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The Balconies — Rest Up
Politique — Old War Cold War

Just because we ran around Toronto for a week covering Canadian musicians doesn’t mean that we can’t find great acts in our hometown of Ottawa! I was at the legendary Zaphod Beeblebrox to catch two fairly new O-town bands: The Balconies and Politique.

The Balconies

First up was The Balconies, a band that has only been around for 6 months, but performs with a polish and intensity far beyond that short time frame. I believe this is due to the fact that each member performs in a myriad of other Ottawa-area bands, notably Jetplanes of Abraham and the now (sadly) defunct For the Mathematics. Battle-hardened by the experience of larger venues and adoring crowds, The Balconies already seemed too big for the small Zaphod’s stage.

The balance to The Balconies’ music is quite fitting for the brother-sister-boyfriend trio. Each member contributes to the songwriting duties, and you’ll often find all three singing during their most catchy tracks. This fact, along with their small number of songs to date, has prevented The Balconies from establishing any sort of ’sound’, which I consider a total bonus. Each new track is a pleasant surprise that promotes a new element of their music: from power pop to harder rock to oddly trip-hop sexy-time music.

Hi-light of the show: witnessing lead singer Jacquie Neville’s vocal range and power as she strutted and stomped around stage with Telecaster.
Low-light of the show: their EP only has two tracks!!

Politique

It was Politique’s night, however, who were celebrating the release of their self-titled album. Apparently, Politique has been 3 years in the making, which explains how excited the band was to be performing. The excitement quickly spread to the crowd however, because of Politique’s upbeat style of music. Politique rest firmly in the seemingly trademarked Canadian movement of indie-rock electro-pop (see: Metric, Stars), with guy-girl vocals, whirling synths and hyper-dancy beats. Although Politique was celebrating their first release, it was clear that they had already won over the crowd, as many upfront were singing along to every song about the politics of relationships.

Hi-light of the show: lead singer Mallory Giles’ semi-choreographed yet super-cut dance moves.
Low-light of the show: poor EQ’ing on the vocals made it hard for Politique virgins to sing along.

Check out photos from the show on the next page!

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