Photographs by Amy Buck.
It felt like a hillbilly revival hoedown, complete with disciples, apostles and captivating preacher. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros came to Toronto’s Mod Club and brought their unique show style to the stage to promote their upcoming album, PersonA, which comes out April 15th.
In the spirit of community, the show opened with an open mic session. Introduced by two Magnetic Zeros, band members Christian Letts and Crash (Christopher Richard), four local acts got a moment to shine in front of the crowd. The generosity of the band highlighted its commitment to young artists and fed nicely into their ‘music collective’ philosophy.
The origin tale of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is fabled. Alex Ebert, a troubled California youth, tripped and stumbled through drugs and alcohol until one day he found his way out. He named the band for a character in a story he wrote and subsequently took on the character, Edward Sharpe, as his alter ego/stage persona. The messianic character is everything you could want from a rock idol. Dressed in a garb that might have been a modern day monk’s habit, he looked like a hippie Jesus and sounded like a 60s folk singer. As if to accentuate the point, through the evening Ebert drank water, when he wasn’t drinking from a bottle of wine. Fact, fiction and music melded with performance art to impressive effect.
The band, 9 members strong, filled every inch of the small stage. The show began with clapping and a tune that seemed fitting with its “I believe” refrain and echoes of The Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun. Ebert took to the piano for a languid song called Uncomfortable and then moved to a tongue in cheek tune about the “hey, ho” type songs out there. Hot Coals veered toward a funkier beat and Ebert’s voice channeled a Chris Martin-like falsetto at the top of the tune. The night progressed like a jamboree, punctuated with hits of horns and sprinkles of dreamy piano. From New Orleans style ragtime, to 60s-era protest songs there is a vintage sound that runs seamlessly through this music.
The set list featured songs from PersonA and little else. The band played for over an hour and when they left, if was clear that the crowd wanted to hear more. The audience was respectful and patient, but when the house lights came on, equally perplexed. Just one older song in an encore might have left the exiting fans less confused.
