Music

The Dears play new album front to back at Pop Montreal

by Ciaran Thompson

It’s quite a bold move when a band previews a new album in full for fans at one of their shows. Unless they have leaked and in this certain case they haven’t, most of the songs are actually being heard for the first time. By the end they can either be billed as a band whose new material is lacking or a band on the cusp of releasing yet another great record. I think the Dears fall into the latter category.

Last night they performed their new as-yet-untitled album, their fifth, front to back at Santa Cruz Mission Hall in Montreal for the third consecutive evening as part of Pop. The gig was sold out and an hour or so before the band came onstage a large crowd had already packed the room, eagerly anticipating what Murray Lightburn and co. had come up with for the new album.

Starting off with “Omega Dog,” for which a live video (below) was shot from their set in Mexico City back in May, the Dears made things clear that this was going to be a loud show. The 12 other tracks featured during the set, another called “Yesteryear,” sounded similar to what they’ve done in the past, but also hinted they have certainly developed as musicians and as a band. Despite the various loud numbers, a couple of their new songs contained that classic slow, soothing noise where it feels Lightburn is singing just for you.

After the last track the lead vocalist bowed and shouted “The End,” partially relieved the majority of the crowd had not abandoned him during the new tracks and thankful to those who applauded each one. They briefly left the stage only to return as if they had switched costumes. Lightburn came back by himself and with an acoustic guitar starting playing “The Second Part” off their 2003 album No Cities Left as the rest of the band, including other core Dears member Natalia Yanchak, slowly joined him. Other older material performed as encores included “Hate Then Love,” “Lost in the Plot” and “22 The Death of All The Romance.”

Although during the older material the band looked and sounded extremely tight and comfortable, it’s only natural for them to feel a little nervous about being naked on-stage with their new songs. From what I heard, fans of the Dears have nothing to worry about in terms of the musical direction they’re going in and it will only take a couple runs of solid touring before their forthcoming album is added to the others that fans sing along to.

“Omega Dog”