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April 9th was a night of firsts for me. I went to Cabaret Du Musee to see Mates of State and Black Kids, two acts that I had never heard music from. I got to the venue early enough to be surprised by Sunbears' performance. They were the opening act for the Mates and Kids. The Florida duo had an interesting set and prepared the audience for the night.
 
They say the third time is the charm. This was the third chance for me to see Black Kids in concert and it finally happened for me that night. They were a delight and worth the wait. I had been fascinated by the band for months and finally got an idea of their sound. I have heard it said they admire the Cure and after the performance, I am inclined to agree. Their energy was contagious and I was surprised at how receptive the crowd was to the band, who had been in Montreal not too long ago. I understand that with up to three Montreal dates in less than two years, the city loves the Florida band.
 
Reggie Youngblood is the band's most charismatic member and had the most interaction with the crowd. On many occasions during their set, audience members began inaudible conversations with him.
 
I am not sure if that night was a scaled down Black Kids show compared to the other visits, but if that was the case, the crowd got a short but sweet blast of Black Kids. I met with the band members afterwards and found out they have a new album in the works or soon to be released. I got a copy of Partie Traumatic that night and look forward to their next one.
 
After Black Kids was the husband and wife duo Mates of State. There was a steady increase of spectators as every act took the stage. By the time Mates of State began, the bottom floor of Cabaret was littered with people. In previous concert reviews, I've mentioned that I observe crowd reactions to songs to get an understanding of which songs are definitive by consensus. While up in the Cabaret balcony, I was seated next to a couple who appeared to be fans of the group. I did my best to not bother them too much, but informed them I would need their help in determining which album the songs were coming from.

The concert was a pleasant surprise and wonderful introduction to the band. They were the reason Cabaret was filled with people that night. The music was uplifting and peppy and the crowd responded in kind with creative and free-spirited dance moves.
 
I was so pleased with the Mates performance that they made me a fan that night, so much so that I decided to buy one of their vinyl records. Their entire discography was available for sale in the lobby. I saw a number of people walk away with compact discs and vinyls which speaks of their appeal and loyalty of the fan base. It could also be that the price was right!
 
The couple I sat with during the concert often told me that the tracks performed came mostly from the Team Boo or Re-Arrange Us albums. By the end of the concert, I decided to leave with Re-Arrange Us, which happened to be the album they were promoting that night. I hope to catch Mates of State again soon and maybe pick up Team Boo while I am there. That is unless I do not get a copy beforehand, of course.

In 1999, a very trendy, easy to listen to and easy to look at group was born. They even had a member named Bjorn…and Peter and John. On Monday, April 28th they came to Montreal with openers Chairlift.

The three piece electro rock group, based out of Brooklyn, New York, are best known for their song "Bruises" that was featured in a 2008 iPod Nano commercial. This was unknown to this writer prior to the show, but clearly someone told the rest of Montreal because the band did get a good 'sing-a-long" reaction from the crowd when they played the familiar tune.

Caroline Polachek, the female lead vocalist and synthesizer player crooned to the crowd with her sugary sweet voice. It wasn't overwhelming but still very powerful and soothing. Paired with some Morrisey-esque high notes and shouts here and there, she rocked out and seemed to have a blast singing and playing with her bandmates.

Patrick Wimberly and Aaron Pfenning happily played in what appeared to be their underwear, an ode to the hot weather the city was greeted with that day. Wimberly gave the audience a wonderful side profile of his drum kit/bass guitar. It was a great set-up visually as there were a million different things going on for the audience to register audibly and visually.

As they said goodbye to the audience after a charming opening set, they gave a heads up about the charming banter we were about to hear.

After a quick set change I watched Peter Morén come into the spotlight and my curiosity grew about the other members of the band. A whole five minutes passed during the first song while I waited for the lights to pass on the other members.

It was well worth the wait. These were three impeccably dressed Swedes with class and presence. As the show began, they went with an excellent set list of the new, the old and some classics. Though Peter, Bjorn & John have been a band for ten years, they only started charting over the past two and a half. Their single Young Folks can now be heard on the soundtrack of many popular TV shows as well as a few popular commercials. When played live, they were joined by their friend Ross because apparently the crew was celebrating Ross Day. He joined them on stage for an excellent rendition accompanied by the perfect combination of energy and bongos. The band took a short break and after they returned; Peter wearing a new, trendier outfit, they continued to break out a few more of their catchy, knee jerking, indie dancing tunes.

After a few tracks off their newest album Living Thing, the kids were dancing and tromping the closer and closer to the stage for a touch of Peter's outreached hand. The boys of PB&J know how to charm and entertain their audience without a hitch. Though it may not have been the most earth shattering show, it was certainly one that holds few complaints. It seemed short, being just under two hours for the main act, however there weren't any dull or drab moments. It was easy to see how this band was chosen to back up Kanye West for his live performance.

It was a good night in all, ending with all the kids from backstage on stage, with cowbells and bongos rocking out with Peter, Bjorn and John. It was the kind of ending to a show that makes anyone that plays an instrument, writes about music, or even takes pictures of music want to go on tour, rock out and have a blast every single time they play.

You may not remember MTV's Spring Break 1996, but I do. I remember it because it happened back when every CD I owned was a favourite, and I knew all their track lists by heart. The moments that sunk in during this time will stay with me forever. Like sitting in front of the TV watching the live performance of "Glycerin" on MTV, with a rain-soaked Gavin Rossdale heroically standing strumming his Fender Jazzmaster in the middle of a monsoon. He delivered his masterpiece to an equally soaked crowd eager to see his band Bush perform at MTV's Spring Break party location. I know I'm not the only one who remembers this moment. It is touted by some as the most romantic concert experience ever aired on television.

While Bush was panned at the time for sounding too much like Nirvana, they nevertheless built a huge following in North America before un-officially disbanding in 2002. Gavin had another band two years later called Institute, but it is his 2008 solo album WanderLust that has him on the road right now and enjoying the most success since 1999's The Science of Things.

Opening the show was Suzie McNeil, a Toronto-based singer who first grabbed attention by making it to the final four on the CBS show Rockstar: INXS. More recently she can be seen performing her song "Believe" on commercials for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver; it was this song that got the biggest response from the crowd, as many sang along. For the most part however the audience was indifferent. There was probably more attention paid to snapping camera-phone pics of her notably revealing skirt than to her music.

Gavin Rossdale and his band took the stage amidst a frenzy of smoke and strobe lights. The other four members were posted near the rear of the stage looking more like "hired guns" and less like band mates; all eyes were on Gavin. They kicked off the set with a couple of tracks from the new album and another one from Institute, all of which were warmly received by the audience, but it was when they launched into the opening riff of the 1994 hit song "Machinehead" that the show instantly attained a serious level of intensity. The at-first timid fans jumped up and down with Gavin. I felt like I was in the music video--I was driving a motorcycle really fast through crowded city streets, Gavin was rocking it, Mark Wahlberg had just carved "Nicole 4 Eva" on his chest, and somehow everything made perfect sense to me. I was also very pleased with myself that I happened to have my camera out filming when he meandered into the Talking Heads’ "Once in a Lifetime" mid "Everything Zen". He suggested we ask ourselves "how did I get here?", and for the life of me I can't imagine what I did right to be right there right then with my camera rolling.

I was absolutely thrilled that he played some of the classics, but I was sort of feeling guilty about enjoying them so much, and I was beginning to suspect (judging by crowd reactions to them) that most everyone attended in hopes of hearing a few choice Bush cuts. It's bad enough that 90's music has found its way to classic rock stations, but I couldn't bear to have one of my heroes as a teen become a relic just yet. My proudest moment came as I looked around to see people singing along to his newer songs-- especially  "Forever May You Run" and "Love Remains the Same", the latter used to promote the movie Nights in Rodanthe and finding its way onto the mainstream charts.  

The encore brought it all home for me. In a way that closely resembled his Spring Break performance thirteen years ago, Gavin, completely drenched in sweat this time, strode out alone to center stage wielding his trademark Fender Jazzmaster guitar (making its first appearance of the night) and started into the super-mega-hit "Glycerin". Sweat poured down his guitar and spattered the front row of captivated fans, and I don't know if it was all of the Gavin pheromones or what, but the crowd was completely overtaken by the urge to make out with each other and sing along. It's hard to be down on a show that so closely resembled the "most romantic concert experience ever aired on television". Sure the new songs don't have the impact of that first batch from 1994, but it's like his song says: “Everything will change. My love remains the same.”

Some people have a way of making you feel like an asshole - people who seem to use every ounce of their energy radiating good vibes and generally make every effort to be singularly awesome. Andrew Bird is one of those people. While his idiosyncratic brand of string-laden, densely layered indie-pop surely isn't to everyone's liking, his instrumental prowess, boundless energy and lyrical dexterity are, at the very least, noteworthy. By comparison, even impressive performers can seem ordinary.

Take openers A Hawk And A Hacksaw, for instance. Now we're talking about a duo led by one Jeremy Barnes, who used to be in Neutral Milk Hotel, here doing the triple duty of lead vocalist, accordion player and percussionist (using a pedal-operated drum.) He's accompanied by a prodigiously talented violinist, Heather Trost. Their songs, which lean heavily on Balkan folk melodies and are evenly divided between instrumental and vocal works, display remarkable dexterity and passion - but after a 45-minute set of their material, their relative lack of range became obvious.

Not too long after Barnes and Trost left the stage, Bird, along with percussionist/programmer Martin Dosh (who put out a solo record as Dosh last year) and several other crack players, arrived to kick off what would wind up being an incredibly diverse set drawn principally (though not entirely) from his last two LPs, Noble Beast and Armchair Apocrypha. Bird showed off his trademark instrument-swapping skills early - most tracks would feature a violin part (or several) which he'd play live, then loop back only to set the instrument aside, swing his hips to bring his guitar forward and then play a set of chords, without missing a beat. Oh, and he's usually whistling or singing at the same time, if he's not throwing in some keyboard or glockenspiel work. Even more impressive was the fact that these well-worn moves were in support of the Noble Beast material, songs so labyrinthine you'd assume Bird must have hashed out simpler arrangements - instead, every minute pluck and shift in songs like "Not a Robot, But a Ghost" and "Masterswarm" present and accounted for, albeit with a bit more vigor. All of this, even more remarkably, was pulled off with an off-the-cuff feel, with Bird often throwing unexpected curveballs in his vocal approach. By night's end, he was performing alone with a sprightly rendition of Weather Systems highlight "Why?" not having lost an iota of momentum or interest. That, my friends, is what separates the men from the boys.