I once said that Will Sheff from Okkervil had the best hair ever. As it turns out, Jason Collett can definitely compete for the title. That guy has awesome, awesome hair. I should do an entire post devoted to comparing their respective haircuts. This is just one of the many perils of the omnipresent Man Crush: unnecessary gushing and fawning at all times. Would I bend Jason Collett over in the library? An emphatic 'Yes.' is my answer. Yes I would. Homoerotic fantasies aside, however, the guy puts on a wicked fucking show.

I saw Jason once before, at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival in 2006, before I actually knew who he was and he was pretty good; I was kind of expecting much of the same going into this show last Saturday and I was sorely and pleasantly mistaken. You see, I had stupidly forgotten that small, intimate venue trumps large, outdoor festival every (EVERY) time, particularly when dealing with such a staunch purveyor of Dylan-esque folk-rock (Dude bleeds Zimmerman, man; he even talks like Bob). Despite, however, my misconceptions of Collett's potential performance with regards to the size and format of his venue, I was absolutely stunned by how un-singer-songwriter-y of a performer he is.

I went in to this thing expecting it to be your standard Hipster-Guy-With-Acoustic-Guitar fare - which is not necessarily a bad thing - however, I was utterly unprepared for what an electric showman Collett is: Guy's a fucking rock star; strutting about the stage with effortless cool, he absolutely owned his audience with his unexpectedly ennormous stage presence. And the tunes were pretty badass as well - drawing a setlist from all three of his full-length albums, Collett blistered through a mammoth set nearly two-hours in length with great conviction and the understated earnestness that has become a hallmark of the Canadian indie-rock scene. Backed not by his usual band, Paso Mino, but by recent Toronto upstarts, Zeus, Collett cranked up the rock a few notches for a performance rooted more firmly in classic rock than in the folk stylings of his recorded material.

Zeus:
I have been raving about Zeus all week, they are far and away one of the most promising bands, local or otherwise, that I've seen in some time. Situated somewhere within the same neo-classic-rock realm as fellow Canadians, Plants and Animals, Zeus sound like Spoon playing a set of Led Zeppelin covers: fuck yeah! Their outrageous and epic performance not only set the tone for what proved to be an extremely excellent show, they also earned themselves the rare distinction of being one of the very, very few opening bands who came dangerously close to outshining their headliner - they didn't quite, Jason was in full force and absolutely rocked the shit, but it was definitely close. I will most certainly be looking forward to the release of their debut album early next year, entitled Something Awesome, as after a browse of their myspace, I was very excited to be able to say that their recorded stuff is also quite good; this was especially refreshing after my utter disappointment with the recordings of The Lovely Feathers, whom I also recently saw put on an unexpectedly phenomenal show following the set of noted local Bros, Jane's Party.

Zeus were followed by a seven-piece group, also out of Toronto, called Rock Plaza Central, which is a pretty stupid name, but they also turned out to be a very good band. Utilizing countless instruments between themselves, Rock Plaza Central somehow managed, oddly, to sound like what I imagine the result of a drunken encounter between Gordon Downie and Jeff Magnum might sound like, that is, strangely affecting. Still touring their well-recieved 2006 concept album, Are We Not Horses, RPC roared through an hour of soaring harmonies and huge instrumentation admirably and with requisite heart to make their lofty tunes seem unusually modest. Long story short: Indie-rock will save Canada.