Besnard Lakes Rock (and Smoke) Out the eBar (6/18/2010)

The wall of smoke was literally blinding, and the roaring guitars nearly deafening as the Besnard Lakes broke out Like The Ocean Pt.II as the closing band for the first ever Friday night eBar show. It was like listening to the record, except the record was blasting from an unknown source cutting through the fog. Fuzzing out the guitar duo and bass at the ending of the song brought it straight into the powerful Devastation from The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse. Between waves of fog the band could be seen fronted by a man in a cowboy shirt, while to his left stood his wife holding down bass duties. The other male guitarist and drummer added to the dense sound that brought up psychedelic thoughts more-so than the singer's shaggy '70's haircut. Looks aside, they rocked the place hard with the likes of Albatross and Disaster. Showing some flexibility they also featured a flute at one point and the front-man showed off his sky-high singing voice. Closing the set was an epic, drawn-out, then shred-filled And You Lied to Me, which would have been tough to top so they didn't even try with the encore. Instead they apologized before busting out a spot-on rendition of AC/DC's Dirty Deeds that was hilariously well executed. The show left my ears ringing and in a way I didn't ever want them to stop.