Los Angeles – Coming out on stage with floppy ball-caps and cut-off jeans shorts, Slam Dunk certainly have the look of a road-worn touring band. Despite the fact that the band members played fast-and-loose with their songs’ structures and had no issue taking short break mid-song to goof around with each other, the skuzzy noise-pop quartet known as Slam Dunk put on an infectiously fun and charming set. Supporting the legendary Built to Spill at West Hollywood’s The Troubadour for two nights this week, the Victoria, BC-based band performed tracks from both of their full length records, Welcome to Miami and The Shivers.
Similar to fellow western Canadians Mac Demarco and Alex Calder, the four members of Slam Dunk value having a good time over performing their songs in a pitch-perfect manner. The songs themselves are infectiously catchy and are bolstered with the right amount of punk rock aggression. However, the band’s most endearing moments on-stage involved the between (and middle-of) song shenanigans. The band’s lineup is guitarists/vocalists Jordan Minkoff and Duncan MacConnell, bassist/vocalist Caitlin Gallupe, and drummer Luke Postle.
After a few songs, the band members took a break to tune up their instruments. Breaking up the awkward silence, Minoff asked how many audience members had visited Vancouver Island. When only a single audience member sheepishly lifted her hand, the band feigned surprise and declared a Vancouver Island reunion on-stage. Sans drummer, the other three members of Slam Dunk congregated stage left, shaking hands at the faux-reunion, just long enough to make a few onlookers a teensy bit uncomfortable and confused.
Speaking of Minkoff, he certainly wins the MVP award for the night’s performance. Once he started talking between songs, it became evident that he was suffering from a severe sore throat; in fact, the previous night’s performance at Downtown LA’s The Smell featured Postle filling in to make his vocal debut.
Minkoff was barely able to speak between the songs and he spent the entire set applying healthy squirts of Chloraseptic to his tonsils. He must have some special vocal reserves deep inside, because on the rollicking “Dying Breed” and “Bleacher Lovin’” he shouted and yelped in a manner that matched the exuberance of MacConnell and Gallupe.
Later in the set, right in the middle of a song, Minkoff stopped the music and decided to climb an amplifier and imitate AC/DC’s Angus Young. Adopting the guitar-hero’s trademark stance and grating on his guitar neck, he performed a mock-tribute solo, shouting “THUNDERSTRUCK!” between discordant guitar jabs. While most of the audience thought the performance was downright hilarious, you could see a few unamused faces scattered throughout the venue, in particular the bouncers.
On “Bearcub”, Slam Dunk combined their between-song antics with their solid musicianship. Perhaps realizing the mid-section sounds a lot like The Cranberries’ single “Dreams”, the members fluidly transitioned their own song into the iconic verse of “Oh, my life / Is changing every day / In every possible way / And oh, my dreams / It’s never quite as it seems / ‘Cause you’re a dream to me / Dream to me.” Repeating it enough for the audience to get the joke but without allowing it to run stale, they switched back into their own song’s blisteringly fast-paced finale.
The biggest disappointment of the night was that Slam Dunk did not have their saxophonist with them. The band is typically seen performing with metal wind instrument as part of the lineup, but for whatever reason they performed with only four members here in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles leg was the final part of the band’s tour alongside Built to Spill, but they do have three dates in British Columbia; two are in Vancouver and one in Victoria.
Check Slam Dunk’s Facebook page for more information on tour dates.
Matt Matasci
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