The Dears – Live at Richard’s on Richards, Vancouver
Photographs by Jennifer Picard. More photographs at Flickr.
It was a warm night in Vancouver – much too warm for a leather jacket. But Murray Lightburn, lead singer of The Dears, was brave enough to endure the hot lights and sweat for fashion’s sake.
The evening got off to a strong start with the straight-forward rock of curly-haired Montrealers Black Diamond Bay and then Victoria’s Jets Overhead. Jets Overhead took the stage just after 9pm, beginning with a disappointingly uninteresting number. All about beefy basslines and guy-girl harmonies, they built up their set song by song, down-tempoed and shoegaze, debuting songs from new release, No Nations.
The Dears began their set in a more unusual way – with Murray Lightburn singing “Saviour” from the floor, in amongst the audience, escalating to the band’s group vocals on stage: “This time…whoaaaa.” Theirs was a noticeably stronger stage presence than that of the opening bands, perhaps the result of Lightburn’s tambourine-bashing (often against his chest) or Natalia Yanchak’s ethereal quality. The only let-down was that Yanchak had so few chances to convey her vocal talents, such as on “Crisis 1 & 2″.
Playing songs new (”Money Babies”, “Demons”, “Meltdown in A Major”) and old (the Morrissey-tinged “Lost in the Plot”, “22: The Death of All Romance”), the current line-up also includes Chris McCarron (guitar), Yann Geoffroy (drums), Laura Wills (keys/vocals), Jason Kent (guitar/vocals), and Rob Benvie (bass). Rarely straying from a familiar tempo (however well it works), The Dears remained high energy throughout their set, lighting a fire under the butts of a mostly apathetic crowd.
“It’s miraculous to find you all here tonight,” said Lightburn. “From the bottom of our hearts, like, we fuckin’ mean it.”
And mean it they did.
MP3:
The Dears – Crisis 1 & 2
The Dears – Lights Off
Tags: concert
