Venue- Vancouver, BC

After recent weeks abroad listening to the likes of “Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang” K-Pop in South Korea, I was overjoyed to be returning home to Canada with tickets to Local Natives and opening act Suckers. Touted as two of the best new indie bands across many channels, my expectations were certainly high heading into the night. But if Local Natives at the Venue sounds like a “no-name” brand concert to you, the sell-out crowd last night in Downtown Vancouver surely would have disagreed with you. In a show of indie support those who came to enjoy California based “Local Natives” (yes that is certainly the band name, and Venue certainly was the location in which this concert took place) took to the floor in a sea of beards and plaid. Most of the crowd seemed to be made up of couples on an early Friday night date, this didn’t stop the bands on stage from receiving great support throughout the night. Although minor sound technician struggles marred the first few songs of the opening act Suckers, the night went on without a hitch.

Suckers took the stage and I was shocked to witness what looked to be an eight eyed man, but was comforted to find out it was only Tim Delaughter (Ex Tripping Daisies front-man, current Polyphonic Spree bliss provider) doppelganger Quinn Walker. Walker had, as most have come accustom to seeing, drawn on his face prior to taking the stage 3 sets of eyeballs, one above, and two below those given to him at birth. As previously mentioned, the opening few songs were tainted with poor sound work as high pitched bursts of feedback blasted the crowd, but the band worked through them as any professional touring group would. Suckers played through some of their upcoming release Wild Smiles (release date June 8th) highlights such as “Before your Birthday Ends” which features falsetto Scissor Sister-esque vocals from Walker, great organic percussive support, and choir-like harmonies from the remaining members of the group. Suckers set seemed to finish as soon as it had begun and I was left thinking I had just witnessed the rebellious teenage love child produced from an orgy between The Cure (The Head on the Door era), Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters front man) and Tripping Daisy.

After the briefest of instrument change-over’s the five-piece indie group Local Natives was set to delight the crowd. Center stage left stood Ryan Hanhn sporting an incredible ode to Burt Reynolds moustache. The house was jam packed, the floor was full from front to back, side to side, and there was no further room on the balcony level as this show clearly had sold its last tickets at the door last night. Gaining a ton of momentum from all reaches and level of the information super highway after breaking through with the exposure of SXSW 2009, one is hard pressed to find an indie blog without Local Natives name attached to it at least once. Made up of Kelcey Ayer (vocals, keyboards), Ryan Hahn (vocals, guitar), Taylor Rice (vocals, guitar), Andy Hamm (bass), Matthew Frazier (drums), the group this past February, released their debut album “Gorilla Manor.” Now I know I made reference to the generic nature of the bill “Local Natives at the Venue” and stated that most in attendance would disagree with the “no-name” feel to show itself, I for one did not. I had sincere excitement going into this show, but very well could have gotten any of my five friend’s together, pressed play on the iPod, and mimed this entire show with as much enthusiasm as the group gave those who came to see a performance. Although the set was perfect in musicality, sounding just like the record itself, I dreamed throughout the set one of them would miss a note, or make a mistake, just so that the predictability would disappear. Understandably some shows on a long tour just aren’t for rocking out, but they could at least move around a little. From the perfect stances of the band came the album’s first single “Sun Hands,” along with “Wide Eyes” and a great cover of Talking Heads “Warning Signs.” The band is great, and fits in nicely along with this emerging layered harmonies 60’s inspired indie scene that includes great bands such as Fleet Foxes and Vancouver’s very own Yukon Blonde, but left me feeling quite uninspired with their performance effort last night.

View additional photos: Suckers, Local Natives

+Ryan Creamore