So on April 30th Lakes of Canada had their EP release show at Grumpy’s. This was a late running show with two opening acts, but it was more than worth it. Grumpy’s is a small bar on Bishop Street here in Montreal that seems to be the favored spot for Lakes of Canada to play. The stage area is just a small raised corner next to the bar, just big enough to fit all four members of the band. Whenever I walk into Grumpy’s my first thought is never “this is a venue”, rather it is something more along the lines of “I feel like I should be a bitter old man here.” However the bar staffs are all very friendly, and any time I’ve been it is both Ram and this other guy, both seem to be in their late 20s/early 30s, which helps to diffuse the illusion that the bar is an old man bar. The prices are fair to average, though when you get a mixed drink you definitely get more than your money’s worth of hard liquor.
I know, I know. Enough about the bar, I suppose I should get to the music now.
As mentioned, there were two opening acts, both of which being solo musicians, who sang a few songs together within both of their sets, which actually proved to be quite a nice surprise. The entire night had that acoustic-folksy air to it.
David Simard played an interesting set. His music is a folksy/country style music that seems like it would be more suited to an acoustic guitar, however he played on an electric, and with a bit too much tremolo at times (though I apologize if that was just the PA at Grumpy’s). He’s got a really great, low voice (I’m not quite sure if he’s too high to be baritone or too low to be alto, so I’m just going to stick with low) and his songs really helped set the mood for the night. He’s got some really catchy tunes, however my one complaint would have to be his guitar work. I felt like his songs were a bit too repetitive, so much so that I started to predict exactly when he would do minor chord changes.
Most of his chord strumming was the same for almost every song as well, the generic pluck of the bass note followed by the rest of the chord. That being said he really is a good musician, I just feel as though he should throw in some more strumming patterns so that he can capture the audience’s attention even more so. In one song he started to use his mouth to emulate trumpet noises, this was an interesting effect, because on the one hand it made me laugh pretty hard at how random it was, however it worked very well within the song, so kudos David Simard for making me laugh as well as impressing me with your mouth-trumpeting skills.
Brie Nielson plays music that is very similar to Simard’s, only with an acoustic. I would say that between the two of them, Nielson has the better voice, while Simard is the better musician. Nielson’s guitar work left a lot to be desired, though that is understandable, seeing as how she was playing and singing by herself, mostly. At times she would call on Simard or Jake Smith from lakes of Canada to sing with her, and for one song even the bartender Ram came up and sang with her,
which made for a very interesting vibe that one would not normally get at a show. Nielson also did the mouth trumpet, afterwards saying “you can tell David Simard and I play music together.” This brought to mind the question of why they do not play together all the time.
Honestly I must say that between the two sets, my favorite songs were those where Simard and Nielson played together. They work very well together, their voices complement each other quite well, as dies their musicianship. If it were up to me, I would get them to drop their individual solo acts and just merge together to create a wonderful duet, writing all of their songs together, switching up who leads the singing between them.
This band is always great to see live. There is never a dull moment in any parts of any of their songs. Every note, whether its sung, strummed or hit rings out with so much emotion that you feel them, the songs move you, whether it’s a feeling of love, loss, lust, nostalgia, happiness or sadness, each song makes you feel a whole range of emotions. Not only was this night a release night for their new EP “Broken Mirrors”, but it was also the first night that they played a show with their newest member: Tim Dobby.
Previously, whenever I’ve seen Lakes of Canada play they were always a trio of Jake, Conor and Chris. Before that night I would have never said that anything was missing, until now. Tim fills the band out perfectly, his very low voice fills out the four harmonies, which they pull off very precisely and works superbly, and his guitar playing is nothing short of magical. Watching his right hand move when playing is nothing short of mesmerizing. Now that I’ve heard what the band sounds like with him, remembering what they sounded like before makes me realize that they really were missing that extra little oomph. These guys don’t need anything more to their music now though, everything they do works perfectly in conjunction with their singing and their style, and I feel like these guys should go far, they’ve definitely worked hard to get these songs going, because four vocal harmonies coupled with a whole slew of instruments playing in sync with each other is no easy task.
It was also a nice touch for their last song to have Brie Nielson and David Simard come on to "help them out" with some backup singing. Their songs are catchy, they’ve got great stage presence (even though Grumpy’s stage is a tiny raised platform) and constant crowd interaction (Before playing the song "Mr. Kitty Fantastico" Jake mentioned that it was Ram's favorite song, I must say it is definitely one of my favorite songs of theirs, I would be disappointed if they hadn't played it as well) which really helps to keep them in mind. If you ever get a chance to see them, you definitely should.
They’re playing again on Friday, May 13th at Divan Orange, and they should be going on a little tour this summer around Canada and the US, so check their website (just click on their name at the top of this paragraph) for future dates, some free sounds, so on and so forth.
Also, if you want a copy of their EP, message me in the comments with an email or number or whatever with some contact information so that I can mail you one, or bring one to you, or you could just get up off your asses and get to their shows to buy an EP from them (really, the best option). Or download and buy it HERE
All the pictures were taken by me, I went a little trigger-happy with the camera, even in very non-ideal lighting conditions with no flash, so sue me if the quality isn't so great.
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