The Media Club was host to a night of absolutely stellar live music on Friday December 9th, reminding all those in attendance that that you can tell how good an artist truly is when you hear them perform live. And let me say with no hint of hesitation that opening act JBM and headliner Other Lives are fucking incredible.
Other Lives has been touring in support of their album Tamer Animals and opened for Bon Iver on his North American tour and along the way have left a lasting impression on those who see them perform. I had heard they were spell-binding at Sasquatch this year, with people likening them to an all-encompassing wave of music that renders you incapable of movement but that moves you tremendously. This turned out to be a very accurate description but one that surprisingly doesn’t do the experience justice.
The atmosphere of this band’s music is second to none. Ambitious instrumentation is something you can foresee just looking at the gear that awaits them on stage. Its madness. I remember thinking “is that guy at the keyboards holding a violin AND a trumpet?” Once the very first note is played, you know you aren’t just watching some hipster band clogging the act with needless props just to seem different, these musicians know what they are doing and every single instrument on stage has an indelible part to play, and those parts are played perfectly.
The sweep of the music is intense. Moments into the first song, you can feel a certain shift within you, as though you are caught in the middle of an intense funnel cloud; there is energy swirling around you but you are standing in the calm centre. Partial credit for this goes to the sound guy who mixed it so perfectly, I felt like I was living right in the grooves on the vinyl.
Singer and bandleader Jesse Tabish’s voice also helps pull you deep into the Other Lives sound. His voice is remarkable. When I had listened to the album, I remember thinking what a beautiful singing voice Tabish had, but it really astounded me how much more stirring it was live. And it gives you a very strong yet comforting place to put your feet when standing amongst the orchestration of their live performance. Backing him up with absolutely haunting harmonies is cellist Jenny Hsu, whose bow and voice seem to conjure the same haunting lament which brings an ethereal energy that flows through the music and the venue like a playful breeze.
Multi-instrumentalist Jonathon Mooney is a wizard with his bag of tricks. Manning the keys, he is strapped with his guitar and violin with his tarnished and stentorian trumpet always within arm’s reach. The violin in particular is exquisite, draped in a reverb that makes it sound like an army of strings injecting warm honesty of emotion into an already raw sound. And what a sound…to describe it is near impossible.
I was immediately struck with the desolation and open beauty of it. You can pick up the flavour of their native Oklahoma in this music. It’s rich, multi-layered, and soulful with a sadness and spirit that seem to tango AND tangle with each other. It’s pure dustbowl, like the music you would hear if you lay dying in the desert: it puts salt on all five senses while elating you with questions and closure all at once. I wasn’t the only one who was drawn in like this either, the crowd was so game that we were treated to an encore featuring two new songs; one of which was Dustbowl II, a companion piece to Dustbowl III which is the eerie and beautiful track from Tamer Animal that I cannot stop listening to. If Dustbowl II is any indication, the new album is going to surpass this one mightily.
I recommend seeing this band live to ANYONE. I haven’t been as evenly yet peacefully encapsulated by my senses since seeing Radiohead in the pouring rain, which makes sense since Other Lives will be opening for Radiohead during the first leg of their North American tour in 2012. I envy the people with tickets to that instalment…it will be an incredible show.
The packed and VERY vocal crowd was warmed up for Other Lives by the vocal and lyrical stylings of JBM, a Canadian singer-songwriter whose voice gently and deeply won over the chatty masses.
JBM, or Jesse Merchant, has a definite presence though there is little about it that seems to be part of some kind of agenda. Standing with eyes closed at the front of the stage packed with instruments for the headliner’s set, he allowed his voice and words to climb over the noise with little aggression. He was quite handsome with a strong and distinct voice that was surprisingly leathery when it wanted to be yet soft and supple when it soared to the higher heights, all with an earnest delivery that made the words seem so humble and at times, sore.
Merchant would move to a small kick drum when he needed a little backup from a rhythm section and never was this more compelling than Moonwatcher, an incredibly haunting track from his upcoming release Stray Ashes, his old soul guitar trading moments with a thundering kick. Delivering his sad lament with the same kind of desolate feel as Other Lives, he manages to sound like a young Johnny Cash before Cash had begun to see the devil in his own reflection. Seasoned with hard-earned truths but bolstered by a hopeful sadness, JBM creates a sound live that speaks of isolation but ironically gives that feeling a common ground within the audience. Because we have all been there, that place where the dust has settled and all that remains is the echo of your own voice and a slight stinging sensation.
JBM is a talented songwriter with a pure voice, but his musical talent is what keeps the train on the tracks during his live performance. Just when you think a lesser performer would start to lose the audience due to the mood of the music, he delights the pulse of the song by way of his expert finger work on his 6 string or the life he breathes in and out of his harmonica. The music is crafted and played perfectly, and with little to work with when you consider the instruments on the album tracks; being able to translate the music to the stage using just the guitar gives it an entirely new weight, one I actually prefer over the studio track. It gives the lone wolf in me a place to be; face to the wind and loss behind me. It was a gripping opening set; one that I think was the perfect setting of scene for a band like Other Lives.
Thank you to the Media Club for hosting a night like this because it jump starts a taste for live music in the audience lucky enough to be there. Cause there really is nothing like live music, and there is really nothing like Other Lives and JBM either. Good things to experience. I recommend both.
Review by: Jennie Orton / Photos by: Michael Caswell
SCENE IN THE DARK EXCLUSIVE SHOW CONTENT
CHECK OUT OUR ‘JBM’ PHOTO GALLERY HERE
CHECK OUT OUR ‘OTHER LIVES’ PHOTO GALLERY HERE
