Peak Performance Project Showcase #5 @ Fortune -- 10/17/13

The Peak Performance Project is a multi-year contest in which The Peak, along with Music BC, picks 20 BC musicians/bands each a year and makes them stars. Past winners are We Are The City, Kyprios, Current Swell, and Dear Rouge with a ton of great bands and artists included as well.

Part one of the project was a "rock & roll boot camp" where the musicians went on a week long retreat to get lectures and advice from industry pros, to help them refine their craft. Phase two is a series of shows at Fortune Sound Club; four artists a night for five weeks, each playing a 45 minute set. The bands are rated by a panel of judges, which will go toward their final score in the project. They've also been tasked to learn a "Classic Canadian Cover" to play during their set. I always love hearing bands play cover songs, and it's always interesting to see who each act chooses, if it's someone obvious to their style, or something way outside the box.

I've said a couple times previously, coming in to this year I had some very strong biases, and Hannah Epperson was one such bias. I've always liked violins in music and been fascinated by looping, so the first time I saw her ethereal violin looping ways, I was enamoured. She's been involved in past years, supporting other bands, but this time she has made the top twenty with her own material. 
She took the stage to start the night alone, building intricate violin loops and adding her soft and gorgeous voice, starting with "Murder of Crows". Her set was much like her songs -- starting with one, quieter part before adding layer upon layer -- as she was joined after a couple songs in by a gentleman first on saxophone, then on a drum pad.
Hannah's cover was also quite unique; she started with Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs", but the chorus twisted into "Shot For Me" by Drake, and there was even a little bit of the melody of Fred Penner's "The Cat Came Back" for good measure. It was probably the neatest of all the covers not only in the night, but the whole year. 

She brought the set to an end with the apocalyptic "We Will Host A Party", and if the crowd's response was any indicator, Hannah had plenty of other fans, old or new, in the crowd.

I'm not entirely sure how a solo female violin looper will do in a contest where the top three is historically predominantly male rock bands, but it will be a travesty if she doesn't at least make the top five.

Next up was Amble Greene, the musical project of Cameron Gray. With a backing band that included some nice co-ed backup vocals and some rock sax, he had a pretty straightforward pop rock sound, with a little bit of a folky twinge.
His cover was "Mistake" by Serial Joe, a bit more mellow than its pop-punk original. The choice to cover a song that most people outside of the 90's have forgotten made sense, as a lot of his set had a bit of a 90's influenced vibe to it. Though there was one song that stood out and I really liked; I didn't catch the name of it, but it was a bit darker and more moody than the rest of the songs.
Aside from a bit of recurring feedback, it was a decent set. Nothing spectacular, but inoffensive. He also had a projection screen to his side for the whole set, with images and video clips played on it, but it wasn't terribly visible for someone half way back in the venue.

BESTiE hit the stage next, with a pair of cheerleaders out for their first song. They had a ridiculously fun and catchy tropical power-pop sound, that immediately got people moving and dancing as they kicked off the set with "Pineapple". The band was full of energy, especially lead singer Tristan Orchard, who barely stood still on stage.
They brought out some friends to help them with their cover, a horn section (in costumes) and members of Humans for a really strong rendition of "Eyes of a Stranger" originally by Payola$. The horn section stayed on stage for their last couple songs, and the stage filled up even more as they invited "everyone that likes hot sauce" up for a big dance party for their final sing, "Sriracha".
I'm not sure if I would go home and listen to a BESTiE album, as there wasn't much variation in their songs, but they are a really fun and high energy live band that I would want to see play again.

The final band of the night, and of the showcase series for this year, was Abbotsford's  Oh No! Yoko. They were another band that I came in to this year's competition with a bias towards, but unfortunately it was not the good kind. I had seen them a couple years ago, and never really bought into the buzz around them, but I was interested to see how they've progressed.
The trio has definitely gotten more cohesive, as the band grew up together through high school, but their songs just fall flat to me; part of it might be the "yelpy" vocal style, which I am not really a fan of, but for whatever reason, I just can't connect with their math-rock sound.
Their set was pretty upbeat and energetic, thought there was a bit of a slowdown in the set when they had to set up and take down the keyboard in the middle of their set for their cover, a nice synthy version of The Guess Who's "These Eyes". After they brought the energy back up, they wrapped up with the only older song they played in their set, "90's Kids" and even got some of the remaining fans crowdsurfing.
They also give off a bit of that "we're too cool to care" vibe, which can sometimes rub me the wrong way. If they give a song a derisive introduction, then why should I care about it?


And with that, the showcase portion of the fifth year of the Peak Performance Project comes to a close. Now, and until the 25th of October, each of the twenty bands needs to solicit their fans for the voting portion of the competition, as well as write some business-type reports, and hope for the best. The top five is announced on November 5th, with the fifth and fourth places named, and on November 21st someone will be walking away with a giant novelty cheque for $102,700 as the top three is unveiled at the Commodore Ballroom.

And if you're curious, I'm pulling for a top five of Rykka, Hannah Epperson, Willhorse, The Lion The Bear The Fox, and Towers and Trees.

41st & Home EP Release Party @ Biltmore -- 07/18/11

It's always interesting to watch the progression of a band. The first time I saw 41st & Home was at their CD release a little over a year ago. I honestly didn't even know who they were -- I was just going to see Aidan Knight and We Are The City -- and I thought their set was okay.
Between that show and now, they took place in last year's Peak Performance Project, had some minor lineup shakeups, have been selected again for this year's PPP, recorded a new EP, and just gained a lot more experience in general.

First up was Young Liars, who had all the synth on stage with them. Their set was full of upbeat and poppy synth driven songs-- unsurprisingly -- which were good, but seemed to all kind of blended together, without much variation. Despite that, and a bit of a lack of stage presence, they were still entertaining, and a perfectly good choice to open the show.

Oh No! Yoko was up next, who I have heard a lot about to be the next big "it" band. And when I saw them the first time, I thought they definitely had potential -- and still do -- but while their hype have grown massively since then I don't think their talent has caught up to it just yet.
They were joined by Evan Konrad of Bed of Stars on guitar, and they really do put on an energetic live show with some catchy pop-rock, but, much like Young Liars, they didn't seem to have too much variation or depth. Aside from one slower, quieter song, a lot of them bled together, ending and starting abruptly. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike the band, but I sometimes feel like I am one of the few people who haven't bought into the hype, I just don't seem to think they're as utterly amazing as many others seem to.

And finally, it was time for 41st & Home. They took the stage with faces painted, and joined by some friends; Andrew Lee playing trumpet and Christine McAvoy on saxaphone for a few songs. The band has gotten leagues better in the last year -- I'm sure in no small part due to the aforementioned Peak Performance Project -- and it showed right off the bat. Some of their songs still follow the "rise to a grand climax" structure, but their newer stuff especially is a bit more varied. They started off the set with the first couple tracks from their new Raised By Wolves EP, the instrumental "Summons", during which Thom broke a string on his guitar, which led into the handclapping "Modern Medicine". There were some feedback problems during the first few songs, but those were sorted out and not terribly distracting.
Mid way through he set they had even more friends join them when members of The Belle Game and The Ruffled Feathers came out for backup vocals on the intense "Wilderness Eyes" (which was one of the few times Andrew Lee was not on stage, despite the fact that he plays for all three bands sharing the stage) and later for some extra drumming, on the floor in front of the stage, for "Gorbachev". Other highlights were the always grandiose "Eva" and "Hummingbird", which had a very dynamic and intense ending, which was definitely helped out and given depth by the horns and sax backing the band up.
They also brought back the "Tuning Jazz" when Thom needed to tune his guitar, instead of standing around in awkward silence, or try to talk and tune, their keyboard player Patrick played some smooth jazz until Thom was ready to go. They ended the set with the title track, and last song, from the EP, without bothering with the whole faux-encore, which always makes me happy, when bands play straight through through to the end.

They put on a really fun and energetic show, and it's been pretty cool watching them progress as a band. Hopefully they will continue this upward progression to their next full length.
And, hey, they got to play last at their own CD release this time!

setlist
Summons, Modern Medicine, Memory Boy, Great Bear, Wilderness Eyes, Hummingbird, Sleeper, Eva, Gorbachev, Raised by Wolves.

West Coast Pop w/ Young Liars, Oh No! Yoko and Kingdom Cloud @ Red Room -- 04/30/11

Another Saturday, another West Coast Pop show. This one was focused on young local(ish) talent.

Kicking off the night was Kingdom Cloud. I had heard good things about the young Kelowna band, so was eager to see them live; and they did not disappoint. The trio hit the stage in matching white jeans, blue shirts and scarves and launched into a very energetic set of infectious pop. All three members were brimming with enthusiasm, especially Evan, the lead singer/guitarist and keys, who was all over the stage. And the drummer, who sliced her hand open early on but kept going, despite the blood. They had some great, catchy songs -- with awesome titles like "Turbo Ranger" and "Love Goblin" -- though some of them sounded maybe a bit similar-y.
It was a really fun set to watch, and especially considering they're all pretty young, I have no doubt they'll grow from a good band into a great band sooner rather than later.

Next up was Oh No! Yoko from Abbotsford. With more of a rock edge to their pop, they had good energy, but lacked a little in banter or crowd interaction. They, too, suffered the problem of a lack of variation in songs, but that's not always a terrible thing when the songs are so catchy. The set also included a pretty cool cover of Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule The World". Another young band that has the potential to go on to big things, I will definitely be looking forward to what they do in the future.

And finally was Young Liars, hitting the stage with almost as many keyboards as members. The synth heavy set was full of poppy songs, but at the risk of sounding repetitive myself, they also had some pretty same-y sounding songs. Though as all three bands are still young, with one (or no) albums out, it's a lot easier to cut them slack for something like that. They were a bit lacking in stage presence, too, but still put on an enjoyable set nonetheless.

In all, a good night of music. It's always interesting to see bands progress, and these were three up and comers that will no doubt have bright futures.

41st & Home @ Biltmore -- 01/07/11

After releasing a split magazine last month, Vancouver is Awesome and Discorder teamed up for a show at the Biltmore with some local talent.

The first band up was Facts (formerly knows as Armadillatantes) which is kind of a great name, just for the pun potential alone. They had a very electro-dance-punk sound to them that, on a couple occasions, reminded me of LCD Soundsystem-lite. Especially when one of singers attempted the James Murphy Yell, with middling success. They put on a fun dance party, but a few of their songs were a bit repetitive and their set went on for a shade too long.

Second was The Oh Wells, with dual female vocals providing a more folk sound. They weren't bad by any means, but maybe a touch bland with not much variation between the songs. Even their cover of Coldplay's "Yellow" was in the same vein as the rest of their own material. Completely inoffensive and Perfectly Acceptable Music.

Oh No! Yoko was third up -- another great band name. I had heard lots of hype around them leading up, and while I don't know if they are going to be the next big thing right now, as a few have suggested, they were damn enjoyable to watch. Very catchy tunes and a great energy on stage made for a really fun set, and especially considering all the members of the band are under 19. They, too, had a cover song thrown in, with "Everybody Wants To Rule The World", originally by Tears For Fears.
They also had a projection screen in the back, which was playing Fantasia for the whole set -- which made for a slightly awkward moment when their [underage] drummer took off his shirt and had Mickey Mouse projected on his chest. I am definitely interested in seeing them again, and seeing how they progress, because even if they don't break through now, they will soon enough.

Closing out the night was 41st & Home. They started out with just Garth on stage drumming, then one by one came out for the incredibly energetic opening song. They kept up the energy through the set, despite some technical difficulties early on. After first song, Thom's power bar went dead; after the second song, he had a broken string. But both times they were saved by some smooth jazz, so as not to have an awkward lull between songs while things were getting fixed. They played a mix of their album, Left In Places, and some new stuff, with the new material being quite compelling.
There wasn't much in the way of banter, but still a few times they joked around, like with George playing the "Floor Thom" (complete with Thom's grinning face taped on). The set came to a climax, sans encore, with their grandiose song "Eva", a great ending song.
It's always interesting seeing a band evolve, and 41st & Home has definitely grown and matured, as a band, since the first time I saw them last year.

This was a great week in music, as I was fortunate enough to see, over the course of the last three nights, nine pretty damn good local(ish) bands.