July Talk visit to Scotiabank Arena a profound yet, bittersweet, experience

Going to see a July Talk concert these days, for me, is a bitter sweet experience. Let me explain. I first heard about July Talk on the back seat of a mate’s car (Hi Rob) around May 2014. I had no clue who they were or where had they been all my life but I had to see them and I had to see them NOW!!!.

Luck have it, they were performing at Lee’s Palace that same month so I contacted the editor of the publication I was shooting for at the time and the rest is history. I think I’ve covered 95% of all July Talk shows in this town since then. A big shout out to superfans Arne and Alaetra for their unconditional friendship and their guidance to all things July Talk.

You’re probably still wondering why I wrote earlier that last Sunday’s concert at the Scotiabank Arena was a bitter sweet experience. It has nothing to do with the band’s ability to deliver their music and message with the same intensity today as they did in 2014. It has nothing to do with the material they keep pushing out or how they own the stage. I think it has to do with a feeling of loss. The band is growing. They’ve gone from playing 550 capacity venues to Arena size venues such as the Scotiabank Arena. They are the same band today as they were yesterday and yet I can’t help but feel a sense of loss.

As we all know the most powerful of all the emotions you experience at a July Talk concert is that incredibly profound moment when you look around and know that everyone is there for the same reason — the love of this band. And yet, as the band grows and plays bigger and bigger venues I feel that, that feeling is being diluted. Maybe is just me, missing having Leah and Peter stand centimeters away from my face while we are screaming together “Woo hoo hoo!”. Maybe is the fact that I can no longer photograph an entire show and I’m now limited to just three songs. Maybe it’s the fact that they love to go out of their way to interact with the audience (good luck interacting with someone sitting in the 300’s) and can no longer do so as well as they used to. I don’t know. All I know is that I can’t shake this feeling of loss and it bothers me.

July Talk burst onto the stage, opening with “Headsick” after Leah spoke of the land and First Nations People, giving a beautiful heartfelt honest dedication. What followed was a flood of, now classics and new material that continue to highlight the incredible chemistry between Peter and Leah Fay.

The setlist was very well balanced. They played songs from their eponymous album July Talk, from Touch, as well as four unreleased, as yet, songs: “Pay For It”, “Still Sacred Can Fall”, “The News” and “Pretender”. My sources tell me that maybe we’ll see a new album release in the fall.

Special mention to Leah “getting weird” and bouncing the moon around the stage to the delight of those present.

Maybe one day I’ll go back to the Communist’s Daughter and imagine how it all started. Catch glimpses of this beautiful story that is July Talk and hope that they don’t become the archetype of many other bands before them that grew up to be famous and forgot how and where they came from.

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