Live And In The Flesh
Bosnian Rainbows - February 22, 2013
My first show of 2013 was certainly one for the books. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, the guitarist from The Mars Volta and At the Drive-In, was out on the road with his latest musical venture, Bosnian Rainbows. This latest group of his consisted of Deantoni Parks on drums and keyboards, Nicci Kasper on keyboards, and the incredible Teri Gender Bender of Le Butcherettes holding down the vocals. I was already a huge fan of Omar's, and anything he was putting out at the time, I was loving. Once we heard about them making their way through Montréal, we made sure to make our way into the city for the show.
Thankfully for us, the show landed on a Friday night, and the weather wasn't too bad for our two and a half hour drive. We were able to get ourselves checked into one of the cheaper hotels that had become a regular stop for us by this time in our concert-going lives. The two double beds, a pullout couch and the toilet/shower made it a memorable one. It was cheap, and a place for us to crash by the end of the night, which was all we needed. We settled in and made our way out and about into the city. Nothing seems to quite compare to a night out in Montréal, heading into a weekend especially.
Showtime was approaching so we made our way to La Cabaret du Mile End, a small venue in the upper floor of a club down on Av du Parc. This was the first time any of us had ever checked out a show up there, which was a bit strange considering how many concerts we had been to by this point in our lives. We made our way inside to warm up a bit while waiting for the opener to take the stage. Marriages, Emma Ruth Rundle and Greg Burns of Red Sparrowes latest effort, were slotted in as the supporting act for the tour. They had just released their first EP Kitsune, in May of 2012. We hadn't heard of them before the show, but it didn't take us long to really start digging their set. Emma on vocals and guitar was simply amazing, and Greg Burns on bass was tearing it up. They had everyone ready to go by the time they finished up playing the majority of Kitsune throughout their set.
It wasn't long before Bosnian Rainbows were making their way up on stage and getting things fired up. The sound that these four musicians were pumping out up there was incredible to see. Deantoni playing drums, while playing the keyboard was simply mind-blowing. Omar shredding up the guitar was exactly what I was expecting after catching him live with The Mars Volta so many times before. Nonetheless, he was outstanding. Teri bringing everything together with her vocals was something else. She brought an incredible force to the stage and her passion was remarkable. Nicci also held his own over on the right side of the stage and really helped tie everyone together.
Since the band had yet to even release their debut album, we hadn't been able to give them much of a listen prior to the show. The mysteriousness around their music seemed to make it that much more appealing throughout their entire set. We would find out once their self-titled album was released that we had been lucky enough to hear practically the entire thing front to back at their show, months prior to its release. Bosnian Rainbows blew the roof off of the venue by the time their eleven song setlist wrapped up. We headed over to the merch booth and Emma and Greg from Marriages were selling their albums, so we decided to pick up their vinyl and had them sign it up while we were checking over the Bosnian Rainbows stuff. I noticed they had Omar's The Sentimental Engine Slayer, his 2010 film which he wrote, produced, scored and starred in. I made sure to pick it up along with one of his solo CD's, an ORLP vinyl slipmat and Le Butcherettes, Sin Sin Sin vinyl to show Teri some love. We had waited around a bit to try to catch Omar and share a few words since we had yet to actually meet the legend face to face, but we were out of luck again. Before heading out, Teri actually made her way out to talk to us for a bit at the top of the stairwell. Her presence up on stage made her seem much bigger than she was up close and personal, she was more petit than I had expected. She couldn't have been more approachable, and was humbled by all of the appreciation we were sharing. I gave her a hug and we were on our way to continue on with our Friday night out in Montréal.