The night started off with a girl from Toronto handing out flyers promoting her friend's web-site, bandphotography.com, to people waiting in line outside the club. She asked if Montrealers liked to dance at concerts but no one answered her. Depends on the concert, I guess. I only dance when the band is so good that I'm forced too. Tonight I was expecting to dance.
There were very few people when the doors opened at 8:00 p.m. and I was starting to be embarrassed to be a Montrealer. Even though it was a Wednesday night, this was Sleater-fuckin'-Kinney, c'mon people!
First band up was COCO a two-person drums and bass act out of Olympia. They were very good, although it was clear they were a young band that would get better with experience. The playing was tight and the songs catchy but there are obviously limitations to what you can do with only a drummer and a bassist. The singer, Olivia, has a pretty voice but she was noticeably better on a cover song, "supercool", when she put down her bass and fully emoted. All in all though, an enjoyable set.
Next up were Detroit-based The White Stripes, a.k.a. brother and sister act Jack and Meg White. Jack sings and plays a blistering guitar, while Meg whacks away at the drums and makes the cutest facial expressions. The White Stripes RAWK! What a glorious racket these two make. Very intense, very well played, thoroughly satisfying and eminently worthy of stardom. They played for about 40 minutes.
By this point, the club was filling up nicely. Way to go Montreal, you came through in the clutch. Corin, Carrie and Janet took the stage at around 10:30 p.m. Corin and Janet looked as cute in person as they do in their videos and photos but Carrie, to quote Trip Fontaine from "The Virgin Suicides", is a stone fox. Wow! Corin and Carrie spoke a few words of French to the audience. They said this was the first time they were in Montreal and that it was the only city on their current tour that they hadn't played before. Corin asked the audience to refrain from smoking. Gutsy move. Montreal is the smoking capital of North America. It's practically mandatory here. It was a pretty cool crowd though (despite some idiot's constant requests for "Freebird") and no one grumbled.
Sleater-Kinney then proceeded to launch into a blistering hour-long set that blew me, and everyone else in the room, completely away. I couldn't tell you all the songs they played but a partial set list includes:
All Hands on the Bad One
Ballad of a Ladyman
Call the Doctor
The Professional
Words+ Guitars
The Drama You've Been Craving
You're No Rock'n'Roll Fun
Get Up
I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone
Little Mouth
Quarter to Three
Highlights for me included "Get Up" and "Quarter to Three" from the underappreciated "Hot Rock" album. Janet's drumming had a kind of lop-sided, slight hesitation on "Get Up" that made the song even more perfect live, and Carrie and Corin's cascading harmonies and excellent guitar playing were positively orgasmic. "Quarter to Three" featured vocals about halfway between playful and poignant. I love the simplicity and wistful quality of that song. Another highlight for me was the bridge in "You're No Rock'n'Roll Fun", that moment just before Corin's guitar joins Carrie's, when you anticipate it, anticipate it?.then awwww, there it is. The crowd predictably went crazy for tracks like "Joey Ramone", "Words + Guitars" and "Call The Doctor". It was all good though.
