An incredibly late Pop Montreal review

The Acorn (Sunday at Casa del Popolo)
Thrust into the headlining spot due to a last-minute cancellation, The Acorn performed admirably well. Frontman Rolf Klausener was completely at ease, cracking jokes and keeping things loose as he and his band performed a set of quiet, intimate folk-rock (with the odd burst of noise to shake things up a little).

Beirut (Saturday at Theatre National)
Somehow, I'd never before listened to Beirut. Despite the months and months of hype, I'd never bothered to seek out anything from Gulag Orkestar...and after witnessing their set, I wish I hadn't wasted so much time not listening to them. Imagine Gogol Bordello trying to sound like Broken Social Scene and succeeding only moderately, and that's how Beirut sounded here. Raucous, rambunctious, fun and unendingly enthusiastic, how anyone could come away from the band's performance and not be moved (especially by the amazing horns) is a mystery.


Born Ruffians(Saturday at Theatre National)
To be honest, of the six or seven times I've seen Born Ruffians in the last five months, this was definitely one of their lesser appearances. Though the songs were there, and some people seemed to be getting into them, they just didn't look as comfortable on such a large stage (which is odd, given their V Festival appearance just a month before).

Basia Bulat(Thursday at L'Escogriffe)
By this time next year, Bulat will be playing on a much bigger stage to a much larger audience. For the night, though, she showed why Rough Trade just signed her, as her jazzy folk music was received with an adoring hush from the medium-sized crowd.

Boo Hoo (Saturday at L'Hemisphere Gauche)
Initially, Boo Hoo battled poor sound, but in the end their spasmodic (not, as I said last week, "spastic") pop won out, and they turned in a solid set.


Cadence Weapon (Friday at Club Lambi)
In stark contrast to Cadence Weapon's 2005 appearance at Pop Montreal, when approximately ten people came out, this year Club Lambi was absolutely packed for Canada's best rapper. It was exceedingly hot and very sweaty, but Rollie Pemberton showed that for all his bluster and bravado, there's a reason why his album has been so well-received: he has the skills to back it all up.

Code Pie (Saturday at Café Chaos)
Frontman Enzo Palermo was battling a cold, but it was hard to tell from the way he rocked out like Bruce Springsteen doing psychedelic pop. The set was a little short, but it was never lacking in energy or tunes.

Doris Day (Thursday at Casa del Popolo)
To be honest, I only ducked into Casa because I was desperately hungry and needed some a quality tofu sandwich. But I was pleasantly surprised by Doris Day's fairly straightforward indie pop. It's nothing spectactular, but there's enough there that it's not out of the realm of possibility that there one day could be.



The Ghost Is Dancing (Thursday night at O Patro Vys)
The band started off slowly as they showed the effects of a long drive up from Toronto. Once they got over their fatigue, however, they rebounded with a danceable set that proved they have no problem replicating the quality of their EP in a live setting.









Henri Fabergé and the Adorables(Friday night at L'Escogriffe)
It's not really a secret that I absolutely adore the Adorables. But even with such high expectations, this was still arguably the sweatiest, most intense and most enjoyable band of the weekend. It can be chalked up to any number of factors: covers of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Constantines, an overly-amorous Quebecoise cougar right in front of the stage that was trying to hit on anything that moved, and a wrestling match between Fabergé and Laura Barrett's boyfriend right in the middle of the world's smallest moshpit. There's no way to describe this as anything other than Fun in concert form.

Portastatic(Thursday at Sala Rossa)
If acts like The New Amsterdams, City and Colour, and Dashboard Confessional want to know what their futures will look like, Merge owner Mac McCaughan provides a good idea...but with one condition: those bands will have to learn to grow up and be a lot less whiny. Even with minimal backing (Snailhouse's rhythm section provided a bit of bass and drums), McCaughan still proved to be a pretty riveting singer.

Relief Maps (Sunday at Casa del Popolo)
I can't really judge Relief Maps' first out-of-Ottawa performance properly, since I was the main reason they were added to the bill (as a last-minute replacement for Carolyn Mark). Still, from my perspective they put on an excellent show (particularly given that they drove for two hours and walked on stage immediately), and the audience seemed to appreciate their Land of Talk-esque sound.



Spiral Beach(Friday at O Patro Vys)
Judging by the assembled music industry bigwigs, Spiral Beach seem pretty likely to go through the whole Next Big Thing cycle before they've even finished high school. Still, if they can continue to be sickeningly good for a band so young, it's impossible to begrudge them their success (and, of course, anyone who can beat Metric at their own synth-pop game is always a good thing, too).


These Hands(Friday at Green Room)
You know what I said about Portastatic just a few lines up? About how he's what whiny emo boys with guitars will sound like in the future if they suddenly stopped being whiny and started concentrating on songwriting instead of song titles? Well These Hands are basically what you'd get if any of them did that. Even with nothing more than a guitar, These Hands was still riveting, and if he ever follows through on his planned move out of Saskatchewan, he could be in for really big things.




Tokyo Police Club(Thursday at Sala Rossa)
When TPC are on, they're one of the best bands around, and tonight was proof of that. They made people dance and move, and they looked like they were having a lot of fun (which they probably were, given that this was their first anniversary as a real band).