The RivoliThe two-storey bar and restaurant on Queen Street was my destination on Thursday night. First up was Adam Farrell, an acoustic, one-man show from Burlington. With raspy vocals and some fine strumming on his six-string, Farrell reminded me too much of a "pre- Jessica Simpson" John Mayer. It was almost scary when just after realizing that comparison, Farrell broke out with a worthy version of the Mayer's "No Such Thing."
Kingston's Everlea were next up and duly turned up the voltage at The Rivoli with some heavy Pop/Rock tunes. Another one of last year's winners, radiofriendly would be one way to describe Everlea, but to be a bit more flattering, I'd say that were a notch below Deep Blue Something from the late nineties. Impressed, I sought lead vocalist Justin Dube after their set and asked him about their soon-to-be released full-length album. "We've been really meticulous with the production. We sent it to Atlanta but we weren't happy about the mixing, but we're in the last stage of it right now and it should be out in the New Year."
Standing apart from the rest of the bands at the festival for their more crafted Pop/Rock approach, Justin embraces the fact that it's been a lot harder to break into the market of their mainstream genre. "If we were doing a more specialized genre of music, it would be easier to reach the ceiling with that because there aren't as many people doing it. But with Pop/Rock, there's just so many bands out there."
Shawna Caspi was next on the bill. And much like Adam Farrell's opening act, the folksy Caspi was armed only with an acoustic guitar and her powerful vocals. Blending slow love songs with songs about global warming, the Toronto native would excite any Joplin/Baez fan with her poetic lyrics and soft guitar plucking. Unfortunately for her, there didn't seem to be many of those around.
Eden Ants livened the venue once more with their edgy Punk/Rock performance. Sounding very post-Punk, Eden Ants reminded me of The Cure - only more "trippy" and with better vocals. Hmm… maybe I shouldn't bother with the descriptions. The Bovine Sex Club The repertoire of bands at the Bovine on the Friday night of the festival included The Saigon Hookers, Romeo Liquor Store, and Glendora, one of the winning bands at last year's Indie Week.
Glendora opened the evening with a tight-sounding thirty-minute set of songs from their newly-released demo, which they generously gave to the crowd after the show. Dressed uniformly in black ties and red shirts, the trio from Toronto set the tone for the rest of the night, something that follow-up act, the Inner City Surfers, managed to maintain in their very drunken stupor.
The drunken surfers were hilarious in their pursuit of free shots of Jager from the audience, asking for "fuel" in between almost every song. The fourpiece band from Toronto filled up the small Bovine stage with weird tunes and antics that certainly lived up to their genre of Punk/Rock.
It wasn't until a quarter to midnight when the Bovine started filling up, just in time for highlight band, The Saigon Hookers. The AC/DC-sounding trio from Kitchener, Ontario played half their new album, Hello Rock n' Roll, with songs like "We're the headlights, you're the deer" and "I'm right here" standing out.
After the show, I asked their halfwasted, six-foot, bleached-haired front man, Tom Smokes, what he thought of playing in Toronto and Indie Week. "The music scene is really tight in this community. So coming from a small city like Kitchener, playing at festivals like these with the bigger Toronto bands is a big thing to us. It gives us more attention and it's time for us to shine, I guess."
The Saigon Hookers have recently toured with the Supersuckers, C'Mon, and Robyn Black. When asked what he thought about touring with bigger, moreestablished bands, the down-to-earth- Smokes cited it as a stepping stone. "There's no way we're equal with those guys, but the way we see it is, when we get to play with bigger bands, we get to play to their audience, and we always hope some of them fall over. So we're working it from the bottom up."
The debut album Hello Rock n' Roll features new tracks along with the old ones from their previously released EP "You're The Deer." Reviewed and described as "a guttural attack with lush melodies," Smokes insists that that's only a description. "We're not trying to portray a new genre or anything. It's really just Rock n' Roll and nothing else."
Brampton's very own Romeo Liquor Store came on stage right after the Hookers for the last act of the night. I don't know if these guys were playing Punk, Hard Rock, or Trash Metal, but whatever it was, it was fierce. Three songs into their set, and they had half the Bovine singing along with their rendition of the Misfits' "Where Eagles Dare," with four minutes of "I ain't no godamn son-of-a-bitch, you better think about it baby!"
Pant. The Reverb A small venue, The Reverb looks like an abandoned attic. But I suppose décor is the least of an Indie music fan's worries. Periled with room-shaking bass (that makes you wonder if you're getting shivers because the music is so good, or because the bass is too big for the room), sits thirty or so patrons for a line-up that opens at 9:45 p.m., with Toronto-based band Girl + The Machine.
Last year's runner-up, the band joyfully blinded the audience with their strobe lights. The lead singer (known as Girl), floated on stage in a white poncho, screeching out her lyrics with high pitched vocals on a reverb. I loved it! An amazing drummer (Neil Rickshaw), with guitar experimentalism provided by lead guitarist known as Geoffoh; at one point using a violin bow in Jimmy Page styles, paired with bass player known as Fred, who perfectly juggled his bass line duties with keyboard synth control, really kept my attention for the full thirty minutes they played.
It seemed the night was for experimentalist artists as Toronto band 5th Projekt followed on stage. Classified as cinematic Rock, the less-thanimpressive showmanship kind of buzzed me out. However, the Switchfoot-looking bandmates, paired with talented lead singer Tara Rice, created some impressive tracks. They seemed to get the most response from the crowd. No doubt there was major talent here. Favourite part of the set? A PJ Harvey cover.
Other Toronto bands featured were power/Pop All the Brightness and true indie rockers The Knifings. The Knifings impressed me with their originality, but All the Brightness were contrived and boring - it did a great disservice to them to be set in the middle of the line-up which in comparison, highlighted their corny guitar peppiness. The only set not from Toronto was performed by Montrealers October Sky. Another addition to the experimentalist synth theme that night, the four-piece sounded Muse-like. Lead singer Karl was hypnotic and really blew me away with the high notes. Not to mention, he was pretty cute. |
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