The Hidden Cameras new album Mississauga Goddam is difficult to objectively analyze because of one major flaw: it’s 11 tracks aren’t performed live with the same barrage of keyboards, guitars, drums, and strings, as they were this past Saturday at Noyes Community Center. There aren’t hundreds of people dancing into each other, nor awful jokes told between songs. Listening to “Doot Doot Plot” or “Music Is My Boyfriend” just isn’t the same if you can’t be crashing into total strangers and posing with ridiculous “Hear No Evil”-esque gestures at the same time.
The Toronto indie group’s most charismatic elements are missing on disc, but their personality, a melting pot of post-50’s irony and genuine 90’s angst, is still largely the same. Take, for example, the juxtaposition of tracks ten and eleven: the completely bizarre, energetic dance song “I Want Another Enema” versus the modern lament “Mississauga Goddam.” The contrast between them is both confusing and complimentary to the group’s diversity — they are capable of making you stop and think, but are equally competent at inspiring you to just dance the night away two minutes later.
Archived article by Elliot Singer
Sun Staff Writer