tUnE-yArDs’ last show in Canada “for a long time”

By: Curtis Sindrey –

Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs at Phoenix in Toronto. August 1st, 2012. (Photo: Curtis Sindrey)

“Thanks for being a great city,” said tUnE-yArDs frontwoman Merrill Garbus last night at the Phoenix in Toronto, who once again wore an eccentric outfit, this time with a modest black dress and rings that stood at attention on her shoulders.

The show, according to Garbus, is “our last dozen shows until a really long break and our last show in Canada for a long time.”

The show kicked off with the Montreal-based Mozart’s Sister, who, like Garbus, shares the same growling, hyper-speed vocals and similar hard and heavy, yet danceable beats.

And like the headliners, Mozart Sister frontwoman Caila Thompson-Hannant began with a seemingly vulnerable vocal performance that got many members of the audience immediately into a trance like state, and then bounced seamlessly into a fun hip-hop beat.

Dressed in a shirt too small for her build and beats that are too ballsy for tUnE-yArDs, Thompson-Hannant often explored the themes of sex, love, lust, reconciliation, and female empowerment, notably in the track “Single Status,” all with an extensive use of loops and programming, which only heightened her performance.

Midway through her set, Thompson-Hannant mentioned that she saw tUnE-yArDs’ set the night before in Montreal, and admitted, “secretly, I like you better than Montreal,” which gave way to a roar of applause.

While Thompson-Hannant may not be related to Mozart, but she is “tUnE-yArDs’ experimental younger sister.”

Accompanied by a strong supporting cast, who all wore rumpled untucked shirts and ties and headbands that were reminiscent of high school gym class, bassist Nate Brenner, touring saxophonists Matt Nelson and Noah Bernstein, along with tUnE-yArDs frontwoman Merrill Garbus took the stage in what was a hour+ long set to remember.

Caila Thompson-Hannant of the Montreal-based Mozart’s Sister in Toronto. August 1st, 2012. (Photo: Curtis Sindrey)

With a variety of material from the band’s two previous releases including the band’s mellower tracks like “Fiya,” from their 2009 debut album BiRd-BrAiNs and more upbeat tracks like “Bizness,” and the hit and orchestral driven “Gangsta,” both from 2011’s Whokill, which was a highlight of the show due to it diving fans to dance wildly and mimic the song’s R&B-inspired bass line, and it being one of the tracks that everyone in the audience knew due to its placement on such shows as Weeds and The Good Wife.

The finale of the song turned into an impromptu horn, bass, and drum jam session that reminded me of the chaotic finale of Radiohead’s “The National Anthem.”

After the song, one of Garbus’ pedals began acting up and she explained that it simply got “over-excited.”

The show was a special one for one fan who donated money to the band’s KickStarter project who scored two VIP tickets to the show and an on-stage thank you from Garbus. The funds went to provide funds for the SF Rock Project’s “lending library” of instruments to offer students a way to discover music and become “original, confident, inspired musicians.”

For those of you that went to the Sigur Ros show instead, you missed out on a very fun, quirky and overall satisfying performance and it’s our best guess when we’ll see something like that again.