Thursday at Pop Montreal! Magical.

Tessa at Pop

Woke up this morning and got a call saying we’ve got an interview lined up with Sloan at 5 o’clock. Woo!

Went to David Byrne’s presentation at the Future of Music Summit

After John interviewed Jay Ferguson from Sloan, we watched their sound check and waited for the possibility of a photo while a network TV crew did an interview. Listening to the poorly researched interviewer, I felt proud to be there with my small independent crew of photographers and writers who actually had an interest in the band.

On over to Les Saints where Windom Earle was scheduled to play. When we got there, the only other people in the gaping underground venue were the band, other bands playing there later that night, and the barstaff. But that’s actually a better feeling than some of the shows where it’s ONLY media and press people.

I had a long rant with Jose from Harlem Shakes about photobloggers and the new culture of showgoers wherein a crowd wants to get their photos and opinion about a band up on the net before anyone else so they can be the reference point for following blogs. It made me think about journalism and the seeming need to have an opinion no matter what it is. Also about the immense power of personal blogs in the rise and fall of artists.

Windom Earle went on late, presumably waiting for a bigger crowd, and played an awesomely fun set of dancey synth-pop. I really can’t believe these guys aren’t big yet. But then, don’t take this blog’s word for it. Go see them live. They range in size depending on the show and usually have some video art projected onto old tvs, which is charming and techy all at once.

One of their songs was a karaoke version of “Since you been gone” by Kelly Clarkson with screaming chorus. I hear they do karaoke pretty often.

We hung out backstage with the guys and gals of Windom Earle and Stolen Minks (who played Friday night) plus a few other random members of bands. The video of that is gonna be up soon.

Took the 55 bus up St. Laurent to catch Joanna Newsom at the Ukranian Federation. I would say she’s the act I was MOST excited about seeing this Pop.

A beautiful sweaty venue, a crowd under a spell (sorry I feel like reviewers of Newsom need to lay down the medieval references, she sings about Foucault and literary theory, not dungeons and dragons like John would have us believe, but I still think her effect is one of mesmerizing her audience). There’s something about having a giant harp and an enchantingly glowing woman on a stage that culls up images of the sea and of fairs and of the well-lit past.

She came out for an encore and told us, “I’m sorry, I’m getting blisters. I can only play one more.” Her last song was “Clam, crab, cockle, cowrie”, a personal favourite and a song I’d been listening to every morning leading up to the show. Her songs were each around 8 minutes long and epic and winding, and it’s hard not to watch her fingers plucking the hundreds of strings and feel that she’s somehow weaving something and I fall back into the imagery of the Craft.

A quick stop at Barfly for Black Helicopter : some old dudes playing good rock and then dancing at Le Big Cheeze with new friends. I drove around till 4am with my friend Dimitri, listening to grit pop rock and feeling so tired in that weary road trip sort of way that makes me love my life and have nostalgia for the future.