Pop Montreal Review: (((((Forest City Lovers)))))

What can I say about Toronto’s Forest City Lovers? Well, they took to the stage with ease Saturday evening at Le Cagibi, with pop melodies in their skirt pockets and a shaker in the closet. Sounds abstract, but in fact Kat Burns, guitarist and lead vocalist, did seem to be pulling out wonderful melodies from her blue corduroy overall skirt (with matching legwarmers – cute!) and the man on the shaker did in fact stay in the utilities closet for the entire duration of the first song. At random, an arm would extend from the slightly opened closet door and shake a maraca towards the stage…

Burns was joined by bassist Kyle Donnelly and violinist/vocalist Mika Posen who make up the core of this Toronto indie-folk-pop band, along with Closet-Shaker-Man (who eventually added some guitar and keyboards as well) and an unidentified drummer. Good rhythm section, subtle harmonies, quiet guitar hooks and head-nodding all around cathy tunes sums up the vibe of the Forest City crew.

I felt like there was a definite Feist meets Regina Spektor meets Rufus Wainwright influence happening in their sound, with a certain Torontonian flavour that I just couldn’t put my finger on. Maybe what I was hearing was a tip of the hat to some of tee-dot’s underground cabaret acts such as Kevin Quain and his Tequila Vampire Matinee. Not such a bad thing.

All in all, the Forest City Lovers are a really tight band and they put on a great show during Saturday’s serving of Pop Montreal. I’m sure we are going to be hearing more from them in the future as they have very catchy melodies and and a style (both musically and fashionably) that keeps your interest peaked.

For more info, you can visit:
www.playthetriangle.com or
www.myspace.com/forestcitylovers

OR! in the meantime, you can enjoy this DIY video I found circulating on You Tube of the song Pirates directed by Forest City Lovers front-woman Kat Burns: