I am deaf. Though for good reason. Last night I had the opportunity to see From Fiction and boy did I ever take it! The guys from FF (guitarists Quinten Ede and Adam Barnes, bassist Owen Marchildon and drummer Rob Gordon) played a fantastically energetic ear-busting, body-contorting show at Zaphod Beeblebrox to a disappointingly small but loyal crowd. Until now I had not seen FF live but I had listened to their four-song self-titled debut EP and had heard raving reviews about their live shows.

As a performance they win for the ‘best use of stage’ award, ‘best group dynamic’ award and ‘highest projection of instruments in the air’ award. On the downside, the sound at the show seemed to overwhelm their music to the point where their delicate musical detailing, which for me separates their music from other instro-punk bands, was sometimes lost amongst the noise of their own instruments.

Interestingly, although FF describes their music as an additive process where individual ideas come together to create a whole song, there seems to be a conscious effort in maintaining a sort of irregularity in their compositions. By deconstructing the typical relationships between vocals and instrumentation and within the music itself FF are able to amalgamate these differences into a beautifully self-destructing sound.

The equally talented headliner Sylvie was more conservative in their “rockstar” performance but played a solid set of songs which seemed to transcend their recorded versions. Formed out of the now defunct Despistado, vocalist/guitarist Joel Passmore, guitarist Chris Notenboom, Bassist Riva Farrell Racette, and drummer Jeff Romanyk have convened with some stunningly dissonant + melodic music. Sylvie’s more accessible sound generated dancing girls at the front of the stage and a lot of head-bobbing on the floor. I would definitely recommend seeing them when they drop by your town!


Highlights:
1. A pause in the show due to broken car windshield glass lodged in Joel’s (Sylvie) shoe.
2. ‘Fourth Quarter Report’ (FF) – Awesome!.
3. Rob Gordon’s moustache.


www.fromfiction.com
www.sylviemusic.com
www.zaphodbeeblebrox.com/