Cuff The Duke
- Location: Seahorse Tavern
- Cuff the Duke were the first band up as part of the secret guest show for wristband and pass holders at the Seahorse on Saturday afternoon. I think its safe to say most people in attendance were either a little tired, hungover, or both. Lead singer Wayne Petty admitted that they had a pretty late night of drinking with Great Lake Swimmers and Basia Bulat the night before. This did not affect their performance as they still played for around 45 minutes filled with their alt-country, folk, and indie rock sounding tunes along with a generous amount of good humored stage banter. It is always a pleasure to see Darthmouth’s Dale Murray effortlessly playing through songs on guitar.
Great Lake Swimmers
- Location: Seahorse Tavern
- A night after playing a show at St. Matthew’s Church, Great Lake Swimmers put on a second excellent show in a setting that is pretty much the polar opposite of a church. Led by Tony Dekker and his soft vocals and acoustic guitar work, he was joined by a band using drums, violin, stand up bass, electric guitar, and of course banjo. I’ve never heard as much banjo as I did this week at Pop Explosion. The band played through a twelve song set that featured melodic slow rockers as well as a rocking energetic rendition of Everything Is Moving Too Fast into Bodies and Minds to finish off the show. Cuff the Duke’s Wayne Petty also joined the band on stage as they covered Neil Young’s Harvest. They determined the last time that their two bands had played a show was in 2002. It was evident by the constant smiles on their faces that everyone was enjoying themselves even if they hadn’t completely recovered from Friday night.
In-Flight Safety
- Location: Taz Records
- Even if you have seen In-Flight Safety a handful of times in Halifax, their pop explosion shows featured different sides of the band. They opened up the night before for Great Lake Swimmers at St. Matthew’s Church, which unfortunately I missed out on. Saturday afternoon they played a handful of songs at Taz Records. There was no fancy lighting, no mics, just the sounds of a rhodes keyboard, bass, and acoustic guitar as John Mullane sang out their songs. It was a pleasant treat to hear stripped back and intimate versions of songs that usually contain more powerful and swooping atmospheric sounds.
Gardening, Not Architecture
- Location: Citadel Hotel
- Sometimes a band name is enough to spark one’s interest and check out the artist. That was the case with LA’s Gardening, Not Architecture. It consisted of Sarah Saturday with a pair of headphones, a bass guitar, two mics, a laptop, and a light curtain. Visually it was entertaining to watch the light patterns change as she played through her songs. Sonically it was entertaining to listen to her add loud bass to pre-recorded songs. Here’s to hoping that she returns to Halifax in the future and gets to play a longer set to a larger audience.
The Mountains & The Trees
- Location: Company House
- The Mountains & The Trees led by Jon Janes made his long awaited Halifax Pop Explosion debut on a chilly windy night at the Company House. He played through a number of songs off of his recent full length “I Made This For You” as well as a few new songs. In between each song he would engage the audience by telling stories. Stories about the background on the songs, stories from traveling through the Rocky Mountains and around Europe. It was fitting as his songs really do have that storytelling feel to them. For almost every song it was just him with an acoustic guitar and the odd harmonica part. However during Up&Down he did some fascinating looping using his guitar and pedals to create a lovely sound. When the crowd is quiet as you perform, when the crowd whistles along remarkably when asked, and when the crowd is full of smiles, that is when you know you’ve put on good show. And we also learned not to mess with Herohill, especially during rock paper scissors.
Tokyo Police Club
- Location: Paragon Theatre
The Saturday night show of Pop Explosion at the Paragon Theatre (formerly the Marquee) is always a great show and is typically broadcast live on CBC Radio 3. This year’s lineup featured Dilly Dally, Ghostkeeper, Cuff the Duke, Tokyo Police Club, and Young Rival. I only caught the end of Ghostkeeper’s set, but from what I saw it was quite the rocking show with the band showing lots of dynamic creativity not just being a one trick pony. Cuff the Duke, who played at the Seahorse earlier that day, put on a great live show. They were constantly thanking people for showing up as well as thanking CBC for all the support they’ve received from them over the years. I also left before Young Rival took the stage, 5 straight days of music plus a cold can wear one out.
A loud roar erupted from the crowd when CBC Radio 3 personality Craig Norris introduced Markham Ontario’s Tokyo Police Club. They started into their energetic set with Favourite Colour, a great intro song. The band also played a new song, Top Five which has that classic Tokyo Police Club sound that fans have come to know and love. Tesselate was a highlight of the show as lead singer and bass player Dave Monks instructed the crowd how to clap after Graham Wright’s keyboard chords. With long hair covering his eyes, Dave Monks had a smile on his face the whole show as he ensured that the crowd was having a good time.
Last time Tokyo Police Club played in Halifax was at Summersonic in July of 2008 where I couldn’t get over the fact they just sounded like a Canadian version of the Arctic Monkeys. With the release of Champ, their live show has vastly improved as they have more variety in their show and sound like Tokyo Police Club and not too similar to other bands. Really it was a perfect way to close off a crazy week of Halifax Pop Explosion.
