Wolf Parade and The Listening Party at Majestic Theatre
Eric Baillies
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Montreal band Wolf Parade’s latest, At Mount Zoomer, finds the band breaking away from the concise pop songs of their 2006 album, Apologies To Queen Mary, and flirting with the ’70s prog-rock of Yes and, of all things, Styx. Oddly enough, these new influences work and earned the band roaring applause at Monday’s show at the Majestic Theatre. A packed house welcomed Spencer Krug and company with bobbing heads, and, in the case of one crew-cut adolescent up front, a questionable use of devil horns between every song.
British Columbia's The Listening Party opened up with a set of impressive tribal pop, borrowing equally from Animal Collective and the sweeping feel of classic U2. The group’s bearded multi-taskers quickly won the crowd over with set opener "Swift Runner," a primal blast of spacey Afro-pop. Adorned with the soaring guitar loops of Trenton McLaren and the fractured Bono-lite register of singer Lindy Gerrard (whose sparse percussion kit included a rubber garbage bin, a cowbell, and an amplified woodblock), The Listening Party's set took in several numbers from their lone full-length, Who Are We Missing?. Keeping the stage banter to a minimum, the band played a seamless set, ending with the tight vocal harmonies and clap-along audience participation of "The Kid."
By the time Wolf Parade took the stage, the floor was packed wall-to-wall. Clad in a black dress shirt, a grinning Spencer Krug opened with the fuzzy piano-stomp of "You Are A Runner And I Am My Father's Son." Krug brought a surprising energy to the stage, given he usually had to hold down both digital piano and Moog while either shakily crooning the lead vocals or backing up co-writer/guitarist Dan Boeckner.
The two performed with precision and spastic enthusiasm, but the rest of the band looked bored. An expressionless Dante DeCaro switched between bass and guitar while synth player Hadji Bakara performed with his head down, swaying in an ostensibly drunken manner. Drummer Arlen Thompson's cautious playing also weighed down much of the set. Even during the frantic synth-punk of closing encore, "Fancy Claps," Thompson looked a little confused, as though he’d just awakened to find himself onstage.
Working its way through almost all of Zoomer and a handful of tunes from Queen Mary, Wolf Parade reached an exhausted climax on the 11-minute epic "Kissing The Beehive." The song nearly lulled Bakara to sleep; Krug and Boeckner stepped up and earned those devil horns on their own.
