Offering listeners a break from the more cacophonous lineup surrounding them and providing a lesson in programming contrast, Toronto's psych-addled Dirty Frigs were easily the most engaging act at last night's (July 16) Making Box showcase. With the band set up onstage and singer/guitarist Bri Salmena at the stage front, right up in audience's faces, the band played up the confrontational fronting that Salmena has put to successful use at previous gigs as it ignited each of its scorched earth slow-burners.
Most effective when the singer abandoned her instrument to prowl the audience and focus her attention on her voice, the Frigs gave Guelph access to more dynamic vocal performances of tracks like "Swampy" than were found on the band's 2014 self-titled effort (on which Salmena's range was mostly masked by an arguably overly enthusiastic application of effects), but they also learned that production interest is still there when Dirty Frigs played new song "Ring Worm," during which Salmena routed her smoky pipes through some saw-toothed gating.
Most effective when the singer abandoned her instrument to prowl the audience and focus her attention on her voice, the Frigs gave Guelph access to more dynamic vocal performances of tracks like "Swampy" than were found on the band's 2014 self-titled effort (on which Salmena's range was mostly masked by an arguably overly enthusiastic application of effects), but they also learned that production interest is still there when Dirty Frigs played new song "Ring Worm," during which Salmena routed her smoky pipes through some saw-toothed gating.