It took a while to tear down after Karkwa

Archive : Canadian Musicfest 2011 Day Two
Photo: Karkwa @ Wrongbar – March 11, 2011

Then it was further into the dark heart of Parkdale to Wrongbar, where 2/3 of what would have beenthe best bill of the festival were ready to make an argument that it still was.

Leading their case was reigning Polaris Music Prize winners Karkwa, who’d been spending no small amount of time since the win last September introducing themselves and the winning record Le chemins de verre to English Canada

And making those introductions by way of live performance was really putting their best foot forward as their show was nothing less than electrifying. I’d seen them play at the Polaris gala and while I didn’t know it at the time, that was Karkwa at their most subdued what with frontman Louis-Jean Cormier on piano – and while that was fine, having him brandish guitars as he did this night made for a very different sort of show.

My French hasn’t gotten any better since September so I still didn’t understand any of what they were singing, but the collective musicianship of the band and melodic and visceral impact of their songs needed no translation.

Not even Le chemins de verre properly captured the intense dynamics and surprising amount of brutalism (a good thing) that was on display here. I know that there was a fair bit of head-scratching when Karkwa won the Polaris, both with respect to who they were and whether they deserved it. The former shouldn’t be an issue anymore and the latter? Just go see them live. And make sure the guitars are out.

Spinner and Chart were also on hand at the show while The Globe & Mail has a feature piece

It took a while to tear down after Karkwa’s set – to say they’ve got a lot of gear is an understatement

Article and photos By Frank Yang, Chromewaves, Tuesday, March 15th, 2011