Concert Review: The Hidden Cameras, Tasseomancy @ Lee’s Palace

By: Bryen Dunn –

If you haven’t yet seen The Hidden Cameras live, you are missing out on one of Toronto’s unique musical collectives, who performed at Lee’s Palace in Toronto on Saturday night in support of their latest album, Age.

Toronto-based quintet Tasseomancy opened the show. Led by twin sisters Sari and Romy Lightman, their sounds have eastern origins, electronic beats, and harmonizing vocals. Their short six-song set was well-received by a good size crowd that arrived early. The group’s warm vocals mesmerized the crowd, especially on tracks like “Braid. Wind Is Coming”. While still relatively under the radar, the Lightmans have toured with bands like Toronto-based synthpop band Austra, and now have two releases under their belt, including 2013’s limited edition cassette, Tasseotape, that featured five new tracks. Best filed under trippy ambient, with comparisons to Kate Bush and Julee Cruise, they expressed their excitement to checking out TheHidden Cameras performance as much as anyone else, before quietly departing the stage.

As the stage grew deserted, a music mix began with the gothic “Happy House” by Siouxsie and the Banshees, followed by Specimen’s “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang”, which prepared the crowd for the party about to take over the stage. The Hidden Cameras are known for their copious amounts of performers on stage, and this night was no exception. There seemed to be at least 18, but there may have been a couple others in the far back corner. In addition to frontman Joel Gibb, the stage was crowded with a horn/string section, electronics, guitars, drums, dancers, and backing vocalists, which made it amazing to see everyone doing their own thing, yet in unison with the others to produce a powerful experience.

As the stage filled, a sarong-like cloth covered each band member, and they immediately went into the danceable “Skin and Leather”, which opens Age. Gibb gave a shout out to his hometown of Toronto before the band went into “Bread for Brat”, another track from Age, which made prominent use of the aforementioned string section, that many didn’t seem to recognize. It wasn’t until the fourth song, “AWOO”, that the crowd started to get into things, and got more lively. This was followed by “Smells Like Happiness”, from 2003’s The Smell of Our Own, which before launching into it, every member on stage tied a red ribbon around their eyes and played their respective instruments by what seemed to be by smell alone, which might have been influenced by the lyrics, “Happy, we are when we choose to wear the blindfold …”. Another new track, “Year of the Spawn” followed, and by the time they were halfway through their set and performing Age’s first single and outsider anthem “Gay Goth Dance”, which deals with forbidden love, and within the context of the music video, the visual depiction of a bullied teenager’s wounded soul, Gibb’s commanding stage persona kept remained front and centre, while his team worked their musical merriment.

They ended their main set with the crowd favourite “Music Is My Boyfriend”, which had many in the crowd singing along, and not before all they returned for a three song encore that included “Learning the Lie”, “Follow These Eyes”, and “The Churchground”, which satisfied those wanting more in terms of older tracks.

The Hidden Cameras play Ottawa on February 18^th and Montreal on the 19^th.