Freak Heat Waves Townehouse Tavern, Sudbury ON, August 11

Victoria's Freak Heat Waves touched down in Sudbury Thursday for an evening of serviceable, if somewhat underwhelming, guitar music.

A significant chunk of the group's most recent LP, last year's Bonnie's State of Mind, was left absent from the setlist, as the band opted for their guitar-oriented material over their much stronger and more immediate synth-infused work.

That's not to say the show didn't have its moments. The band showed time and again that they're more than capable of crafting worthy post-rock guitar flourishes and punchy bass lines. The issue was that was all they seemed to craft Thursday night (August 11), leaving no room for some much-needed variation. The vocals, heavily filtered through an interesting but ultimately silly robotic-sounding patch, were at least a step towards experimentation.
 
Freak Heat Waves are by no means a generic band; their last LP was an interesting mixture of post-punk and vapourware sensibilities. It's a shame that they couldn't quite capture that energy live at Up Here fest.
 

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