Death From Above 1979’s reunion
Keeler remained quiet vocally while providing the rough and distorted bass lines that define Death From Above 1979. He transitioned between tracks with epilogues that played with looping and sampling, a divergence from their noise-punk aesthetic.
Their setlist was one of the better ones I have experienced in my concert-going history — tracks were played in a great ascension, climaxing with their biggest hits in the middle. A mosh pit formed and there was successful crowd surfing. The crowd chanted devoutly to “Black History Month,” arguably their most well-known anthem.
Grainger, the band’s drummer and vocalist, kept the crowd entertained with his stage banter in between songs.
“Did you guys see Nick Jonas?” he asked.
“The Jonas brothers are made of the medium one, the good-looking one, and the one that looks like Rob Schneider. I’d like to think I’m the good-looking one. What do you think?” he asked. Affirmative cries from the masses erupted.
Nick Jonas’ solo introduction
Earlier in the day, Nick Jonas, “the medium one,” performed on the MBNA stage.
I unabashedly enjoy Jonas. In fact, he was phenomenal.
I expected Jonas to play all of his solo material, attempting to break away from the clichéd bubble gum pop-rock where he plays second fiddle to his Don Juan-esque brother, Joe Jonas (also the other brother who resembles Rob Schneider).
He began his set with two new songs from his solo album, Who I am. The horde of young girls at the front of the stage sang along with tears in their eyes. He proved himself as a charismatic solo artist — smiling, singing confidently and inevitably taking his jacket off to the egregious cheer of teenage girls.
The man is ripped. I may have screamed as well.
Physical attributes aside, Nick continued the set with a spectacular and nearly identical rendition of Coldplay’s “Yellow.” He also delved into his love and admiration for Adele.
“It was an honour losing a Grammy to Adele,” he said before he covered her ode to heartbreak and scorn, “Someone Like You.” Since no one but myself was singing along, he quickly changed to Bruno Mars’ “Just the Way You Are,” which the crowd seemed to enjoy much more.
Do not deny the power of Nick J. After all, he did play an endearing Marius Pontmercy in Les Misérables in London’s West End last summer, perfecting his vibrato and proving his status as renaissance-man-du-jour. On July 16, he cultivated his falsetto, and introduced himself anew.
Mother Mother’s reintroduction to the masses
Mother Mother also got a chance to reintroduce themselves to the substantially larger crowd than the one they performed in front of at Bluesfest in 2009. And by substantially larger, I mean the Subway stage ground was flooded with people drawn to the folk-pop five-piece from Vancouver. They were enjoyable, playing their usual medley of whimsical and adorably poppy tunes, but in an illogical order. Because of a poor setlist, a large number of spectators left in the middle of the show.
Mother Mother, you sound great, but take a setlist lesson from Death From Above 1979, the veterans of raw revelry, and don’t be so anticlimactic.