Merchandise doesn't quite take off in Vancouver

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      At the Biltmore Cabaret on Saturday, October 4

      Let no one suggest the men of Merchandise weren’t trying, even after it became obvious that the battle was being lost. The Tampa Bay, Florida, five-piece made for perfectly gracious headliners at a half-full Biltmore on Saturday.

      During a set where the best the band got was an occasional head-bob on the dance floor, singer Carson Cox praised Vancouver’s rich musical scene, with specific shout-outs to the likes of Nü Sensae and White Lung, members of which were in attendance.

      The sandy-haired frontman raved about the Biltmore, noting that the club’s sound system sends a clear message that the room is being run by people who care about music.

      “Not all clubs are this nice,” he gushed, surveying the folks in the front row and adding: “Not all people are this nice.”

      Cox was so gracious, he didn’t even balk at the fact that Merchandise was faced with an 11 p.m. curfew, which cut into the set, ensuring that there was no encore.

      Despite all this, Merchandise’s Vancouver stand was one of those nights when, despite a good old college try, things never take off.

      The point where it all seemed officially futile came right before the bass-driven “Telephone”. Cox introduced the lovelorn number by announcing, “We’re going to attempt to make you dance.” You can guess how successful that was. Rather than shaking it, the curiously disengaged crowd mostly stood and stared. And in some ways it was hard to blame them.

      A band that suggests the Smiths covering the Fall covering Lloyd Cole, Merchandise doesn’t exactly write songs made for kicking off rip-roaring parties. The group’s background might be in the Florida punk and hardcore scene, but its new album, After the End, sounds like a warm and dreamy throwback to college-pop England circa ’83.

      Even though no connection was made between the headliners and the crowd, the effort was there. Guitarist Dave Vassalotti was the unofficial early star of the night, spending the incandescent opener “Enemy” bounding around like a man with a bad Red Bull problem. He earned the evening’s biggest cheer by finishing off the song on his knees, as if praying to the eternal ghost of Jimi Hendrix.

      From there, things didn’t so much crash and burn as slowly fizzle out. Pleasant as they were, midtempo offerings like “Little Killer” and “Life Outside the Mirror” eventually began melt into each other, Cox’s sleepy croon doing nothing to spark the assembled.

      As the dance floor slowly thinned and the 11 o’clock curfew crept up, a lineup began to snake from the street into the club for the long-running dance night Glory Days. The sight of a fresh crowd chomping at the bit for a party sapped whatever energy was left in the room. Right before the final number, Cox told what was left of his audience, “We’ve got one more song. And then we’re all going to a rave.”

      Amazingly, he managed to make that comment without sounding even remotely snarky. And that, as much as any other part of the night, showed just how hard Merchandise was trying.

      Middle-billed Lower, from Copenhagen, burned with angry, off-kilter postpunk intensity, the group sporting a look that screamed ’80s D.C. hardcore and a sound that was all angular math-rock guitars and choppy rhythms. Anchoring the whole intriguing package was singer Adrian Toubro, who was a strange mix of pissed-off street-tough and sensitive saddo.

      Opening the night was Vancouver’s Peace, arguably the most interesting band of the three. The quartet was at times deliciously brooding and atmospheric, at times all jittery in a fashion that recalled the late, great Wolf Parade. Little was said between songs, which was fine; as Merchandise learned, sometimes there’s no point in going that extra distance.

      Comments

      6 Comments

      Grate Seen

      Oct 7, 2014 at 4:52pm

      Vancouver scene in a nutshell.

      1) move to city, dress like you've always lived in the city, pretend to like live music.
      2) go to cool live music venue so you can tell your "friends" you went, but are clearly too scared of being judged to actually enjoy the concert.
      3) tell everyone afterward it was awesome even though you secretly hated being there.
      4) look in the mirror at 4:00am and ponder existence over a juicy line of novocaine
      5) ask parents for more rent money so you can pretend longer.

      Indeed,

      Oct 7, 2014 at 5:08pm

      "You can guess how successful that was. Rather than shaking it, the curiously disengaged crowd mostly stood and stared."

      Which is the default setting at ALL events in Vancouver and for single looking for a date. Motionless...... No fun city is more like no fun people who have no clue how to have fun unless they get wasted.

      When I play here I cringe each time i get on stage because I could be doing cartwheels on stage with a whole orchestra and people would yawn like they have seen it a million times but bitch about one off key note the whole night even though they can only play an iPhone app. Eight months to go and I'm finally out of this graveyard for talent.

      Vancouver is a long plastic hallway with pushers, pimps and hoes where talented men go to die then there is the dark side that nobody talks about.

      tedo

      Oct 7, 2014 at 9:37pm

      @grate seenand indeed are soooooo riiiiiiiight!!!

      vancouverites are a joke,,,,its frowned upon to show any happy emotion in vancouver
      nobody looks like their enjoying themselves.......vancouverites put out this image of being tough an arrogant but in reality they are just super self-conscious

      most vancouverites are cheap-skates..and wont spend money if it isnt some snobby thing

      I used to be cool

      Oct 7, 2014 at 10:22pm

      chiming in. so many shows I have been at, turned to the person next to me and smiled or said hello and they look at you up and down like you are from Mars. Then to my surprise last Friday at the sold out Kasabian show people were talking in line to us, dancing, singing along, and by the end my boyfriend and I looked at one and other and said "that was the best crowd we have ever seen at a show in Vancouver". Then on Saturday night at the Imperial (which was shockingly cool inside) a bunch of us relived the mid 80's with Sons of Freedom, like a big reunion of old punkers. It is kind of fun being old, you can say shit, wear shit and no give a shit.

      indeed,

      Oct 8, 2014 at 8:55am

      I honestly don't understand this city after living here for a decade but It's past the point of trying to make a scene. I'm moving to Montreal next summer and never looking or coming back here. Sad this city was host to such amazing music and art in the late eighties, nineties and equally home to as many amazing people.

      What happened since is beyond me. I threw some of the most amazing parties to empty halls because nobody could make it out but I always met those people with a beef with no fun city?? .... Empty faces going to empty places in a hurry.

      Maybe

      Oct 8, 2014 at 11:35am

      You wouldn't find this city dull if you didn't go to dull shows with dull people.