My friend contacted me a day before the show telling me he was going to be in town. I inquired what the occasion was, and he said that Do Make Say Think were playing a free show at Dundas Square in Toronto. I wasn't keeping track of the Luminato Festival going on at the square so this came as a surprise to me, but I knew I had to go. The more I read into it the better it got. Owen Pallet was joining them along with Robert Lippok, a german electronic artist, and they were performing a soundtrack for a 1919 horror film: Tales of the Uncanny.
The day came and a group assembled to walk a few blocks to Dundas Square. We got there about 5 minutes before the show, and the rain was starting again. Umbrellas were being raised and unfolded as the band filed out on stage. The film began and enormous thick distorted beats and sounds erupted from the speakers. Slowly, Do Make Say Think and Owen Pallet began to join in creating a deeper sense of mounting fear. As the section of the film was reaching it's climax, the music was rising along with it. The rain began to beat down harder as the sounds emanating from the enormous speakers grew more intense. This was truly a beautiful moment.
The rest of the show followed this pattern, as each of the many stories of Tales of the Uncanny unfolded one of the three artists would take the foreground. Owen Pallet had an entire section to himself of intricate and beautiful violin loops. At the height of the climax, Mr. Pallet stood up and ripped at his violin like a mad man. Robert Lippok wove drones of sound with deep booms of kick drum, shaking the audience to the core.
The film itself was a series of stories written by many authors, that horror story characters in a bookstore were telling to eachother. I couldn't see myself being interested in the film if it wasn't accompanied by these three incredible artists, but with the music and the cold rain, I was utterly enthraled.
We left Dundas Square at around 11:00, some of us utterly drenched, some us slightly moistened, all us of astounded, and most of us pissed off at the lady who decided to step infront of us and text on her iPhone blocking our view and pouring water on our shoes.
-Lucas Thurston
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