Floors rumbled at the Lotus Child Gossip Diet CD release party. The show kicked off the Vancouver piano-based indie band’s West Coast tour with one hot hullabaloo. I mean sauna hot. Dan Mangan opened, setting an intimate mood with the crowd seated cross-legged on the floor, everyone agog at the levels of his guttural sound. Next up, Mother had the house abuzz with their folkie-funky crisp-clean quality. If the crowd wasn’t dancing by that point, Lotus Child got them jumpin’ (literally).
During songs such as “Archaeologists,” a few surprise voices joined in, as members from Hey Ocean! and The Painted Birds jumped on stage. The surprises continued into “Gossip Diet” with vocal group Aliqua joining the euphony, reproducing the CD sound as much as possible. Guitarist and lead singer Zachary Gray struck up a roundelay of “We’re not perfect!” booming through the crowd.
Difficult to peg down style-wise, Gossip Diet ranges from funky numbers like “Archaeologists” to foot-stomping rockout “Lids” to calm but elating “Coelacanth,” withal remaining musically exoteric, and yet distinguishing its dancy demiurgic self in the indie rock genre.
The night was somewhat of a family affair, as Mother’s self-titled CD is also Howard Redekopp produced. Castle Project topped off the night with a din of songs sounding more or less the same. Nonetheless, the sauna cooled at 1am and we were all dog-tired and ready for a shower. You can catch Lotus Child playing their homecoming show August 6th at the Backstage Lounge.
The Raconteurs / Kelly Stolts
July 26 @ Malkin Bowl
Review By Sarah Fischer
I’d been meaning to go to Stanley Park to watch the sun rise for some time
now, and I figured before the Raconteurs was the best time to do it. Knowing full well that I would need my rest for the show ahead, I found a nice shaded park bench and lay down with my blanket and a tossed salad. One ride on the mini-train, two bowls of salad, and countless trips around the park later, it was time to line up.
All throughout the opening act, Kelly Stolts, eager Raconteurs fans sat on the grass, fidgeting with anticipation. I spread out my blanket and lay on my back, batting away a few mosquitoes and scratching at the marks left by the ones that survived. All around me people smoked continuously, chatting loudly about their expectations for the show. All were soon to be blown away, replaced with an amazing brain fuck, an intense blur that involved wailing and screeching guitar solos, howling vocals, steady bass lines and bluesy beats.
As the crowd was starting to get into the western tunes blasting out of the speakers while roadies set up as quickly as they could, out walked little Jack Lawrence (bass), closely followed by Patrick Keeler (drums), Brendan Benson (guitar and vox) and Jack White (guitar and vox). They kicked off their set with “Intimate Secretary,” which was a
seemingly unlikely choice over their much better- known single “Steady as She
Goes.”
I was surprised and delighted to hear it first, and immediately the mood in the park shifted. People began dancing and bobbing their heads to the rhythm, while White, Benson and Lawrence chimed in with the lyrics. It was a great choice for an opener, and White came in with a screaming guitar solo almost immediately, which dropped jaws all over the place. Already you could tell that they had met, and were going to exceed all expectations.
Jack White is a musician known for the emotion he puts forward on stage, and he was definitely not lacking in that department. He wailed and whispered his way through an amazing re-working of Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down).” While White hopped around the stage, Lawrence seemed off in his own world. He played steadily and with ease, not disturbing the melodic peace they created up on stage.
From the harmonized vocals in tunes such as “Store Bought Bones,” to the insane and in sync instrumental of “Blue Veins,” The Raconteurs delivered. They have a lot of hype surrounding them, and after witnessing that show, I think they deserve every piece of it.