Battle of the SmokeMachines: The Besnard Lakes vs. Young Galaxy

I went into Thursday night expecting to be impressed, again, by the Besnard Lakes, and I was. What I didn't expect was the opener, Young Galaxy, to throw down the gauntlet and put on the impressive performance that they did. Especially here (in London), I find people tend to talk through opening bands, but with Young Galaxy those in attendance had little choice but to pay attention. The band gained the attention of the crowd very quickly and held it throughout their set.

Front man Stephen Ramsay was incredibly likable, joking through the set with Jace Lasek (of the Besnard Lakes, pictured above) at first that, "Montreal wasn't big enough for the both of them" and that "his smoke machine kicked their smoke machine's f--kin' ass". Lasek responded only by coughing vigorously the next time the smoke machine was turned on. Also, about halfway through the set Ramsay told the audience that they would play a new, yet to be titled song, he indicated that they were leaning towards the title 'BarfWolf'... he seemed to think that would receive a particularly high rating on Pitchfork.

High points of the set included: Outside the City, Come and See and Swing Your Heartache, which was a terrific choice to close the set on.

Sounds like: the resolution of, and waking up from, a superhero dream.

Also, the Besnard Lakes continue to be awesome.