Braids, Pepper Rabbit and Born Gold
Babylon
Oct. 15
Babylon was thrown into a frenzy Oct. 15 as Braids returned for a powerful and wholly hypnotic set, proving mind control is a very real thing.
The whimsical Montreal-based quartet had fans swaying, many with eyes closed, mouthing the lyrics, allowing themselves to be transported to musical transcendentalism.
Since January, the band has been playing the same material from their critically acclaimed album Native Speaker, but insists they’re ready to creatively move on.
“We’re very focused on wanting to grow and change, and we’ve been sitting on new ideas for a couple years,” said Taylor Smith, who handles bass, guitar and vocals. “We haven’t had a lot of time to sit down and be creative.”
The crowd didn’t seem to mind an omission of new sounds. In fact, they reveled in it, listening to Braids staples like “Lemonade,” and “Plath Heart” from afar with lopsided smiles, or at the very front, swaying like hippies at Woodstock.
It was beautiful and pure to see musicians who put so much genuine effort into their craft, and then to have an eclectic congregation who wholeheartedly appreciated every nuance of their harmony.
Braids’ magical set was preceded by Los Angeles-based Pepper Rabbit. The band was psychedelic with a contemporary, jovial vibe.
Frontman Xander Singh, who substituted his double-keyboard piano and classical guitar from song to song, had surprisingly loud, yet controlled vocals. This was much more evident in a live performance than listening to their albums, like 2010’s Beauregard.
However, it was a mind-bending trio from Edmonton who nearly stole the show. Formerly under the moniker Gobble Gobble, Born Gold’s set was nothing short of an extraterrestrial / Richard Simmons live workout video. They wore kitsch workout outfits, and slithered through the crowd on their knees banging on makeshift drums.
Their rock shock doctrine was a wild success with the Ottawa crowd, and frontman Cecil Frena seemed surprised as well. Profusely thanking the crowd, Frena’s enigmatic bandmates threw what appeared to be linens into the crowd, inadvertently slapping unsuspecting audience members in the face.
It was a night of mass revelry, with Braids lighting the path to musical nirvana, Pepper Rabbit singing the warm and fuzzy tunes that are needed at this dark time of year, and Born Gold taking the crowd to a strange planet.