Charles Spearin at the Music Gallery; Thursday March 12, 2009

Charles Spearin at the Music Gallery; Thursday March 12, 2009.

Charles Spearin is quite possibly my favourite Broken Social Scene related solo project. It's a close three way tie between Feist and Collett. All three in attendance tonight. Spearin very modestly entered the stage area with a big group. I really didn't know what to expect so seeing such a large band excited me. He introduced his project by defining what happiness is to him, very appropriately. He described happiness as being all around you, he referred to a person going grocery shopping and the list just consisting of happiness. I was thinking that he simply meant we all look for it, in everything we do. They opened up with “Mrs. Morris”. He said she was at the gig last night and she said she felt like she was “just like a little baby” because she was being hugged by so many people. I guess that pretty much sums up happiness right there, assuming she enjoys being hugged. Mrs. Morris is an immigrant, from some European country. Her definition of happiness is pretty spot on. He first introduces people to her with the words she said, probably because they were so honest. In silence everyone gave it a good listen. I was sitting right up at the front, right in front of the huge speaker that the voices were blasting from. For this song he just had his sax player follow along with the melody of her voice. This saxophone player has been with him from the start. Unfortunately I didn't get his name, but every time i've seen Spearin play his material this guy has been there. Perhaps it was an homage to his hard work or maybe it was to ease a potentially unfamiliar audience into his work.I say 'ease' because this is definitely the type of act you should only see live. Explaining this project to someone is like trying to teach an old dog new tricks, it doesn't really stick well. As I mentioned before the group was huge, there were probably a good ten people on stage. This is really nothing new, as Do Make Say Think probably has close to ten members. I sort of felt like i was watching Do Make, because he had Ohad Benchetrit in his band as well as Julie Penner, violinist. Ohad played a bit of his solo material.. sounded exactly like "A Tender History in Rust" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYRwE9HPgpM) off of Do Makes' "You, You're A History In Rust". Simple guitar noodling, beautiful.Julie Penner has some solo work on the go: http://www.myspace.com/juliepennerThis show was a treat for the senses. He introduced “Vanessa” as his neighbour that was deaf, that recently had a surgery that has now allowed her to hear. He went into great detail explaining her story, including her surgery. Apparently she had a hole drilled into her head where they inserted microchips with magnets on the other side of her head, somehow they interact and allow her to hear. Spearin's main question was asking her how it felt to hear for the first time. He spent a great deal working with what she had to say but for this tune he spent most of it on a single string of words she said... “All of sudden i felt my body moving inside”. This phrase was incredibly hard to make out from the live show, even though it was put through a speaker. As the song went on the emphasis of the recorded voice was lost and the music simply emulated the sounds of Vanessa's voice. This particular song sounds so much like Do Make Say Think, through it's complexity and heart. The band at the end of the song, together with the music fading out, sang: “All of sudden I felt my body moving inside”. This song really made me appreciate my senses. It made me think of all five that we have and how we use them, and how they come so naturally to us. I'm not sure if this makes me happy, or just grateful but it makes me feel. The band was very well put together, they sounded perfect. Few brought up music, which scared me to think that they memorised the sounds of the voices. Perhaps because my memory is so poor. That meant they internalised the songs for keeps. It really brought life to Spearin's thought of the music we make in life. This was probably my favourite show of the year so far. I think i'm going to make a new genre called: “Intellectual Rock” not to be confused with “Literary Rock”. This sums up my experience, the review's pretty spot on too: http://www.thistledown.org/?p=232

March 14, 2009