Great Lake Swimmers

Well this has certainly been a while in the making, or waiting, but I felt like the movie "reviews" could use a little rest on the site. The idea of sharing thoughts on music albums is great, but I find it incredibly difficult to write about. I'm in awe when I peruse the reviews on sites such as Pitchfork or Stereogum: those writers are talented and I am not. They are passionate about their subjects, and then you realize that it's also a job for them: I'm an amateur who writes without an editor or even a grammar check. Most of the time my brain sloshes onto the keyboard and the end result is what you are reading now.

So going back to the music: it's tough to write about. I can't go into much detail except to say simple things such as "I really love it" or "I really...feel indifferent." If I'm going to make an album recommendation it's going to be a quick shout-out, hardly worth an entire multi-paragraph blog post.

So the Great Lake Swimmers? They are really great: mellow and warm. There is depth in the lead's voice, and some really fantastic instrumental work.

See?

Alright, this post is more about going to see this group in concert a few months ago. My friend Jay introduced me to the band and it did not take long to get into all of their albums. When the opportunity to see them in concert came up, it was a quick decision of executive-level execution. Buying the tickets was a different experience as I've had in the past: no specific seating, and they were playing in a church. I'm trying to find the name of the place but it's eluding me on their page right now, and I just noticed that they played in Wolfe Island, and for any of you familiar with the region, you know how small that place is, and isolated. This group rocks. I see now the place is Trinity St. Paul, in Toronto.

So, we try to get to the show a bit early, but of course, being a small venue, we were forced to stand outside for about an hour in the freezing cold. It was February and we were not fully prepared for this. We were also not prepared to be sitting in the pews for the concert: this was a real church, and not a big hall or anything; the acoustics were great. I'm glad we got there early as we got some great seats in the lower level. But you couldn't go wrong: this was an intimate setting and really, a treasure. We also could not take off our coats for the entire show: it was cold.

The Swimmers did a really fantastic job, of course. At the end Dekker went solo and acoustic. He managed to fill the entire venue...it was truly something else.

I'll leave it up to you now to go listen to some of their music, if you haven't already. This was definitely one of the best "concerts" I've been to. www.greatlakeswimmers.com