Photographs by Neil Van.
It was a busy Friday night for shows in Toronto. Between the likes of Deafheaven at the Opera House, Pitbull at the Air Canada Centre, Gaslight Anthem at the Sound Academy, and Why? at Lee’s Palace, it seemed that across the board, venues were packed. It’s a testament to Ought’s strength then that, amongst so many choices, they were the band to prioritize.
No – the Montreal group is no stranger to Toronto, having played here three times in as many months. But looking at the crowd, it was worth noting the bevy of familiar faces from previous showings. It appears that once you see one Ought show, you keep coming back for more of them (and hopefully bring more friends in tow.)
Since their last Toronto show – then playing the Silver Dollar at the end of July – the four-piece has benefited from extensive touring. Playing the Hard Luck Bar this time around, the band sounded as at ease as they were a couple of months back, but notably more in-tune with one another.
Things sounded clean, purposeful, and polished: no easy feat for a band whose strength lies in its stream of consciousness lyrics and cacophony of discordant melodies. They’ve certainly grown in a short time span… And they were already pretty fantastic to begin with.
For their Friday night set, Ought started slowly, building up instrumentals and a lazy prelude of the line “we’re sinking deeper” from Tim Beeler on “Today, More Than Any Other Day” – a song from their 2014 debut. It wasn’t long before things picked up however, the band increasing the tempo to match Beeler’s tumbling rant of a delivery.
Early in the set, calls for louder vocals were appreciated and necessary with Beeler’s vocal lines dominating so much of Ought’s output. It’s a delicate balance for the band – too loud and its too distracting; too low and there’s no anchor point. Thankfully they seemed to figure it out a few songs in (though Beeler seemed displeased by the mix he was getting on stage.) From the crowd, it was the best I’ve heard them yet.
Drums from Tim Keen led the breakdown on “Clarity!”, while discordant keys from Matt May on “The Weather Song” highlighted the intersecting melodies extremely well. It’s the bass from Ben Stidworthy that’s the true hero of Ought’s instrumentals though – consistent, well-executed, and interesting.
The band also brought with them new material, playing the crooning-vocals-meets-jittering-guitar of “Pill”, off their upcoming Once More With Feeling 10” (a record being sold in advance of the late-October release at their merch table,) and “New Calm Pt. 2” – a track that seems destined to be the best running-in-one-spot song for a long time to come.
That’s assuming, of course, you have the endurance for the jog. Much of Ought’s material is long and exhausting, stretching out well-past the pop tropes. Set favourite “Gemini” seems a perfect example of that – a long, uneasy song with enough tempo shifts to fill an album. But even with its extensive duration, the band managed to hold audience attention and keep up a thrilling, vested energy from the crowd that closely watching Beeler and company for cues on what might come next.
That in itself seems to be the coolest thing about Ought: they’re a band that’ll keep you guessing, no matter how many times you’ve seen them before. They can sound clean, rehearsed, and in-tune but still manage to pull-off that effortless, off-the-cuff stage presence that’s typically reserved for quality jazz acts. It helps to explain why their stage show seems so much more powerful than what their album might suggest. Live: it’s magnified and visualized. There’s a lot more to get a hold on.
What Ought does isn’t easy, but it’s also consistently getting better. It’s why they’re well worth placing on your “need-to-see-live” list. But fair warning (and speaking from personal experience): once you see Ought, you’re going to have to go to all of their other local shows – no matter how busy a Friday night it is.
