Xiu Xiu - Babylon, Ottawa, 5/6/2007

  by Andrew Carver

published: 16 / 6 / 2007

intro

Xiu Xiu's harrowing avant-garde pop has attracted an increaing audience in the band's natice Canada. Andrew Carver watches them play a tight but unpreictable set at the Babylon in Ottawa

Xiu Xiu’s harrowing avant-garde pop has attracted a sizable following in the underground. They headed up a diverse bill at Ottawa’s Babylon nightclub on the sixth evening of the Capital Idea Festival. The first band on stage was a late addition to the bill: Get Him Eat Him is a five-piece from Providence, R.I., which blends the adrenalin rush pop punk of bands like Ted Leo and The Pharmacists and the New Pornographers with the indie sound of the Wrens (all admitted influences). If they had emerged a couple of years earlier they’d have been lumped in with outfits like The Dismemberment Plan and French Kicks. Even scrunched on a stage loaded down with the gear of acts to come, the band managed to tear through an active, fun set of high-energy guitar-pop. Next up were local sonic troublemakers Fucked Corpse. The band’s fluctuating membership stood at seven for this evening, including a pair of ringers filling in for musicians who had departed and/or fled. Shout-along group vocals, lots of collective tambourine shaking and occasional autoharp abuse complement the band’s electric piano, bass, drums and guitar lineup to create some entertaining and occasionally comprehensible music. Chris Garneau’s winsome piano pop seemed a little out of its depth after the mania of the preceding acts. Sounding a bit like Sufjan Stevens, the diminutive Brooklynite seemed even more boyish behind the keys of a sizable Yamaha electric piano. He seemed a bit precious, even when singing about serial killer and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer. His pleasant melodies were aided along by a capable cellist/harmonium player and drummer. Despite having to compete with chatter from the bar, his set did grab a good chunk of the crowd’s attention. In comparison, barring applause, you could hear a pin drop between Xiu Xiu’s songs. The band’s confessional lyrics, off-kilter polyrhythm and occasional bouts of music delicacy demand complete attention. Jamie Stewart, along with his cousin Caralee McElroy (who played percussion, flute, harmonium and synthesizer) and drummer/vibraphonist Ches Smith conjure a disquieting, emotionally fraught landscape that only a few edgy performers – Scott Walker circa ‘Tilt’ is one – dare to traverse. While the complexity and intensity of their music might suggest a ‘heads down’ stage act, the band is in fact an active bunch, with Stewart lunging and jumping guitar in hand while Smith’s wild-eyed stick-swinging suggests a man possessed. The result was an unpredictable thrill-ride of a show.

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