Last night was a celebration of Weekly favorites and new friends at the Prospector in Long Beach. “Locals Only” alum Mikey B. (Le French Kanadian) is in town doing his thang to support his M For Montreal gig and paired up with the Weekly’s own Kevin P. bringing another great Pull Your Pants Up night to those tiresome weekdays.
The lineup: We Are Wolves (from Montreal, naturally), Repeater and Sparrow Love Crew.
SLC’s number one (and possibly most inebriated) fan stood outside on the sidewalk pumping everyone up with “Thhparrow Love Crew! Fuck-yah-high-five!” That seemed to be the general atmosphere: the crowd abuzz with the anticipation of a fantastic show. And probably some Stoli.
Repeater (another “Locals Only” subject) opened the set with their infectious brand of shoegaze serenity. I’ve seen them several times, but last night singer Steve K’s performance conjured up images of Ian Curtis a little more than usual. There’s something so magnetic about Repeater’s music; the melodies have a strong feeling behind them, a kind of audio empathy. I dare compare the sensation to Mogwai.
Next up were We Are Wolves, a band unknown to me no longer. Fucking amazing. Really. The drummer banged (and sang!) with such abandon, sitting down was never an option. A contrast to their dreamy openers, We Are Wolves got the crowd shaking and gyrating like the ‘60s never happened, all done with a bass, drums and some keys. What seemed like an unfortunately short set (I’m guessing 30 minutes that flew like 10), WAW ended in an explosive orgasm of what I’m going to call synchronized-solos. Bring on that Canadian love!
Sparrow Love Crew took to the stage last and very late (I believe it was Tuesday morning at that point) ready to turn it out, only to get through about a song and a half before blowing some speakers. Dammit. SLC proved to be too much for tiny Prospector to handle. Yes, they're beats are that heavy.
On the plus side: I scored an amazing M For Montreal comp with songs from Plants And Animals, The Stills and Chocolat.
See a slideshow from last night over here.
