LIVE! Barr Brothers / Peter Katz at Haven (w/Pics & Dates)

Friday night certainly wasn’t my first time at the Haven Social Club. But it was a very different crowd, older and much more reserved than usual. It made most of the evening a lot more sedate, and probably held back the acts as well. And overall it just felt weird. The crowd also wasn’t used to a photographer being at the show, and so I definitely felt like the crowd was watching me more than usual, and I was fracturing the connection between artist and audience. So I only took about half as many photos as usual, then got the hell out of sightlines.

My feelings towards solo acts are about the same as one-person plays. I just don’t find I get the richness that I would from having more artists performing – more instruments combining to produce one harmonious sound if you will. The extraordinary talent Peter Katz has was evident during his performance; it’s just not music I could get into. But that’s just me. I will say this – his use of live looping was more than impressive, as he flawlessly recorded and looped both his voice and guitar during parts of the set.

Montreal has a habit of turning out bands that are perfectly ripe with both eclecticism and extraordinary talent. I’ve seen 163 different bands live this year (a total of 175 sets), and the Barr Brothers were without a doubt in the top five. I wasn’t completely sure what to expect going in, but by the end of their set I was absolutely blown away by their talent as musicians, songwriters, and sheer ability to include a wide variety of eclectic instruments into their set – on the road no less.

What kind of instruments, you ask? Well, a harp was ever-present (played by the ultra-glamorous Sarah Page, who Brad first knew of because they shared a wall while Sarah practiced the harp every morning); but they also included something called a waterphone (which looked like a wheel rim with numerous spokes coming up from it; and apparently has water inside of it); a rusted air compressor as part of the drum kit (you can see it in one of the pictures below); Brad used an old Radioshack tape recorder to produce sounds effect from his guitar, as well as sewing thread tied to two of the guitar strings to create a psychedelic sound. And, finally, the ‘man-jo’, played by Andrew, which is a four-stringed instrument crafted out of a wooden peanut bowl and a roofing shingle. Honest-to-god, no word of a lie – we were talking to the band afterwards and gathering all of this information (and I bought myself one of their vinyls, which is now signed by both Andrew and Brad).

All of that combined into what I’d call a southern-psych-rock-folk sound tinged with an east coast dramaticism. Yes, you can quote me on that. Frankly, the set was so mesmerizing, so captivating, so utterly jaw-dropping, that by the end I was re-thinking my photography strategy, and instead should have thought “screw the old people I should’ve just kept shooting for the entire first three songs”. That reserved crowd I was mentioning did thin out through the Barr Brothers set, with many of the older crowd departing by the end. To be fair, if they came from Peter Katz the Barr Brothers were definitely a different kettle of fish. But back to my main point, the crowd who did stay, most rose and gave them a standing ovation as they concluded.

If the Barr Brothers come through your town, ever, you absolutely HAVE TO go see them. HAVE TO. Failure to do so might just be completely unforgivable.

Okay, now you can look at pictures; the remaining Barr Brothers itinerary follows them.

Peter Katz

Barr Brothers

ALL PHOTOS by Michael Senchuk.

Barr Brothers Itinerary

The Barr Brothers are finished sweeping across the west now, having played Saskatoon last night … but still have plenty more dates on their tour that concludes December 10^th in Wilkes-Barre.

Tagged as: Manjo, montreal, Sewing Thread, Waterphone