These Electric Lives, SUNRiSER, Clothes Make The Man & Pants and Tie @ The Horseshoe

Last Saturday night was a rare occurrence in that it was a summer weekend where I actually had nothing planned. No anniversaries, no family gatherings, no prior commitments, nothing! So I scanned the live show listing and found an interesting bill at The Horseshoe featuring a couple of bands that I was unfamiliar with, a band that I've heard lots of great things about, and an old favourite that I hadn't seen for a while.

The evening began with Pants & Tie who are a local band with a very unique sound. On paper, it seems like something I should've enjoyed quite a bit. Mark Colbourne has a wicked voice that frequently hits the upper register of piercing, as he yelped maniacally with sort of a James Brown on helium vibe. When you couple that yelp with a slap bass sound that was straight out of the P-Funk schoolbook, you've got a recipe for some funky jams that would ordinarily get me out of my seat and onto the dance floor. I think what throws me off though is the band's use of electronic beats, as opposed to incorporating an organic drum sound into their mix. It's kind of a strange amalgamation of Talking Heads styled experimentation and Hot Chip blips and bleepage that created a conflict of interest that wasn't really working for me. I give them big 'ups for striving to create an original sound though, and it appears that there were many in attendance who dug them quite a bit. For now, I think that Pants and Tie falls into the 'respect' category for me, more than than the 'enjoy' category, although, as always, I'm not averse to checking them out again sometime to see if my mood has changed.

Photos: Pants and Tie @ The Horseshoe on flickr
Myspace: Pants and Tie

It's been a couple of years since I last saw Clothes Make The Man, and upon seeing them this time, you'd think that they had recently been inducted into the rock 'n roll hall of fame or something. I'm not saying that they're acting like big corporate rock stars or anything, it's just that this show was significantly tighter and more mature than I remembered them being in the past. Thankfully, this is not at the sacrifice of any of their style and fist pumping rockiness, since the band was still able to showcase their staggering ability to pen a perfect pop song and then make it rock on stage. They played several cuts from their self titled release, including Chile, which I still maintain is one of the catchiest pop songs I've heard since the turn of the century. They also showcased a number of newer songs which are slated to appear on an upcoming album, the release date of which is still undetermined. It's clear that they're making their sound even more focused than ever before, and it even sounds as if they're trying to play a part in possibly making the rock ballad a credible force again. Now calm down, I'm not suggesting that they're the second coming of REO Speedwagon or anything, but they clearly have a penchant for making a sappy love lyric acceptable by keeping it shrouded in killer hooks that refuse not to rock out. Speaking of rocking out, there was one moment in the show where the drummer accidentally did some damage to the drum kit due to some excessive skin pounding that required an emergency surgery of sorts (on the drums themselves, of course, not the drummer.) This allowed lead vocalist Ryan Mclennan to take center stage for a solo acoustic number. The song he played was a pretty tune called Down Like That, which is slated to appear on the upcoming album as well. After the show last week, I have to say that I'm looking forward to it more than ever before.

Photos: Clothes Make The Man @ The Horseshoe on flickr
Myspace: Clothes Make The Man

The third band on the bill, and the second band that I had never heard of was SUNRiSER. The band brought a little something from all around the world, with three members hailing from here in Toronto, one member from England and one more from Ireland. They also seemed to have generated a bit of a local fan base as a small crowd made their way to in front of the stage and sang along enthusiastically to the tunes. Frontman Daryl Webster has a very amicable stage presence that comes across quite natural and endearing, sort of a 'boy next door' charm, if you will. The band's style of indie pop was equally as non-confrontational, reminding me a bit of unassuming pop bands like Travis, while it provided some strong melodies and decent instrumentation, without ever being overly bombastic. They were the type of band that you could safely recommend to anybody and chances are that they would find something to enjoy in their sound.

Photos: SUNRiSER @ The Horseshoe on flickr
Myspace: SUNRiSER

I've been hearing great things about These Electric Lives for a while now but I had never really got around to sampling their music yet simply due to lack of time. Apparently their self titled João Carvalho produced EP earned them some critical praise, and their single We Should Be Believing was a bit of a small hit on college radio. I found their brand of 'melodic dance rock' to be pretty easy to digest in a live setting, as the band cranked out one anthemic blast after another. It quickly became obvious that they've done a good job at perfecting a solid live show that has already made a reputable name for itself. The crowd was dancing and shaking like crazy, as the vibe shifted regularly from moody key driven moments to epic sounding rock songs, usually wihtin the course of the same song.

Photos: These Electric Lives @ The Horseshoe on flickr
Myspace: These Electric Lives