I Heart the Music: Your Online Source for Live Music Reviews and Interviews in Toronto!

We here at iheartthemusic like to think that we aren’t bias when it comes to posts. Well we THOUGHT we weren’t bias but that however changed as we realized we have covered Toronto based band Rebel Emergency THREE times already! So what’s one more time, right? Just in time for the holidays Live Nation presents the Rock Your Stocking Christmas Bash featuring Rebel Emergency with special guests Street Pharmacy, Dodger, Walk Off The Earth and Ko Kapches. This festive bash will take place on Wednesday, December 23rd at the Sound Academy. This is an all ages event so be sure to show up early! Tickets are $15 and are available at ticketmaster,  Rotate This and Soundscapes in Toronto.

Check out the facebook event page

Also, check out our chat with the boys from Rebel Emergency here.

Happy holidays and see ya there!!

xo iheartthemusic team

Rebel Emergency are a dynamic Toronto based rock, reggae band that iheartthemusic have had the honour AND pleasure of covering twice already. For a music website that has only been around for a couple of months, this may seem a tad bit much, however, we seriously cannot get enough of these boys. When we heard that they were hosting their debut album release on Thursday, August 27th at The Mod Club, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see these boys put on another stellar performance.

We arrived at The Mod Club to an overwhelmingly packed house of fans, family and friends (we aren’t really sure which category we fell into-perhaps all three) that were all waiting anxiously for the boys to hit the stage. Unfortunately we did not arrive in time to catch the opening acts (Dane Hartsell, Street Pharmacy and King Sunshine), however we heard great things from fellow concertgoers!

When the boys did take to the stage, the entire venue erupted in chants and cheers and you knew this was going to be a performance to remember! The show was in support of their album release of Love Ain’t Free; a continuation of the reggae vibe off of their previous EP. With this album they travelled all the way to New York to record with legendary (and Grammy Award winning) producer/engineer Commissioner Gordon and spent six months back and forth from Toronto to New York to produce an epic piece of music for your listening pleasure; something that you will surely want to have in your collection! The crowd in attendance were definitely there to party and so were the boys on stage! Their energy and passion spread through the crowd like wildfire and by the end of their set everyone was either singing or dancing along to Roddy’s eclectic mix of rock, reggae and ska stylings. A highlight of the night was seeing them come back onstage for a special encore of their single “Wander Far Away” which was played up with Roddy’s signature move of surfing the crowd. As we have said before and will say again, if you haven’t seen Rebel Emergency perform live, please let our THIRD review of them be the push you need to check them out!

iheartthemusic went to check out our old friends from The Johnstones when they played at the  El Mocambo during Canadian Music Week. These boys are known for their crazy onstage performances that often include some kind of costume and tons of energy. Although they often don’t disappoint,  this time it was the crowd that did. With so many shows going on that night, these boys appeared to be left in the dark. Nonetheless, they proved that you can always bring the party to the stage. At one point during their performance drummer Ryan Long was smashing away at his drum kit while simultaneously standing on top of it. If that were not enough, trombone player Julian Warme and trumpet player Renee Gillezeau decided to venture out into the crowd to play amongst those in attendance. One thing is for sure, you can always count on The Johnstones to get the crowd involved no matter how big (or small) it is.  Check out some of our live shots from the show:

If you are fans of The Johnstones then be sure to hit up Bovine Sex Club on Friday (March 27th) for Mean Tangerine’s CD release party where Ryan Long and Jarek Hardy will be performing their side project ironically titled Tall Guy Short Guy.

photography provided by Kristin McCormack

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