Tin Bangs, Danielle Duval & Reily @ The Mod Club

A dude on a budget should not be attending as many shows as I have this past month, but hey, if the price is right…

A mere toonie was the cover charge for Friday night’s show and to see four stellar bands, well that’s quite a deal. The night kicked off with Reily. I may have mentioned them to you before. OK, fact is I’ve reviewed them to the point of mild obsession this month so I won’t bore you with the details yet again, but I’ll just say that although the crowds didn’t really show up until later that night, Reily’s professionalism is becoming more and more apparent with every show. Feel free to read my other reviews here, here, or here.

Reily’s myspace page.
I took pics again. They’re on flickr.
A fan made sort of a video type thing for the song “Talk Sweet; Walk Tall [Breathe Deep]” on youtube. It’s pretty good.

Danielle Duval is a singer-songwriter from Montreal whom I heard was Sam Roberts’ cousin. I have yet to confirm that though. Regardless, she put on an excellent performance that had sort of a barroom feel to it. Her voice has a whisky-stained sort of huskiness that sounds like she’s already lived a fairly intense life for a young girl. Her original material sounds like it had been written and performed for decades. She sounds like the type of artist who’s been playing her songs for years at divey bars where you perform behind a mesh of chicken wire and old time drunk cowboy’s chuck beer bottles at you. (Most. Obscure. Reference. Ever.) Anyways, what I mean is there’s a real timelessness to her sound that gives her music an edge that I like. She also did a few covers, most noteworthy being the classic Bill Munroe hit “Blue Moon of Kentucky.” This song has already been covered by the best (Patsy Cline, Elvis, Ray Charles, etc.) but she still managed to make it her own. On the other hand, her cover of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John’s “You’re The One That I Want” just may be one of the more original covers I’ve ever heard. How she ever came up with the idea of countrifying that song is beyond me, but it was definitely one of those rare strokes of genius.

You can hear that cover, and some of her other songs on her myspace page.
You can see my pics of the Danielle Duval band over on flickr.

Next up was local rock and roll sensation Tin Bangs. These guys had the honor of opening up for The Killers just a few months ago and I’ve heard more than a couple of people claim that they blew those guys off the stage. After Friday night’s show, I believe it. These guys are everything a rock ‘n roll band is supposed to be. Their music screams with the simple intensity of a bomb going off, reminiscent of bands like The Clash, Hüsker Dü or even current bands like Editors. They display an outrageous overabundance of rock ‘n roll swagger, that was most noticeable in percussionist Robbie Butcher’s drum solo. (That’s right, there was a drum solo baby!) He reminds me of my other favorite drummer, that of course being Animal from The Muppets. Except I think that Robbie has more hair. Although the songs are hooky, riffy, and catchy, and I loved them in a live setting, I did have my doubts that the tracks may not translate as well offstage. However, I’ve been listening to them a little bit since the show, and they are definitely solid. I’ll certainly be checking out their show again in the near future.

Download:
Shake mp3
The Skinny mp3

Visit them on their myspace page.
Purchase their EP “Heavy Handed Darling” at Indiepool.com
Check out my pics of Tin Bangs over on flickr.

The last band of the night was post-punk revivalists The Amber Room and although I was pumped to see them as well, sadly I had to bolt before their performance. But I’ll check them out sometime soon. They sound pretty good.