Photographs by Ryan O’Shaughnessy.
There are certain bands that just make everything around you dark. This isn’t a critique – now and again you need to feel that sort of burning intensity that can only be found in a good live set. Montreal’s Suuns has one of them.
Returning to Toronto for a show at The Garrison, the four-piece were all serious and snarling for the duration of their show. It was menacing. So very menacing.
Starting with “Music Won’t Save You” – the closing song from their sophomore album, 2013’s Images Du Futur – brought a slow beginning that eventually moved into heavier, familiar Suuns territory. They followed it with the album opener: the excellent “Powers of Ten” which was quick to throw down its intensity: the use of cowbell acting like a life preserver in an otherwise dark and storming sea.
Bodies by the front of the stage were largely a mass of flailing limbs, moving in time to the pulsations of drummer Liam O’Neill. O’Neill, to his credit, looked every bit like a man either having a seizure or auditioning for a role in the next Exorcist reboot. Suffice to say: he was feeling it.
Newer Suuns offerings such as “Cook” and “Pray” fit effortlessly in with the rest of their electronic-krautrock offerings. “Resistance”, meanwhile, focused a different sort of intensity with vocalist/guitarist Ben Shemie repeating the word “Resist” over minimal instrumentals and gazing out over the crowd as if challenging them to do anything but roll over and beg for mercy to the music.
The minimalism gave way to the more recognizable with the guitar slides from guitarist/bassist Ben Shemie on “2020” playing well with the crowd – a trance-like rave forming in front of them.
Later in the set, O’Neill pulled out a handheld keyboard to create distortion for his guitar and vocals. Truthfully, that felt a bit too art for art’s sake – but the bass and drums accompanying the number otherwise forgave its grating effect.
An encore of “Edie’s Dream” – another from Images Du Futur – welcomed the band back for what might best be described as Suuns’ version of a ballad: the number fittingly vibrating its way through the speakers and straight through to the heart.
Joining Suuns on the bill was Chicago’s Disappears, a shoegaze band that mirrored Suuns in their intensity. Turns out giving off a rather disaffected brand of British post-punk meets lo-fi American surf rock IS possible and is also hugely entertaining,
Those that showed up early to catch their set were very much rewarded for their time: Disappears winning over those otherwise unfamiliar with their material. Instrumentals were heavily pushed, nearing discordance, and it all carried the sort of power that few acts can achieve – lingering in your ears well past its blissful end.
