Sweet Mother Logic’s Sensory Overload – Petit Campus – Friday, March 12th, 2010

As the venue began to fill up around 9:30 the night’s first act, Montreal’s The Youjsh took the stage. With Isak Goldschneider on clarinet, Ryan Frizzell on trumpet, Adam Kinner on soprano sax, Kathryn Palumbo on stand-up bass, Philippe Melanson on drums and Malcolm Sailor on keys these guys were like no other band I had ever had the pleasure of seeing live. This is mainly because there aren’t that many klezmer bands out there these days as cool as The Youjsh. Throughout the performance, pianist and the band’s primary composer, Malcolm Sailor (who also plays in The F in Fresh, Elena & Malcolm and The Malcolm Sailor Quartet) would tell the audience what the titles of each song were. A few of those titles were “You Are The Steve Day of My Life”, “On The First Day There Was Light on the Steve Day there was action” and “Don’t You Think She’s A Little Bit Young For You Steve Day”. A theme began to emerge. Then we found out that all of the Youjsh T-shirts were adorned with a face. The face of a man named Steve Day. The screen behind the band contained the same image. Who is this Steve Day you ask? Well we still don’t know, but he has a myspace page. So after a great set of jazzy klezmer tunes that had more than a few people in the audience moving their feet, the band brought the performance to a close with “Now Adays Everybody Wanna Talk Like They Got Somethin To Say But When They Move Their Lips Nothing Comes Out Just A Bunch of Jibberish Like They Forgot About Steve Day”.

The venue was now completely full of people wearing 3D glasses and some even going as far as wearing elaborate costumes. It didn’t take long before both the stage and house lights would fade to black and the band of the night, Montreal’s Sweet Mother Logic would slip onto the stage, hardly unnoticed by the cheering crowd. The band got right into it playing an intro piece while the neat visuals began on the screen behind them and dry ice spilled out of buckets around the stage. After the first song a message flashed on the screen for everyone to put their 3D glasses on. The next video had us moving in on what seemed like some sort of Italian 3D village while the band played the lovely “Counting Sheep” from their brand new self-titled album. The 3D was pretty cool to see but what was even more impressive was how well the song melded with the visuals. I guess that was the point of the evening; a treat for not only the ears but the eyes too, along with the rest of our senses but that would come later. The band played mostly songs from their new LP but dipped back into their older material as well, highlighted by the incredible “Ascention Island” from their debut EP of the same name.

Midway through the set a second drummer set up a drum set and then at the end of the song the members of Sweet Mother Logic disappeared while the two drummers went nuts on the drums. A few seconds later the band came back on stage yielding long wooden poles with baskets attached to the end. Not knowing what was in the baskets fans hungrily groped whatever they could grab and were delighted to find some delicious baked goods like brownies and mini muffins. This truly was sensory overload. The band’s next song featured a live boiling kettle which somehow managed to fit into the song perfectly.

Musically, Sweet Mother Logic was on form all night long, with J.P. Saint-Cyr and Justin Wright leading the way by playing their hearts out on their cellos. Eric Kaplan and Jack Kelly played off each other all night on keys and guitar respectively and drummer Adrian Aitken was simply amazing to watch. It was as if The Portland Cello Project got together with Ratatat to create music, only better. All in all the night was a complete success. Not only did the audience get to witness an amazing performance by one of Montreal’s best new bands, but they got a treat for each one of their senses at the same time. – Greg Lozoff

Sweet Mother Logic

The Youjsh

Photography by Kenneth Suss

Tags: Kenneth Suss, Malcolm Sailor, March 12, Montreal, Petit Campus, Ratatat, Review, Sensory Overload, Sweet Mother Logic, The F in Fresh, The Portland Cello Project, The Youjsh