Do Make Say Think at Call the Office; Thursday April 3, 2008

Do Make Say Think at Call the Office; Thursday April 3, 2008.

Thirteen years ago I was seven years old and probably in the second or third grade. Thirteen years ago Do Make Say Think had their first show under that moniker. Do Make Say Think is a large band, the are comprised of two, at times three guitars, a bass, keyboard, drums, violin and an explosive horn section. I had never been to Call the Office before but I had an idea it was going to be tiny. The venue is snug, perfect size for a band like Do Make Say Think, it’s probably London’s smaller version of Lee’s Palace. When I got there I realized how I wish I saw the other bands that have played there. Do Make Say Think are the type of band that has always remained below the radar, although achieving a ridiculous amount of credibility and respect. Their members are bits and pieces of Broken Social Scene and precursor KC Accidental. However Do Make Say Think are not on Arts and Crafts but on Constellation Records. This is probably because they were out far before Broken Social Scene or Arts and Crafts, a hidden gem. Do Make Say Think had an incredible set that I’m not going to even try to translate it in order. I think concert wise going in with an unsure preconception I was most pleasantly surprised. I have seen Do Make a couple of times before but this was the first time that I felt like I really knew their music extensively. They played mostly off of ‘You, You’re A History in Rust’ and ‘Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn’, but not limited to them by any means. I absolutely hate when bands are exclusive to a certain album during a concert. I realize that they are trying to push a particular album, but it’s not natural and most of the time the crowd isn’t familiar with the material. Do Make are an incredibly tight live band. Musically their sound is super intricate, for their parts are not looped or pre-recorded. Charles Spearin usually has a solid baseline throughout and Ohad Benchetrit will follow with a brilliant guitar riff. They will often toy with you, leaping back and forth from main melodies and themes. They usually go through an introduction, exposition and recapitulation. The more I gave thought to the normal structure of a Do Make Say Think so the more I was thinking in terms of sonata allegro form in music. Off of ‘Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn’ they played “Auberge Le Mouton Noir”, which respectively translates into Black Sheep Inn. This is definitely one of the more accessible tunes of Do Make’s repertoire, I immediate liked it when I first seriously started listening to them. They managed to capture the same raw spirit that starts off that song on the album. It sort of comes from nothing, or at least a really dissonant chord that they sit on for nearly a minute before the motif of the song kicks in. Which is a thematic melody played by Benchetrit on the guitar. This song exemplifies why I love Do Make Say Think so much, their build-ups and breakdowns. They start off from nothing and then they work up until there’s a super climax, or exposition more formally, again with the sonata form coming into play. This song has a ridiculous amount of musical interaction going down and they managed to capture it all beautifully in their live set. I think the climax of the song at around the 3:50 point was one of the most powerful moments in a live show I’ve seen in a while. They aced the build ups and reached the recap at the end flawlessly, Benchetrit’s guitar bit at the end. I could probably write a whole essay on this song itself, if that conveys any spirit of emotion at all.Also off of ‘Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn’ they played “Frederica” which is opening track. It’s ridiculously powerful because of the underlying bass part, that swings back and forth throughout the entire song. Shortly after there guitars come in with a slight rivalry feel between the two guitars, they are layered in such a way where you have to think twice about how many guitars there actually are, fortunately at the live show this was too easily illustrated. Nearing the end of their set the played “Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!” which is absolutely lovely. It kind of reminds me of a children’s story book or a lullaby, despite the Sade-styled synth that introduces the song. This song was more heavily built around guitar work, which recorded doesn’t actually come in until about the one minute point, they cut a substantial bit out. Charles Spearin’s guitar solo on this song was really well done. He used his hand to soften his trumpet’s sound, delicate and fragile but still maintaining it’s power and vigour at that. Do Make say think can so easily find the prettiest melody and contort it into something more electronic, more aggressive and significantly more powerful. However despite the energy added, it still keeps it’s light qualities. A lot of bands can’t achieve the delicacy and minimalism that Do Make Say Think keeps so well throughout their tunes. Their closing tunes exemplified this extremely well. They wrapped up with my two favourite songs, “Chinatown” (off of ‘& Yet & Yet’) and “A Tender History in Rust” (off of ‘You, You’re A History in Rust’). I was really let down by “Chinatown” because it sounded much too synth-based. Perhaps the main synthesizer bit that goes through the song was too loud. At the live show instead of Chinatown it reminded me of a circus. I was super impressed by the drum bit at the beginning and the conversational fluidity that they were able to maintain so well throughout the tune. This song is incredibly minimal but it is comprised of so many time intricate parts. I was pretty happy that they didn’t try to replicate the talking and street sounds within the song, it might have risked cheapening their sound, because already they had the synth part looping. (Be there too: http://youtube.com/watch?v=PXnbjIMT2UQ)“A Tender History in Rust” was pretty aggressive and loud for the delicate sound that this song has. Recorded it has a minute long intro that is absolutely flawless, the intro is a conglomeration of sounds that accumulates up into a single, natural sounding laugh and then immediately launches into a really nice acoustic guitar sound. Julie Penner’s violin work is key to this song, as it embellishes it. (Because this is amazing and live: http://youtube.com/watch?v=EYRwE9HPgpM&feature=related)Penner is fabulous! Her violin work is absolutely key to Do Make’s repertoire. It really sophisticates their music. Something that I didn’t like throughout the show was the use of vocals. Do Make are what most people would describe as an instrumental band (“post-rock” is often thrown in), it’s evident through their minimalist vocals they are trying to add and break from that mould. Perhaps not break but add layers and dynamics to their music. Unfortunately it’s not done well, their the type of vocals that should be an anthem but not enough people knew that actual tune. First done on their earlier material at the 5:00 point on “Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!”, which is more like “ahh-ing” but you get the picture. Most prominently on “A With Living”, which they didn’t play, is such an unfitting song on their new record, because of all the vocals (Lyrics: http://www.lyricszoo.com/do-make-say-think/a-with-living). The last song they played before the encore was very cacophony, because the only person that was loud enough had really lousy vocals, unfortunately no one knew the lyrics they were shouting. It would have been super powerful if the entire crowd were shouting the lyrics, but alas, no such luck.Best show of the year, tied with Bon Iver! That says a lot.

April 6, 2008