Live And In The Flesh
Death From Above 1979 - November 5, 2012
Just a week after our run in with The Smashing Pumpkins in Montréal for the first time, we were given the chance to catch Death From Above 1979 for a fourth time in none other than Kingston, Ontario. Sebastien Grainger and Jesse Keeler had set aside their differences once and for all and finally reunited for good! We had caught them the year before at Ottawa's Bluesfest in 2011 after they officially reunited, but we weren't quite sure what the future would bring for the band since they broke up in 2006. After all, Jesse had been quite busy with his latest electronic MSTRKRFT project. It seemed like they were back and tighter than ever after that gig in Ottawa. The latest 2012 tour had them out on the road testing out some of their new material that they had been working away on, giving fans the opportunity to provide some feedback before they were officially released. Also providing them with the chance to work out any kinks they may run into while playing them live. Dubbing this tour as the Song CPR Tour 2012 seemed to be quite fitting. This was my first time catching them out on a headlining small club tour and I was pretty excited to finally see a full set of music from them.
Given the nature of the show, and how much new material was on the agenda, they were pretty strict with the camera policy for the show. Audio and video recording was strictly prohibited as they didn't want their unpolished material making its way out into the internet, totally understandable. I strapped my elephant trunk on that I had found a few days earlier in a Halloween bargain bin, and we made our way to Kingston for the show!
It was a chilly Monday night in November. We decided to hit up a local pub for a couple of drinks before the show as we normally did before making our way to the Ale House. Certainly not my venue of choice for the Kingston area, but we made the most of it! We had caught a Modest Mouse show at the same venue three years earlier so we knew what we were in for. The sunken dance floor within the center of the venue just does not translate well for the live concerts that they bring through. We situated ourselves to the left of the stage and secured a pretty decent view for the entire evening.
PS I Love You, a Canadian indie rock duo were the openers for the tour. They were better than I had expected them to be with a name like that. They were up on stage for about a half an hour to get everyone in Kingston warmed up and ready for DFA1979, and it wasn't long after that they would make their way up in front of what seemed to be a sold out Ale House. With a relatively small capacity of only a few hundred people, I'm glad they were able to pack the house as well as they did.
Sebastien and Jesse made their way to the stage and assumed their positions with their respective instruments, complete with elephant trunks hanging off of their mic stands. They weren’t holding anything back as You're a Woman, I’m a Machine started things up right away! I never thought we would ever get another opportunity to catch these two guys out on the road together again, and was I ever thankful to see them back up on the stage. It wasn’t long before they started to play some newer tracks to try to iron out some of those wrinkles. Cheap Talk, and Right On, Frankenstein! had us loving the new material right out of the gate. It was a bit tough grooving along to brand new music that we had never heard before, but the songs worked into the setlist of their earlier material quite well. They headed back to their debut full-length album again for Cold War and Black History Month before treating us to another new track – Crystal Ball.
Throughout the entire set they bounced back and forth between old and new tracks. We had heard just about the entire You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine album along with about half of the material from their upcoming album, which didn’t see the light of day until two years later! Pull Out, and Always On, another new track, wrapped up their regular set before they were gracious enough to treat us to a three song encore to finish the set. Dead Womb, Romantic Rights and Do It! (arguably one of my favourite songs of theirs) topped the seventeen track setlist off. I was surprised to hear some of the songs off of their 2002 Heads Up EP, and glad that they didn’t hold anything back for this tour. I have yet to see DFA1979 live again since, but as long as they stick together, I will make sure to get out to there to enjoy their performance once again.