Last night at The Drake Hotel, a friend and I got the fantastic pleasure to see Montréal group Plaster perform. Let me repeat myself; it was fantastic. They remind me of early Kraftwerk. I first heard about Plaster last year while listening to Radio-Canada’s Bande à part podcast. Their song, Would You…? was played on one of their episodes and I immediately bought their album, First Aid Kit.
Electro live
Watching electronica acts in concert is always interesting fun because you get a chance to see how the music is all put together. It isn’t simply a matter of pressing buttons on a synthesizer and computer as most people tend to assume. There’s a lot more to it.
For instance, it was amazing seeing the drummer, Jean-Phi Goncalves, playing the high-speed nature of drum and bass on his drums. I never knew it was humanly possible to play drums that fast! It was also cool watching the musicians communicate (and joke around) with each other as they play their (many) instruments.
There was a point where Alex McMahon (keyboards, electronics, laptop) laughed and pointed to François (bass guitar, electronics and laptop) stopped to quickly tie his shoelaces.
I loved, loved, loved their rendition of Would You…? mashed with Daft Punk’s Da Funk! I hope they release a live disc.
Recent doodle
You’re probably wondering what the recent doodle at the top has to do with the concert. Nothing really, I just didn’t have the time to draw something up for this post. So I chose this work in progress– it’s part of my upcoming graphic novel which includes a jazz quartet of cats including their musician friends of various genres such as, well, what else? Electronica!
[tags]Plaster, Drake Hotel, Toronto, electronic, music, techno[/tags]