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Moev
University of Windsor - Subway Pub
1986-04-01
Desmond McGrath
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*This is a slightly edited version of a review that originally appeared in the University of Windsor newspaper The Lance in 1986.
Tuesday night at the Subway brought Moev, a Vancouver collection of synthpop practitioners out to promote their latest album, Dusk and Desire. In another corner you had CJAM, yet again putting themselves out on a limb to expose Canadian talent to Windsor audiences, and to give the latter an idea of what forms the backdrop to the rock 'n' roll lifestyle in Canada (that country that begins where the range of US airwaves ends).
For an audience, you had a mixed nuts jar of ageing artsies, devotees from Detroit, regular guys and nouveau sociale - a close-cropped female head here, a plunging male neckline there, even a little leather and studs, if only for the irony. Quality, not quantity. On a midweek show, you have to expect that only those who 'live the life' (i.e. the r 'n' r lifestyle) seven days a week will come out and shell out.
Nor are there many of those, for the place was little more than half full as Moev (I don't know how it's pronounced, either) took the stage and began belting out the tunes. And then it looked like all expectations were to be dwarfed by disaster when wiring problems twice silenced the band before they could finish their opening number.
That resolved, they got through the first of two shortish sets without sparking much life in a lukewarm (perhaps demoralized, perhaps just too sober) crowd, despite putting out a much guttier sound than they do on vinyl.
Six of them were on stage, with both male and female lead vocals, percussion real and synthetic, a couple of guitars and those keyboards. What emerged most clearly from the somewhat muddled and too loud (a chronic Subway problem) sound system was the by now commonplace post-punk, funk-tinged bassline, which was performed reasonably well. The synthesizer overlays for the most part sounded too far removed from everything else that was going on.
As for the vocalists, Michela Arrichiello has a fine instrument of a voice, with low "ooohooohs" that could penetrate your innards. For herself, she showed admirable vitality, with an unselfconscious enthusiasm far preferable to the confused and pretentious posturing of so many nu-wave monsters.
Cal Stephenson, on the other hand, was comparatively staid in both bearing and style, and seemed to lack something in the way of range. His voice's resemblance to that of Howard Devoto almost floored at least one listener.
Yeah, it was a small audience, but an appreciative one. When the second-to-last song was introduced as a good dance number, the heretofore empty dance floor filled faster than you could say 'puppy dog eagerness'. Everybody loosened up after that, and the band even came back for a one-song encore.
Credit should be given to Moev for maintaining some enthusiasm in the face of a disappointing (and in many quarters disappointed) crowd. (No need to cheapen matters by saying they were getting paid regardless.) Ditto for CJAM staffers who worked on this (but didn't get paid). After all, they're promoting their product, too, through events like this.
Life is hard, sometimes.
(photo: Sukanya Pillay)
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