Written by DCist contributor Valerie Paschall

Fitting the Montreal six-piece The Besnard Lakes into the small Backstage at the Black Cat seemed like a stretch. Containing the dense sound of three guitars and keyboards in the small room without destroying onlookers’ eardrums looked like it would take a small feat of science. Yet, the true feat was that even in that small room for no more than 75 people, The Besnard Lakes effectively conveyed their grandiose sound while maintaining a sense of intimacy with the crowd.

Originally it appeared that a large chunk of the audience was actually there to see Dirty On Purpose, whose drummer, Doug Marvin, grew up in Northern Virginia. The front of the audience looked like it consisted entirely of friends of the band, chatting with and shouting requests at the New York quartet between songs. This became even more obvious when the band asked that chunk of the audience who clearly hadn’t come specifically to see The Besnard Lakes to stick around.

This rarely bodes well for a headliner, but it was a good pairing. The Besnard Lakes incorporate some of the same elements as Dirty on Purpose in their sound, specifically shoegaze guitar and falsetto vocals, then adding ambience and psych-pop sounds more like their fellow countrymen in Stars and The Dears -- both of whom have albums produced by Besnard Lakes guitarist and singer, Jace Lasek. Lasek and his wife, bassist and singer Olga Goreas, formed the band in 2001 and released their second album, The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse, earlier this year.

The band had an interesting dichotomy of dramatic flair with a personal touch. The first thing they did was set off a smoke machine, which added to the intense dreamlike feel of cuts like “Devastation,” “For Agent 13” and “On Bedford and Grand.” That dreamlike illusion was sadly broken by the second song, when Dirty On Purpose bassist D.J. Boudreau went up to fix Goreas’ microphone stand, leading to some awkward banter afterwards from Lasek and guitarist Rich White about the extent to which Dirty on Purpose were the “wickedest dudes ever.”

Luckily as the band won over the audience, connecting with them became easier. The crowd actually laughed during Lasek’s and Goreas’ jokes, in particular, Goreas’ introduction of the smoke machine, “Hooray, fog!” and the cheers got louder at the end of each song, culminating with the beautiful harmonies of “Disaster.” Everyone in the audience sounded genuinely and audibly disappointed when The Besnard Lakes announced that the next song would be their last.

Seeing the crowd’s enthusiasm, they decided forego the formality of the encore, describing the awkwardness that occurs when they go offstage and don’t know if people are going to clap loudly or leave. Therefore, they just introduced their last two songs as “Encore Song #1” and “Encore Song #2.” Before “Encore Song #2,” the band decided to oblige an audience request to “let the drummer sing one,” allowing Kevin Laing to take over vocal duties for a Fleetwood Mac cover that usually went to guitarist Steve Raegele. Raegele’s duties for that song instead shifted to mockingly miming the knob turning during the song’s final wall of feedback.

It was refreshing that a band who clearly took many pains to create a passionate, intense and dramatic show didn’t take themselves so seriously that they were beyond responding to audience requests. The crowd may not necessarily have come to see The Besnard Lakes, but this is the sort of live show that will steadily increase their fan base.