. : : September 15th, 2011 : : .
After the positioning debacle that was the Boxer The Horse set, my view-antagonists proceeded to the bar. I was hoping this would mean a better view of The Danks, another East Coast group, widely hailed as Canada’s answer to The Strokes. Alas, another more talkative group took the seats in front of me. Depending on how they moved their heads, I sometimes got glancing views of the stage, but I didn’t have enough energy to proactively improve my position.
That being said, my impression of The Danks might be as flawed as this recording is, and it’s definitely not the best sounding. Again, the sound on this evening was far from great. Combined with the slew of bodies between the stage and I, and their careless chatter throughout the set, this is a pretty amateur sounding recording.
But I thought the Danks themselves sounded great. They played a high energy set that seemed out of a film or TV show — you know, the ones where the band looks like they’re having the best time of their lives? Of course, the illusion was probably aided along by my ascertain that front man Brohan Moore looks more than passably like actor John Daley. I was seriously convinced I could have been watching an episode of Freaks And Geeks where Sam Weir fronted a punk-rock band.
With nary a song far-surpassing the two-and-a-half minute mark, The Danks packed their half-hour set with an astounding dozen songs. The majority of the setlist was pulled from their debut album, Are You Afraid Of The Danks (presumably a play on the hit Nickelodeon show Are You Afraid Of The Dark?), but the band also treated the crowd to a handful of new, unreleased material.
Fans of the band will be delighted (and detractors dismayed) that the new material doesn’t attempt to break new ground, but sticks to the fast-paced, in-and-out sort of charming, hooky indie punk that works so well for them.
Perhaps the only questionable moment of the set was the band’s fifth song — one of the new tracks — whose bassline and vocal melody seems to be boldly lifted from REM‘s Stand. Unless, of course, you think more bands need to sound like direct rip-offs of that radio hit, that is.
This recording is NOT for anyone less than a pre-existing The Danks enthusiast. Luckily, the band has made their aforementioned album free-to-stream all over the web, including their MySpace page and on CBC Radio 3 (links below). Check them out if it’s your scene, and maybe you’ll fall in love enough to come back and download this recording. If not, I’m afraid to say you’ll probably want to skip this one.
01. [unknown]
02. [unknown]
03. What We’re Doing
04. [banter]
05. Automocar
06. [unknown]
07. Die Young
08. [banter]
09. Planet Beach
10. [unknown]
11. Believe [Cher] [tease]
12. What’s The Rush?
13. No Radio
14. Treaty Connector
15. 374
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Thanks a ton to the Danks for a great high energy set. Hopefully next time I will get a much better tape!
