No other media outlet in Montreal has so many people on hand to provide expert coverage of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. Many of us are scouring the outdoor site and concert
halls: Jacob Langlois-Pelletier, Frédéric Cardin, Stephan Boissonneault, Michel Labrecque, Varun Swarup, Vitta Morales and Alain Brunet bring you their album reviews, concert reports and some
interviews. Happy reading and listening!
If you were within earshot of the Rio Tinto stage last Thursday night between 8 and 11, you would have heard the very danceable stylings of LA LOM. Having reviewed their recorded music earlier in the week, I was curious to see how the live experience compared. The evening proved to be a lively one with audience members dancing, swaying, and even tenderly kissing during the more ballady selections. All for close to three hours total. I would probably classify this as a successful first visit to Montreal for the Los Angeles trio.
Conducive to this success was certainly how well the drums were mixed and how well Nicholas Baker approximates an entire percussion section by himself. Baker makes clever use of a conga, cow bell, and a maraca in addition to the more conventional pieces of a drum set to create beats that are interesting, stylistic, and full sounding. Furthermore, his solos were very dynamic.
On the subject of dynamic, this would describe the rest of the band as well with the mix being very hard hitting. (Once Jake Faulkner’s upright bass decided to work properly, that is). Sounding “big” is paramount when playing as a trio and perhaps even more important when so much of the set relies on dance music. Needless to say, I’m glad they nailed this aspect.
In addition, the order of the songs were generally effective. For those who can’t or don’t dance, several cumbia songs of similar tempo and tonality could prove tedious, and so I’m glad some ballads and rock selections were interspersed strategically. It is LA LOM’s prerogative how much of each element they want to add, but they might do well to rely more on the rock aspect of their music. Zack Sokolow is a very capable guitarist and when he got moments to really shred, I got glimpses of a young Carlos Santana. (A feat even the current Santana wishes he could achieve more, I suspect). If not, it could be worthwhile to have Zack sing as they played a new ballad of theirs with the melody on guitar in the absence of the singer who provided her voice on the recording.
I think strategies like this would only serve to shield them from the criticism that their music gets repetitive. I won’t deny this criticism but then again, I don’t go to nightclubs and complain that there aren’t enough songs in 5/4. LA LOM are a band for dancing and occasionally rocking out to, so listeners should expect the music to be in service of that.
With all this said, after last night’s concert, I can confirm that LA LOM put on a mean show and I suspect we’ll be hearing more about them in the near future with their debut album coming out August 9th. Until then, catching them on the road and watching their stylized live videos will have to hold us over.
