After work, I dashed home to give Scout his supper, and found to both my amusement and dismay, that he had ripped apart his second treat bag in less than a month and helped himself to a mid-afternoon snack. I asked him who the culprit was, but he wouldn’t say, just kept rubbing my legs affectionately, clearly very pleased with himself and ready for his evening meal.
Alas. That little scallywag. I transferred the remaining treats into another container, gave him his supper, changed into concert-appropriate attire, and then (finally) dashed over to the NAC to see Mother Mother and their opening act MONOWHALES.
I’d never heard anything by MONOWHALES before, and I decided not to listen to anything or look them up in preparation so I could go in to their set without any expectations. Mother Mother, meanwhile, has been one of my favourite bands for a number of years, and I’ve been to every show they’ve played in Ottawa since their performance at Bluesfest in 2013 (…except one, I think).
You could say I was excited.
The NAC’s Southam Hall is a venue that I am intimately familiar with, as I go there often, usually to see classical concerts, so I had no trouble getting there and finding my seat. As I waited, other slowly filing in, the anticipation mounted.
Then–
The auditorium lights were turned off, and MONOWHALES made their stage entrance.
They hyped up the hall with some hard-hitting songs and great power vocals, even playing a brand new track for us to celebrate their final stop as the opening act on the tour, and the final Canadian show on the tour. The main phrase I remember from the chorus was caught in the middle. I also remember CTRL^^^ in particular. I really liked what I heard, and how fired up Sally was on vocals, dancing all over the stage, and at one point even leaping down into the main floor seating area and singing her way through the main aisles in an arc until she could leap back up onto the stage again. She led us in a handful of call-and-responses, and also encouraged us turn on our phone flashlights for one of their slower songs, the hall lighting up on all four levels.
I should have taken a photo of that; it was quite pretty to see.
They ended their set by asking us to stand up while they played their crazy-good cover of The Hand That Feeds by NIN. I loved it. We gave them a long, well-deserved round of applause and they left the stage, professing how grateful they were to have been able to join Mother Mother on tour and that, being fans as well, they were just as excited as we all were to see the upcoming performance. And, indeed, they went up to a Mezzanine-level box to join the rest of the crowd in watching the rest of the show.
Fun fact: With Teeth was the first NIN album I ever bought. On a less-fun note, I no longer have that particular CD, as it was one of dozens that I donated or gave away over the course of several moves in the past few years. I regret parting with it a little (I did keep The Downward Spiral), but it is now in the hands of one of my good friends from high school, who I know has been enjoying it. That’s something.
Back to the story at hand.
During the brief interlude in which the crew re-arranged the stage setup for Mother Mother, I took to my phone to work on a translation of the beautiful name by ALICE NINE., one of my favourite Saga compositions off VANDALIZE that takes deep inspiration from U2’s song Where The Streets Have No Name. It’s nowhere near done, but one of the lines of the song has the phrase 音速を越えてcross the speed of sound in it, and when I translated that, the melody for Speed of Sound by Coldplay immediately popped into my head and I queued it in my playlist for after the performance. I hadn’t heard that song in what felt like forever, though when it first came out, I played it on repeat over and over again.
Finally, the lights went out again, the stage, lit dimly, was filled with smoke, and Seven, the ethereal and vaguely eerie opening track from their latest album Inside, began to play.
Mother Mother took to the stage.
As I mentioned above, I have gone to see Mother Mother many times, but each time I do they sound better than before with all their accumulated experience. And if you’ve never seen them live in concert, I can assure you: they sound really good live. I love their interesting rhythms and the complementary, wide-ranging tones of all of their voices. Their rhythm-heavy, melodic vocal harmonies are extremely cool. But then they also each take the lead in singing certain tracks. The drumming, bass phrases, and guitar work was all really good and right from the get-go Ryan called all of us to get up on our feet for the performance, which I was really glad of. It’s hard to dance in your seat.
But on my feet? Boy, did I ever dance.
Their setlist included tons of staples (like Ghosting, The Stand, and O My Heart), included a few older songs that I wasn’t familiar with (some song-research for the near future!) and a few of their newest songs (like Life and Girl Alone).
It wasn’t any surprise that they played Hayloft and Hayloft II, considering the fact that Hayloft went viral months ago… which was much-deserved, because that’s been a favourite track of mine for years. The rhythm in it is completely addictive. I don’t think they’d included that one in many of the setlists for the shows I’d been to in the past, so I was genuinely ecstatic to hear those opening notes.
I was also genuinely ecstatic to hear the opening notes for The Drugs, Let’s Fall In Love, and Bit By Bit, two songs during which I danced my little heart out.
When Molly started singing Pure Love, everyone in the hall quietly took out their phones, turned on their lights, and swayed to the sweet melody. I can’t remember whether we turned on our lights for It’s Alright, but that performance utterly moved me. It was so heartfelt and raw, and those lyrics truly capture the experience of having mental illness, of making mistakes that you regret, with honesty, and such humanity.
At the time the song came out (on their Dance and Cry album in late 2018), I was in a complicated situation, in a bad place mentally, and that song really spoke to me. A lot of the songs on that album did.
Mother Mother’s lyrics can have such a down to earth, conversational style, and are written with a raw honesty that doesn’t feel tired or overused; I love their lyrics. Having three people on vocals also provides ample opportunity for a lot of very good harmonies and call-and-response moments.
During Sick of the Silence, the band and the audience all let out cathartic yells.
The silence during the worst of the pandemic was hard to bear, but the stillness was worse. I attended so many concert livestreams, and the music sounded great through my headphones or through the sound system attached to my TV. When you’re watching a livestream, though, you don’t get to feel the sound buzzing and thrumming through the hall; you don’t get to sense the energy of the band and the concert-attendees around you–a palpable, visceral thing.
That’s what I missed most.
It was a really good night, and I’m so glad I went.
On the way home from the venue the air was warm but a strong breeze was sweeping through the streets, so with Coldplay’s Speed of Sound on repeat, I let my long coat trail behind me and floated home on a music high.