Concert Review: Land of Talk @ DC9 (4/11/24)

Lizzie Powell of Land of Talk (Photo Credit: Gabrielle Giguere)

Land of Talk brought their A game to DC9 on April 11th, giving the large crowd (almost sold out) a beauty of an evening, with Canadian rock music and as you may have guessed, talk.

Songwriter Lizzie Powell is the creative force behind Land of Talk. The band first formed in 2006 in Quebec, ON, Canada, and have released five albums and a few EPs to date. For this show, they were Lizzie and three other members on drums, bass and keyboard. Lizzie also fully occupied themself on the guitar, often playing so intensely they bent forward, like trying to kiss the stage standing up.

Land of Talk are touring for their fifth album, 2023’s Performances (via Saddle Creek), and performed two songs from that album. When Lizzie spoke about the album in the press release, ‘The album title is very literal. I’m performing what’s in my brain but I’m tired of performing femininity for the music industry, femininity in my life, respectability, and vulnerability. I’m trying to grow out of these and break out of these roles in my life.’

They kicked off with one of those new songs, “Your Beautiful Self”, that instantly set the mood with a mellow groove, and opened with notes that sounded like a xylophone. It was one of the first songs Lizzie wrote for the new album. There is also a remix version with the opener of the show, Montreal R&B artist Hua Li, which may be the version they played, at least the opening. Lizzie’s vocal transformation in delivering the chorus of ‘We’re you on a mission, kissing at the water’ might have been the best few seconds of the whole show, and that’s not a knock, simply a testament to how great their performance started and then remained in the stratosphere.

Later came “Yes You Were”, from the 2017 album Life After Youth. A more guitar driven, upbeat song with vibes akin to the The Sundays, it is about stealing someone from your best friend after being warned off, only to apologize after acknowledging that every warning came horribly true.

Land of Talk did a sampling across all of their albums and a couple EPs, performing 11 songs in total. Life of Youth proved to have the most, with three songs, and the next song “Loving” was another standout, which got people dancing and singing along.

Lizzie tuned her guitar a fair amount, pausing to chat with the crowd, tell stories, and likening the band members to The Traveling Wilburys, in that they are all great in their own right. At one point Lizzie had an epiphany, ‘We are called Land of Talk after all.’ Also, they hate Spotify. A great deal. Due to the shameful lack of money Spotify gives artists on the platform.

Lizzie described “Marry It”, the other new song from Performances, as the ‘whole record to me’. They mentioned the label didn’t think it was a single, but they thought it should be. It was the first time the band played it live and afterwards Lizzie was humbled by the audience’s reaction, declaring ‘the vibe felt cool, so thank you.’

They went way back for “Magnetic Hill”, with its countryish twang, which comes from their first EP, 2006’s Applause Boo Cheer Hiss. The title is likely a reference to a neighborhood in News Brunswick, Canada, and I’m not exactly sure what the song means, but I was charmed by the chorus again, ‘We need like a song, (chorus) but that’s not all, we need a friend who won’t push us around.’

They took a moment to commend DC9, as the band nodded and Lizzie enthused, ‘DC9 is super artist friendly! It’s the little details that are huge.’ Going on to say that they helped unload their gear and left some treats in the green room, and thanked all the staff by name individually.

They ended with the punk sounds of “The Hate I Won’t Commit”, which transformed their set to something entirely new but welcome, and gave Lizzie a final excuse to bend forward to kiss the stage while shredding the guitar.

Next time Land of Talk come through DC, make a point to get to their show, it will be a worthy evening. Also buy a copy of Performances from your favorite music store (okay, or online).

Setlist