The Rest CD Release w/ Ketch Harbour Wolves @ the Tranzac, Apr. 24.2009.

Last night was just about the perfect ending to what was a pretty spectacular week off for me (Tues: Dodgeball, Wed: FoTC, Thurs: Jays game). Especially since, 1/the Tranzac turned out to be a pretty cool venue; 2/the show ran very on time; and 3/ I made it home to catch the last 3 mins of the Blazers v. Rockets in time to see the Blazers get within 3 only to have Steve Blake chuck up a brutal shot with 10 seconds still on the clock... I digress...

The only downside with the show running on time was that I ended up missing Amanda Zelina, who I think would've been really interesting based on her myspace page. But, in my defense, in the world of small venue (less than, say, 1,000 people) music 8:00 isn't really 8:00, its more like 10:30, so, you might say I was actually an hour and a half early...

Anyways, I was in time to see the band responsible for one of my favourite records last year: Ketch Harbour Wolves. When I saw the band back in Jan. I mentioned that their live sound didn't quite live up to the quality of their recording. As I said, it could've been for a number of reasons: just an off night, the venue, the playing in front of a bunch of hammered friends effect, or the fact that the recording is so good that it was going to be impossible to put together a show that good.

This time around, the band was a lot tighter, the (2/3/4/5?) part vocal harmonies were right on point, and generally the band looks more like a .... well, they just looked more professional, confident, etc. They played a bunch of new songs, which all sounded great, including and especially the song they closed with, 'Damascus' (I think), which should not be confused with the Sufjan Stevens song by the same name.

The Rest came on next (obviously), and certainly gave me a new appreciation for their music. Adam Bentley(who I traded emails with last week)'s voice was shockingly, shockingly, good. I can say with great confidence that they didn't use autotune on their new album Everyone All At Once. There were some absolutely epic moments on stage, and has led me to the conclusion that the band is... well, good things are going to keep happening.

Those who read through our emails (which, based on the length of said emails was probably no one) will know that the band is flying down to NYC this week to film a Blogotheque Take Away Show. And, it seems likely given how much time/energy Adam is putting into this (the music thing) the band is going to keep getting more and more attention...

A couple of side notes:

• The Ketch Harbour Wolves Dead Calm Horizon is still available for free.
• You can look out for my "Exchanging emails with..." segment up w/ KHW at the beginning of next week.
• Pretty cool use of an (unnamed) Alfred Hitchcock black and white (maybe they're all black and white) movie playing behind the band... was very fitting for the band...
  

[mp3] The Rest - Walk on Water (auspicous beginnings)
[mp3] Ketch Harbour Wolves - Letters


Ketch Harbour Wolves






The Rest