Aside from a snippet of one song, I have been oblivious to Texas group Cigarettes After Sex on their rise to fame. They returned to Toronto last night for a sold out Danforth Music Hall. After watching the four piece’s hour long set and its effect on the crowd, I’d like to suggest Cigarettes Leading Up to Sex as a more appropriate band name.
Going in relatively ignorant has its advantages, namely not having any expectations wither way. I wasn’t even sure what kind of music I was in for, but they have been recommended to me from a couple of friends and anybody I know who likes that band REALLY likes that band so I went in ready to be swooned.
Led by founder/singer/guitarist Greg Gonzalez, the band hit the stage right at their scheduled 9PM start time, opening with “Sunsetz”. Immediately the sound recalled Slowdive for me, minus the rushing walls of guitar, but it was the beautiful vocals of Gonzalez that appeared to command the most of the audience’s attention.
The presentation was very minimal with no frills at all which suited the mood of this music perfectly. A few white lights and a smoke machine were about it but it didn’t matter as every adoring fan in that room hung on to every word of Gonzalez. Soon couples began swaying in each other’s arms. Mindless chit chat was not on the menu last night so as not to spoil the mood.
Over the course of an hour the band played virtually their entire eponymously titled debut album, released last year. An added bonus was the surprising cover of REO Speedwagon’s “Keep On Loving You”. The original’s roaring-from-the-rooftops vibe was replaced with a seductive vibe, stripping the song down to its bare skeleton, putting a completely different spin on the song. This turned out to be the only song I actually knew but I don’t think I heard a bum note all night.
By the time we got to “Apocalypse”, the final song of the set, the couples appeared to be overcome by all this wooing music, almost like everyone teleported to the Music Hall from their bedrooms. The applause was surprisingly quiet given the sold out circumstances, but there was little doubt how much the crowd loved every minute of it. They just decided to take the love out on each other.
It was this spell over the crowd, like an aural aphrodisiac, that impressed me as much as the music and to see if this was a strictly live effect I picked up the CD to take home to listen to, but not before a shower.