Silvergun and Spleen Kick Off their Tour in Style
How do you kick off a 50 date cross-Canada tour? If you are Silvergun and Spleen, you invite three good local bands to open and then hit the stage with a ton of energy and play your self-coined “pelvic rock.”
Silvergun and Spleen started with a bang, flying out of the gates with ”A Little More,” ”An Eye for an Eye” and capping the opening three with the highly dancy “Kiss & Tell.”
The band, which is fronted by two sisters, Marie-Eve Mallet aka Merv on vocals and keys, and Veronique Mallet aka Vern on guitar and vocals, and is reenforced by John Lenherr on drums and Chris Page-Manson on bass, had a treat in store for the crowd.
“We are going to do something we have never done live before” said Merv. “We are going to do a cover. Here is a song by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.” They played “Gold Lion” which was a great choice. Covering the Yeah Yeah Yeahs made sense, because I would describe Silvergun and Spleen as a mix of Sleater Kinney’s female led rock with the danciness of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
They also gave a shout out to the opening bands, all from Ottawa as mentioned, thanking them because “there would be no show without them.” A very classy move. Back to the music, the crowd joined in and helped Merv sing “Too late,” and danced the night away with the closing track “Crack.” Their penetrating rhythm and dominant stage presence truly inspires all out dance parties. The crowd was loving every minute of it, chanting for an encore.
Anyone checking them out on their cross-Canada tour, and you all should, should take the time to go pose in the Silvergun and Spleen photobooth for your own autographed polaroid. The miniscule $3 will go a long way to helping the band. Good luck on tour, gang. I am sure you will make the 613 very proud.
The three Ottawa bands opening the night consisted of The Lionyls, The Superlatives and Ginger Fox.
The Lionyls was pure baby-making music. Heck the lead singer may have impregnated us all with his thrusting and gyrating dance moves. Their soulful rock was a prime display during songs like “Lethal,” which they dedicated to all the sassy women, as well as on “Coffee House.” Lead singer let the crowd know that “We are The Lionyls and for the next thirty minutes or so we will be playing musical pleasure straight to your ear pussy.” All that aside, the guitarist was the highlight of the set. The dude was unreal, even shinier than the beads of sweat running down the lead singers six pack. He owned that set, and my ear pussies thanked him.
We live in a world that loves to categorize and put everything into a box. The Superlatives make that impossible. You can’t put them in a genre, as they fly from skate punk, to alt rock, to dance rock, while often bringing ska/reggae flares…they even throw in some screaming backing vocals from time to time. My favourite song was the not yet released, soon to be recorded, “Jamica.” What an awesome grooving piece. The set was full of wicked tunes of their new EP Chester. The set culminated to the wicked finisher that had an almost screamo feel to it, called ”Beast Within.” You could tell the band really loved playing that song as their energy level rose to the occasion.
Opening the night was Ginger Fox. They played a good mix of garage and classic rock sounding tunes. And there is nothing like a lead singer who wears sunglasses at night indoors while on stage. The set was a guitar onslaught, with lick after blistering lick. The boys were shredding. My favourite part of their set was the song ”Meeting the Devil,” and the introduction of the song. ”This song is called Meeting the Devil. Every musician knows they have to meet the devil, or they have no chance to continue playing or singing in the future.”