At Avant Garde, a basement bar decorated by recovered Soviet-era propaganda posters, patrons file in for what’s sure to be a fun-filled Friday night. Kurvi Tasch is back in town.
Ottawa-grown Kurvi Tasch is an alternative rock trio who formed in Montreal and returned Sept. 28 for a show-stopping performance.
As they sit in the back of their van, drinking cheap lager, they explain they’ve been buds since elementary school.
“I sat down in a chair on the first day of grade six and [drummer] Oliver [Finlay] gave me a gift—a fur ball or something—and I thought it was awesome. We’ve been friends ever since,” said frontman Alexander Nicol, 23.
The boys of Kurvi Tasch bonded over their mutual love of all things geeky: card game Magic: The Gathering and Age of Empires to name a few — “the geek factor is high in this band,” according to Nicol — but they didn’t start the band until they each moved to Montreal for post-secondary education.
That’s not to say they never tried jamming before then.
“We have a back catalogue of terribly awful 17-year-old heartthrob, garage pop songs that no one wants to listen to,” Nicol said with a laugh.
Since the band formed, they’ve been playing shows in the Montreal area, yet this is the first time they’ve had the opportunity to play as a band in Ottawa.
Bassist Mike Heinermann, 23, described their genre as “slurpy, Donkey Kong jungle music” or, to the unaware, a mix of alternative/indie rock and garage band music.
He said the one-year-old band is still trying to fully identify their sound and genre.
Kurvi Tasch’s sound is complex; they definitely don’t sound like your typical pub band. The harmonies and instrumentation suggest they know what they’re doing and they’re good at it.
“We’re attempting to incorporate two different sounds,” Nicol said. “The 2000-era garage rock scene that we all love and the 80s new-wave thing in New York.”
He added that “British, post-punk, new wave bands” also influence their sound. So really, their music is an eclectic mix that’s coming from all over.
But Kurvi Tasch said their sound shouldn’t be established first in the scene and then taken on by the band, but rather their natural sound should establish a uniqueness in the underground scene.
“It’s not like we attempted to adopt a sound because we hear it everywhere,” Nicol said. “I think it’s because we seek out music that we like and we try and create music that shows that.”
While the band has plans to start recording in December to release a full-length album in March 2013, the recording process may take a little longer.
Back at the bar, the band emerged from the party van and took the stage at around 11 p.m. It soon became clear whom everyone was here to see.
Though openers Good Young Catcher and Grand Theft Ottawa both put on entertaining performances, it was Kurvi Tasch that sold the crowd.
The band played crowd favourites like their new single “I Want You Back” but there were some surprise tracks the band played for the first time at the small venue.
Yet, according to Nicol, the biggest surprise may still be to come.
“Some monkeys are coming on the next track.”
