Ought

Mainstage Tent, Sackville NB, August 2

Photo: Stephen McGill

BY Ryan McNuttPublished Aug 3, 2014

8
Some bands ask for authority live; others just confidently demand it. In that sense, Ought perform like a band well beyond its actual years. The Montreal post-punk quartet occasionally show their age and relative newness on-stage with an amateur flourish here and there, but mostly their synthesis of post-punk influences is so assured that any attempt to avert your eyes or ears proves foolish. As good a record as More Than Any Other Day is, the band's live show improves on it with a manic energy, mostly centered on guitarist and vocalist Tim Beeler.

With a voice like David Byrne and the stage presence of Jarvis Cocker, Beeler contorts and gestures his way through songs like "Pleasant Heart" and "Forgiveness," talk-singing his syllables in perfect time with the band's own hypnotic sense of repetition. His performance peaked with "The Weather Song," the album's pop centrepiece, where all his frontman moves coalesced into a feverish whirlwind that felt like it spun the entire crowd into its twister.

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