>>PREVIEW
ENON
Tuesday, January 10
Broken City
The first time I saw Enon was in a shady back alley club in Edinburgh simply christened The Venue (incidentally located on the very same street in which a junked-up Ewan McGregor runs in the opening shoplifting sequence of Trainspotting). While the show was advertised at merely five pounds admission, ticket sales were slow and the price was dropped in favour of free entry in hopes of beefing up the audience. While far from a sell-out crowd, the trio of John Schmersal (vocals and guitars), Toko Yasuda (vocals and keyboards) and Rick Lee (drums), played as though the club was packed to the rafters – those in attendance surely left as hardcore converts.
A year later, the situation was reversed during the band’s cramped and crowded appearance at the fifth anniversary of the almighty All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in Camber Sands – Enon’s energy, however, was every bit as concentrated and genuine as in Edinburgh. Now that the group’s on their way to Calgary, let it be known that Enon is indeed one of indie rock’s finest live bands touring today.
Over the course of the group’s three albums, Enon have solidified a nearly scientific method of combining dissonance and the most catching of hooks, ranging from the jagged rhythms of Joy Division and Gang of Four through to the more baroque pop explorations of The Kinks. Where 2002’s wonderful High Society virtually wrote the blueprint for the New York sounds that would top the charts a year later (even now the likes of "Salty" and "In The City" would drive indie rock dance floors crazy), the band’s following album, Hocus Pocus, broke out into more obscure directions. This year’s B-sides and rarities compilation, Lost Marbles & Exploded Evidence, throws Enon’s net even further, putting into sharp focus the breadth and depth of approach from which they attack.
Lead guitarist and vocalist Schmersal is no stranger to indie rock, since joining Brainiac in 1993, a veritable ground zero player in the evolution of what fills the iPod’s of countless hipsters. Perhaps it’s this closeness to the New York explosion that’s sent Schmersal packing.
"Enon developed in New York, but the city was used to having many identities for years until quite recently. New York has its own formula, and no explanation will apply. My favourite miscalculation is always when I catch someone on the street say some funny shit like ‘only in New York!’ Now you can just chuck it into a search engine," he says, adding, "I just moved away from there."
While capable of creating an earth-shaking noise as a trio, the band’s website outlines their current plans through the cryptic description, "Enon are spending the autumn experimenting." Schmersal himself remains relatively vague, but does give away the group’s flirtation with a fourth member.
"We’re heading due north into spring with a fourth member who is full of cum," he says. "If you find us to be full of shortcomings as a three-piece, hopefully you’ll find our fourth member able to fill you with long comings," he adds, if the initial image wasn’t quite enough.
Still, it’s not just one’s opinion of his band that Schmersal hopes to change by crossing the border onto Canadian soil. When asked how he’d hope a first-time listener would react to Enon’s distinctly New York sounds, Schmersal looks for nothing less than a full cultural shift in perspective.
"I would hope they would develop a deep, deep affection for our music and a much more reasonable idea for what an average world citizen would think of the average American citizen. I am not asking for you to like us, but just be reasonable and, maybe, reconsider until we have a somewhat human president that not all of us are totally unreasonable and in fact, that maybe, some of us are actually nice," he says.
Be it an audience of 20 or 2,000, Schmersal approaches both with the same vigour and commitment. When complimented on how hard Enon came at Edinburgh that rather slow evening a couple of years ago, Schmersal’s memory transforms the night into a complete success.
"You mean there weren’t 2,000 in attendance?" he asks. And it’s easy to tell in Enon’s world, every night is a sell-out smash. |
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