Live Music: Gourmet Club

Gourmet Club plays Trident Booksellers & Cafe on Thursday, September 3, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm. The project is the creative playground of Canadian producer and songwriter Vincent Baur, and the live set builds around saxophones and synthesizers.

Baur describes the sound as gritty yet lush, and that's a good way to frame it: the brass gives it a physical, room-filling presence, while the synths pull it toward something more electronic. The lyrics are where the project gets its particular edge, which Baur calls an uncompromisingly funny perspective. It's not a joke act, but there's a dry, observational wit running through the songs that keeps them from getting too precious.

The band's debut album looks at the chaos of modern disconnect and the primal yearning for togetherness — two things that usually pull in opposite directions. It's the kind of record that sits comfortably between the two: the distance of the digital world and the basic, human need to actually be in a room with other people. Hearing it live, with the saxophones and synths playing out in front of you, brings those two things together in a way a recording can't quite capture.

It's a pay-what-you-can show, with C$15 suggested, so you can pay what you're able and still get in. The set runs from 7:00 to 8:30 pm at Trident Booksellers & Cafe on Thursday, September 3.