Gold Chains and Sue Cie brought an energetic and gritty performance to an active ElMo crowd last night. This was my first time downstairs at the ElMo since they renovated it. They've transformed it from a cramped, dingy space into a more open space with decent sightlines from anywhere in the room and a spacious dancefloor upfront (which experienced heavy use during the show, from both the audience and the performers). Skipping liberally through genres, from semi-industrial bumper beats a la Peaches, to guitar-laden screamalongs, GC worked his birthday butt off, with SC not far behind. The only worrying thing was the small crowd -- 40 people at most -- giving me the fear that it won't be worth it for them to tour here again. It reminded me of Bardo Pond's summer 2002 gig in front of a very active (er, for Bardo Pond fans anyhow) crowd ... of just 70 people. And they haven't been back since :(((

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For the first few years of their career, Saint Etienne were widely considered to be a lousy live band. In the studio they produced one of the finest runs of singles by any artist in the 1990's, but live, they were out of sync, out of tune, and out of the sparkle that made their records so noteworthy.

Then they took a few years off and quietly returned with "Good Humour". Not sure what to expect, but glad to have them back, I went to see them when they came to town ... and was blown away! They brought a full band, the live drumming gave a welcome jolt to both the older techno-folk songs and the (then) newer, bouncy, sundrenched tunes. Sarah Cracknell's voice, usually a focal point of StEt live criticisms, was in perfect form. It was like StEt filtered through a Stax-Volt revue with Sarah playing the perfect party host. Every song ended with rapid-fire thoughts bursting through my head ... "I can't believe how GOOD this is" ... "I've never even heard these songs, but they sound fantastic and so, so, so addictive" ... and by the time they closed the show with "He's On the Phone", the song I would have jumped off the balcony to hear, the concert has provided me with all the entertainment I could have hoped for, with plenty of room to spare.

Recently, I bought their most recent album, "Finisterre", probably their finest album since "Tiger Bay". I decided to track down some live recordings to hear what they'd been up to in concert. I found a 1998 gig from Chicago (likely only a few days difference from the show I saw in Toronto) and it was as wonderful as I remembered. I had to hear "He's On the Phone" multiple times in a row to get my fix, soaking up the multi-part harmonies while prancing around the apartment waving a beer.

Fast forward to 2002 ... what happened? They were back to singing out of tune over the flat thump of their drum machines. The live arrangements seemed so empty, as if several melody lines had gone missing between the studio and the stage. A check of 2000 (touring "Sound of Water") revealed the same full sound and glistening harmonies they'd had in 1998, which shone through despite the more downtempo, hazy ambient feel of the "Sound of Water" suites. So what will the next album (early 2005) and tour bring? Flip a coin, perhaps?