Live review: El Vy at Theatre Fairmount, November 16, 2015

El Vy
Theatre Fairmount
November 16, 2015

Side projects are often a tricky prospect. They generally come across as unnecessary vanity projects, or as quirky one-offs between “proper” releases with a musician’s primary band. On the surface, El Vy, the long in-the-works collaboration between The National‘s Matt Beringer and former Menomena member Brent Knopf, seemingly falls into that latter category.

For El Vy, Beringer has mostly eschewed the dark undertones of his lyrics with The National for an occasionally absurdist meta look at his life in rock n’ roll; from growing up listening to The Minutemen and The Smiths, to detailing an awkward hook up (“I’ll be the one in the lobby in the coloured “fuck me” shirt… the green one.”)

For their Montreal debut at a sold-out Theatre Fairmount last night, the band, now swelled to a 4-piece, delivered the occasionally goofy material with utter conviction, giving the tracks from their debut LP, Return to the Moon, an added dose of intensity.

Beringer began the show modestly, hunched over and singing in-place, while Knopf effortlessly slipped between guitar and synthesizer between tracks. A few songs in, “Return to the Moon” lifted the energy level up a notch, kicking off some audience dance-moves while Beringer sang directly into their faces from the lisp of the stage.

While it was apparent that much of the crowd was there to simply see Beringer back in a club setting as opposed to the enormo-domes The National have been playing, the crowd sing-along to “I’m peaceful ’cause my dick’s in the sunshine,” was a beautifully awkward thing to witness.

Towards the end of the band’s hour-long set, a fairly-straightforward cover of The Fine Young Cannibals’ “She Drives Me Crazy” saw Beringer nearly tossing himself into the crowd at several moments, before earnestly mentioning that the band should learn some more covers.

With Return to the Moon only out for a scant few weeks, it’s probably too early to tell if El Vy will have much staying power, but the casual nature of the band’s live show proves that they’re at least enjoying the ride.

Below you can check out photos from the show courtesy of Jason Hughes. For all upcoming tour dates, visit facebook.com/ELVYclub.

El Vy