The Besnard Lakes
The Besnard Lakes live in Whelan's, Dublin (20 May 2007)
Review Snapshot:
Sundays at this time of year in 2006 usually meant there was a truly
brilliant gig happening in Whelan's with Nada Surf, Okkervil River and Final
Fantasy almost blowing the roof off the joint as they presided over the Sunday
Service. 12 Months later the Besnard Lakes act more like a damp squib.
The CLUAS Verdict? 4.5 out of 10
Full review: It seems to me that one of the functions of a good record producer is to
hold back a band's more over the top and bombastic instincts and as someone who
has done production work with sonically ambitious bands like the Dears and Stars
you would expect The Besnard Lakes' Jace Lasek to know when to dial things down
and not finish songs with a 15 minute guitar solo. In fact, listening to his
band's second album The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse you get the
impression that Lasek and wife/musical partner Olga Goreas slaved away in the
studio they own in Montreal (and let's just ignore any obvious comparisons to other spouse-led bands from that neck of the woods shall we?) for an age.
The result was to
strike the successful blend of grandiosity and space that made their Low-goes-shoegaze-with-the-Beach-Boys-providing-harmonies sounding album one of the
year's finest efforts.
It's a shame then that when the couple, along with the other 4 members of their
band, hit the road to promote said album they decided to forget that less can be
more and for the majority of their set at Whelan's subjected the audience to far
more self indulgent masturbatory guitar noodling then is healthy for anyone.
They
sounded like they had more in common to older compatriots such as Rush (whom I
believed the Canadian government had decommissioned as part of the classic rock
test-ban treaty at the end of the Cold War to prevent its spread into Eastern
Europe due to the fall of the Iron Curtain) than any of their other well known
Montreal contemporaries. Things got off to a bad start when they finished their
opening number with 3 guitarists soloing over each other and for the most part
they didn't really let up after that.
And it's that "for the most part" bit that's the most frustrating because when
they did dial things down a tad they sounded really rather good. "Disaster" is a
brilliantly constructed slow burner and perfectly showcases Lasek's graceful
falsetto set against a backdrop of softly strummed guitars and fuzzed up bass.
Unfortunately those moments of discretion are few and far between and I spent
most of the gig glancing at my watch and wishing I'd brought some earplugs. Most
disappointing gig of 2007 thus far.
Ian Wright
