MUSICMusic Reviews

Mother Mother at Kool Haus – 12/01/12

Written by Alex Metcalfe and Photographs by Ray Williams

Dear Canadian indie music pop and rock artists,

Since I’m about to offend, like, almost all of you, I might as well clear the air: I love you guys. I love so many Canadian musicians, especially Canadian indie musicians with a flair for rock ‘n roll. I love my brethren in your sometimes-folksy indie rock bands, sometimes-bluesy indie rock bands, sometimes-techno-y indie rock bands. I dare say that I (probably) unconditionally love 100% of the Canadian indie rock band artists out there 60% of the time.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, allow me to make my confession…
Mother Mother is better than you.

I know, I’m sorry. But I feel like we’re 4 albums in with this stellar 5 piece from Vancouver and they continue to create gorgeously rich songs while simultaneously pushing the technological side of the music medium as well. The Sticks – their 4th LP released this past September – is a case in point.

While most of you lovely Canadian indie rock bands are following all the right highly enjoyable genres and sub-genres, Mother Mother just seem to be in a genre of their own. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve spawned a similarly-styled niche of artists in the indie scene like Saturday night’s show opener and band friend, Hannah Gorgas. But Mother Mother is still, simply put, ahead of them.

Now, obviously listening to either Touch Up, Oh My Heart, Eureka and The Sticks is the best way to appreciate this band’s creativity both in the song writing sense and the sound engineering sense. But shows like Saturday evening at Toronto’s Kool Haus make up the other very important piece of understanding the Mother Mother artistic puzzle.

I’ve had the privilege, dear Canadian indie rock (and pop!) band friends, of seeing Mother Mother three times at live venues of varying sizes during varying episodes of their career. I’m going to outline why, in my humble opinion, Mother Mother are better than you on the stage. Keep in mind that this is in the context of a live show, my beautiful Canadian indie band friends, but you’d do good to listen to their albums as well and take some notes. Once again, no offense? K good.

So on stage, Mother Mother are better than you because: Vocals are the loudest sound coming from the stage, because they should be… Mother Mother is fronted vocally by Ryan Guildemond and co-piloted by sister Molly and Jasmin Parkin. These three have clearly spent enough time discovering how their vocals work in harmony with one another, and it shows both on recordings and on stage. Aside from the common sense knowledge that vocals move people the most at a live performance of pop music, this is a band that clearly wants their complex vocals to shine on stage. Thankfully, that’s exactly what happened at The Kool Haus. Despite the venue’s less-than-awesome acoustics (sorry, Massey Hall snob here…), the band’s amplified output was basically perfect at the show. Unlike many of your gorgeous Canadian indie bands out there, it doesn’t feel like there’s an internal competition for stage sound dominance between vocals and instruments. Instead, it feels like every member of the band knows exactly how much audible intensity they should be outputting in relation to one another. That’s talent.

Lighting is as art form for them, not a tripod in the corner (anymore)… I’ll admit, when I saw Mother Mother for the first time in Sarnia in 2009, their stage set up was basically those black aluminum lighting tripods with the coloured, silicone lamp filters. But now, Mother Mother’s live light show is just as engaging as their music. Don’t get me wrong, lighting is a big deal for lots of popular acts, but I’d still argue that none of you Canadian indie rock bands in Mother Mother’s popularity (and, consequently, financial) “league” invest that much time in making sure your lighting triggers that much response from the audience. It’s a big deal, guys, don’t forget about it! Mother Mother know this and thanked their lighting artiste on stage for his amazing work. Unfortunately, I was kind of buzzed and totally forgot his name. Sorry guys, reviewer derp right there. (scroll down for more)

Every band member gets a time to shine, but not in a tacky way… You know how sometimes when some of you guys in your Canadian indie rock bands might throw in a moment to feature your band mates one by one – like in the bridge of a show closer, or something like that? Yeah, stop that. Instead, pull a Mother Mother and incorporate solis (that’s The Latin for “solos but while the ensemble still plays” or whatever) in to your actual songs. Those are moments when your bandies’ unique, creative inflections can shine on to the world, but without the unnecessary kitsch of you having to holler “AND OUR BASSIST ON BASS!” before he does a 10 second slap solo that sounds, well, cheesy. What Mother Mother does instead is place instrumentalist/vocalist solis in integral moments of their songs Take the drums in “Wrecking Ball” and the bass guitar in “Body of Years” as examples. There’s lots of them for each band member throughout their repertoire, and when they play it live, you, as the audience member, know that it’s time to pay attention to that instrument, and can either watch them lay it down like the album (as Jeremy Page did with his bass line in “Body of Years”), or build on the familiar moment with some new swag (as Ali Siadat did with his drumming in “Wrecking Ball”). Oh, did I just use “swag” in a critical context?

So, my dear Canadian indie rock artists, it’s not that I’m trying to criticise you or anything, I’m just trying to direct your attention on to who your best, current role models are. Right now, that is Mother Mother. This is the kind of band that your 1st year Rock and Popular Music teachers will be analyzing in like 5-10 years, if they aren’t already. What can you do, my beautiful Canadian indie rock bands, to learn from these Canadian musical icons-in-the-making? My suggestion would be to open your iPhone Notes app and go see their next live show in the hip city nearest to you and take notes about what you see/hear/feel. Until you can geek out like that, their totally fantastic albums will have to do.

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About author

Chief Editor & Founder of Live in Limbo. Host & Producer of the Capsule Podcast. Sean is an award-winning photographer and Nikon Professional Services member. His work has appeared on the CBC, Pitchfork, and MUCH. He is an Academy Delegate at the JUNOs (CARAS) and has been involved in the Toronto music scene since 2005. He is also an endurance and CrossFit athlete. You should follow him on Twitter @SeanChin.