Review: Timber Timbre Live at The Loving Touch
This article was originally written for Sainte Magazine.
On April 15th, 2018, after day-long torrential downpours pummeled parts of Michigan with ice and rain, Timber Timbre (Taylor Kirk, Simon Trottier, Mathieu Charbonneau and Mark “Bucky” Wheaton) made their return after a three year absence. Fans fought against the weather, braving treacherous roads and miserable conditions to crowd the stage of The Loving Touch, a small venue in Ferndale, a suburb of Detroit, and experience an intimate evening with the Canadian band.
Despite super-specific genre types that seem capable of defining any sound, Timber Timbre remains mystifyingly singular. Utterly haunting and ethereal, with lyrics that are soothing and nightmarish, sexy and frightening, every song is cinematic in a way that no other band comes close to. Their energetic, hypnotic live performance only cements them in a void of uncertainty.
From the stage an ominous sound of echoing guitars riffs and steady, thundering beats, began the evening as the band launched into the title track of their most recent album, 2017’s Sincerely, Future Pollution. Vocalist Taylor Kirk’s sensual, commanding voice emerges almost three-quarters of the way through the song, effectively preparing the audience for the intensity of what is to come.
The sixteen song set list contained favorites from the four most recent of the band’s six full-length albums (Timber Timbre, Creep On Creepin’ On, Hot Dreams and Sincerely, Future Pollution). Played live, the songs differed enough from their album counterparts to make it a special experience, but not so much that it felt foreign. Notes were held longer, keyboard sounds were altered, instrumental breaks were stretched out to a mesmerizing effect, but at the performance’s core was still the creepy, dark, fascinating music that the audience wanted to hear.
And we were all under their spell.
Not for the the first time, the band requested no photography or videos at the show, and, despite a few inconsiderate attendees, most of the crowd kept their phones in their pockets, providing an atmosphere even more intimate than what had already been created by the venue itself. Timber Timbre’s discography contains plenty of songs that you can’t help but sway to, mind teetering on the precipice of a fantastic, ghoulish dreamworld. As they played some of my personal favorites (“Curtains?!”, “Do I Have Power?”, “Grand Canyon”, “Velvet Gloves and Spit”, “Woman” - please note that it required a great deal of restraint to not simply list the entire setlist here) and my body moved back and forth, inspired by the sounds, I couldn’t help but recall one of Audrey Horne’s most famous lines from Twin Peaks:
Isn’t it too dreamy?
