Ghost Bees
To begin, we unfortunately had to miss the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal’s Nocturnes performance by TuNeYaRdS due to the place being already packed. We were a bit disappointed and were sad to break our head Lamb’s heart by missing the colourful, freaky show but were soon distracted by bright lava water at a nearby fountain. This made our hearts smile again.
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/tuneyards
We restarted the evening gently at the lovely Ukrainian Federation with a set by twin duo Ghost Bees. If you’ve never had the pleasure of seeing Romy and Sari Lightman live, imagine the eastern European folklore of Decemberists’ lyrics and cross it with Coco Rosie to get a sense of the tales that Ghost Bees weave with their haunting harmonies. These ladies are capable of delivering completely mesmerizing to mellow, sleepy performances and their music is best suited to cozy nooks in the dead of winter with candles blazing. The Ukranian Federation accomplished enough of this intimacy while allowing a large number of people to enjoy the show. Accompanying them on guitar and back-up vocals was Justin Karas, a.k.a. Fall Horsie. The entire showcase featuring headliner Destroyer was presented by Sirius Satellite Radio and CBCRadio3 and can be streamed online here (http://radio3.cbc.ca/).
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/ghostbees
After a few unintentional detours through the wet wind in an attempt to get across the tracks that run through the north end of town, we arrived at Le Milieu for the next stop in our musical game plan. In the dim light and dark alley we were only assured that we were in the right place by a small sign happily proclaiming YOU ARE HERE! The sketchiest venue of our Pop Montreal experience by far, Le Milieu is a tiny bar with dim lighting located in an old factory. All of about 15 people enjoyed Hannah Georgas’ set—probably due to the venue being so ridiculously remote. Despite the awkwardly small size of the audience, Hannah and members of Said the Whale delivered a strong set comprised of tracks off her 2009 EP release The Beat Stuff. The title track by the same name, and also “Let’s Talk” and “The National” were expected crowd pleasers.
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/hannahgeorgas
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/saidthewhale
Practically fleeing from Le Milieu, we headed to Bar St. Laurent II for Lamb favourite, Rah Rah. From Regina Saskatchewan, as is mentioned in their playful hit “Duet for Emmylou and the Grievous Angel,” Rah Rah delivered an awesomely energetic set complete with a bubble machine and confetti! The band seemed to be constantly passing around instruments whilst banging walls for extra percussion. As one wise audience member proclaimed loudly, “It’s just one hit after another!” Favourites were the previously mentioned “Emmylou” and “Tentacles”. Rah Rah’s self titled album definitely needs to find a home in your collection, but the live performance is a must see for the sheer happiness it brings.
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/rahrahband
The only thing left to do was catch some badly needed sleep. Goodnight moon.
Bagels and good times,
L and C
