Exclaim! Mint Road Show - Winnipeg!

When the 15th birthday tour for Mint records and Exclaim! magazine came to town on Saturday October 14th, I half knew what to expect..well at least two thirds. Both headliners, the New Pornographers and opening band Novillero played the same venue together 8 months ago with Victoria's Immaculate Machine added as a bonus. This tour is taking all three bands across Canada, from Ottawa to Vancouver, with great exposure for the two smaller bands.

Winnipeg's Novillero opened the evening with their infectious ear pleasing power pop sounds complete with horns (trumpet and trombone). Their live show exhibits the same high energy as on their albums and these guys continue to get better everytime. Last February, I thought they blew the NP's away, this time they were given a shorter opening slot, perhaps because there was three bands instead of two. Grab their new album "Aim For The Right Holes In Their Lives" for proof of their pop perfection or see them live when they return home. Unfortunately, at the show they couldn't sell their previous release Brindleford Follies, because it was released on Endearing records, not Mint.

Immaculate Machine is probably best known as the other band that Kathryn Calder is in. Yes, Kathryn is a New Pornographer as well, which meant double duty, back to back performances. Though they weren't as energetic as Novillero, they settled into a nice new wave-ish poppy groove. They have kind of a simple catchy sound that seemed to grow on me as their set progressed. I'm always interested in how a trio presents itself, will the sound be full enough? will all the songs sound similar? Immaculate Machine has a guitar player (Brooke), drums (Luke)and keyboards, no bass, but Kathryn plays basslines with her left hand while her right plays lead.

I could go on and on about Neko Case, but I won't. Kathryn Calder has definitely made herself comfortable as a member of the New Pornographers, her voice is powerful and blends beautifully with Uncle Carl. From where I was standing, John Collin's bass seemed to boom and drown out Carl's vocals a bit, but Kathryn's voice stood above it all. This is the third time I've seen the NP's and they are definitely a tighter more polished unit. Carl didn't talk much until the encore when he was taking audience requests and he seemed to be frustrated by the requests of songs he said were "too hard to play". You know he probably had only a few songs in mind anyways that they were prepared to perform, since the many requests for "Letter from An Occupant" went again unacknowledged, we can assume they don't play that song anymore without Neko. All in all it was a better show than February, but they played only a couple of different songs.

New Pornographers Setlist: Winnipeg "The Garrick" October 14, 2006
1. Sing Me Spanish Techno
2. The Laws Have Changed
3. Jackie, Dressed In Cobras
4. Bleeding Heart Show
5. Mass Romantic
6. Testiment To youth In Verses
7. Stacked Crooked
8. All For Swinging You Around
9. The Jessica Numbers
10. The Bones Of An Idol
11. Twin Cinema
12. From Blown Speakers
13. Centre For Holy Wars
14. It's Only Divine Rights
15. Use It
encore
16. Streets Of Fire
17. Miss Teen Wordpower
18. The Slow Descent Into Alcohol

Novillero (from: Aim For The Right Holes)
The Hypothesist mp3
Abbey (Winnipeg Oct 14, 2006)
Moonage Daydream- ( Winnipeg Oct 14,2006)

Immaculate Machine
Broken Ship mp3 (from: Ones And Zeros 2005)
Phone No. mp3 (Ones and Zeros 2005)

New Pornographers
Mass Romantic (Winnipeg Oct 14, 2006)
Twin Cinema ( Winnipeg Oct 14, 2006)

For a download of the full concert : (Dimeadozen) or leave a request in the comments.
New Pornographers 2006-10-14 Winnipeg
Novillero 2006-10-14 Winnipeg
Immaculate Machine 2006-10-14 Winnipeg