The Spinto Band/Spiral Beach/The Lovely Feathers
El Mocambo, Toronto, ON
June 6, 2006
By Stu Brown

I have several recipes that I use frequently: recipes for disaster, recipes to get my ass beat, and recipes to break up relationships. Very rarely do I get to use the recipe for an amazing show, but it goes something like this:

Step 1: Pretend you have enough energy to go out.
Step 2: Reluctantly ride bicycle to venue as fast as possible. The first band hit the stage 15 minutes ago and you’re cursing yourself for buying tickets which in turn forced you to attend.
Step 3: Lose your effin’ mind watching bands.

Add or remove steps to taste…

I raced into the El Mo to catch the last few songs of Spiral Beach. Their coverage in the local media mentioned they were young but at no time did it mention that watching them would bring about geriatric nostalgia for my youth. The last time I saw bands that young perform it was a painful battle of the bands. You know the type, where instruments weren’t quite tuned properly and chords, notes, and harmonies were all faces on milk cartons.

Spiral Beach is nothing like that. They perform with an eagerness that I’m not quite used to. It was almost disconcerting that someone was actually that pleased to be performing…in truth I’d call it a welcome change. Their age betrays their musical maturity. Stage presence and poise was fantastic and when faced with technical difficulties (i.e. pieces of the drum kit disappearing) they soldiered on at the request of the greedy, greedy audience.

If I was their teacher they’d get an A.

If only there was an A+ way to segue into The Lovely Feathers set…

The Lovely Feathers hit the stage like a bat out of hell. Meatloaf would have dropped both his hoagie and his jaw faster than you can say, “Montreal”. Taking pages from The Make Up, The Futureheads, and maybe even The Talking Heads, there was nothing more that I wanted to do than sing along but I was too caught up in the frenzied performance to do anything but gawk and bob my head.

I will admit this: the girls standing in front of me had dance moves I’ll never learn. I’ll also admit this: the band played a set few can recreate. If they come to your town and you miss them, I’d suggest slapping yourself once (twice for good measure).

The Spinto Band was The Spinto Band. Recorded, the songs have enough energy to drag me out of bed every morning. This live performance was the equivalent of being slapped, water thrown on my face, and dragged out of bed by appendages that shouldn’t be manhandled—but in a good way.

As soon as the mandolin was picked up I knew it was coming. “Oh Mandy” is obviously one of my favourite songs and it appeared it was the rest of the audience’s too. They played everything everyone wanted to hear and did it with such gusto and energy I couldn’t stop myself from actually smiling. Who smiles at shows? We’ve got appearances to keep up!

While I tend to avoid dancing, more for you (the proverbial “you”) than me, during this show I noticed my foot tapping, and there was some strange movement coming from the back of me. My friend later told me I might have been shaking my ass. Apparently I liked it; I really liked it.