Event Listing - Music

Thu Jul 17

Live Nation Presents

Wolf Parade

Location	Date and Time
The Fillmore 1805 Geary Blvd. San Francisco, CA 94115 map cross street: Fillmore district: Japantown/Fillmore	Thu Jul 17 (Doors at 8pm, Show at 9pm)

Description

"Canadian indie pop combo Wolf Parade formed in 2003 in Montreal, where their first show was opening for Arcade Fire. From there Dan Boeckner, Spencer Krug, Hadji Bakara, and Arlen Thompson recorded and self-released a four-song EP, and followed that with a six-song recording in 2004. They eventually gained the attention of Isaac Brock, and the Modest Mouse impresario then brought Wolf Parade to Sub Pop. (Brock's band was also a stylistic touchstone.)"

- amg.com

I first met the members of Wolf Parade in Manhattan at a diminutive venue called Pianos where I’d booked the band as part of a show to benefit a literary magazine. This was several months before the release of Apologies to the Queen Mary, Wolf Parade’s Sub Pop debut. They drove eight hours straight from their hometown of Montreal to play the show. On the way they were detained once at the border and then again somewhere on I-84 South by a New York State Trooper bearing a speeding violation. They barely made the soundcheck. Only three of the four members actually appeared—-keyboardist Hadji Baraka, they told me, was pruning conifers somewhere in British Columbia, living in a burlap tent and eating raw honey. Singer/Guitarist Dan Boeckner was suffering from some kind of virus—-he was sweating lightly and his skin had a translucent sheen. Singer/Keyboardist Spencer Krug was distracted by a dead nine-volt battery in one of his myriad of effects pedals. Only Drummer Arlen Thompson seemed ready to touch down on the rock tarmac and broadcast the calamity. As the band climbed onto the coaster-sized stage to run through “It’s a Curse” for their soundcheck, Boeckner turned to me and said, “We don’t play folk music.” It was part apology, part defensive reproach.