Cowboys and Wheelers

Moving to Ottawa seems to have had the pleasant side effect of making me like numerous Francophone bands... First Coeur de Pirate, then Karkwa and Marie Pierre Arthur, and now the newest addition to the list- Les Cowboys Fringantes, introduction courtesy of my friend Madelaine, and solidification of love via their Francofest performance this past Thursday.

I am a huge supporter of cultivating informed music exchanges- always an incredibly satisfying and effective experience, well worth the time and effort. By this I mean, of course, really paying attention to why your friends like the music they like, and being really specific about why you like the music you like, then making thoughtful recommendations to one another! Sounds pretty straight forward, but you would be surprised at how many people recommend music based on what they like, not what they think you'll like (regardless of the number of times you have had conversations about why you don't like INSERT BAND NAME HERE). If, however, you are lucky enough to have friends who actually remember past conversations, the exchange goes a little more like this:

Madelaine: "I think you'll like this band because they play lots of fun instruments, they have energetic music, they are really funny, and they're political in an anti-conservative kind of way... all things you enjoy!"
Me: "yes. that seems like a very accurate assesment Madelaine, I will certainly attend this spectacle avec toi!" (Alright, so I didn't sound quite so formal or quite so vaguely multi-lingual, but you get the idea.)

They do play lots of fun and random instruments (even melodica, my favourite!)
They are remarkable energetic- I almost had difficulty keeping up with them, and after an hour of psudo-french-folk-dancing/jumping up and down, it was all I could do to drag myself to McDs for an ice cream sundae...
They were really funny, and in that excellent goofy way which involves running around like overgrown children, playing jump rope with the mic cords and dancing like idiots...
And anti-conservative (specifically anti conservative-arts-cutback) they most certainly were. That was an interesting experience, surrounded by francophones, a stones throw away from parliament, yelling things at Stephen Harper... one of those moments you feel like you're slightly removed from whats going on around you, but easily get caught up in it anyways...

Anyways, long story short (yeah right, me? I'll try) I greatly enjoyed singing along to songs that felt familiar even though I'd never heard them, dancing my feet off for over an hour, and cheering in the midst of a sea of glowsticks and plastic beer cups. Highly recommended.

Unfortunately I didn't get any good pics of the show, but I thought I might still share a photo I took of the absolutely completely terrifying pre-show entertainment (if running away screaming is entertainment...)

They were like a combination of the Weeping Angels from Dr Who, and the Wheelers from Return to OZ, two of the most traumatically nightmarish fictional monsters of all time- and no, just because I am all growed up does not mean I am not still disproportionately terrified by simple-special-effects-monsters... or lemurs (though that's another story for another day...). And I wasn't the only one! So many screams of fright and running-away-incidents (from other grown adults, might I add) that they actually used different costumes the next day... Just glad I escaped their evil grasp...*shudder*

At any rate, the evening was a rousing success, thanks to the energetic entertainment and despite the nightmare monsters. I think I see more Francophone concerts in my future...!

Parking-Lot Encores and Stunning Production...

When I was a kid we used to drive up to the cottage late at Friday nights, and after we had brought everything up from the boat and scarfed down a few hot dogs, my dad would put on the French radio station and fall asleep on the couch while we played cards on the carpet. This was a looooong time ago, but I recently rediscovered a love of French-language music, and have been slowly building my French-concert-going repertoire. I started with a Karkwa marathon at hillside last summer, and last night added Marie-Pierre Arthur to the growing list.

I first heard Arthur on CBC radio a few years ago with her single 'Pourquoi' off of her self-titled debut. I lived in Halifax at the time and despite searching several record stores was unable to locate a copy of the album. After a while I kind of forgot about her until a friend mentioned that she was coming to town. I really only knew that one song, but I had loved it so much that I jumped at the chance to see her live. Good. Call.

Not only does Marie-Pierre have an amazing voice- throaty and deep but crisp, she could make singing the alphabet beautiful- but her band members were equally talented- and entertaining! Each of them were super into their playing, but not so much that they weren't able to interact with the others and with the audience. Quite the opposite in fact. Playful banter and a post intermission (yes there was an intermission, weird but it worked, and made for an excellently long concert!) sing-off between the drummer, guitarist, keyboardist and guitar/banjo player during a rousing cover of "I didn't mean to hurt you."

Now I don't usually write about concert production unless its really really bad- I mean if the band has to stop part way through their set to help the sound-guy re-mix (Cuff the Duke at Maverick's.... yeesh!) it kind of needs to be at least touched on- but the production side of this concert completely blew me away. We walked in to the very small university-type auditorium space- not usually the ideal venue for a rock show- but the thin layer of smoke hovering in the air and the old-school speaker-cabinet-style lighting made it work. The sound quality was crazy good- clear vocals, perfect balance, enough bass to feel but not too much, crisp keys, guitar and drums, and plucky banjo- everything sounded like the way it was most ideally meant to sound. And the lighting... perfect. Rock'n'Roll but with all these little touches that just brought it all to life.... fantastic!

Despite the lecture-hall setting, the crowd was clearly in a head-bopping mood and lost no time in getting into the music. By the time the band broke out the banjo for a few folkified re-imaginings of some of their older stuff people were all but dancing in their seats (ok, ok, there were a number of us actually dancing in our seats...). Throw in a couple of audience sing-a-longs and she had us in the palm of her hand.

The second half started off with an incredibly sad ballad to a friend departed then segued into upbeat and boppy tunes like 'Emmene-moi' and 'Pourquoi' before finishing off with a powerhouse of four quick ones culminating in a huge standing ovation. Capping it all off, a grinning Marie-Pierre shouted 'meet us out in the parking lot!" before running off stage... a slightly confused audience looked at one another before quickly deciding she was serious and filing out into the parking lot. We were then treated to several acoustic sing-a-longs in the surprisingly beautiful acoustics of the concrete and pavement on an unseasonably warm March evening.

Before the show, while eating at a Thai restaurant down the street, I had a sneaking suspicion that the small brunette and overly bearded dudes at the next table might possible be the band we were about to see... It seems odd now to have been unsure of what they looked like mere hours before having them emblazoned on my brain at one of the most memorable concerts I've ever been to...