Karkwa : These lads are excellent players and smiles onstage

Karkwa : Friday, Wrongbar: The deserving recipients of last year’s Polaris Music Prize for the stately prog-rock epic Les Chemins de Verre, Montreal’s Karkwa led a strong Quebecois charge into CMW this year and proved themselves excellent ambassadors for the wide world of francophone rock ’n’ roll the rest of Canada rarely bothers to investigate. These lads are excellent players who enjoy challenging themselves as much as their listeners. One got the sense on Friday that there was the potential for a full-on Weather Report freak-out to erupt whenever the versatile quintet started tearing one of its songs apart and veering off into protracted feats of jazzbo-tricky jammery. Quite a few “whoa!” moments there. And I rather like how much this band smiles onstage.

Extraxt from "Nine acts that stood out from the pack" by Ben Rayner, the star.com, Published On Sun Mar 13 2011