The Winks

KSCL presented The Winks, a band from Montreal, Canada, at artspace downtown. They were sooooo good and fun! At first, I had a funny feeling they wouldn't be that good, and when we got there me and Chrissy looked at each other and laughingly said "I don't think we are cool enough to be here!" because all of the kids there looked way too kool and EdGy to talk to us. hahah. We love to make fun of people who take themselves too seriously... but when the guy that opened for The Winks (I forgot his name... he was Scottish) started singing, I knew the night would be worth while.

The opening act was a Scottish guy that played the ukulele and sang. The keyboardist from The Winks played with him most of the songs, too. At first, the crowd was really rude and kept right on with their pseudo intellectual music snob conversations. It reminded me of a conversation some friends had about wanting to make their next album indie because nobody would get up and dance during their punk shows, but then they decided against it because people just talk amongst themselves during indie shows... they were so right. Wisely, however, Scottish guy and keyboardist stepped off of the stage, mad their way onto the floor where the crowd was sitting, and started singing without their mics. It was so cool! The crowd started to slowly die down in the effort to hear the performers interesting voices and use of peculiar instruments like kazoos and a weird flute keyboard thing... i still don't know what the hell it was. The best part of this performance was how much fun i could tell the guys were having. They were just messing around and spontaneously playing, but it sounded really good. I could tell this mostly because every time the keyboardist did something he would smile and look over at the singer who was already grinning and looking back. It was really adorable. I couldn't decide if i liked them or not at first because the kazoos were really ridiculous, but i decided not to be like my deep supposedly musically superior neighbors and just enjoy it for the experimental entertainment it was.

Then came the Winks. They consisted of a guy that did lead vocals and played the mandolin, a girl that also did lead vocals, played the cello(I knew i would like them when i saw the cello... i am in love with the cello. it think it's like the ultimate classical instrument!) and tap danced in a few songs, a girl that played the drums, and the cool smiley keyboardist guy. They were great. Though there was some technical difficulty.... well alot of technical difficulty, their fun nauture and pretty good music shined through. The technical difficulties, mostly feedback and mics that weren't up enough to pick up the vocals, was pretty distracting and got the lead singer really pissed off. It was funny at first, but then it started to piss me off, too. The sound guy was horrible! He had to have felt like a real ass after the show, because he really screwed it up for most people. But enough about the sound bastard. The Wink's music can only be described as freak folk/experimental/indie pop/kinda psychedelic at times. They were crazy and whimsical. The girls were dressed in puffy dresses and the stage was decorated with lights and feather boas to set the playful mood for the night. Glitter was even thrown into the audience from time to time (lame but fun/cute). One of their songs was simply to count from 1 to 24 in a catchy little tune. The band got the audience to participate in this one, and it was one of my favorites. their songs were very catchy and original for the most part, and Chrissy and I bought one of their CD's with the $10 we had at the end of the night.



In conclusion
The Winks were most def. a bunch of freaks
They put on a really good show
and I really like them and had a very enjoyable time!