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Post about Friday’s Ohbijou show at the Lo Pub up on my music/radio show blog, The Book of Right-On.

(cross-posted from The Book of Right-On)

Julia Ryckman

Better late than never getting these pics up!

Last summer, local musician/producer Mike Petkau began an ambitious project; for 16 Wednesdays in a row, he gathered groups of three musicians, usually from different generic backgrounds, in a recording studio where they wrote and recorded an all-new track in one night. Into the wee hours of the morning, Petkau stayed up mixing the track so he could release it to the internet the following morning. (My original post on the subject.)

Last month word came out that Killbeat Music would be distributing the limited-run CD printing of the project, which comes in a happily-coloured orange-and-green, individually-numbered cardboard case.

The CD release was held, quite timely-like, in the newly reopened West End Cultural Centre, closed for nearly a year for massive renovations. It was my first time in the new WECC, so allow me to say a few words on the subject — IT IS AWESOME. (Now a few more words.) The biggest achievement of the new design is that when you walk into the new auditorium, located in an all-new building attached on to the old one (the old auditorium now is a lobby/multi-purpose-room/bar/washrooms), it feels the same as the old one. It has the same dark, cozy feel, and while the stage is larger and lower and there’s a (super-cool) catwalk balcony in a u-shape at the back of the room, the same old tables and chairs are arranged in a familiar manner and you still feel like you’re at the West End. That is amazing and hats off to everyone who pulled this massive project off.

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It was everything I wanted to be. I haven’t been this excited about a show in a really long time. There are a lot of bands I love on an intellectual level but who, for whatever reason, fail to reach that visceral level of musical obsession for me. True musical love for me is marked by a compulsive need to listen to a song or a record over and over and over again, usually while in some kind of physical motion, walking down the street, or whatever rather than say as an isolated selection on an esoteric playlist or some such.

My point is that I love TV on the Radio and everything I’d heard about their live show was that it was amazing. So for their date last night at the Burton Cummings Theatre I fangirled out. Sometimes I just have to be a fan, sending out my adoration and appreciation from the very front row, rocking out and flipping out and having as good a time as I possibly can.

1. Kyp, 2. Get wavy, 3. Patchwork backdrop, 4. Tunde

The show was fantastic, and that was the unanimous conclusion of everyone I talked to afterward. TVotR are just such a skilled, tight band and Tunde is so energetic. So we all felt we got our money’s worth and were in no way disappointed by this first appearance in our little mid-sized Canadian market. Now, the sound at the Burton Cummings is not the greatest, and I personally chose to sacrifice even more of the sonic quality by being right up against the stage; my pal Whitney was up front with me at first but then excused herself to listen from the back of the main floor, where she said the treble register was more in balance with the bass.

This was the set list:

Wash the Day Away
Wrong Way
Blues from Down Here
Halfway Home
Golden Age
Wolf Like Me
Crying
Young Liars
Red Dress
Shout Me Out
Dancing Choose
DLZ

Encore:
Family Tree
A Method
Staring at the Sun

A really good mix of stuff from all of the band’s EPs and full-lengths, including their “hits” like “Staring at the Sun” and “Wolf Like Me,” both of which it’s fair to say I would’ve been super disappointed if they hadn’t played them. I felt like it was a set list that took into account that this was their first show in our city so the vast majority of us wouldn’t have had a chance to see them. I would’ve liked to hear “I Was a Lover” and “Dirtywhirl,” but that’s a minor quibble.

Opening act was TVotR’s fellow Brooklynites, Dirty Projectors. I wasn’t super familiar with them before the show, and I was pleasantly surprised. The six-member band’s instrumental skills aren’t in the same league as their vocals, which made it obvious why they’re on tour with vocals-centric TVoTR. The three women in the band sang some beautiful soprano harmonies with the band’s retro-pop-rock, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Now a word on the merchandise. As someone who doesn’t really wear t-shirts, I’m always over the moon when a band offers a merch option beyond a jersey crew-neck. Like that time Stars had Sigg bottles with their name on them, one of which I still carry with pride and joy. What do I like even more than enviro-friendly water bottles? TOTE BAGS.

ESPECIALLY ones with a talking owl carrying bunches of bells. Another thing in its favour besides its obvious awesomeness of design is its reasonable price point — $15.

Thus concludes my effusive remembrances of TV on the Radio in Winnipeg. It was great. The end.

(Cross-posted to The Book of Right-On.)