PHOENIX + La Rocca @ Club Soda

By Mikey B - The Lonesome Strangers - 09/10/2006

Arts & Crafts are really starting to clean up around here.

The Toronto-based label that boasts fine acts such as Broken Social Scene, Feist and Stars have acquired yet another stellar band for their growing stable of goodness, the Parisian foursome known as Phoenix.

Word-of-mouth spreads pretty quickly, so once their third studio album (after 2004’s Alphabetical and 2000’s United) had hit the shelves, people were already hearing about that great new French band that signed on to A&C. The album It’s Never Been Like That came out in mid-June and has been on most indie hipsters’ hot lists since then. The first two albums flew fairly low on the indie rock radar, garnering a moderate hit when “Too Young” made its way on the Kevin Shields-inspired Lost in Translation soundtrack. Since then, their sound had sort of evolved into a mish-mash between disco-fused pop and dreamy indie rock. On their latest offering though, the hooks are more evident and the sound now has a semblance to the clean-cut pop of Supergrass and the Strokes. Phoenix, like most other indie contemporaries, might not be groundbreaking, however they do stand out from the rest of the herd of hipsters that have been swarming the music scene as of late.

The crowd was relatively large at 9pm for openers La Rocca, who treated the early birds to a brief fantastic set of heartfelt Britpop straight from the Emerald Isles. Their melodies come off as happy at times, mixed with the sound of the downtrodden vocalist crooning away passionately. It sure as hell isn’t the Smiths, but the formula seems to stick well with these guys.

Shortly thereafter, Phoenix hit the stage and kicked things off with “Napoleon Says” and “Long Distance Call” from their most recent release. Songs from earlier albums such as “Run Run Run” and “If I Ever Feel Better” were thrown in for good measure, and although eight of the 13 songs played were from the new album, this didn’t seem to bother anyone. By now, most people have gotten used to the fact that the live experience is a combined marketing ploy to sell any new album. Sure, most fans will usually complain and beg for the “older stuff” but the truth is, these relatively low-key bands thrive on the new album, the hype and the word-of-mouth, even if they’ve been around for upwards of five years. In this case, the new album is their best, so by show time, there’s no need to dig into the back catalogue, cover songs or provide generic concert-filler.

For the most part, the show stood at around the same high-octane level, with much of the material having a steady upbeat sensation to them. No real ballads or in-between chit-chat, just a lot of straightforward indie rock. My personal highlight of the show was when “Consolation Prize” was played and at the same time, the seven-foot giant obstructing my view moved to the side. The show closed with "North" and "Sometimes In The Fall", both again from the new album.

Now what strikes me odd is that as an objective listener to Phoenix, they really don’t come off sounding like a French band. In the first line of the song "Napoleon Says”, lead man Thomas Mars asks us if “you know your French well?”. Of course, here in "La Belle Pro Express”, we know a little but even the most discerning of Québécois ears wouldn’t be able to pick up even the slightest accent from these guys. The French sound, if any, is completely whitewashed amidst a slew of catchy pop melodies, and that doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

Leave the French to Stereolab and Indochine, they know what they’re doing.

[Tune in to The Lonesome Strangers every Wednesday from 3pm to 5pm.]