Nothing about Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner suggests nostalgia. Throughout each of their multi-decade careers, the two musicians have jumped from one project to the next with seemingly little regard for what came before. In the 20 years since the release of 2005's Wolf Parade's Apologies to the Queen Mary, they have collectively released more than 25 other records, both together in Wolf Parade and separately under various other guises.
So it was a rare treat to see the two — joined by drummer Arlen Thompson (synth player Hadji Bakara was unable to make the tour) — looking back as they celebrate their debut's 20th anniversary with a series of shows in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.
They were joined by a Montreal super-group of sorts: TV Erased features members of We Are Wolves, Suuns, Turbo and Pang Attack. Playing a groovy and vaguely psychedelic take on post-punk, they won over the folks who had come out early, finishing their brief set while holding various percussion instruments and a golden bust they had presumably hauled all the way from Montreal.
Boeckner, Krug and Thompson hit the stage to rapturous applause, which Boeckner met by declaring Toronto as "downtown Canada." With little ceremony, they got down to business with the lurching "You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son." "This is sweet," remarked a grinning Boeckner.
These sorts of anniversary shows can often be anti-climactic. A lot of albums are sequenced without a live setting in mind, and playing a record front-to-back removes a lot of the mystery of what song a band will play next. Yet Apologies turned out to be an ideal record to run through, with no single song hogging attention and no outliers that clearly just don't work on stage.
Even though its tracks continue to dominate Wolf Parade setlists, the trio made each song fresh and exciting, a feeling shared by both the sold-out crowd and the band, who took several pauses to take in the moment.
Boeckner recalled one of Wolf Parade's first gigs in Toronto at the long-lost after-hours Comfort Zone that was broken up for illegal beer sales. Perhaps it was not such a comfortable place after all, joked Krug. While years of professional performing since those days have erased some of the loose and shambolic feel of the record, it brought out the dynamics of everything; even with just the three members performing, the sound was massive.
After a fist-pumping take on "This Heart's On Fire," they returned for a five-song encore, cherry-picking three songs from At Mount Zoomer and a couple from their post-reunion records. That each felt as exciting as what had come before spoke to the consistency across the band's career, and was a convincing riposte to anyone who thought that the night was just about wistfulness for the past.