Young Galaxy Celebrate Release of "Invisible Republic" at The Drake Underground, Toronto |
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| 17-Sep-2009 12:00 am | Contributed by: pete | Concert Reviews |
Young Galaxy Treasure Hunt The Drake Underground in Toronto, Ontario on September 10, 2009 Full Photo Set (14 photos) In my Best Of 2007 article, I included Young Galaxy in both my Top 10 Concerts and Top 10 Albums lists. It's now 2½ years since I first encountered the band, and I still listen to their 2007 self-titled album regularly. Although I haven't grown attached to their sophomore album, Invisible Republic, in the same way, keep in mind that I've only had it in my collection for about a week now. Like their first album, there are two or three songs that keep bringing me back for additional plays, but only time will tell if they grow on me in the same way as songs like Lazy Religion and Swing Your Heartache. Either way, I wanted to be there for their Toronto CD release party at The Drake Underground. Opening the night were Cancel Winter, who I sadly missed, and Treasure Hunt, a bit of an odd consortium of musicians. Young GalaxyWhen I saw Young Galaxy open the day at Olympic Island for Death Cab For Cutie, their performance was stellar and scaled amazingly well to the big stage; however, there is something about the music that suits more intimate venues really well. At the start of the show, the band encountered a few technical issues that caused Stephen Ramsay (guitar, vocals) and Catherine McCandless (vocals, keyboard) to break stride. It took a number of songs to get the issues all sorted out, but once they were, it wasn't long before it all came together.
About mid-way through the set, Stephen dedicated the song Dreams to his parent's dog Reggie (who he also referred to as Sir Reginald) who recently lived through getting hit by a car, but is in danger of losing a couple of toes. And just before starting into the song, he casually tacked-on that it was also dedicated to Andy Rourke (of The Smiths) who was DJ'ing upstairs the same night. Immediately following Dreams was Firestruck, which came out spectacularly beautiful. It seemed like the big turning point for the show, because the remaining three songs fell right into place. Next up was Destroyer that was also a huge stand-out, as was the version of Come And See that pushed Ramsay to the point of a little guitar abuse, pulling his guitar over his head and dropping to the stage behind his back. They closed the set with Long Live The Fallen World for a great finish (available for download below). 
Whereas their debut album was released on the Arts & Crafts label, this album has been released independently by the band. For those who connected strongly with their first album, including me, this is a fact that doesn't make much difference, although it could mean some additional hard work for the band. So support them by downloading and listening to Long Live The Fallen World, and if you like it, pick up the whole album (or at the very least Destroyer and Firestruck) from iTunes or eMusic. 
Info: Young Galaxy | Connect: MySpace, Facebook, Twitter Media: Long Live The Fallen World (mp3), Lazy Religion (mp3) Treasure HuntMade up of two bass players and two drummers, Treasure Hunt has to be the most oddly balanced band I've ever seen on stage. I think it's fair to say this is actually just a fun side project for musicians like Loel Campbell (of Wintersleep and Holy Fuck) and his friends from Wolf Parade and Hot Hot Heat. It was heavy instrumental rock, and I think the guys were pretty self-aware about the music they were pumping out, making light-hearted comments like "No one has left yet, that's a good sign".
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