July Talk

Interstellar Rodeo, Edmonton AB, July 21

Photo: Levi Manchak

BY Levi ManchakPublished Jul 22, 2018

8
Straight-ahead radio-friendly rock requires more than a slick swagger to be a spectacle. July Talk push way past spectacle into a full-on experience. They are a group built to pack their polished sound, unbridled style and ardent personal chemistry into a fireworks display and shoot it directly at a festival audience.
 
From opener "Summer Dress" through fan favourites "Beck + Call" and "Push + Pull," front people Leah Fay and former Edmontonian Peter Dreimanis revelled in their performance. While Dreimanis sang with his signature cough syrup rasp, Fay danced and sashayed across the stage, lurching onto the monitors, reaching out to anyone close enough to touch, and turned the mic over to the front row so that they could call out the catchy chorus lines.
 
When Fay sang, Dreimanis strode across the stage, turning guitar riffs into sharp paroxysms. When Fay and Dreimanis converged on the same microphone, though, they became completely entwined. The band didn't drop the reigns at any point, controlling their chaos until leaving the stage. There were no beckoned calls left unanswered, no boundaries of the stage left un-pushed and for the entire show, pulling back was out of the question.

A post shared by Exclaim! (@exclaimdotca) on

Tour Dates

Latest Coverage