Los Angeles – Those that arrived early to The Troubadour for last week’s Surfer Blood-headlining show were treated to the guitar-driven rock and roll of Edmonton’s own Alex Calder (though he now resides in Montreal). Although his band’s opening performance was not particularly long, it was packed full of some of the best tracks from his recently released full length, Strange Dreams and 2013’s Time EP. Playing as a three piece, the Captured Tracks-signed band faithfully replicated the spacey vibe heard throughout their band-leader’s discography.
For those music fans not in the know, Calder got his start playing in a little band called Makeout Videotape alongside the prince of goofy indie rock himself, Mac Demarco.
While Demarco is known for his on-stage antics and at-times silly aesthetic, Calder has a much more steady, serious, and mysterious persona. Demarco injects a thousand CCs of his magnetic persona into his tunes while Calder’s songs are moodier and rely on instrumental atmospherics to set the tone.
That’s not to say Calder does not have a good sense of humor when up on the stage – he had no problem making several self-deprecating cracks throughout the course of the night. About halfway through his set of songs, he stopped and looked around the audience, asking if there were any celebrities in attendance. “I put Kevin Hart on the guest-list, so Kevin, if you’re out there let me know,” Calder said in a deliberately weak and desperate tone. Alas, the multi-millionaire comedian’s limousine must have been snarled in traffic on Santa Monica Boulevard, because he was nowhere to be seen inside the dark club.
Between songs he joked around with the audience, feigning nervousness about performing. Towards the end of the show an unfamiliar onlooker shouted down from the upper balconies, “What is your band’s name?” To which Calder responded “Alex Calder and the Whiskey Boys” without missing a beat. Playing as a trio makes sense for Calder, as his songs are not particularly complex and mainly based around hooky, riff-driven choruses and simply sung, atmospheric verses.
While Calder released his debut solo full length Strange Dreams just this year, a surprising bulk of his set was made up of songs from his EP, Time. Perhaps he skipped the songs from Strange Dreams because he has grown weary of these newest songs while spending the last year touring in support of them; perhaps he just prefers that first batch of solo tracks. The highlights of the set included Time stand outs like “Suki and Me” and “Time”. It was a bit of a shame there weren’t more of his new songs in the set, because Strange Dreams was a very strong effort from the singer-songwriter.
Friday night’s performance at The Troubadour will be Alex Calder’s last show for the time being – his bassist, Thomas, was hit by a car on Friday night after the show. While he did not suffer life-threatening injuries, the incident was pretty nasty (multiple broken bones and sprains) and the band was forced to cancel the rest of the tour. To help the band out with these unexpected expenses, check out their Go Fund Me page.
Keep an eye on Alex Calder ’s Facebook page for any updates on touring or recording – also be sure to take a look at his Youtube page for some seriously goofy tutorials.
Matt Matasci
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