Last night, Canada's Malajube and Atlanta's Snowden showed why they are the two of the most buzzed about new bands in the indie world.
Although Malajube, out of Montréal, was one of the bands to see during CMJ last year, the band is not new to the scene and has been touring to support their second album, Trompe-l’Oeil, an impressive display of rock styles. Just when you think it's in the vein of big, scenic prog rock landscapes of Sigur Ros or Muse, the band will drop it down a few notches and become a straight-up garage rock band. To smooth out some of those massive sounding songs like "Le Crabe," they'll throw in some dance rock drums. On top of that, it's all done in French. No matter, you're going to banging your head to those big rock sounds.
The setlist:
- Intro Goth
- Christobald
- La Monogramie
- Montréal 40
- Pate Filo
- La Crabe
- Casse Cou
- Le Pirates D'Hochelaga
- Fille A Plumes
- Larry Zona
- Le Controlle De La
- Etienne D'Aout
Their live show is a complete blast of Malajube energy for 40 minutes. With all the big guitar sounds in the music, I wonder what the band would be like in a big hall. You never know, in a few years they can be the next Rush.
Lead singer Julien Mineau, staying true to his French-Canadian heritage, spoke to the crowd in French. It was funny, you'd hear some French, then a few people in the crowd wold laugh while the rest of us we're like, "Wow, I wish I knew what he was saying."
Snowden kicked some major ass. Another CMJ-buzz band, the shoe-gazery, modern rock four piece threw down some major guitar-based rock rhythms. Snowden are into that big sonic-soundscapes with that Robert Smith style of singing. Their most impressive song off their full-length debut, Anti-Anti, is "Anti-Anti" with that echoing guitar break after the chorus. More importantly, their bass player, Corinne Lee, is insanely talented. She attacks that bass like it's nobody's business.
The band doesn't look like your traditional hard rocking band, but, obiosuly, looks can be deceiving. Although, Lee looks like she belongs in a band, the others are pretty normal looking guys. Structurally, they remind me of Franz Ferdinand, in that they can stop on a dime and change the pace of a song and then go back and forth between two styles in one song.
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