The Venue
Vancouver, British Columbia
I made a new life rule after I saw the Drums with Craft Spells two nights ago: Go to every slightly post-punk, New Wave and twee show, dreamy or not, I can find. Craft Spells and the Drums were probably the closest I'll ever get to seeing a band like so many of my favourite 80s groups including Orange Juice and Modern English - maybe not ever but definitely for a long time - so I can't afford to pass up seeing similar bands. Luckily for me, I'm seeing Seapony again on Friday when they open for Beach Fossils at the Electric Owl.
Craft Spells alone, of whom I'd never heard before the show, totally made the one-and-a-half-hour wait before showtime worthwhile (Part Time, the second opening band, couldn't make it that night. Problems with customs, I assume, hence the prolonged wait). However, I didn't move much during Craft Spells, despite how much I wanted to. I mean, the band was fantastic, but that long wait, which didn't factor in the time I spent in transit or in line outside the Venue, on top of having worked at 6:30 that morning and until 9:30 the night before that, almost sucked the life out of me. Plus, I was on my feet for almost two hours straight before the show began, so by the time the Drums started playing, my legs and back had gotten pretty tired; my legs felt like tree trunks with roots that ran to China.
As soon as the Drums hit the stage, though, they lit me right up. I couldn't stop moving when they came on, they were so fun. They even made the slightly plaintive "Days" danceable. It's interesting how quickly great music - pleasurable stimulation of the mind that gets those that serotonin flowing - can make the body forget how tired and even sore it is.
Front-person Jonathan Pierce's live off-kilter singing was the main reason why I passed on seeing the Drums last October (if you want to hear why it bugs me, just YouTube pretty much any live videos of the Drums, although I did recently find a few videos in which I could not only tolerate Jon's singing but enjoy it as well). But I had absolutely no complaints about his singing when I saw them, even though it was still more affected than on record.
At one point during the show, Jonathan apologized for not having had his dancing shoes with him because they got held up at customs. But even while sporting his Chucks, he was able to sway and swing and shake his hips with so much swagger that I didn't notice his alleged handicap. And danced Jonathan did through the Drums' pretty lengthy set: sixteen songs, according to the set list I snagged, which included all of their hits with "Let's Go Surfing" saved as the final encore.
All in all, a fantastic show. Both bands sounded great, especially Craft Spells who totally blew me away; I'd never heard of them before, but that night, I could hear every part of them: every note and every reverberation. I also got their set list. Schwing! And as far as my promise to myself goes, you can bet I'm never missing a Drums show again. And Craft Spells are from Seattle, so I have a feeling I haven't seen the last of them.
Random final note: While there was an average number of guys at the show, not a lot of fellas dig dancing to the Drums, it seemed ... In fact, one of the guys who stood next to me looked like he was going to fall asleep on his feet at any minute, his eyes half-closed every time I saw him.
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