Gorgeous. Not the transvestite stage spectacle and loud queer politicizing I expected, but rather a focus on the music, which is more beautiful and orchestral than I realized from their studio recordings. I finally understand why they’re described as chamber pop. Young cute Canadians – maybe not cute – they were each a little dorky and odd in their own way. The lead singer pleased me with his tall lankiness and dark eyes, and his distinctive prettily quirky voice that warms me like the sound of a well-liked familiar friend. There were two fiddlers, a keyboardist, an occasional trumpeter, a drummer – maybe 7 or 8 people on stage total? Their songs are complicated but hooky, like The Shins but more comfortable. They toy with sounds and their voices and the instrumentation in a sophisticated and sonically pleasing way. They’re often billed as “gay church folk music,” and part of what attracted me to them in the first place was their blaspheming of religious imagery by jumbling it up with explicit homosexual lyrics. While there is something majestic and holy in their sound, the term “folk” doesn’t do credit to their sound. This band and I were meant for each other.

I might enjoy a little speed metal every now and then, but never ever never drama-metal – theatre geeks gone thrash – ech – soaring vocals and undertones – what did fascinate me about this band was their synchronized head-banging – the long hair of all 4 guys incessantly swirling in simultaneous circles – it’s got to affect their musicianship – and I kept wondering what an uninitiated person would think of the whole scene – it’s pretty strange what sorts of behaviors we come to accept as normal

a former member of The Hidden Cameras and a golden frosted fairy of a man – he\”s near albino – his voice was both good and interesting, but his singer-songwriter style grew old very quickly – towards the end of the set, the band moved into indie rock material that was more exciting

made me realize how infrequently I see metal and my lack of understanding of the metal scene that was the crowd at the outside stage in their black cotton wear and tall boots and chains and jewelry – the band was good even if it all starts to sound the same to me in the end – fingers-flying speed metal