Toronto's own, Little Girls, rattled The Great Hall in the 11 PM time slot last night, and catching this set was a high priority. Concepts is a multi-layered gem of an album and I was excited to see these wall-o-sound tracks in a live setting. The Great Hall is absolutely gorgeous – by far the best venue I've been in all weekend. An ample stage sits at the end of perfectly lit floor, complete with a second tier of seating wrapping around the entire venue. Vintage charm and stellar acoustics in this place, which added up to equal a nice respite from the bar scene I've been jumping around in.
And this is all very good, because the acoustics and size of the venue allowed Little Girls some room to expand a bit with sound, hitting the audience with a big dose of Concepts and their forthcoming EP, Cults. The cavernous building allowed the fuzz-driven tracks to swirl around the audience. The band wasted no time, jamming out to tracks like "Youth Tunes" and "Growing" with professional earnest. Josh McIntyre has chops musically and vocally; for the last two years I've held Concepts in high regard – there have been quite a few youth-nostalgia based lo-fi outfits arrive on the scene since 2009, but of that graduating class, Little Girls, at least to me, seems to be the one that is growing. The solo DIY ethos is now being blossomed into a full-band ensemble, and this has me stoked for Cults and an impending LP on the horizon. "Surf Rock" is probably an attachment the foursome is eager to leave behind – because really, what the fuck is surf rock if it's not The Beach Boys? – and The Great Hall show made this point abundantly clear. The live setting brings these songs to life. They are well-arranged, aggressive, and melodic to the core. More post-punk than surfy, the tandem guitar attack of McIntyre and Andrew Wilson were equal parts dreary stack amp sludge and intelligent arrangement. Asses were shaking and speakers were tested. To boot, the dudes in the band are great people – had a chat with them after the show and the convo solidified, once again, why I do this in my spare time. Young bands with energy and passion – that is always awesome to see.
Great post, great pics. Credit where it’s due, though: the guitar player is Andrew Wilson, the original LG guitarist, who left in 2009 to be replaced by Elliot, then returned in 2010.
Thanks, Rolls. Made that edit! Thanks for reading!