Last night, Toronto-based rock group Our Lady Peace took the stage at Echo Beach which, as I've already mentioned, is one of my favourite venues in the city. Returning home to promote their latest album, Curve (which was released in June), the band attracted a wide range of people to their audience. Because they have been playing music since 1992, the age range last night was about 18 - 65. Yes, 65.
The opening act, Vancouver-born Said The Whale, surprised me. They combined an East-coast sound with a West-coast look and lyrics, and performed a solid amount of songs. They were nice, humble, and genuine when talking to the crowd, admitting they spoke less to get more music in. And, the music they played was good, and fit the mood perfectly. Needless to say, they gained at least one fan in me last night.
A short while later, Mother Mother took the stage. Admittedly, I saw them perform already at Concordia's Frost week festivities, but was never really able to get into their music. I still maintain that attitude, and would also like to add that the lead singer came off as slightly pompous while choosing unnecessarily large and hipster-y words while describing his night. It felt a bit like the band as a whole thought they were better than they are. They had minutes of instrumental sound without lyrics and then lyrics that didn't really make sense, and left much of the crowd disinterested very quickly.
But, just after the sun had fully set, the headliners took the stage. They played a good mix of songs from all of their albums (granted, they have a lot of songs to choose from), while at the same time appropriately promoting Curve.
One of my favourite parts of the show, however, was the unique changes they made to some songs. Harmonizing the chorus of Monkey Brains, making Blister acoustic, and reworking some of the vocals added a nice touch you can only appreciate live. 42 year-old frontman Raine Maida still has his vocal chops. And his superior, electrifying stage presence.
Our Lady Peace proved their experience y mixing in elements I rarely see at concerts anymore. For some songs, Maida used a megaphone to distort his voice, their light and graphic show was top-notch, and they used just the right amount of instrumentals through guitar solos and the like to prove their true talent.
Oh, and they had a double encore. I can't remember the last concert I went to that had two, full-fledged, legitimate encores. The crowd went crazy. Leaving hits like 4am and Angels Losing Sleep to the encores, they also added a new song from Curve as the very last song, leaving it fresh in our minds as we left Echo Beach raving about what we had just witnessed.
RATING: 9/10