And so begins my first ever CMW experience. Let me tell you, so far it hasn’t exactly gone as planned. A confusion of dates cancelled my plans to see Gogol Bordello last Sunday and last-minute essay writing derailed my plans for Dub Trio on Wednesday. But all was well with the world because I had my Thursday night planned out and this time nothing was going to go wrong.

But I seemed to have forgotten the cardinal rule of festivals like this one and North by Northeast. No matter how much planning you do, something will always go wrong. Those are just the ropes when you have 500 performances scheduled at 40 venues, not all of which are walking distance. And when you go out for Ethiopian food when you plan on seeing Immaculate Machine at 8:30. In case you’ve never heard of Immaculate Machine, they’re definitely worth checking out.

You may know frontwoman/keyboardist Kathryn Calder from her famous lineage. She’s the niece of A.C. Newman, the lead singer of the New Pornographers (who, if all goes well, I’ll be reviewing in a couple of days) and has now joined on as a full-time member of that band. Immaculate Machine play a catchy brand of pop-rock not unlike the New Pornographers but with more keyboards and fewer members.

All in all I was pretty excited to catch their performance at the Horseshoe. When I got there, around 9:15, they were already well into their set. And I mean that – I caught one song. One freaking song! In case you’re wondering, it was “No Such Thing as the Future.” At least it was a good one song. I did, though, get to meet the band afterwards, so I guess that somewhat made up for it.

Since I was there anyway, I decided to stick around for the second band at the Chart Music show. That band was Dog Day. Not much to say about them. They played a pretty good set, but nothing to write home about. They sound a bit like a mix between Interpol and the Weakerthans. Meh.

I had all-but missed my first band, but at least I’d catch Broken Social Scener Jason Collett at Lee’s Palace. But apparently I wasn’t the only one who thought so. Even with my magic media pass, they wouldn’t let me in past capacity. Fantastic!

The beauty of Canadian Music Week, though, is that there are always more bands that you want to see than you physically could. If you miss one, then, there’s always another choice. And I picked right with El Mocombo for the Sirius Satellite radio show, featuring all bands from Montreal. Montreal’s produced some hip bands lately – think Arcade Fire, The Dears, Wolf Parade, Godspeed You Black Emperor! – so the odds were stacked in their favour.

The Besnard Lakes have been getting their share of buzz ever since their album, The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse was nominated for a Polaris Music Prize alongside Feist and the Arcade Fire. The band has six members, but it feels like more. Here’s the dynamic – three guitars and two basses all playing loud dreamy guitar parts while Jace Lasek belts out the lyrics in a mean falsetto. Then occasionally someone will break out a blistering guitar solo. It’s an acquired taste but I think I acquired it. Then again, this is the kind of music that sounds like it’s probably better live.

Last on the docket was the hilariously-named Les Breastfeeders. These guys brought the energy! Where Besnard Lakes are droney and pretty, Les Breastfeeders are fast, fun, and in-your-face. Oh, and French… very very French. Nothing but pure spectacle, especially the tambourinist who probably took a cocktail of drugs before the show and then convulsed his way on and off the stage.

All in all, not what I planned, but still quite a good night. My suggestion for you would be to buy a wristband and embrace the spirit of spontaneity. There’s no better way to catch some great music.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 7th, 2008 at 11:24 pm and is filed under Events, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.