Our last week of work, so we started the week off with a Monday-night show at The Earl with the Montreal band Operators. Toronto's psych dance-punk band Doomsquad opened.
Doomsquad were good and they provided another flute solo, our second after the TOPS show a week ago Sunday. Is is the effect of Lizzo, or is it just time for the flute to make a comeback? Either way, Doomsquad put on an energetic, eminently danceable set of quirky music.
Operators is the latest band from Wolf Parade's Dan Boeckner. Wolf Parade is a Canadian band with two frontmen - Boeckner and Spencer Krug. Both have their own side projects, and we've seen Krug's other band Moonface a couple of times, and we've seen Boeckner's previous project Handsome Furs before. We've also seen Wolf Parade themselves, but we missed Boeckner's other side project, Divine Fits, with Spoon's Britt Daniel - otherwise, we'd have all the holes punched in our Wolf Parade card and would be eligible for free tickets to a Frog Eyes show (we guess).
Anyway, Operators are not dissimilar to Handsome Furs and can even be called a further extrapolation on some of the ideas and templates first laid out by Handsome Furs, which is a good thing.
Handsome Furs is basically Dan Boeckner on guitars, vocals and occasional synths, with Devojka supporting him on synths, backup vocals, and on at least the song Despair, guitar. They were one man short - their drummer/percussionist Sam Brown was missing. According to Boeckner, he was suffering the effects of a bad shrimp plate, although Devojka challenged that theory on stage and said no one knows how he got sick. Whatever the reason, they still sounded great last night, with synthesized drums filling in nicely for the ailing Mr. Brown.
The Earl filled up slowly during the course of the evening, from only about 5 or 6 people when we first arrived, to about 50 during Doomsquad's set, to we guess maybe 100 for Operators. But it seemed fuller than that - everybody was pressed forward by the stage and everyone was enthusiastic, dancing in place or at least nodding along to all the songs. Boeckner, who can come off as moody on his LPs, seemed to be in a good mood, joking and chatting between songs and generally having a good time.
Also, kudos for the very trippy light show. Great stagecraft, guys. It really added to the experience, from the abstract opening before the band even took the stage (while the PA played To Here Knows When by My Bloody Valentine) to the constantly changing selection of vintage films and computer effects during each song.
It was a fun show, and here's a quick sampler of the set, featuring the psych-out opening to MBV before the band took the stage and a few seconds of Devojka on guitar during Despair.
By the way, today we learned that the name "The Earl" is actually an acronym for East Atlanta Restaurant and Lounge.
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