Double Shot of Wolf Parade
I finally had the chance to see one of my top bands from several years ago, Wolf Parade, this past week. I had tickets for the show on July 31 for several months, then a second show the next night later opened up which I got tickets for it as well.
Both shows were a venue I frequent in Hell's Kitchen, The Bowery Ballroom run Terminal 5. The opening band was Wintersleep both nights. I missed there set the first night but saw them the second night. Several songs were quite solid. Another Canadian band.
On Thursday I watched from the floor near the stage on the side of Spencer Krug. I almost didn't recognize him at first. I saw him about a year ago playing with Sunset Rubdown and it seems like he's filled out a bit since then. He looked comfortable wearing shorts and some boating slippers.
On Thursday they opened with both the first tracks from their 2 LP's, You are a runner then Solider's Grin. Fortunately the set list was different on Friday so I could see some variation. They alternated back and forth between Spencer Krug led tracks and Dan Boeckner tracks throughout both shows save one Krug combo on the second night which was one of the most impressive points in their performance for me. They played You Are a Runner and went directly into Fancy Claps, "When I die I'm leaving you my feet".
I always feel that while Wolf Parade's music is pop tinged rock, it generally has kind of a dark and desolate feeling to it. Sometimes even a bit evil. Hearing them play their tracks on the second album live it became even more apparent to me influence of the Doors, most notable the Ray Manzarek style keyboard influence on several tracks. With much analysis its still hard for me to exactly categorize Wolf Parade which is a good trait in a band. I heard some people last night say Wolf Parade is like a cross between Modest Mouse and Arcade Fire. I don't really agree with that. I think they have a good amount of Frog Eyes influence as well, especially Krug's singing style compared to his buddy Carey Mercer. Apparently Krug has been a member of Frog Eyes as well and they are both members of Swan Lake.
Seeing these Canadian's play it seems they are generally just polite and considerate folks. In contrast to some american punk influenced bands I've seen who are sometimes more pretentious and more about promoting chaos. Even when the Canadians have an aggressive sound, like in the case of Death From Above 1979, they just seemed like regular guys. However, it is also the chaos and aggression can be compelling on stage. It just doesn't seem to be the way of the Canadian bands that I've seen. I was thinking of the contrast to a stage presence of bands like The Strokes who are much more concerned with style and looking cool at all times. 
The combination of Boecker and Krug is quite impressive. They complement each other's styles quite well. Krug on the dual keyboard setup and Boecker on lead guitar. It seems each kind of have a ryhthmn backup for each of their instruments. Another guitar/bass player and a keyboard player. The other keyboard player had some kind of electronic soundboard contraption on top of his keyboard with many wires coming out which adds different kinds of moody effects to overall sound. The hairy bearded fellow on drums is quite impressive as well. He drummed like a maniac which is normally the ideal drumming style in my opinion.
Overall I was very pleased with the way they performed the songs I had heard so many times. If anything they were better live. The only disappointment is they didn't play what I think is one of their top songs "Dinner Bells". They did end with Kissing the Beehive in the impressive 2 song encore on Thursday. On Friday they played Beehive earlier in a longer set and had a 3 song encore. The Friday show did have a bit more energy, possibly more people in the crowd, I was glad I could see both shows.
