Easy Targets / Postcards / The Hoa Hoa's / Volcano @ Rancho Relaxo

Under normal circumstances, the four band lineup has become something that I do not look forward to as much as I once did. My attention span and irritability level after 10pm is not what it used to be, and the thought of attending a late show with a bill of more than two bands just seems like too daunting a task sometimes. It also often results in me becoming a bit of a harsher critic by the time I get to bands three and four simply because by that point of the evening I've become a grumpy old man.

However, an evening that was billed as The Fallout Party, which took place last Friday night, was a quadruped of sorts that I was more than willing to support, since four outstanding examples of truly euphoric psych rock were joining forces to create a symbiotic "excursion of weightless significance" at our very own Rancho Relaxo. I just knew this was going to be a good one.

Kicking off the evening was Volcano, and, as far as I know, this was their very first live performance. I'm quite familiar with the work of lead vocalist Chris Hobson through his other project The Space Between Things, and when I sampled his Volcano output on the myspace page, I became very curious as to how the material would translate live. While it's true this project comes across as a bit more streamlined than the TSBT material, it still contains a fair measure of jumbled cacophony to facilitate a "how are they going to do that?" thought in my head. Still, even the mildly muffled sound system of the Rancho couldn't hide the beauty of the sounds that this band created together. It was certainly a subdued performance in terms of stage presence and banter and whatnot, but in terms of musical artistry, the band literally sucks you into its drone with a mesmerizing mix of epic space jams and lo-fi psychedelic freak outs. Their last two songs were significant highlights; beginning with an extensive instrumental number that reminded me a little bit of Atom Heart Mother-era Floyd before quietly segueing into their last song, an upbeat rocker with a Keith Richards-like riff that was about as infectious as it gets.

The biggest selling point for me was the last minute inclusion of The Hoa Hoa's into the evening's lineup. It has already been duly noted that they're one of my favorite bands in the city, but despite all of my best intentions, I had never actually gotten around to seeing them live. Yes, embarrassing, I know. Now that I have though, I have to say that my confusion as to their lack of popularity and buzz is now even more mind boggling. I'm willing to accept that they're recorded material may not be everybody's thing, especially if you're not a fan of the whole psych-rock universe. But I refuse to believe that it's possible to leave a Hoa Hoa's show without being completely blown away, regardless of your genre of choice. The reason that I say this is because their performance is tailor made for music lovers, as well as lovers of the live experience, plain and simple. The band exudes an amazing amount of energy on the stage, and the songs translate with excellence as the Manchester beat got the crowd dancing from start to finish. They showcased several songs from the new album, and I think that, as much as I love their older stuff, the newer material boasts a greater intensity that sounds so good live. I loved their performance, and I think that it's safe to say that they are one of the best live bands in the city right now. On the downside, this made things pretty difficult for any band that was put in the unfortunate position of having to follow them.

Postcards (from Montreal) were up next, and of all of the bands that performed that night, the buzz surrounding them seemed to be the greatest. They've built up a strong reputation within the community as a forerunner in the Canadian shoegaze/psych movement, placing emphasis on keeping their sounds artistic, genuine and as lo-fi as possible. As far as I can tell, their EP is only available on cassette, which is either extremely cool or extremely annoying, depending on your outlook. The fact is that their melodic brand of dreamy, slightly Smiths-ish pop music probably suits the hiss and crackle of a car stereo cassette deck warmly, and they displayed their low key sound to a crowd whose enthusiasm seemed oddly disproportionate to the laid back vibe on stage. The audience was jumping around and dancing spasmodically, which was bizarre considering the subtle tones that was emanating off of the stage. Performance-wise, the band was a significant step down from the energetic whomp of The Hoa Hoa's, and it would have been nice to see them get into what they were doing a little bit more. Material-wise however, the band was right on par with everyone else, and I really enjoyed their unique blend of subtle jangle guitar tones and 60's Phil Spector-ish pop melodies.

The evening ended with our very own Easy Targets, who pumped the enthusiasm back up to an indisputable high. There were a couple of familiar faces in the band that I recognized, most notably Jeremiah Knight who played with Volcano at the beginning of the night, and Clint Scrivener, who's in another one of the best live bands in Toronto, namely Pick A Piper (not to mention the work he's done with Caribou). While the other bands of the evening I would describe as firmly rooted in 60's psychedelia, with hints of 80's rave culture and 90's shoegaze, Easy Targets sounded to me to be more the other way around, steeped moreso in 90's melodic noise rock such as Sonic Youth or even early Teenage Fanclub, while still including traces of some of the aforementioned past genres. Boasting easily the largest band of the evening (I think there were six of them) they ended the evening in a celebratory mode that raised the level of euphoria to an appropriate height for an evening so jam packed with music.

I left the evening completely satisfied, which, as I mentioned at the outset, is a pretty amazing feat for such a huge lineup. The fact that all of the bands complemented each other so well allowed the night to flow seamlessly, and listening to Stone Roses on my iPod as I walked home seemed like the perfect nightcap for me. Needless to say, I've been on a steady diet of psych-rock since then, and it's become apparent to me that I need to go to more shows like this.

Photos: My shots of the Fallout Party @ Rancho Relaxo are on flickr
Myspace: Easy Targets
Myspace: Postcards
Myspace: The Hoa Hoa's
Myspace: Volcano