Last year, Montreal band TOPS released one of my favorite albums of the year with the dangerously good Tender Opposites.
I kept missing them at previous CMJ’s or the scattered NYC performance here and there. So I made it a mission this time around to catch one of their performances, and it ended up being post-Arcade Fire at Arlene’s Grocery as a part of the M For Montreal showcase.
TOPS were an ideal candidate for a late night comedown set, as their music is the definition as “late smokey room sexy time music.” There’s something sultry about Jane Penny’s vocalist that are such a good fit for their jams. Their set mostly consisted of new songs, which all sounded..top (sorry). They saved room for one Tender Opposites, the impossible to not tap along with “Turn Your Love Around.”.
The show was over but they were so good that the crowd actually earned an encore, one of the only times I can actually think of a band actually doing an encore because of an appreciative crowd. They thanked us with a warm, enchanting, performance of “Rings Of Saturn.” I was more than satisfied, and can’t wait for some new material to be released, and to see them again live soon enough.
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