Karkwa with Parlovr & I Spell It Nature @ Ritual [December 1, 2011]

Wow, it’s already December!
The first show of the month happened at Ottawa’s Ritual Nightclub on December 1, 2011.
Playing there was Karkwa, Parlovr and I Spell It Nature.
I guess you could say it was a Francophone night at Ritual, which was kind of deja-vu, since Malajube played there on November 10, 2011.
I still find it fascinating that Francophone music fans are very supportive to acts like Karkwa and Malajube.


The show started off with Ottawa’s I Spell It Nature.
It was a post-rock set which tied in with their release of their first album.
It was a nice set.

Second was Parlovr (pronounced Parlour).
I was very excited to see them play in Ottawa, because the numerous times I’ve seen them play were outside of Ottawa.
If you’re not familiar with their shows, they are very energetic, loud, crazy and fun!
Due to a short set, they didn’t get someone to come up and be a human mic stand, which happens at every Parlovr show.
They mostly played tracks from their upcoming album, and few tracks from their previous self-titled album, and of course they ended off with my favorite song “Pen To The Paper”.

Before the show, Emily Robertson and I did a “funny” interview with the band.
Have a listen to the interview.
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/InterviewWithParlovr2011/ParlovrInterview2011.mp3]

Lastly, it was Karkwa’s turn to play, and everyone at the show was very excited.
It was good to see that having won the Polaris Music Prize in 2010 hasn’t changed them one bit.
They haven’t played Ottawa since March 2011, when they opened up for Plants and Animals, and sadly I wasn’t at that show.
The times I have seen them were in Montreal, both during Pop Montreal – in 2010 at Metropolis, and in 2011 opening for Arcade Fire.
I have to say this was the best Karkwa show I’ve seen, mostly because it was a smaller venue, so you got to be close to the band, which made it more intimate.
French not being my first language, I was surprised that I actually sang along to their songs, despite not understanding what the lyrics meant.
Is it weird that during their set, I thought/imagined that they mixed their lyrics with some English? (This happens in Japanese music.)
Ether way, they totally rocked it, and I guess you can can say third time’s the charm!

I recorded this off my iPhone – their live performance of Oublie Pas (my favorite song!).


Here are the rest of the photos.

December 1, 2011

50 photos