Do Make Say Think: Concert Review and Photos

BeatCrave was lucky to catch Toronto natives Do Make Say Think at their recent show at the Troubadour. The (mostly) instrumental group brought a special surprise to open up for them, a project by bassist Charles Spearin know as The Happiness Project.

It was not just interesting but innovative. Spearin had random conversations with people, recorded these conversations and then looped different sentences. While the voice would be going, the woods on stage would mimic the voice with their tone while the rest would put backing beats. It sounds strange but was a perfect start up for Do Make Say Think.

It was just after ten when the nine piece group squeezed onto the cramped stage. Cramped may have been an understatement, especially with the two drum sets. The winds were often almost off the side of the stage. The cramped quarters didn’t matter to these Canadians as they cranked into their set.

The fuzzy guitars and swirling winds make it hard not to get lost in the songs. The group would drift into pieces of other songs and never lose a beat. As the guitars slowly grew into a burst of noise, the sound would fade and Spearin joked, “That was the first Do Make Say Think song of the evening.” It was a song that was almost twenty minutes.

The night would continue with long sets of songs that were intermixed, where each person would take command of a set between songs. These people are all masters of their instruments and now is the time to catch them before many of the members join their other project, Broken Social Scene.

Photography and review by Carl Pocket