Review: Adam and the Amethysts, Tune-Yards and Mussaver @ Casa del Popolo, Saturday July 12

If you were hanging out anywhere in the Mile-End on the idyllic, sunny Saturday that was July 12th, chances are you dropped in at the Pomme-Pomme craft fair at Sala. Then, after longingly fondling fabric squares and crocheted penis-puppets, you’re likely to have done a few reps of the following: guichet, Pomme-Pomme, Casa/coffee, Pomme-Pomme, bike ride, picnic on the mountain/in parc Jeanne-Mance, before finally ending up back at the guichet, buying a bottle of fin du monde and sucking it down in plain sight of all the construction, hipsters and bicycles the corner of St. Joseph and St. Laurent has to offer.

Sometimes traveling with the same pack of musicians/filmmakers/artists/clothing designers/loafers can be a bit claustrophobic. Focusing on the superficial, one can feel awash in a vegan soup of bowl-cuts and converse. Luckily, July 12th was one of those rare, miraculous times when seeing the same sweaty faces every ten minutes was comforting rather than the usual defeating, “Oh-shit-I’ve-run-out-of small talk” panic that tends to set in sometime after your second turn down St.Viateur on a sunny afternoon.

Additionally miraculous, was the way in which every act that rocked Casa’s stage that night had a hand in creating the warm, fuzzy and humbly exuberant feeling that bound the room, turning an already great sunny-crafty-drunky day into a sublime summer’s night.

Beginning with the winding, haunting voice of Mussaver’s Katherine Peacock and followed by the primal scream of Merrill Garbus’ solo effort, Tune-Yards, the evening set out as one of celebration of the “girls in the band,” Telefauna (Peacock) and Sister Suvi (Garbus) respectively.

Drawing in a howling female crowd the likes of which this feminist finds rare in the Montreal indie-rock scene, it was as if I was witnessing a long awaited womanly shake down of art nerd-rigidity during the Tune-Yards set. Performing solo and skillfully looping each song, Garbus held much of the audience in rapture with her near tribal pot and pan beats, while gleefully sending up lyrics like, “I’ve got news for you honey, I get pregnant with birds who sing better than you.” Truly blessed with the kind of voice one might refer to as “an instrument,” a description of Garbus’ vocal powers might indeed involve a visual of said birds rising and chirping and whistling up out of her throat.

Closing the set, the woodsy power ballads of Adam and the Amethysts rode the wave of energy put in motion by Tune-Yards in order to totally bring down the house with some good old fashioned rock ‘n roll. Highlighting the charmingly idiosyncratic lyrical style of front man Adam Waito, the band meandered and sometimes charged through songs about loss, precious stones and Thunder Bay, Ontario, even delivering a heart-felt rendition of Rod Stewart’s, “Reason to Believe.”

Finally, before beginning a song written about Waito’s aforementioned hometown, the singer asked for a show of hands from all the people in the room originally from Montreal. Met with nary a hand and only a mere whimper of a “whoo-hoo,” Waito proceeded to say something to the effect of, “You see, we’re all far away from our hometown, we can all relate to the experience of leaving and coming back.”

A room full of hipsters smiling and dancing and admitting they’re not from Montreal? Now that was something truly wonderous, something which could have only been brought about by the fortuitous melding of summer sun, beer, and roof-raising emotion mixed with a little bit of rock and roll.

Photos by Marilis Cardinal