The Music Gallery’s Pop Avant series is a ridiculously good idea. Musically, it’s like a mash up of Sneaky Dee’s and the front room at the Tranzac, but without the dank and/or dingy ambiance. Instead, the grandiose space of the St George the Martyr chapel, combined with an attentive audience and crystalline sound, makes for one of the most listener-friendly environments that $12-15 can buy, especially for a pairing like Vancouver’s jazz-prog instrumentalists Inhabitants and Toronto’s math-folk ensemble Rock Plaza Central.
The Music Gallery is also probably a bit of a step up from 1067 Granville, a little back-alley squatter’s nest of a free-jazz venue that Inhabitants frequent when they are on their home turf. But even that venue would be wroth the discomfort as it’s definitely a rare treat to get to see a band from Vancouver’s experimental Drip Audio label playing in Toronto.
Opening with the drop-D bass chords of “Drop Descender,” bassist Pete Schmidt led the band into a plodding groove that slowly built in volume and intensity to a thoroughly crashing conclusion that crackled the sonic stability of St George the Martyr’s foundations. Drawing almost exclusively from their newest album, The Furniture Moves Underneath, the Inhabitants navigated the mathematical complexity of “Photopropism” with its alternating 11 and 10 beat phrases and the explosive noise-bomb of “Kurt’s Dirt.” With “Sad Friend” they explored the most Bitches Brew-evoking territory of the evening as JP Carter’s effects-drenched trumpet squeaked out reverb-heavy high notes before melting the melody via some approximated unison lines with guitarist Dave Sikula.
Though many of their grooves nestle into a similar kind of Miles Davis-playing-over-Tool-riffs repetition, the set as a whole seemed to build towards the extended jam on finale “Happy Princess” from their self-titled debut. Easily the Rush-iest of their odd-time riffs, this tune also boasted an intricate trumpet and bass melody and some of their noisiest, most spirited soloing.
After what seemed like a ridiculously involved changeover, the expanded seven-member Rock Plaza Central finally had their vast collection of accordions, banjos, trombones (even a live Facebook graffiti artist) organized. But it was well worth the wait. By the second tune, a massive rendition of “I Am an Excellent Steel Horse,” RPC had successfully channelled whatever deity oversees the teetering ambitiousness of a full-on rock spectacle. With two trumpets and two trombones, not to mention the sheer weight of seven voices enthusiastically singing along to the chorus, this version of “Steel Horse” made the already excellent version on their Are We Not Horses album almost irrelevant. “Anthem for the Already Defeated” and “My Children, Be Joyful” were equally impressive, with leader Chris Eaton working himself into a continuous ecstasy over all things either equine and angelic.
But the whole evening came to a collaborative peak as the four Inhabitants joined the Rock Plaza on stage for their final few numbers. With 11 members scattered across the two-tiered stage, RPC made excellent use of the generous space at the Music Gallery. And though the extra instruments may have tested the capabilities of the Gallery’s sound system, whatever detail was lost in the mix was superseded by the sheer power of the delivery. By the end of the set-closer “When We Go, How We Go” the horn section was fully six-deep, backed by two basses and two drummers, with Eaton himself setting the guitar aside to lead a handful of the horns out into the crowd, marching his small parade between the church pews. If he had marched the whole band out into the night, I’m certain that the entire crowd would have gladly followed wherever he wanted to go.