Photos by Joshua Chia
Montreal art rockers Suuns waited until near the end of their set before they thanked the audience for coming out.
Whether it was due to the relatively short time they had to play, the Mod Club welcomes club goers after 11, they ripped through songs from their three albums with one coming right after the other.
Opener Sarah Davachi’s set felt more like a DJ set as she played one, long droning piece. Sounds slowly bled in. The Vancouver artist’s music was reminiscent of Montreal bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor others on the Constellation label. It was definitely moody but it went on a bit too long.
Suuns took to the stage to music from a Bollywood movie and launched into a tense, moody first song. The band’s music encompasses everything from art rock to Krautrock with many songs having a heavy electronic influence. ‘Instrument’ had a heavy electronic feel just before the guitars kicked in.
Not surprisingly, ‘2020’ received the biggest reaction of the evening. The song was most notably used in a trailer for the Marvel movie Ant-Man. They played a slightly retooled version of the song, something that happened throughout their set as they presented new takes on their songs.
The band’s name was spelled out on stage in inflatable letters and at one point, they did a freeze-frame. The backlighting created a dramatic effect.
They spent much of their set lit from behind which helped to lend a sense of mystery. It gave frontman Ben Shemie’s voice even more power, particularly on ‘Powers of Ten’; there was a palpable sense of menace to his vocals.
Suuns specialize in slowly building songs that start out quietly before bursting forth and grabbing the listener. This was on display on the hypnotic song the band played just before leaving the stage.
They wrapped up the night with a two song encore.
The intensity of Suuns music caused the set to fly-by. It was surprising to discover that nearly two hours had passed as the audience filed out into the cold early March night.
