Broken Bells with The Morning Benders, June 2nd, The Queen Elizabeth Theater, Toronto, ON.

2010 has been a year of what seems like continual releases. The National, LCD Soundsystem, Blitzen Trapper, Tallest Man on Earth, and Beach House have all released albums that were expectedly incredible. Perhaps the biggest surprise of 2010 came in the form of The Morning Benders' Big Echo. The band's debut was less than noteworthy, but a series of sonic shifts and changes in production have given birth to one of the best albums of the year. Part of the band's sound change can be attributed to influence from Chris Bear (of Grizzly Bear [!] ), who shared producer duties with The Morning Benders' singer/guitarist Christopher Chu. Big Echo's Grizzly Bear-esque moments are obvious, but Taylor isn't solely to blame for Big Echo's charm. A band that is able to make such a decisive shift in technique and not sound at all fragmented is one to be lauded. The album is spacious and full at the same time. Orchestral moments abound as do layered background vocals and even the occasional glockenspiel. Seeing Big Echo preformed live was one of my goals this year, and thankfully the opportunity arose through a tour with Broken Bells, in which The Morning Benders provided the opening act. It's always a special treat to be equally as excited to see the show opener as you are the headliner, one that doesn't happen often enough. The Queen Elizabeth Theater is a relatively new performance space in Toronto, one that is seated, which I wasn't entirely sure what to make of at first. Tickets were still general admission so the seats were first come first serve, which was fine since we were early and managed to grab some in the front. Seeing a band live for the first time is kind of an odd experience. There comes a moment when you have to reconcile the vision you have of them with their actual performance. I have a habit of taking songs and albums at face value and having expectations in that regard. For example, when I saw Wilco for the first time last year, I (stupidly) assumed that I would be seeing a relatively tame show. What followed was the complete opposite of course, every song had about 5 minutes of insanity added to it and I never sat down once. Seeing The Morning Benders provided a similar experience in which the band's energy and musicianship blew me away. The majority of Big Echo was played, barring only the slower numbers, which was understandable due to time constraints. The final song of the set was the ample Excuses, during which Christopher Chu instructed the audience to provide the song's signature "la da da das." It seems like surprises might me The Morning Bender's calling card, and I for one hope they keep them coming. It makes sense for a band like Broken Bells to juxtapose their collective industry baggage with a band as new and relatively unaffected as The Morning Benders. The core members of Broken Bells need little in the way of introduction, the band is a collaboration between former Shins front-man James Mercer and producer/drummer Danger Mouse. Both have well established relationships and influence in the music world, and their collaboration created an album that is not exactly monumental, but instantly catchy and enjoyable. The lyrics themselves are more dark than is noticeable, given Danger Mouse's bouncy production touches, but that really doesn't affect the material any. Broken Bells live show, unlike The Morning Benders', was exactly what I expected. That was not a bad thing of course since I had expected that this would be a band of little misstep. Mercer's voice was crisp and perfectly addictive, the rest of the band played flawlessly and the songs sounded exactly as they were recorded. I expected nothing less from such established musicians. Since Broken Bells has little of their own material (as Mercer quipped several times), the band ended up playing two covers one of which was Tommy James and the Shondells' classic Crimson and Clover, which was ultimately the highlight of the show. The biggest thing about Broken Bells is that this isn't really a band of showmen, which isn't exactly a problem in my opinion but some may have found the lack of nuance a bit boring. From my perspective, their set wasn't exactly one of the best I've seen, but the songs stand up well, and provide more than a few opportunities get excited, that's enough for me.