EVENT PREVIEW: Black Diamond Bay (ex-members of The Dears) playing intimate Windsor showcase TONIGHT!

Black Diamond Bay (Montreal, QC) wsg Helsinki Go

Phog Lounge, 157 University Ave. West
Friday April 17, Doors at 9pm
Tickets are $6 advance, $8 at the door, 19+

While many fingers point to Arcade Fire’s release of Funeral as the shot heard around the world signaling Canada’s “Montreal sound” was about to explode, the grunt work was definitely done by one of Canada’s most beloved and critically acclaimed indie pop bands, The Dears. These guys toured feverishly (including many stops in Windsor at the dearly missed Avalon Front), supporting such classic Canadian releases as No Cities Left, Gang of Losers and last years Missiles. But sometimes, when a bands principal songwriter is just one of the many, it can lead to the other members longing for a desire to unleash their own creative outlet. And when you’re working side by side with a songwriter like The Dears’ Murray Lightburn, that can only fuel a dormant passion whether you realize it or not. Such was the case with Dears guitarist Patrick Krief. Patrick joined The Dears in the mid-2000’s and debuted on the 2006 release Gang of Losers. Countless tours, recording sessions and dark highways later, and Patrick Krief gets the itch to start working on his own material. The result was 2007’s Take It Or Leave, a solo album under the banner of his last name, Krief. A promo tour ensued to support the offering (including another Avalon Front stop), then it was back to work on the next Dears recording, 2008’s Missiles. But the fire to write and record his own songs grew just too great. Assembling his live band from the previous tour, former Dears drummer George Donoso III, Andre Bendahan on bass, and keyboardist Roberto Piccioni, they hit the studio, this time under a collective banner, Black Diamond Bay. The end result is Calm Awaits, an epic-sounding pop album, grandiose in design, with songwriting that is familiar in warmth but full of a hundred side journeys. At times showing traces of that “Montreal sound”, Calm Awaits will also endear itself to not only bands of that ilk (such as Krief’s former band The Dears, or the High Dials), but of British outfits like Elbow or Doves. While Calm Awaits saw its release on March 31^st, Windsor will be lucky to be one of the first stops where it will be available at shows, when Black Diamond Bay hits Phog Lounge (157 University Ave. West) on Friday April 17^th with special guests, Windsor’s own Helsinki Go. (For a full interview with Black Diamond Bay's Patrick Krief, pick up the April edition of WAMM Magazine, at various locations around the city now!)

Tickets for this event are $6 in advance at Phog Lounge, or $8 at the door. These guys are playing much larger venues on this tour than Phog - we really lucked out in getting such an intimate showcase by these guys so early on in the tour.