare it to?”

I took it all in stride- after all I was seeing them again the next night- no big deal if the Montreal show was a bust- but my sister wasn’t so lucky. She’s moving overseas at the end of the summer and, as she put it after the show “that might have been the last time I see Library Voices in a very long time…!” she was a little broken up about it, and I don’t blame her… If I wasn’t seeing Elliott Brood for three years and their last show was the one at Maverick’s a few months back, I think I might have cried.

Needless to say the Wakefeild show was about a million times better (and no, that’s not hyperbole. It was actually, literally, a million times better). I took along two friends who had never seen Library Voices before (and in fact had not really even heard of them) and no one was to be disappointed! Like my first time seeing them, my friend Madelaine leaned over part way through the second song to say “I love them!” just as I had done.

They were On Fire. Opting for two sets of eight songs (perhaps because they had no openers? Their reasoning being “Because, I mean, why not? We’ve never done this before, lets see how it goes!”) they steamrollered through the first group, playing a mix of new material and old favourites. After the third song Mike had mentioned how much respect they always had for the audiences at the black sheep, and Carl had pointed out that, even all seated, we were a pretty excellent audience (allusions to the previous night’s crowd perhaps…?)  At ‘intermission’ I ended up standing at the merch booth right beside Carl and couldn’t help mentioning that they seemed a lot happier tonight. “I was at the Montreal show yesterday…” I volunteered “Oh.” Carl replied, making a face like he'd smelled something awful "oh…..” We talked a bit about how much more fun they were having at the Black Sheep, and how some days are just off days, and I mentioned that the night before had been my sister’s last show before she moves to Holland. “Oh no!” he exclaimed (no seriously, he actually exclaimed!) “Alright, we’re gonna do something for her after the show, come find me after the show!” And it was time for the second set…

Again mixing old favourites in with new stuff, they continued to bring down the house, getting everyone up and bopping after only a few songs, and reviving the Carl’s-ridiculous-dancing and drums-in-the-audience that had been sorely lacking from the previous night’s performance. Kundera, Genration Handclap, my personal favourite Step off the Map and Float, and their ever-excellent cover of the Misfits “Where Eagles Dare.” Carl dedicated Neil Young’s “Unknown Ledgend” to my sister ("a very special fan who is unfortunately not here tonight”) and they closed out the set to deafening applause. The usual “But guys, that’s all the songs we have….!” Didn’t work on the exuberant crowd, so Amanda Belted out a flawless rendition of AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long," followed by Geroge Harrison’s “Got my Mind Set on You” and, when we still wouldn’t let them off the hook, the best version of “Jump Around” I have ever heard/seen/jumped to. By then they actually had exhausted all of the songs they knew, and we enthusiastically clapped, cheered, hooted and hollered in honour of an astounding performance.

After the show I found Carl (”I’m just gonna change out of this sweaty sweaty shirt…”) and spend a while talking with my friends about how much they’d enjoyed the show. He came back freshly changed, got me to re-tell the story of my-sister-and-the-Montreal-last-show to Mike the drummer and the bassist Eoin, while he collected the rest of the band outside… then got me to tell it to them as well.  They make a sign that read “We promise to come visit you in the Netherlands!” and all took photos with it. 

"We all look like zombies!"

Of course band-love is about the music. For me its even more about the live performance, the enthusiasm and the love of what they’re doing, but its times like these that make it really hard to ignore the role played by such outright friendliness, generosity and excitement. Sure I already loved Library Voices, but taking the time to make my sister just a little bit less sad about how much she’ll miss them? Takes ‘em from Good Band, to Good Band and Good People. Gotta love Canadian indie music…