Miscellaneous - Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ottawa, 6/3/2006

  by Andrew Carver

published: 16 / 3 / 2006

intro

Andrew Carver watches a trio of Danish acts-Kira and the Kindred Spirits, the Figurines and the Blue Van-all play forceful sets at Zaphod Beeblebrox's

Like the band of Australians who had performed the night before, the trio of Danish acts which landed on Zaphod’s stage Monday had arrived in Canada as part of Canada Music Week and added a bunch of touring to maximize the value of their trip. The first band, Kira and the Kindred Spirits, are built around a sultry singer with a forceful style erroneously compared in their press kit to Janis Joplin. She gave a far too modulated performance (and looked far too good in a black velvet catsuit) to really merit it, but one has to grant she’s got a good set of pipes. She also had a guitarist equipped with a twangy Telecaster and a healthy supply of sharp-edged licks, a good organist and an adept rhythm section. One can imagine considerable mainstream success. The next band were the highly touted Figurines, whose New York New Wave sound fit in well with the current Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, Interpol and Strokes loving zeitgeist. Their stage performance was also very energetic, with frontman Christian Hjelm’s facial expressions and Mick Jaggerish prancing providing quite a bit of extra entertainment value. The Blue Van finished things off. Musically, the band walks the line between garage rock and the Faces with perhaps a little too much loyalty to their forefathers; as a stage act they’re pure dynamite. Bassist Allan Villadsen was leaping, shouting, twisting and turning in every spare moment, while guitarist and singer Steffen Westmark has his own rock moves down pat. Even organist Soren Christensen got in the act, actually pushing his hefty instrument around the stage. His fingers stayed on the keys, but the rest of him moved about quite a bit. You might not want to buy their CD, but they should definitely put out a live DVD. Andrew Carver's camera unfortunately stopped working during this show. The accompanying photos are all of of Kira and the Kindred Spirits

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