Soundtracked 22: ...And Then The Night
On June 20, 2009, three and a half weeks prior to forming of Broken Arts, Harley took the train into Toronto for the thid installment of Daps All-Ages. This Saturday afternoon the car garage was hosting a mix of young artists including Laura Barrett, Times Neue Roman, Pick A Piper, Lightmares, Rebekah Higgs, and Spiral Beach. On August 14, 2011, just over two years later, Harley and Erin took the train into Toronto and the ferry to Toronto Island for the All Caps! Island Festival. This year's lineup included Julie Doiron, Evening Hymns, and a new band featuring one half of Spiral Beach called Moon King. They were also one of the first wave of bands associated with Daps Records, a new label launched by April and Daniel of Hooded Fang. Following Moon King's set Harley found guitarist Maddy reading a Dostoyevsky novel on a picnic table and asked her if they'd be interested in playing a show in Oshawa.
Soundtracked 22: ...And Then The Night November 26, 2011 @ Mad Café live: The Undrummer Odonis Odonis Moon King with: special effects makeup from Mark Wotton Broken Arts lineup: Harley, Lori-Anne, Defne, Erin, Ashley
When we finally worked out a date with Moon King they informed us they were touring with another band called Odonis Odonis and asked if they could play too. We then asked Big Crimes if they'd be interested in making their long-awaited return to Broken Arts but they unfortunately broke up at the last minute. Instead members Tom and Kyle took the slot as the new lineup of The Undrummer. Our entire fall apocalyptic promotional campaign was centered around this show. We created a story of the world being destroyed in the build to Soundtracked 20 that culminated with the arrival of a Moon king at Soundtracked 22. We printed mysterious cult-like posters with the phrase "Moon King is coming" and pasted them around town. For the night of the show we drew crescent moons on the sidewalk outside Mad Café and covered all the café's lights with blue tissue paper to give the show mood lighting. We also asked our new friend Mark to give us a hand. We had Mark Wotton and his wife Johanna over the summer. Mark was a professional makeup artist who had worked on some big budget films. We'd been looking for a way to collaborate on something for a while and Soundtracked 22 seemed like the perfect opportunity. We came up with the idea of latex coverings for our foreheads which would give the impression that we had crescent moons carved into our flesh. The end result looked terrific.
With brother Kyle now joining Tom on drums The Undrummer was even better than last time. "Large Blank Space" was already becoming an anthem and one of the Dunbar brothers' friends spent the entire set dancing and flailing at the front of the room. As Odonis Odonis loaded in their gear the mountain of amps started to grow. By the time they had finished they had a wall of cabs halfway up the window and we had to climb from a chair to the top of the stack in order to plug into the ceiling. They requested we cut the café lights and they turned on a box projector they had set at their feet. With the white glow illuminating their faces and the streetlights coming in through the cracks in their wall of amps they played a blistering half hour set. Moon King followed, less amps but equally powerful and energetic, and the crowd erupted with half the patrons dancing at the back of the café and the other half moshing up front. They would talk about that night for years to come.
Watch videos of: Odonis Odonis - "Ledged Up" Moon King - "Big Dumb Blue Angel"