Canadian Rock School

OK, so I have no pictures of the Wolf Parade show at The Fillmore last night. That's because, other than the one on my cell phone, I have no camera. You see, when I was a lad, I had more than a little trouble grasping the art of documentary photography, and instead chose to focus on a series of partial thumb portraits. Strange those never caught on in the galleries.

Anyhow, pictures or not, I was quite impressed with Wolf Parade's performance last night. It seems like in today's indie-rock landscape, several Canadian bands have figured out what most American and British acts haven't -- how to rock hard in a live setting. Here are a few of the things I've noticed:

-Less preening and posturing: You don't see Dan Boeckner, Win Butler or Dan Bejar emulating Mick Jagger up on stage. It's about the music -- and they seem to like playing it as much as you like hearing it.

-Show more gusto in thrashing equipment: Arcade Fire's Will Butler beats on an old motorcycle helmet...while it's on Richard Reed Parry's head. Wolf Parade's Dante De Caro beat on some raggedy-looking chimes at last night's show until one came unmoored and whizzed across the stage, right by Hadji Bakara's head.

-Kick up the tempo in live setting: It struck me that most of Wolf Parade's up-tempo songs were jacked up a notch last night, making the show that much more dynamic.

-Have more than one songwriter and singer in the band: Arcade Fire have Win and Regine; The New Pornographers have Carl Newman, Neko Case and Bejar; Wolf Parade features both Spencer Krug and Boeckner on lead vocals.

-Switch it up: Arcade Fire is a veritable musical chairs of multi-instrumentalism -- with the band switching instruments more often than your dentist does during a deep cleaning. While Wolf Parade didn't get me as dizzy as that other Montreal act, I admit I was constantly counting tuning knobs.