Camera Obscura
“We like playing Toronto because we like it when people scream for us,” front-woman Tracyanne Campbell noted shortly (without irony) as the hint of a rare smile lightened her face. While Camera Obscura may have seemed to be a bit more business than play at Thursday night’s performance at The Phoenix, their tight delivery and flawless setlist have left an embarrassingly large smile on my face that might get stuck if I’m not careful.
Opening the evening was San Franciscan band The Papercuts. Sounding a bit like jammier version of Young Galaxy, this band’s rhythm-heavy mellow rock was complimented by the croon of its lead singer, which only sometimes missed the mark in terms of keeping the audience’s attention. Personally I would love for some female vocals to be thrown into the mix – some songs seemed to be simply begging for it – to add that extra spark that the performance could have used.
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thepapercuts
In the space following the opener, the venue grew steadily more crowded with an audience ranging from fresh faces to older souls with a soft spot for indie pop. Surprising at first, this menagerie made more sense as I considered the way in which Camera Obscura’s music possesses a retro flair while still remaining accessible to today’s pop junkies.
On tour supporting their 2009 release, My Maudlin Career, Camera Obscura’s setlist featured many hits from the new album with a delightful sprinkle of old favourites including, most notably, “Eighties Fan” and “Pen and Notebook” from the band’s first release Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi. As opposed to the sonic exuberance of Camera Obscura’s latest musical endeavours, their earlier sound really embodies the melancholy themes from which Tracyanne Campbell crafts her lyrics. For this reason, the heartbreaking live rendition of “Pen and Notebook” put the audience under an unexpected spell—no one in the room seemed to be breathe for about four minutes. Not to hold the crowd in dark places for too long, the band taped hearts back together and got heads bobbing again with a string of pop jewels including “The Sweetest Thing” and “French Navy” and the fantastic “Honey in the Sun”. The sonic grandeur of the new record lent itself extremely well to the live setting, filtering out over the large audience with a musical sweep that is impossible to fully capture on record.
Obvious pros at the art of the live performance, the band finished off with a swoon-worthy encore sandwich of “Let’s Get Out of this Country”, “Forests and Sands”, and a spectacular version of “Razzle Dazzle Rose” complete with instrumental flourishes, blaring horns, and more secret smiles that seemed to escape from Campell even despite herself.
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/cameraobscuraband
