“This song is about using psychedelic mushrooms…I’m not pushing, I’m just making an educated suggestion”, quipped Dorian Scheidt of Cinema L’amour Friday night at the Cagibi, right before launching into one of the band’s most delicious, disorienting pieces of sonic complexity, ‘Losing Focus’. Drummer Christopher Kavanagh skillfully kept up as the two childhood friends succeeded in filling the back of the Saint Laurent Cafe with more noise than you would expect from a two-man band.

The back room of the Cagibi is a typical Saint Laurent spot. Keeping in trend with Casa Del Popolo and the Divan Orange, the Cagibi’s café gives way to a small stage. When my friends and I asked the door guy how much cover was, he shrugged, saying “Whatever you want.” When I handed him a $5 bill, he looked at me quizzically, as if to say, “Really?” Deciding against one of the uncomfortable chairs, I sat cross-legged on the floor. Looking around the small venue, it became clear that, of the room’s fifteen occupants, the majority were musicians on the bill. Also, with the quirky animal crafts on the walls and the makeshift washroom on the left hand side that successfully blocks view of the stage from anyone sitting on the comfy couch, one gets the distinct feeling that the show is taking place in someone’s basement – as the guys from Dukes of Burgundy would jokingly allude to during their set later on that night.

This was my third time catching Cinema L’amour in the past two months. The first time had been at the Divan Orange which is, essentially, their basement. My friend had met Dorian in her French class the year before, and that night he invited us up to their place for the after-party. If there is one thing that I learned while shamelessly following musicians around Montreal, it’s that in the event that the band invites you up to their loft, there is only one appropriate answer: yes. Exceptions; if the band sucks, looks like they have more than three STIs between two or more members, and if their cumulative age is more than 95. Cinema L’amour clear all these requirements, and so we proceeded to talk with the guys until 3am the next morning. For all musicians looking for lodging in Montreal, just contemplate the convenience of living above a venue you regularly play at. When all you have to do is stumble out of bed and lug your equipment down a flight of stairs, you are living the Montreal Dream.

Despite the name, the guys of Cinema L’amour are more reminiscent of your best high school friends than the creepy, desperate, hepatitis-infected clientele that (I assume) congregate at the Montreal adult theatre. Chris and Dorian are the type of guys who would give up their seat for you, and prefer to invite you back to their place to discuss alternative music circa 1993 than have crazy group sex, a rare find on Saint Laurent these days. In fact, during one of our first conversations, Chris admitted to having gone to Cinema l’Amour (the establishment) with a (platonic?) lady friend, and having been uncomfortable with the entire experience. Despite Dorian’s thick glasses and Chris’s side-swept bangs (that he literally swept to the side with a brush after their energetic set) and general nice guy charm, they’re still rock ‘n’ roll. Discussing a party they had thrown a few weeks back, they admit to finding two pairs of underwear in their bath tub the next day. I quoted my friend on the effects of red wine, and how she stopped drinking it after waking up naked with five people in a bath tub. Chris joked, “Are you kidding? That is like, one of the reasons to drink red wine. Those are exactly the sort of situations I try to get myself into.” Ladies?

Cinema L’amour’s gig at Cagibi was considerably lower key than their gigs at the Divan and Casa. All the lights were on, and the members of the audience (composed of almost entirely of musicians, friends, and Myspace fans) listened in rapt attention. Cinema is one of those bands you have to actually watch. You wind up staring in curious fascination, trying to figure out what exactly Dorian is doing between guitar riffs and loops and how Chris learned to play the way he can. Their sound permeated every corner of the room and what would have sounded sloppy being played by anyone who hadn’t known each other for longer than a decade wound up sounding fantastic. As one of my concert buddies pointed out, the great thing about Cinema L’amour is that they never commit to one sound or pattern for longer than thirty seconds. I had arrived just in time for one of their best songs, and the first Dorian and Chris had written together, ‘Kids TV’. It was during that same song, performed in December at the Divan Orange, at about the point where Dorian yells, ‘Let us not waste our youth,’ that I realized these guys were onto something. ‘Kids TV’, like the aforementioned ‘Losing Focus’, sort of makes you want to drop out of school, read poetry, listen to more Jefferson Airplane, and do a lot of drugs. Or just travel back in time.

Following Cinema, three guys from the audience, including the quizzical door man, took the stage. Divingbell admitted it was only their third show, and they definitely lacked the cohesion and experience that was evident in Cinema’s set. There was, however, a solid minute or two where the vocalist (who, by the way, channels Thom Yorke at times), the long haired bassist, and the excellently tuqued/goateed drummer played in happy, euphoric, smiling harmony. They had the same looks on their faces that children get when they play with their toys on Christmas morning; if children were 20-something dudes, toys were instruments, and Christmas morning was about 10pm on a Friday night. Here were just a couple of guys, happy to play music.

Next up were Dukes of Burgundy, a band that sounded vaguely familiar. Their Myspace didn’t get me too stoked; but when the good looking guy who had been sitting in front of me picked up a sick Fender and took the stage, my interest was suddenly piqued. The bassist, Nic Jorgenson, exudes cool. Drummer Geoff Hughes and Guitarist/Vocalist Danny Lajoie rock out, and the charismatic Jimmy Cacchione charms the audience. The Dukes put on a great show. At the end, Danny invited everyone in the intimate venue to have drinks with them. Man, if I had a buck for every time a band has offered to have drinks with the crowd…I may actually be able to pay my bar tab. However, I feel like it’s invitations like that which separate the pretentious from the cool. None of this, ‘too cool for the crowd’ bull shit. I now regret snagging one of the Duke boys for an interview, but I was too deep in conversation with Dorian and Chris to pull myself away. Even when Danny congratulated Cinema l’Amour, complimenting their sound, Dorian and I barely missed a beat in our discussion of the role of education in the creative process.

Dorian Scheidt is, without a doubt, the most dedicated dropout I know. He started at McGill’s school of music, dropped out, and then switched to Concordia, which he is currently considering leaving. He once said, “I go to school, where I make weird art all day. Then I come home, and I make even weirder art.” While I wouldn’t necessarily call Cinema weird, they are definitely …interesting. When I asked them what they thought about being called nerd rock in a review of their gig at Casa, Dorian says, “I don’t think we’re nerd rock. Our music makes you think, it’s not like, ‘man, we’ve been sitting around thinking a lot and this is what we’ve come up with’.” Later on, when I bring up the term indie, Dorian says, “I don’t think we’re indie, either. We’re making music for kids who were listening to indie music five years ago, maybe ten years ago.”

When the discussion turns to their upcoming Ontario tour, with only two dates in Kingston and Toronto respectively, I hassle them about their lack of dates in the nearby city of Ottawa. Apparently, it’s not due to a lack of effort. Dorian admits, “We’re playing Kingston and Toronto because we have lots of friends there. The problem with Ottawa is we can’t promise a big draw. Not only that, but we don’t have a big blog following. Up until this week, we had one song on our Myspace. Ottawa venues just haven’t gotten back in touch with us.” Chris pipes in, “I only know two people in Ottawa, and I’ve kissed both of them.” It was about that time that the frontman for the Divingbell interrupted us to hand Dorian some change and what looked a lot like my $5 bill. My friends and I offer to help the band move their stuff back to their place down the street, but the boys decline in favour of a cab. Dorian looks at me out from underneath his majestic mane of blonde curls with a silly grin, “Sweet! [After the cab fare] we only lost $17 playing this gig!”

Amanda McCulley

Cinema L’amour’s Myspace
Dukes Of Burgundy’s Myspace
Divingbell’s Myspace