Pop Montreal 2009: Allan Holdsworth, Sean Nicholas Savage
Pop Montreal kicked off another year of brilliant programming last night. This year’s festival, which lasts until Sunday, October 4, 2009, features a typically impressive lineup: Os Mutantes, Destroyer, Teenage Jesus and The Jerks, Joel Plaskett, Faust, Butthole Surgers, Loudon Wainwright III, Buffy Ste-Marie, Glass Candy, Iris Dement, and countless others.
I caught Allan Holdsworth and his band at a new venue called L’Astral. This was a joint show with the jazz festival, and felt more like one of those way left of centre shows that occasionally get randomly tagged on the Pop Montreal lineup for whatever reason, cross-promotion or just “why not” – Waitain’s awesome show last year comes to mind as an example. I’d previously seen Holdsworth at the Baked Potato in LA and was happy to see him again. Needless to say there was much headless guitar shredding and truly insane drum solos from Gary Husband.
I attempted to head up to see Evan Parker, which was actually a Suoni Per Il Popolo festival show but by the time I got there he was 20-minutes into his first set and Casa Del Popolo was jam packed and would have been hellishly uncomfortable – which may be fine for a sweaty rock show, but I like my free jazz with a seat and maybe even a table, thank you very much. So I tried to get into the Box Elders/Jay Reatard show but it was thoroughly sold out and my press pass wasn’t worth spit.
As a last gasp effort I wandered into Ballatou and caught a lacklustre Brazilian rock band (to be generous, their bass player had visa troubles and was arriving in town the following day, so maybe that would have made all the difference). They were followed up by a brilliant Canadian artist that I hadn’t heard of: Sean Nicholas Savage. He and his band had both an odd look and sound. Masterfully crafted classic pop songs that tinged with vintage British pop and American underground sounds across the generations, sung by a warbly, delicate crooner. The lyrics carefully walked the line between emotional and funny/weird. Savage was backed up by a an acoustic guitar player and a drummer with a very toned-down kit, also a few girls with racoon-face makeup and even more peculiar voices that weaved impossibly between impossibly out-of-tune and dead on, which was both charming and confusing.
After Sean Nicolas Savage, Charlotte Cornfield played, for the first few songs, solo then with drums and percussion, I was thinking “Wow! Oh, Wow!” but then when she got her full band up there, I very, very quickly lost interest and left four songs in. I find it sad that musicians always feel that they need, and considering most shows take place in bars these days, maybe actually do need, backing bands. So, so, often, they would sound way more expressive and dynamic solo.
I highly recommend checking out Sean Nicholas Savage. He’s doing a second show during Pop Montreal at Urban Outfitters on St-Denis. Really, really great music.
