Japandroids capture live energy
Rock duo releases career-spanning live album recorded in legendary Toronto venue
MASSEY F———ING HALL Japandroids | Arts and Crafts
Japandroids were all about the live show from the moment they played their first gig.
Guitarist/vocalist Brian King and drummer/vocalist David Prowse produced the kind of awesome electricity you would expect from a full band with just two players.
Road warriors, the band toured relentlessly from the release of Post-Nothing (2009) through to Celebration Rock (2013), and then back out again after 2014’s acclaimed Near to the Wild Heart.
The band’s mix of Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty-style arena anthems with the full-on sonic squall of hardcore heroes such as Hüsker Dü and others exploded off stages all over the world. It gained the group a well-deserved reputation as one never to miss when they played near you. Obviously, when you have that kind of reputation, it would only make sense to release a live document. But live albums are a tricky lot.
Which is what makes this career-spanning set captured at the legendary Toronto venue where Canadian legends such as Neil Young and Rush have recorded live albums a welcome addition to the Japandroids’ collection. The band has been lying low for some time, so getting a dose of its heroic energy at this time is welcome.
Here are five things to know about the album:
1 TWELVE TUNES
The set presented is pretty well the one people heard on the band’s last tour. Opening with the air-punching anthem Near to the Wild Heart of Life and closing with The House that Heaven Built, the material is drawn from all three albums by the band and boasts both fan faves and a few surprises. From start to finish, you really get to appreciate how much the band revs up its material in concert. The drum-roll introduction that builds to the first tune is great. Other intros are of the deliciously short “Hello Toronto” sort. They are very much a “more rock/less talk” type of band.
2 HEART SWEATS
This song from Post-Nothing was the first track released from the album and it’s a monster live. Six-plus minutes of thrashing power chords slashed out over-and-over, and King repeatedly spit/chants lines to an ex-girlfriend such as Your style is such a mess, girl/I should know/I used to date a stylist. You think it’s ended at the three-minute mark and then it just ramps up into a healthy dose of guitar and blows up more. This wasn’t an easy relationship.
3 THE NIGHTS OF WINE AND ROSES
Throughout the recording, Prowse’s drums sound huge. But on the lead-in to this fan fave, his tom is gargantuan. A big part of Japandroids’ impact is down to the fabulous work of the sound person. To get this much clarity and amplification going together isn’t an easy calculation and too often missed.
4 YOUNG HEARTS SPARK FIRE
This classic doesn’t get off to the cleanest start, and it’s cool the band didn’t feel the need to do anything to the recording but let it speak for itself. By the time both King and Prowse are screaming out the vocals, it sounds like a pure release and that’s great rock ’n’ roll.
5 THE HOUSE THAT HEAVEN BUILT
Talk about a song to crank up in the COVID-19 summer of 2020. The inspiring lines of “I happened on a house/Built of living light/Where everything evil disappears and dies” gets the crowd screaming back when this was recorded. Today, they sound like a prayer to end the pandemic. Those Oh, oh, oh choruses just lock right into your brain too.
MICHAEL KAESHAMMER: LIVE IN CONCERT | LINUS ENTERTAINMENT
Crowd-pleasing swinging pianist/vocalist Kaeshammer has carved out a niche for his upbeat, clean, adult-oriented sound. From the shuffling groove on Kisses in Zanzibar to the bluesy New Orleans vibe of Who Are You? (featuring Colin James), the album is full of concert staples. Other guests include Curtis Salgado (Do You Believe); Nicole Sinclair (A Change Is Gonna Come); and Randy Bachman, joined by Colin James, too, for a slightly weird boogie-blues take on the hard-rock classic.
MT. JOY: REARRANGE US | DUALTONE RECORDS
The opening track Bug Eyes sets the tone for the album. Similar to Dylan’s Forever Young, it begins with a plaintive vocal in a supersparse arrangement before it blows up into a fully orchestrated rocker that wouldn’t sound out of place on an album by the Waterboys. Songs such as Let Loose sound like something that could have come out of Muscle Shoals back in the ’70s, and there is a rootsy/folk feel to most of the material. Come With Me is just made to be a single.
NOBLE OAK: HORIZONS | LAST GANG RECORDS
The latest from this Vancouver “dream-pop” artist is indeed ethereal and expansive. From big atmospheric pop like Morning or the slow-burning single Derailed to the far more groovy In Series, no song is without lots of swooshing synths, soaring tenor vocals and super-smooth rhythms. The effect is soothing and particularly effective listening on headphones when the stereo effect is given a joyride from left-to-right ears in Hyacinth.
POIRIER: SOFT POWER | WONDERWHEEL RECORDINGS
The DJ behind legendary club nights in Montreal is back with another global grooves platter. From the slinky neo-bossa of Café Com Leite, featuring a breathy Portuguese vocal from singer Flavia Coelho, to the bass-ripping dance hall of Pull Up Dat with Red Fox’s MC’ing, the album keeps things interesting. The Mozambique stylings of Sim Bombei and Sowia are particularly appealing. That Poirier is comfortable working with all these myriad styles and approaches is proven in the marvellous instrumental The Junction, which seems to blend everything else on the album into one track.