Born Ruffians, Grad Club, Kingston, 24 March 2007

July 9, 2007

Born Ruffians, Grad Club, Kingston, 24 March 2007

Holy Smokes! It is just a shade over one month until the Wolfe Island Music Fest and I am really, really getting excited for it – and you should be too. Why you ask? Well, here are thirteen reasons why, aka the lineup:

Friday August 10th – 8:30pm

Hootenanny Review
featuring
Jenny Whitely
Luther Wright
Julie Fader
Jim Bryson

Saturday, August 11th – gates –12pm

Wolf Parade
Holy Fuck
Apostle of Hustle
Weeping Tile
Born Ruffians
Spiral Beach
Basia Bulat
The Ride Theory
Nich Worby

That’s a lot of talent. It’s gonna be rad and if you are not there and you are anywhere near Kingston in August then prepare to be mercilessly mocked by me from here on out for your foolishness. In order to get you all stirred up into a state of frothy excitement I will be featuring the bands playing the festival from now until then and to start off we have Born Ruffians who last visited Kingston in March.

photo by Roboppy taken at the Bowery Ballroom, 30 January 2007.

Energetic, jangly, frantic and exceptionally tight, Born Ruffians offered a fantastic set of angular hooks, distinctively yelped vocals, and spot-on drumming. I was worried that their sound – which worked great on their six-song ep – might get tiresome in a headlining spot, but I had nothing to fear as they gave us an hour long set which never failed to keep my interest. They have fun playing with tempo and rhythm, and both in and in-between songs as things kept changing from fast to slow, soft to loud, and back again. The vocal acrobatics on display were a real treat, as Luke LaLonde showed real range, passionately delivering his lyrics and the nonsense ‘hey heys” and “ohh ohhs” that punctuated the songs. To top off a set chock full of new songs (which, as you will see, I could only take a wild guess at the titles of most of them) which will appear on their full-length due out in the fall, they were really chatty and personable. They were very comfortable onstage and seemed to be having fun interacting with the audience as well as playing. With their energy and their hooks, I have no doubt that they are going to slay at Wolfe Island.

Born Ruffians, Grad Club, Kingston, 24 March 2007

1. they’re not very nice, but they’re amazing (talk)
2. foxes mate for life (title?)
3. Kurt Vonnegut
4. no duct tape, eh (talk)
5. 05 (title?)
6. who goes out on a saturday night with a roll of duct tape? (talk)
7. I’m One of Those Girls
8. you just stand there with your fingers crossed (talk)
9. in a mirror I can see her (title?)
10. four people (talk)
11. I still can’t sleep (title?)
12. apologize to those directly beside the speakers (talk)
13. Merry Little Fancy Things
14. pretty girls (title?)
15. I get to play the harmonica on this one (talk)
16. love song in my head (title?)
17. Hedonistic Me
18. drinking and singing and taking their clothes off (talk)
19. This Sentence Will Ruin/Save Your Life
20. I just wanted to go (talk)
21. Red Elephant
22. we’re coming back to Kingston for sure (talk)
23. the sun is shining but we stay inside (title?)

You’re gonna want to pick up the self-titled ep. It is released by Warp Records but I can’t see it listed on their store page (seriously, that is one crazy-to-navigate webpage) so go to your friendly neighbourhood independent record shop and save yourself a few bucks in shipping. You can get a couple of 7″ singles from Rough Trade, who are awesome and will send stuff outside the UK at reasonable prices so don’t let the international shipping scare you off (I’ve ordered from them and a single will run you about $10CDN with shipping etc. and, seriously, that is a good deal).

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